People, Meat and Weight

For some reason over the last couple of days several of the blogs I frequent have been discussing obesity and meat vs vegitarianism. I don't really want to get left out, so why not?

I think it's pretty funny that anyone who's on the fringe, minority or who thinks they might be wrong finds it so necessary to stand up on the top of a mountain and shout down for all to hear how their lifestyle choices are so much better than everyone else's. Like they suddenly have found the equation for eternal life, happiness and sunshine. One of these groups of people are vegetarians.

I have several vegetarians in my family and none of them are preachers when it comes to their lifestyle choice. However, I can't stop reading about how celebrities and organizations are so deliberately pushing people to give up meat and eat only vegetables, fruits and grains. Oh, and scarf down the supplements that are required in order to live this way.

I honestly believe it's because people don't bother to research or even understand a single issue. If one report comes out and says 'meat causes obesity', extremists throw away their meat and decry its consumption. The great thing about science is it never lets shit like this sit for long. Pretty soon there'll be another report that shows a more moderate viewpoint. Eventually everything settles and we all learn the truth. However, this usually takes years and years with medical trials, interviews, double blind testing, etc. I mean, look at how long people have been saying cellular phones cause cancer, only to be rebuffed by dozens of scientific reports that were 20 years in the making.

I think it boils down to using common sense, a gift which is apparently in short offering because so few seem to possess it. Let me simplify everything to do with weight gain/loss as simply as I can: Weight gain is when your calories in is greater than your calories burned. Weight loss is when your calories in is less than your calories burned. Simple, yes? I don't care how predisposed a person is to gaining weight, the formula is static.

What about general wellness, you ask? How does being a vegetarian vs omnivore play into all this? Well, your body is a remarkable entity. It tends to tell you everything you need to know about what you're putting inside it. When you're eating the wrong things you tend to feel less well, gain weight, exhaust quickly. Newsflash: That's your body telling you to eat different stuff. It's no secret that fatty foods and refined sugars are not healthy. It's well documented that carbohydrates make you tired after eating. Drinking water helps flush toxins from your body. It's pretty easy to take those handful of documented science and formulate a meal plan that keeps you healthy.

What about exercise? Yeah, that's always a hot button. You get some folks who tell you exercise is the key and blah blah blah. Look, here's that common sense thing again. Being active will benefit your overall health significantly. This doesn't mean you have to jog 4 miles a day and dedicate your free time to stomach crunches. Just be more active, huh? Park a little further away from your shopping center or work. Take a walk around at lunch, even if it's just for 5 minutes. Think about the things you do every day to make your life slightly more convenient and turn it into an opportunity to walk. Don't ever let someone poo-poo that idea because every single little bit helps.

Lean meat? Yummy and healthy! Carrots and broccoli? Yum-a-dum-dum! Snickers? Fuck that noise. Exercise? Do what you can. Like where all that takes you? Do more when you can. That simple.

Craziness

So I just put down my local paper this morning after reading a continuing story. The story is about a local defense lawyer who, in cahoots with a city prosecuting attorney, bilked a city out of anywhere between $50k and $140k; they're not sure exactly how much. The scam was executed upon a city's 'Home Base' program (a youth program) that allowed simple offenders to pay money to the city to avoid prosecution. Sounds sketchy already.

At any rate, this defense attorney thieved this coin purportedly to support his painkiller habit. He's been cooperative and has supposedly disclosed all information on the subject, but that's not really what I'm writing about. In this article it mentions how many people were there in federal district court supporting him; it was a lot. Members of his church congregation showed up in full support, minus the pastor who had a medical emergency, and were "[holding] hands and pray, asking God to intervene."

I'll assume, for a moment, that they aren't asking their God to strike this man down and hold him in immediate judgment. I find it amazing that this piece of shit lawyer will call upon his church congregation to support him in court while facing multiple counts of stealing from children for his own personal narcotic habit. What's even more amazing is that they are supporting him. Shouldn't he, perhaps, have leaned upon his support group back when he was, I dunno, addicted to fucking painkillers? You know, back before he pillaged resources earmarked for kids? Apparently not. And these Christian do-gooders are following him around like a lap dog oblivious to the notion that he is simply using them to win favor in the court. Especially around here where everything is so right-wing Christian conservative.

While I dig the whole 2nd chance, turn the cheek, support in time of need shit, marching his church through the courtroom is pretty fucked up. Here's a not to the church supporters: knock it off. This turd deserves some nice prison time and all you should be doing is asking your God to forgive him later. Might also wanna check to see if there's blood on your hands from the tithing basket while you're at it.

Welcome

I figured I'd quickly tap out a welcome message.

Anyway, like every other 'blog' on the intarweb, I'm just here to put ideas to words. Some stuff will have humor, much of it won't. I like to save my humor for people who's faces I get to see. I hate these templates so I'll be updating it soon enough with something that doesn't completely resemble ass. Actually, it probably will still resemble ass, it just won't be someone else's car accident; it'll be mine.

MMORPGs

Is anyone else getting tired of the same-old same-old when it comes to MMORPGs? It seems that every game on the market now panders itself toward the 12-21 year old crowd. The boring, nonsensical questing...the long, arduous and nearly pointless grinding...the cookie-cutter lack of options that current class archetypes provide. It's like everything is designed so a monkey could play....and even compete!

Games seem to be making player-made (read: crafted) goods useless by providing far superior goods off quests and MOBs. In fact I'm not sure why crafting still exists in games like World of Warcraft, other than to provide another time sink when the gamer isn't raiding Molten Core for the umpteenth time.

Ownership and investment is virtual non-existent anymore. Where are the games that allow player-built cities, land defense, player-built housing and more? Shoot, there doesn't even seem to be customization for individual players, either. We all pretty much look the same as we walk the capital city street. The virtual definition of self is reflected as the same pair of shoulders everyone in your class wears as a symbol of the 60 hours it took to win a roll. Talk about boring.

So, like most folks I know who play extensively in the MMORPG genre of games, I have a view of what I would like in a game. Rarely do I find two people who agree on the specifics, but a lot of the general tends to be worked out nicely in peace. One of the specifics that seems to generate the most conflict is the old PvP versus PvE argument. By old school definition, PvP is unrestricted player versus player conflict; looting of corpses and ganking. Current definition puts it more like: consensual player versus player combat where the playing field is leveled; dueling and instanced combat against players just like you. PvE is, of course, just player versus environment; combat against the computer.

A second argument tends to have less to do with exact game play as much as your character. This is generally an argument hashed out between developers more than gamers, but it's still relevant. This is the old class archetype vs pure skill based character development. The arguments for each are substantial and based in logic, but it really boils down to this: class archetypes are easy to balance, skill based characters are not. The latter is a gross understatement as the balancing issue can be gigantic even with the best staff money can buy.

For my own tastes, I prefer a completely player-driven environment. Full player versus player combat with looting and conflict. A full player-driven economy with meaningful crafting, brokers, merchants, orders...supply and demand. Player-built cities that can be attacked and razed. The mechanics of which I have been pondering for years during my drives home from work. I'll begin formulating my thoughts into words over the next couple weeks because I figure it's finally time to have something I can refer to later.