For Entertainment Purposes Only

Recently, eBay announced that they will no longer be offering occult items. Specifically, psychic readings, spells, potions, and tarot readings. I am not sure whether I agree with this move. One the one hand, it could be a practical step towards protecting people from con artists; however, it is difficult to say that these items have no worth.

When evaluating such things, one must be sure to put aside preconceived notions of what is real, what is trickery, and what may be honest, but ineffective. To put it another way, in an anthropological class I took on magic, we were introduced to the concept, “Does the charlatan know that he is a charlatan?” If something is fake, does that necessarily mean it is intended to fool someone, or is there a genuine belief behind the practice? But, does this honesty justify charging money, even if the service is not real?

And what of items that may have no supernatural effect, but still elicit a psychosomatic response? If someone believes in the power of spell casting and has terrible self-esteem, could not something which affirms their self-worth psychologically be a viable service? I do not believe in the power of tarot cards, but having my cards read by a friend who knows me has led to genuine discussions about my personality and contained minor insights into my psychological state.

Even if one assumes that “metaphysical” items and services have some degree of efficacy, how does one sort them out from people who are blatantly trying to deceive people into giving away their money?

Whenever I have discussions about the paranormal with my mother, she brings up the idea that it is legal to practice something supernatural, but not to charge money for it. (I’m not sure if there actually is a law to that effect or if that was only what she proposed.) Her reasoning was that if anyone truthfully had powers of some kind, they have the responsibility to use them for the benefit of others without expecting payment, but that if it were fake, no one would be getting ripped off.

I do not think eBay’s decision will single-handedly end the occult market. It is easier than ever to accept money online using PayPal or Google Wallet—I am sure that practitioners of magical arts will still have a way to make a living. Still, should they be able to profit from such a thing, which is at best unprovable and at worst a sham?

Perhaps the best solution is to add the same disclaimer that many psychic hotlines have: “for entertainment purposes only.”

Flip Flop

Last night I was watching CNN while at work, as usual. On AC360's "Keeping Them Honest" segment, they featured Paul Ryan's criticism of an economic bill, which he later took advantage of once it passed.

I want to make clear that what follows is not an assessment of Ryan or his capabilities. It is generalization. That said: I find it frustrating that this is viewed as a bad thing.

Do not get me wrong—him lying about it after the fact is wrong. But he should not have felt the need to hide it. Why is it so taboo for a politician to change their mind as more information emerges or pertinent events occur? Why can't we accept a leader admitting that they were wrong about something in the past? Why can't Ryan take advantage of the new law while saying that he made a mistake opposing it, but acted based on what he knew at the time.

Why? Because politics in the United States has been overwhelmed by partisan views. Instead of people arguing for ideas based on their merits, they pick a side and stick with it, regardless of any future developments. The whole thing has the mentality of a sports rivalry. One side hates the other on principal.

As I said, this is not a defense of Ryan. It is more that this incident reminded me of my opinion which pertains to all politicians. Frankly, I have seen nothing to make me a fan of the guy.

This video sums up my views on politics in general:

Persistent Procrastination

I have other things
I need to be doing.

But this
is so much easier.

This poem
kind of sucks.

I am bogged down under some work. Or rather, I should be. I keep weaseling my way out of it. Now it is time to sleep again--I work the 11pm-7am shift tonight.

I have until the 27th to complete a few papers for a class I took earlier in the summer. It's a long story. It's embarrassing. I know I can do this, I just need to actually do it.

And of course, I get my most interesting ideas when I should not be working on my personal projects.

Fruit Whirls and Frustrations

Damn, I'm proud of this title. Unfortunately this is not going to be much of a post. But what could live up to such a headline?

I thought of the title while I was eating some spilled cereal at work. They're called Fruit Whirls and are a generic brand version of Fruit Loops, in case you could not guess. A guest once claimed that our hotel's circular fruit cereal was his favorite. They seemed suitably tasty to me.

As for frustrations, they are varied and probably not worth talking about. Frustrations is not even the best term to describe anything currently bothering me, I just liked the alteration.

Oh, and I freaked out briefly when I thought I may have irreparably damaged my phone while flashing from a custom ROM back to rooted stock. But thanks to the helpful folks at XDA, I'm back in business. Without them, I might have created a very expensive paperweight. Remember kids, try this at home if you like, but only after a adequate amount of research. I plowed ahead past the boundaries of my technical knowledge and took a big, foolish risk.

