We left off last time at the end of episode 4.  I’m actually really glad about that, because my next four videos were orders of magnitude better than my first four.

After my mineshaft episode, I decided to be a little bit creative, and started working on the second floor of the Hall of Goals. I slapped a .5 on the end of the episode number and published some of my work. I like the idea of these .5 episodes; I get to broadcast more normal let’s play episodes, more in line with what everyone else is doing, and it also gives me a chance to improve my world. The main issue is that I don’t really want these .5 episodes to take the place of my main episode numbers (I’m trying to publish weekly on Sundays now), but it’s often two times the work in a week to get a .5 and a full episode out in a timeframe where it’s sometimes hard to do one or the other. Perhaps I should take cues from the goal I want to do that week and put out a .5 episode when I’m doing something simple that week (like this upcoming episode, talking in a silly voice).

Episode 5 was a nice departure; I was able to leave my home island and go establish myself elsewhere for a bit. My only regret about that video is that I found the NPC village the day before I found out that only newly discovered villages would contain NPCs. That and I theorized that I’d start getting the majority of my viewers in November (if I remember correctly). I’m going to look siiiiilllyyyyyy when that doesn’t come true.

It was episode 6 and 7 that really captured what I want this let’s play to be. I was given something to do, and I went out and did it, and the result in both cases was something fun to watch, I think. It’s really helped inform what I want to do for episode 10 (piggy flying goal). Lessons learned? Try and do the bulk of your recording in one session so that your voice is more or less constant, be extra careful with audio mixes, aaaaannnnddd mostly HAVE FUN WITH IT. I will really from now on try and scrap an angle I’m taking if it doesn’t seem like I’m having fun. I’ll want to skew my final product to include more of me having fun and less of the rest. Plus, being more fun will most likely push my creativity and I’ll become a better Minecrafter while I’m at it.

Episode 7.5 was another improvement episode. It really made my island look a lot better. I’m not sure what I really need to talk about with this one… It was pretty much a normal let’s play episode. I suppose one thing I can take away from this is that I should always be forward-looking and trying to make sure that I’m preparing for a goal, materials-wise, far before I actually have to start it.

Episode 8 wasn’t my best work. It was kind of rushed as I realized the pig episode wouldn’t be done in time, and I think it shows. It also made me re-evaluate what my approach to goals should be. On one hand, I didn’t want to just say “look at that, easy huh?” Just like I don’t want to just ride a pig off of a cliff. However, the episode turned into more of a tutorial, which is fine in its own right, but still kind of… bland. I should be looking for ways to make a goal interesting. For some goals, doing the thing a number of different ways might indeed work, but I really need to evaluate that beforehand.

And with that, we’re all caught up. Episode 10 looms, and it’s appropriate that it should be my pig episode. I’m really excited about making it interesting and something spectacular, which is why I’m glad that I’ve taken a bit more time to put it together.

But what I really wanted to discuss in this post was my plans for the future. There are a few things that I really want to focus on as far as my goals go: I want to make each episode more of a production; the kill a mob with a feather episode was a pretty good example of that. I want to be a lot more coherent with my episodes. I really want to keep engaging my viewers so that I don’t run out of goals any time soon. There is a long-term issue that I need to start thinking over now, and that is that eventually, it’s going to be really hard to come up with new goals. There are a few ways I can see this being overcome:

1. I re-do goals if there’s enough of a demand. This would allow me to approach goals from new angles, or use new features of future versions of Minecraft
2. I somehow get enough people watching my videos that among them, there’s enough creativity to think of new and interesting things
3. I eventually move away from the goal format and into a normal let’s play, or something slightly different (like SeboYWang’s Journey to the Far Lands series)

I’m not sure which of these is the best option though. I suppose this is something I’ll need to figure out as the shape of my LP comes into focus more.

Finally, I want to get involved in the community a little more. I’m a big fan of Vech’s Super Hostile series, and I want to get at least one game of the multiplayer version going with some friends, both online and offline. (Therefore, if you’d like to play let me know!) I feel that engaging others will help both my knowledge and my series. The more quality and creativity I have, the more I think people will be drawn to the videos.

