That time in the 1904 Olympics

That time in the 1904 Olympics

I ran across this on reddit somewhere a while ago, posted it on FB, and am now posting it here because it needs to be seen.

There’s bizarre history, and then there’s the Marathon at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis History.

  • The first place finisher did most of the race in a car. He had intended to drop out, and got a car back to the stadium to get his change of clothes, and just kind of started jogging when he heard the fanfare.
  • The second place finisher was carried across the finish line, legs technically twitching, by his trainers. They had been refusing him water, and giving him a mixture of Brandy and Rat Poison for the entire race. Doping wasn’t illegal yet (and this was a terrible attempt at it), so he got the gold when the First guy was revealed.
  • Third finisher was unremarkable, somehow.
  • Fourth finisher was a Cuban Mailman, who had raised the funds to attend the Olympics by running non-stop around his entire country. He landed in New Orleans, and promptly lost all of the travelling money on a riverboat casino. He ran the race in dress shoes and long trousers (cut off at the knee by a fellow competitor with a knife). He probably would have come in first (well, second, behind the car) had it not been for the hour nap he took on the side of the track after eating rotten apples he found on the side of the race.
  • 9th and 12th finishers were from South Africa, and ran barefoot. South Africa didn’t actually send a delegation – these were students who just happened to be in town and thought it sounded fun. 9th was chased a mile off course by angry dogs. Note: These are the first Africans to compete in any modern Olympic event.
  • Half the participants had never raced competitively before. Some died.
  • St. Louis only had one water stop on the entire run. This, coupled with the dusty road, and exacerbated by the cars kicking up dust, lead to the above fatalities. And yet, somehow, Rat Poison guy survived to get the Gold. The one water stop was an intentional design choice and not simply lack of oversight. The director wanted to test his theory on “purposeful dehydration” -during a marathon, on unpaved roads, while it was over 90F outside…
  • The Russian delegation arrived a week late, because they were still using the Julian calendar. In 1904.
Political Ads

Political Ads

It should be a law that political ads for candidates to be positive ads only. You can hype up anyone you want, but you are not allowed to attack any particular candidate via paid ad.

If you want to differentiate yourself from your opponent, then I suggest having a platform worth voting for.

The only thing attack ads do is make me want to vote for the person you’re attacking, and it directly contributes to the destruction of political discourse.

2022 All Quiet On the Western Front Review

2022 All Quiet On the Western Front Review

The new All Quiet on the Western Front movie is a fantastic WWI movie. It really, really is.

But it bears a resemblance to the book in name and character names only, which is massively disappointing. It did its own thing, and while it definitely showed the brutality of trench warfare, it missed everything else about what made the original story so powerful. The entire point of the book’s ending and how it relates to the title is gone.

I say go watch it. But watch it as a WWI movie, not an All Quiet movie.

Actually I am… (Review)

Actually I am… (Review)

cover for Jitsu wa Watashi wa vol. 1

Jitsu wa Watashi wa (Translated as Actually I Am), is a Manga series written and illustrated by Eiji Masuda. It was published by Akita Shoten in Weekly Shōnen Champion and ran from January 2013 – February 2017. It has been collected into 22 volumes, with Seven Seas Entertainment translating and publishing it under the name My Monster Secret in North America starting in 2016. It has also been adapted into an anime, but I’m going to stick with the manga here.

There is no reason for it to be as good as it is. It hits some serious “No I’m not interested in that” before even starting.

  • It’s set in a high school
  • It’s a romcom
  • It’s a harem manga
  • It’s impossible to explain other than the mangaka was on all the drugs.

Combine these things and you normally enter into the world of pure and utter trash, and the stereotype for everything wrong with manga and anime. There’s a few dozen of them published in both manga and anime every year, and normally if you want to read ‘the good stuff’ the industry has to offer you avoid this concoction like the absolute plague.