I guess I could now call this entry "Fruit Whirls, Phones, and Foolishness," but it does not have the same ring to me.

The Review That Wasn't

The Last Airbender is a travesty of filmmaking. I saw this cinematic disaster in the theater, to much regret, as a loyal fan of the TV series. I downloaded it recently (I do not normally download things illegally, but I make an exception for special circumstances, such as when something is a piece of shit that deserves no money) with the intention of watching it again because I’ve been on an Avatar kick since The Legend of Korra and I thought it would be fun to re-watch the movie. I thought at worst it would be as bad as I remembered, but fun to laugh at. I thought it would be entertaining on some level.

I was wrong.

I could not watch more than five minutes of this movie without skipping ahead to another part. Most of the time, I watched for less than a minute before being disgusted and scrubbing ahead in VLC.

There are so many things wrong with this film that it is foolish to think I could list them all. Off the top of my head: the plot is muddled, the visuals are dark and muted (and not in an aesthetically pleasing way), the character’s names are pronounced incorrectly, Zuko’s scar is barely visible, it took a minute of movement to bend anything (as opposed to the swift, kinetic martial arts portrayed in the series)…

Then there is the whole “racebending” controversy. I was actually okay with the characters’ races changing, so long as 1.) everyone was not white and 2.) it was consistent in the casting. The problem is that while most of our heroes are now alabaster-skinned, the extras that make up their culture are not. Therefore, it would make more sense for the Katara and Sokka to have Inuit features like the rest of their tribe, but then, as I can imagine some bone-headed executive extolling, “white audiences would not be able to relate.” Only with the Air Nomads, who were supposed to be a multiracial culture in the film, does it make sense to have multiple ethnicities. (The Earth Kingdom, in the cartoon, has a number of ethnic groups, but for simplicity’s sake, I am assuming a movie with such a poor attention to detail would gloss over that.)

There is also no excuse for the bungled plot and character development—the show is set up in three seasons that function like a trilogy of books or movies. It literally writes itself. M. Night Shyamalan was in contact with show runners Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, who probably had some ideas ready on how to condense the story.

I hold Shyamalan accountable for many of these… let us call them oversights. He did a shitty job, plain and simple. I say this as someone who does not automatically hate everything the man touches—The Village may actually be one of my favorite movies (but that warrants its own review).

If you have not witnessed this abomination, do not waste time on it, even ironically. Life is too short for The Last Airbender.

A Referral

Sometimes, I am a bad friend. I am habitually late for everything, which does not indicate a great level of commitment to the people left waiting for me. It makes me unreliable. Truthfully, I think I am angrier about my tardiness than they are.

I procrastinate a lot. Right now, I am typing away at a blog entry instead of changing the coffee pot. I should take care of that. I will be right back.

...

Back. Steam fogged my glasses as I poured aromatic, stale coffee down the sink that does not drain very fast. In the background, I can hear the commercial grade coffee machine squealing like the sound used in the Prometheus trailer (that trailer, while awesome, gives away too many plot details).

Where was I? Bad friend. Procrastinate. Oh yes.

When I learned of a close friend's blog, I was excited to read it. I bookmarked it. I bookmarked it again on my phone. And then I did not read it.

Only tonight, in the doldrums between the duties of the lowly night auditor, have I finally read it. And it is quite good. That was to be expected, but it's so good, I now have an extra bit of anxiety to feel next time I am brave enough to share some of my writing. Sharing a piece with someone who does not write is much easier, as they often will not know the craft well enough to recognize what a failure of a composition they are looking at.

Here is the blog, by the way.

To Spore or Not to Spore?

I love the game Spore. Not for the gameplay—the innovative, in depth elements of the game were neutered by EA/Maxis when it was released—but for the creative potential. There cannot be many other games with its level of user generated content and such an emphasis on creation.  That potential for creation is expanded upon by the Galactic Adventures expansion pack, which allows the player to create and share games with customizable objectives that can be combined in countless ways.

Even though I have trouble uploading my creations to the server most of the time, I still love the process of creating a playable story. But I sometimes wonder, am I wasting my time? Instead of creating in-game, should I be creating from scratch in the real world by drawing or writing?