Oh, and I’m going to make a short little theme song.

Look forward to the 23rd.

First of all, almost everything made the fanboy in me jump for joy. The fact that the show used a lot of the same music and even graphics as the game were incredibly fun touches. Some highlights are the calendar scroll showing the weather forecasts, the “entering the TV” sequence, and the Social Stat eye-catcher. Sad that Narukami is starting at nil for everything.

I’m a little sad that the Junes song was translated as the literal “Everyday Young Life Junesu” instead of the English version’s “Everyday’s great at your Junes” and that the “Trial of the Dragon” (now even more famous through hiimdaisy’s comics) wasn’t also brought forward into the translations. There were some minor plot differences (in the game, Chie isn’t around to see any Persona action until the first dungeon [not even counting what will happen in episode 2], for one), but nothing too major.

One thing I can’t remember about the game is if Teddie gave the Protagonist his glasses before or after the first battle. It COULD explain the sudden emergence of Izanagi (though for those of you who don’t know too much about the series, I won’t say much more what I’m going toward). Another thing that I’m pretty tickled pink about is the main character’s name: Narukami. It’s a reoccurring name in the series, being used for spell and Persona names. I’m also amused by its Japanese meanings (at least phonetically). “Naru” in a general sense means to change or to become. “Kami” is, to cut a long conversation down short, a Japanese god. That means we can view this in two ways: Become a god (Izanagi is one of Japan’s oldest gods), or a god that brings change (which, surprise surprise, happens in the story. Again, Izanagi is a god).

Overall, the transition was handled nicely. I’m certainly going to keep up with the anime, and I’m really looking forward to the English VAs getting their teeth into the project again.

Assorted relevant link(s):

The Anime Network’s Simulcast: http://www.theanimenetwork.com/Anime/Persona-4/Watch

Some of you may be aware that I’ve started up a Minecraft Let’s Play, entitled Goals For Buncy. More or less, the series is supposed to be me running around trying to do crazy things in the game because people have suggested them. Of course, I didn’t have much of a presence in the MC community to begin with, so things have been going slowly. Add on to that the fact that I’m still learning a lot about video editing, and that makes things rough.

Nevertheless, let me share some of my experiences so far. I started off on the first day with the goal of surviving; more or less standard. My starting island is in a swamp canyon, with a ravine running through it. At first I was really excited about this; the canyon has certainly helped with exposing some minerals; but it’s since been cause for some little pains. It turns out that swamps have a lower passive mob spawn rate, so I can’t really do much of anything in the sense of building a farm. Though that might be the persistent mob change skewing my perception. I’m not sure about that.

The second day, I built the Hall of Goals. On its surface, that wasn’t too crazy or incredibly interesting. I built a little structure out of wood and cobblestone, intended to help keep record of the things I’ve done so far in the game world. That experience more served to reinforce previously learned lessons, which is that if you want to keep people interested, you’d better make your world interesting. After I finished the episode, I went back and replaced parts of the walls with differently coloured wood  to give it some more presence. Thankfully I gave it some slanted corners in the beginning; if I had at any point been glad to have  wooden box and have it be a place I would return to at the end of every episode…

The third day was moat building. Robostrike (see link in sidebar) suggested that I build a moat around my house, after a comment I had made in my second episode concerning defense against Endermen. This episode, above all else, told me that I should either not air my side work at all, or keep it in a different video. Even cutting the side footage in half or more, I was still left with more side footage than I could squeeze in of the moat itself.