And then you get to the characters involved:

  • The main protagonist: A high schooler who can’t keep a secret (his nickname is literally ‘leaky basket’)
  • The main girl: A “beautiful and mysterious” vampire, who is dense as hell. Trying to keep secret she’s a vampire.
  • A 6 inch tall alien girl, who pilots a robot that passes as a human, because she can’t let anyone else know she’s actually an alien.
  • The main protagonist’s best childhood friend, a girl who bullies the main protagonist (and everyone else) to no end. A journalist looking to publish all the secrets and rumors she can find.
  • An ancient demon girl who is actually the school principal, but nobody knows she’s actually the principal (or a demon. She’s probably the most ‘demon-y’ demon girl in recent memory, in that she grants wishes, but they wind up being a monkey’s paw).
  • A werewolf girl, who when she changes at the sight of a moon (even pictures) turns into a man with sharp teeth. Also, she’s a crazy pervert. Of the kind who competes in the pervert olympics in the hopes to out-perv her mother. She’s literally the reason that…
  • A time traveler girl comes back from 50 years in the future to stop the werewolf girl from taking over the world and causing a pervert apocalypse. Her weapon is a sword that puts clothes on people.
  • Another time travelling girl.
  • An angel girl who thinks she’s actually a demon.
  • The great granddaughter of the demon principal.
  • The brother of the alien girl, who pilots a girl robot.
  • Talking glasses possessed by gods of ‘fortune’.

All of these characters are trying to keep their ‘secret’ hidden from everyone else, and pass off as ‘normal people’. To varying degrees of success.

As I said, it absolutely should not work. All the hallmarks of pure manga trash are there. And yet… somehow it all works so well. The shenanigans are hilarious, the romance is cute and grows organically, there are some deeply emotional moments near the end, and all the wild disparate elements somehow coalesce neatly into a wholesome and heartwarming conclusion. Even the art, which I wasn’t really a fan of starting out, grew on me, although that might also be the artist getting better as the series progressed. Jitsu wa Watashi wa is going onto my list of all time romcom favorites. I highly recommend this absurdity of a manga series. It fits well somewhere between Kaguya-Sama and Grand Blue.

SCUBA Certified

SCUBA Certified

Finally getting around to updating the blog with the important news:
My wife and I got officially certified as Advanced Open Water SCUBA divers right at the end of July. We haven’t been able to go visit anything other than the local lake, but it truly is a whole new world and experience, and I am quite enamored with it. The amount of stuff I had to learn was daunting, and I hadn’t had that much study since college. But it was one of those things where I really wanted to make sure I got it, because not understanding something could mean literal injury and/or death. There were written tests, then pool swims, and then finally the dives out at the local lake to get our Open Water Certification, and then additional study and dives to get our Advanced Open Water certification. Our “local lake” was Beaver Lake, Arkansas. We are certified for conditions “equal to, or better” than what we did. Which means I can dive in pretty much any visibility, because, especially on our first dive, visibility was awful. However, we had a ton of fun, and when not doing things directly involving training, we saw a bunch of fish, mostly sunfish, perch, and a bass. There was a platform, boat, car, and many other things intentionally sunk in the area to be a ‘dive park’ for scuba divers.

Right after returning home with our AOW certification, I booked a trip to the Caribbean, because I found out it is surprisingly cheap, and it’s renowned for its scuba diving. Which is the polar opposite of the Midwest United States. That said, we are also planning a trip to Mermet Springs, IL, before autumn settles in because we hear it is a great diving spot that has paddlefish, very large catfish, a sunken 747 and a bunch of other fun stuff.

If you ever have the chance or opportunity to learn how to dive, I highly recommend it. It’s all but impossible to truly put into words the experience of it. Even just swimming around in a pool is something else.

The 2nd Amendment is not about Firearms.

The 2nd Amendment is not about Firearms.

Erik Ramsay posted this on a Facebook group I’m in and gave permission to share it far and wide.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:

“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

When this was written it was considered to be in plain language, but language can drift over time; meanings change, words fall in and out of common usage, and so the meaning of a phrase can be obscured over time. Take a look at that same concept, but applied to books:

“A well educated electorate, being necessary for the success of a free state, the right of the people to keep and read books, shall not be infringed.” Who in that sentence has the right to keep and read books? Only the well educated electorate? Or the people? Further, does it say only an electorate that was educated by the government?

The right of the people to keep and read books exists so that a well educated electorate could arise from it. The way the 2nd Amendment is worded is identical. The right of the people to keep and bear arms exists so that a well regulated (in good working order, i.e. well-equipped because they already have the guns that a militia would need) militia (a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency) may rise from it.