The part of me that really enjoys the game insists, no I am not wasting time. Spore is but a medium, like pottery or charcoal or words, and the creations are still, well, creative. I also kind of look at it as “practice” creating—a fun, relaxing way to charge my creative batteries. Viewed in this light, playing Spore is actually a positive thing.

However, as with all games, there is a danger of being sucked in and losing track of time. Maybe moderation is the best approach…

(I went back and forth between writing this and playing Spore.)

How I Ruined a Honeymoon

I am not the most experienced person, romantically speaking. Until college, I suspected that I might be alone for my entire life. That specter has reared its irrational head a few times since then. I kind of suck at dating, if my recent attempts are any indication. The point is, I am not happily involved with someone. Could that lead to resentment inside my heart? A deeper, more poisonous version of when you see a happy couple and instead of feeling happy for them, are demoralized, or even disgusted? According to a groom last night, I do, in fact, harbor such feelings and actively sabotaged his wedding night.

I work at a hotel as a night auditor. The short explanation is that I man the front desk from 11 pm to 7 am. Usually the night shift is dead. Last night was more eventful—mostly drunk people wandering in and out of the lobby. There are also two wedding parties staying in the hotel (whether the drunk people can be counted among their numbers is unknown). I have worked nights of weddings before; often, couples will stagger in following the reception, with the bride and groom showing up last in the early morning.

Last night a newly-married couple drug themselves to the front desk. They were exhausted.

“Long drive?” I asked.

“No, a wedding,” they said, “we were married.”

“Congratulations.”

I then went on to apologize for the fact that I was having difficulty checking them in. I had to run to the fourth floor to check that their room was actually clean. After this, I proceeded to process their credit card. Bright red letters appeared on the screen: Credit Card Authorization Declined. The groom went out to their car to grab the credit card they planned on using—I asked him to do that just in case I had the wrong card on file. I didn’t. When he returned, I went through the process again and the card declined.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I somehow downgraded them from a whirlpool room to a normal king room. We were completely booked and the system would not let me select the correct type of room. When I explained what had happened, they were initially alright with the situation.

“We’re tired. We just need a place to sleep,” said the bride, resting her head in her hands.

After the credit card declined, however, things became tense.

“Now I’m upset,” the groom said, raising his voice, “I had a room reserved. I reserved a whirlpool. And now…”

I wasn’t sure what to say. He went over to his new wife, who was sitting down at this point, barely awake. After a short while, I heard him saying, “This guy’s playing with us. This kid’s fucking playing with us.”

He came back over to the front desk and expressed his frustration. I tried to assure him that I was doing everything I could. There was simply no way the system would let me check them in without a form of payment.

“You’re ruining our honeymoon. You know that?”

The bride came over and tried to calm him down.

Internally, I panicked. I considered calling my manager aloud, hoping that this possible resolution would diffuse some of the hostility. The guy continued to insinuate that I was keeping something from them or refusing to do something that would easily remedy the situation, his eyes bulging out a little bit.

Eventually, after the bride explained that they had already been staying in the hotel under a different room and insisted that she was friends with several employees, I decided to give into their request and give them the keys to the room. The problem is that they are not in the system. Without a credit card clearing, they might have no viable way to pay the hotel.

I have a nasty habit of viewing myself as incompetent in many tasks. My perspective on how well I do my job is not immune to this pessimism. Did I ineptly mess up everything, then try to save things with a terrible decision, or am I simply looking for an excuse to feel guilty about something? I hope I do not get fired for doing this. But I felt bad.

I believed the groom when he said that I was ruining their honeymoon.

It's No Threat to You

A common fear expressed by religious conservatives is the idea that if when gay marriage is legalized, churches will be forced to officiate gay marriages. I would hope that the reason why this is ridiculous would be obvious. But for some, it’s not. Why? Probably due to the large amount of disinformation and fear mongering employed by those people who are slowly becoming aware that they are on the wrong side of history. I know, I’m being conceited now. My beef isn't with the people saying these things, it's with the people telling them these things.

The government can’t force a church to change its doctrines. Take this recent example. Legally, no one can force that church to recognize a marriage between black people. Just as no one forces a Catholic church to recognize marriages performed outside the Church.

People who are afraid that their church will be forced to perform gay marriages need to calm down and think through what they’re being told lied to about. You will not have to explain your actions to the government. You will face the same fate as the church in Mississippi; you will have to explain your actions to your neighbors.