Day four was to conquer a “fortress” – more or less my misplaced word for a mineshaft or stronghold.  This was… Well first, when recording it I was pretty much scared out of my mind the entire time, or at least for the first hour or so. I think recording it somehow made it even worse. It didn’t help that the ‘shaft didn’t end! I in the end gave up on even seeing the entire thing, because I’d been at it for over two hours, and it was larger than most cave systems I’ve been in. That left me with a choice, and I’m pretty sure I made the wrong one. I had over two hours of footage of me wandering through this mineshaft. How was I to cut this down into something that I would even think about posting? I opted to speed up parts that weren’t incredibly interesting, and slow them down when I found a chest, a monster spawner, something that caught my eye, things like that. It meant though that the rest of the time, you’re watching footage of me running around at 6x speed. I’m not doing that again unless I’m doing something simple and repetitive, like building a wall or a floor or something.  I did get to listen to some great moody music on the Newgrounds audio portal though.

So where does this leave me? Hopefully my work will improve over time, but I need to get at least a little core group of people who don’t mind giving me suggestions until hopefully my videos achieve that critical mass needed. I need to not mind getting low view numbers (hey, I’m used to it with this blog! ), and I need to make my editing tighter and more accessible.

So if you’re reading this, and you have any knowledge of Minecraft, I’d love to hear any suggestions you have. I’ll try and make them as interesting as possible (I have something in mind, for example, with my ‘kill a mob with a feather’ goal that should make for an interesting read).

I’ll see you the next time I come out of hibernation!

Anyone who has had their ears anywhere close the the Atheist blogging community has certainly heard of this story by now: a young man by the name of Damon Fowler noticed that his high school (Bastrop High in Bastrop, Louisiana) intended to include a prayer in their graduation ceremony, in clear violation of both state and federal law.  He explained to the school board the situation they were in, and that he would be forced to contact the ACLU to bring forward legal action if they didn’t yield.  The school district did.  Everyone else, however, went apeshit.

Long story short, Damon is receiving the usual opposition from a Christian group: ostracization, death threats…  But what angers me more is that one of his teachers had the gall to call HIM out for wanting the fucking school to obey the law.  Actually, scratch that.  His parents are practically disowning him.  That doesn’t just get me angry.  That breaks my heart.  I’ve heard it said many times, but that doesn’t diminish the truth of it; make no mistake: Damon Fowler is a hero for sticking his neck out like this to support something he  believes in in one of the most bigoted, hate-filled places on Earth.

It could possibly be okay if that was it.  If the school and students whined and moaned, and that was it.  But no; there are CLEAR and obvious signs that some students intend to have this prayer anyway.  This video makes me sick.  Apparently that girl’s facebook page clearly indicates that she plans to do this again during the actual graduation (I should have explained.  That was a rehearsal, but could probably still get the district in so much legal trouble).  The legality of the issue is a little gray, but at minimum, once school officials and district officials learn of this plan, and they do not do anything to stop it, they’re probably in for the legal battle of their lives.

I hope the graduating class of 2011 enjoys leaving the students of 2012 and beyond with practically no school funding.

You can hop on this bandwagon too.

Here is the Reddit thread where the majority of the thrust seems to be coming from (it’s Damon’s own posting).

Here are the contact details for every administrator in the Morehouse Parish; the district that BHS is in.

The Friendly Atheist has set up a fund to give Damon a scholarship.  Chip in here.

Finally, here’s the e-mail I sent to Tom Thrower, the superintendent for Morehouse Parish.  I encourage you to throw your hat in in some way to help support Damon, the separation of church and state, the law, human decency, anything you can get out of this.  We’ll probably all walk away from this a little bitter, but with an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.

As one commenter (whose name or post I cannot find any more in the plethora of tabs I have open right now) noted: The district will be paying for Damon’s undergrad.  And masters.  And doctorate.  And probably living expenses for the next few years.

Good day, Tom.

I’m sure I’m but one voice of many you’ve received in the past couple of days regarding the lawful opposition to an illegal practice brought forward by Damon Fowler, and the terrible price he has had to pay for it.

As a superintendent of a school district, I am certain that you are aware that the comments Mitzi Quinn made to the Bastrop Enterprise are incendiary, bullying, and immensely inappropriate for a role model such as a teacher, especially when directed toward one of her students.

