Who am I today?

Am I the same person I was five years ago Would I then recognize me now? Would I think I'm still me, or like who I've become?

I don't know. I've changed a lot in five years. I was reminded tonight by visiting one of my old IRC haunts, and somebody recognized me from a game we used to play, something I'd completely forgotten about. People I'd completely forgotten about. If I didn't remember it, was it still part of me?

And then I found a link to an archive of the witticisms we used to do, and some of mine that'd been voted into the hall of fame. Which was kinda weird, and cool too, though. But it made me think, because I don't know if I'd be able to make some of those jokes today. Which isn't always good. And the people, I don't know what happened to any of them. We all drifted off, at various times, as we drifted away from Magic, from school, and so on. And the thing is, I wouldn't even recognize them if I ran into them. How would we even know we'd known each other? It wouldn't be something that came out in random conversation, really. I could meet one of them, pass them by, and not know it. I could meet some of them, and make friends, or enemies, and we'd never know unless the subject came up somehow, or we traded IMs or something. But not even then, maybe. I have many, many ICQ contacts that've been dead for years, old friends I haven't been up to deleting. Or wanted to, really. But how would I know? I wouldn't.

I miss a lot of these people, at times like these, in the early mornings, when I'm feeling nostalgic. People I'd have hung around with at this time, years ago. People who I talked with, knew well, made friends with, and they just disappeared. I wonder what happened to them. And I wonder if they'd recognize me, or if I'd recognize them. Would we still have anything in common besides the people we used to be?

Tags: Mindscribbles, Me, The Internets

I am a dumbass

I'd had a file downloading for most of the afternoon and evening, it had like an hour to go, and so out of habit, I, like a dumbass, shut the computer down.

And now, of course, there's no way to get the bloody file to resume. Thank you so bloody much, BitTorrent and Underdogs.

@$!#!!!!!!!!!111two!!!111!!

[Edit, next morning: It seems I was too quick in damnit BitTorrent, I went back and re-downloaded the .torrent file from underdogs, and it picked up where it left off. The wonders of modern technology. I'm still a dumbass, though.]

Another quiz

Because, well, this is LJ. And I like the dichotomy of posts about philosophical subjects and such, followed up by me bitching about downloads and then posting quiz results.

I am nerdier than 74% of all people, according to the quiz. Here's the link to the quiz. http://www.wxplotter.com/ft_nq.php?im

Tags: Quizzes, LJ, Me

Because I'm a fan of weird juxtapositions...

"There's an absurd, Douglas-Adams-ish quality to seeing pastors engage in this kind of crisis-mongering bullshit. The pastors preach, as the song says, that "Jesus is the answer for the world today," but they seem unsure as to what the question was. (What is 7 times 6? Jesus.) If Americans need Jesus because "the violence is increasing," would a decrease in violence mean that Jesus was no longer necessary?" from Slacktivist

The whole post is worth reading, because it talks about things "everybody knows" that aren't true, especially things like "society is becoming more violent' when there's actually, y'know, less violence.

I should really just make up a list of blogs and post it and so then I'd quit posting excerpts all the time. Maybe.

Okay, I probably would.

Tags: Links, Language

Reading

I'm reading Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett.

It's very good, of course. The main character is a con artist, which is nifty. And Vetrinari is a ruthless, evil bastard, but he's a good one. He's a tyrant, but the kind of tyrant that knows his job depends on things going well and the city functioning. Which is fine in the short term, but it leaves the question of what would happen to Ankh-Morpok after he dies very up in the air.

Tags: Books, Mindscribbles

Girl Genius News!

Just saw this newest bit on the feed of Kaja Foglio's blog. They're turning their comic, Girl Genius, into a webcomic. Or putting it online, or however one phrases these things. Not until April 18th, when it goes live at http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/

But this is way too cool, partially because I'm an utter, raving fanboy, I'm free to admit it. But Girl Genius is a good comic. A really good comic. A wonderful funny and... I'm a fanboy, so I'll shut up. And since the Foglios are "established" names, I can't help but think this will be a good thing.

And if you have no idea what I'm blathering about, you can go read Issue one of the comic, which is already online, since they sold out. There's also some other shorts on the site, including Agatha Heterodyne and the Electric Coffin which was included in the first TPB collection.

And now I'm gonna go squee like an excited fanboy for a while. What do you want, objective commentary?

(crossposted to snarkoleptics)

Tags: News, Comics, Links

Quotes, from Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett

"But what was happening now... this was magical. Ordinary men had dreamed it up and put it together, building towers on rafts in swamps and across the frozen spines of mountains. They'd cursed, and worse, used logarithms. They'd waded through rivers and dabbled in trigonometry. They hadn't dreamed, in the way people usually used the word, but they'd imagined a different world, and bent metal around it. And out of all the sweat and swearing and mathematics had come this... thing, dropping words across the world as softly as starlight."


'It was garbage, but it had been cooked by an expert. Oh, yes. You had to admire the way perfectly innocent words were mugged, ravished, stripped of all true meaning and decency, and then sent to walk the gutter for Reacher Gilt, although "synergistically" had probably been a whore from the start. The Grand Trunk's problems were clearly the result of some mysterious spasm in the universe and had nothing to do with greed, arrogance, and willful stupidity. Oh, the Grand Trunk management made mistakes--oops, "well-intentioned judgments which, with the benefit f hindsight, might have been, in some respects, in error" -- but these had mostly occurred, it appeared, while correcting "fundamental systemic errors" committed by the previous management. No one was sorry for anything, because no living creature had done anything wrong; bad things had happened by spontaneous generation in some weird, chilly, geometrical otherworld, and "were to be regretted.""

I wish I could fling words like that. I can feel the anger in the second, and the first is just great. I guess that's why he's sold millions of books and me none. That and I haven't finished anything.

Tags: Writing, Quotes