Let’s break this down a bit so that we can understand the meaning of this amendment as it was originally understood:

“A well-regulated”: At the time the Second Amendment was written, “regulations” were not just laws, but detailed how something was to work. Baron von Steuben’s Regulations for the order and discipline of the troops of the United States (1779) details how the army and militia were to be set up and run, including what armaments, ammunition, etc. they were required to have to be effective; so in this case “well-regulated” doesn’t mean that the militia has a lot of laws about what they can and can’t do, it means that they know how to fight effectively, and are equipped to do so; the best comparison to today would be “well-equipped.”

“militia”: According to US Code, the militia is “all able-bodied males aged 17-45, and females that have joined the National Guard:”

TITLE 10 / Subtitle A / PART I / CHAPTER 12
10 USC Ch. 12: THE MILITIA
From Title 10—ARMED FORCES
Subtitle A—General Military Law
PART I—ORGANIZATION AND GENERAL MILITARY POWERS
CHAPTER 12—THE MILITIA
§246. Militia: composition and classes
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are—
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.

The “organized militia” is those that have joined the National Guard and/or Naval Militia, and the “unorganized Militia” is the rest of us. As an able-bodied male between 17-45 that is not in the National Guard or Naval Militia, I am a member of the “unorganized militia,” per US law.

“being necessary to the security of a free state,”: This one if pretty self-explanatory, but just in case someone needs it, this means that this concept is necessary to ensure the freedom of this country, both from outside invasion, and from a tyrannical government, like the one that the U.S. had just won a war against.

“the right of the people”: The wording here is really important: notice how it doesn’t grant anything, but references “the right of the people;” this is a pre-existing right that pre-dates the Constitution.

“to keep”: to keep is to own

“and bear”: to bear is to carry

“arms”: arms are weapons suitable for use in war. It is not limited to guns, although they are usually the topic of discussion when 2A subjects come up, but also includes swords, knives, cannon, and warships. Yes, I said cannon and warships; if you look at the historical records, much of the cannon and warships used in the Revolutionary War were privately owned.

“shall not”: this means “not now, and not in the future.”

“be infringed.”: to infringe is to nibble away at, or encroach upon, even a little bit. A neighbor that puts a fence around his roses six inches over the property line onto your property has infringed on your property.

So, to re-cap:

“A well-regulated (well-armed and equipped) militia (most citizens aged 17-45), being necessary to the security of a free state (nation), the right of the people (the people, not the military) to keep (own) and bear (carry) arms (weapons; not just guns, but also swords, knives, etc.), shall not be infringed (gov’t is prohibited from interfering with this pre-existing right)”.

It really couldn’t be clearer: the government is PROHIBITED from enacting ANY form of gun control, and ALL gun control is unconstitutional, and therefore illegal.

The Second Amendment does not apply to AR-15s.
The Second Amendment does not apply to AK-47s.
The Second Amendment does not apply to any semi-automatic rifles.
The Second Amendment does not apply to lever-action or bolt-action rifles.
The Second Amendment does not apply to any pistols or revolvers.
The Second Amendment does not apply to “high capacity” magazines.
The Second Amendment does not apply to any firearms, PERIOD.

The Second Amendment applies ONLY to the government. It restricts the government’s authority regarding your pre-existing right to any and all of the above-listed firearms, any firearms not listed above, and any other arms you so choose.

The Second Amendment does not apply to your firearms because its purpose is NOT to state what a citizen is allowed to have; the purpose of the Second Amendment is to prevent the government from being involved in that question in the first place.

If the question is “what weapons is a citizen allowed to have and carry?”, then the answer is “whatever the citizen can afford,” and the government is constitutionally mandated to keep silent on the issue.

A Fun Fact For The Day

A Fun Fact For The Day

I found this years ago on reddit and saved it. So now I’m posting it here.

Barack Obama became President of the United States because People Magazine thought actor Garret Wang was attractive.

Here’s how it went down:

At the end of Voyager series 3, the writers wanted to introduce a new character, but because the budget only allowed for a certain number of main actors, they had to let one of them go. Originally this was going to be Harry Kim, played by Garrett Wang, who had been very vocal in his hate for the show. (This is why there’s a weird cliffhanger with him about to die that gets almost immediately overturned in series 4).
People Magazine then ran a list of the Hottest 50 Men which included Wang. Seeing he was popular, they decided to get rid of the character Kes, played by Jennifer Lien, whose character they thought they’d messed up a bit and run out of ideas.
Since Kes leaving left them with only two major female characters, they decided to make their new character female as well, leading to them making Seven of Nine, played by Jeri Ryan.
For filming, she had to move to California, which put strain on her already damaged relationship with Jack Ryan and led to their divorce. In 2004, the messy details of their divorce came out, forcing Jack Ryan to stand down from running for the position of Senator of Illinois, allowing a relatively new Barack Obama to win. Four years later, Obama became President of the US.

What WoW’s Dragonflight Trailer Lacks

What WoW’s Dragonflight Trailer Lacks

Every World of Warcraft trailer has always been extremely hyped, leaving you with a sense of wonder and excitement, and a knowledge of what the game or expansion is bringing to the table. The Vanilla trailer showed off the the main conflict (”The tenuous pact between the Horde and the Alliance has all but evaporated, the drums of war, thunder once again”), the inhabitants, and was an invitation to explore and experience this world and its conflicts. Burning Crusade’s cinematic showed off the two new races as well as Outland areas, but it had a major high point with all Illidan (”You are not prepared!”) that really set up thematically the entire series and got people hyped for it. Oh my god we’re going to go through this Dark Portal and fight this demon looking dude and it looks epic!

And every trailer since had one or more epic moments people remembered that set the stage for the entire expansion in theme, tone, and story.

  • WotLK had Sindragosa bursting through the ice and flying through the canyon.
  • Cataclysm had Deathwing flying and destroying well known landmarks.
  • Mists of Pandaria had a great fight involving a human, an orc, and a new panda creature that ended with mists clearing away and panning down to an incredible Asian themed world below.
  • Warlords of Draenor had the reveal of Garrosh, changing important history.
  • Legion had the leaders of the Horde and the Alliance fighting together against a returned Burning Legion.
  • Battle for Azeroth had Anduin resurrecting his army
  • Shadowlands had Sylvanas destroying the Helm of Domination.

All these trailers were built around something we knew or were familiar with, usually pivotal characters. Except for the new Dragonflight cinematic. They attempted it with the Watcher guy pushing the tower back together, but they failed in that we did not know these watchers existed, or the tower existed until literally the cinematic happened. There was nothing familiar to latch onto and get excited about. No true emotional stakes, other than ‘we will not be able to return if this thing isn’t lit when we come back’. So what? They left, they’ve been gone 10,000 years, why is it so important they return? There was no drama, no ‘oomph’. The closest they get is the watcher falls and would die except a now returned dragon swoops in and saves him from the fall.

I think they could have done so much better, by having the watcher die and removing most of the voiceover. You watch him wake up, do his thing, get thrown off by the explosion and then shatter to the ground, and then the camera pans up to see the dragons start to appear out of the clouds. You see them fly over the shattered remains and it blacks out to the title. Doing such would add the gravitas and drive home the seriousness of his duty to restore the tower, even at the sacrifice of his own life. It would immediately cause the a lot of questions and desire to know more, like a trailer should. It would have be a truly epic moment that fit with the rest of the cinematics they have released over the years.

Essentially, what I am saying is I haven’t played World of Warcraft in years, and this trailer did absolutely nothing to make me think about returning. Wrath of the Lich King Classic on the other hand, and watching the old cinematics? Those made me think a bit.

Quote of the Day, 4-5-2022

Quote of the Day, 4-5-2022

“The hatred that men bear to privilege increases in proportion as privileges become fewer and less considerable, so that democratic passions would seem to burn most fiercely just when they have least fuel. I have already given the reason for this phenomenon. When all conditions are unequal, no inequality is so great as to offend the eye, whereas the slightest dissimilarity is odious in the midst of general uniformity; the more complete this uniformity is, the more insupportable the sight of such a difference becomes. Hence it is natural that the love of equality should constantly increase together with equality itself, and that it should grow by what it feeds on.” ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, 1840