I’m sure you’re aware that in a rehearsal graduation ceremony, one student overstepped the bounds of decency and quite possibly law by continuing to deliver her religious speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaD8iQFaw7I  One commenter on this video has informed us that this girl intends to do something similar during the actual ceremony and has sent you the proof of this.  You must be aware that your district would have a VERY hard time defending these kinds of actions in a court of law under the pretense that this was simply a personal action.

You have a duty as the superintendent of this district to create a SAFE and INCLUSIVE environment for your students.  Clearly you have some work to do to provide this for those students of yours who are not Christians.
Our society is not based on the rule of the majority.  We aim to protect the venerable, those who would point out our shortcomings, and especially those who would do so at great danger to themselves.

I hope you understand the gravity of this situation, and the massive resistance that your district will receive if you do not act to correct this FAST.

Kyle Dohring

[Edit]:  Well, much as I suspected, the prayer went ahead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYLpZIv8xFY

Some people might argue that since this was a student acting on their own (which is fairly easily shown to be false; from what I understand, there was a lot of public chatter planning to go ahead with this), but it is still in violation of Louisiana law, under the precedent of Seegers v. Parker, which from my understanding prohibits a public institution to even indirectly promote one religion over another.  Allowing a student to lead a prayer at a school ceremony attended by the superintendent of that school’s parish certainly seems to fall in that category.  Furthermore, watching TV has actually helped a bit: Stephen Colbert’s efforts in creating a PAC have taught me the idea of payments in kind (is what I believe the lawyers called it), wherein resources owned by VIACOM being used to promote his PAC were considered a monetary endorsement of the PAC.  Something similar might be argued here.

I don’t think there’s any question though that in the weeks to come, I’ll be reading news about Bastrop High School and the Morehouse Parish being litigated back into the stone age (they were already psychologically there anyway).

I just hope Damon is well, and that he is able to support himself after all this.  His parents have practically disowned him and held him in Bastrop against his will, and so his brother has taken up the duty of protecting and supporting him.  I wish you good health and fortune, Damon.

Look at the title of this post. Fill in the blank there. Okay, now it’s time for a little quiz:

Did you write anything but “deities do not exist, or have not been proven to exist,” or something along those lines? If you did… Sorry, but you failed this little test.

This is a mistake made by far too many people; quite often, I think, it’s made disingenuously. Let’s hop on over to a dictionary to get a starting point:
Theism is defined as “belief in the existence of a god or gods.”
Atheist is defined as “a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings.”

Fairly simple, right? An Atheist just doesn’t believe in a deity. Which is why when people like Kirk Cameron says one of his favourite lines:
“Atheists believe something came from nothing,” he is attempting to speak to a belief that is completely removed from the realm of Atheism, akin to someone saying “NASCAR fans think that lawn chairs are comfortable.” Being a fan of NASCAR says nothing about chair preference, all it says is that you “have a strong interest in or admiration for a particular sport, art or entertainment form, or famous person,” in this case, NASCAR. While it might be possible to infer something from this (perhaps that you’re not a fan of F1), but there is always the chance that any conclusions you come to will be totally false; the only thing that is guaranteed, and quite possibly the only thing the group might have in common, is this one trait.

So let’s take this back to Atheism. While it is true that most Atheists subscribe to scientific interpretations more often than not, it’s not a given. Any given Atheist may believe that powerful aliens created the planet, or that this universe was made from code and that we’re just a computer simulation.

In a similar vein, we could say the same thing about Theists. The only thing a Theist has in common with another Theist is the belief in a deity or deities. There’s no guarantee that anything will be similar between two Theists beyond that. And I think it’s here that some people get confused.

It seems to me like people put organized religious belief beside Atheism and try to assign similar properties to it, as opposed to recognizing Atheism’s proper counterpart, Theism, and using that instead. This causes problems where a broader set of common attributes meets a single common attribute. For a quick example:

• Christians believe that the universe was created by a supreme being named God, Yahweh, Jealous, etc.
• Atheism has no stance on the creation of the universe.
• Christians believe that in death, if proper conditions are met, an essence of the dead can live on eternally.
• Atheism has no stance on the afterlife.
• Christians believe that life on Earth was created in its current form (or close to it) more or less all at once.
• Atheism has no stance on the origin of life.
• Christians believe that a deity exists who watches over our lives.
• Atheism rejects the existence of this god.

I am aware that I’m falling into something of the same trap as I’m bemoaning here in describing Christians, but traditionally and according to the central tenants of their beliefs, this seemed like a safe list.

See? See? Isn’t that simple? If you want to compare notes on the creation of the universe, on the origin of life, on evolution, don’t come to an Atheist. Go to a scientist or someone who supports those theories. Hell, that person might be an Atheist anyway, but they don’t have to be. To use math terms, the set of Atheists is not the superclass the set of people who support viewpoints or beliefs commonly attributed to Atheism, and vice-versa. That means that there are people who hold those views but are not Atheists, and Atheists who do not hold these views.

It can be confusing, I know, but Atheists are not a reliable conversation partner for most topics. Religious philosophy? Sure. Not much else.

I am so excited.

Persona 4 is finally getting a full-fledged anime. [Source]
I have to say, I am PUMPED for this, if it’s not obvious enough. First of all, Yuri Horie, my favourite VA, is reprising her role as Chie Satonaka, my favourite Persona 4 character. Second of all, it’s fucking Persona 4, not a spiritual sequel like Trinity Soul was (from what I can see).

I am so excited.

So excited.

At least as far as I’m concerned, people are much more real when talking to others in person. I’m not the most accomplished writer, and I commonly misspell words, but when I sit down to write something seriously (I’m sorry, dear readers, I don’t consider this blog to be a serious endeavour), I can produce impressive prose. Anyone who has talked to me in person knows that the things I can write would take me orders of magnitude longer to produce verbally; so when I’m talking to someone, I feel like it’s more of an effort, and therefore tends to mean a bit more as a result.

The problem is when people expect timely responses from someone to thank them for something like a card. The approach I take (thank you person upon next meeting them) is often seen as more of an afterthought than a pre-meditated action. I PLAN to thank my grandparents when I next see them, in spite of the fact that it might be a few months and they might be a little sour about the delay.

But that’s kind of a problem that seeps throughout my entire life. I don’t like talking on msn or e-mail unless I don’t like the person, and I would much rather call someone about an important issue than write about it in any way. The only exception to this in my day-to-day experience is when I’m dealing with someone with a heavy accent. When someone can write well but I can’t understand anything they’re saying, I’d of course want them to write their thoughts down. Problem is that I work in the tech world and the majority of my co-workers are scattered around the world. Lamentable when mixed in with my very low-bar definition of “heavy accent.”

Anyway, I think that’s all I really wanted to talk about today. As a quick update, things are moving along as far as getting a car goes. I’m at most four weeks away, I think.

Here’s the song:

And here’s the lyrics*:

It’s not really that hard for me to realize why the song hits me so hard. The message and story it tells is uplifting and heartbreaking at the same time, and the vocals are delivered with a desperation deserving of the lyrics.
I suppose they lyrics speak to me because of the kind of people I identify with. There’s a lot of self-esteem and self-image issues in that crowd, to speak frankly. I’m certainly not immune to it either, and I’ve dealt with my share of self-loathing. I suppose it’s nice once in a while, even if it is just from an anime, to have someone try and pick you up a bit.

So, if you’re ever feeling down on yourself, remember that at least I’m one of the people who will try and plead with you to realize your own worth, because sooner or later, we all deserve a reminder of that.

With the amount of time I have, it should give me some time to really build up a post buffer and produce some better posts. I hope.

There’s not much to report today, folks.

No, seriously. I studied after school, then was a total idiot and ate some wasabi straight from the package. I thought it’d be a good idea at the time.

I’m basically just nursing my mouth and waiting for midnight. I’ll tell you all about how I saw Rise on the midnight channel tomorrow.

Because it will happen.

WEATHER FORECAST: