Friday 8 October 2004

Pic of the day: To commemorate the big event, I played for a while with black sims. But they were almost disappointingly normal. I guess they are based on American blacks, not African blacks, which we all know are Noble Savages... I presume?

Less than Nobel thoughts

The big event of the day is of course the Nobel Peace Prize, which was given to some black woman. I don't remember her name and will not try to learn it. A few hours after the event, she seems to have used this unexpected publicity to launch into some good old hate mongering, by claiming that the HIV virus was genetically engineered to keep the black race in check. This is beyond ignorant (particularly for a high-level academic) and well and truly into the land of insanity. But I'm sure it won't have any consequences for her receiving the prize. She is after all just some black woman, so we can't hold her to our standards... But it's OK as long as we can use the blacks to show off how good we are. We have a long tradition for that up here.

Yes, that is poisonous sarcasm. I feel that it is very appropriate. I believe it is a scientific fact that we would not have picked a European prize winner with such views. That said, planting trees is generally a good thing, and that's really what landed her the prize. She's also spoken out against the human rights violations of Kenya's former regime, showing personal courage in the face of threats and actual attacks. Such things can get known eventually, even from Africa. I don't think western media asked her what she thought about HIV until it was too late. And nobody asks black people whether they happen to be a racist. Of course, if she had been a white European, we would not have had to ask. We would have known about her from radio and TV and newspapers.

INCIDENTALLY, if you believe that crap about HIV coming out of some laboratory, go away. Don't read the Chaos Node. True, I write a lot of nice, fluffy stuff, reviewing books and games and Japanese cartoons; but at random times I write things about society, cosmology and theology that are out and out dangerous to people with an unbalanced mind. If your mind is small and unstable, get out, flee for your life. I don't want any responsibility for you flipping your lid. Despite all coziness, this site is written for large, healthy souls.

***

OK, for those few who remain, ironically I'll fill the rest of the entry with nice fluff. The really good news is that I got a doctor appointment. It's about a month from now, admittedly, on November 5th at 13:15 (1:15PM) but that's in the wrist-hurting month so it could barely be better. I'll try to evade the problems as best I can until then.

I'm still playing Sims2, the best game ever, but ... I like lasagna too, but I don't eat it for dinner every day for two weeks and still enjoy is just as much. So it is no big surprise that I am becoming unfaithful to the game as well. Lately I've played both Morrowind and City of Heroes too. This evening I suddenly said to myself: "Why the expletive am I doing this if I don't have fun? It's not like the Sims have fun, they are just pixels." That's kinda easy to forget, which is the big deal about the game, but it is still true. They are just pixels. I don't do this for them, I do it for me.

In contrast, the other heroes in City of Heroes are not just pixels, but all too many of them seem to believe that about each other and about me. The more I play the game, the less I team up with others. It's not like I'm angry at them for their attitude really, I just avoid them more and more. I guess I just don't hold them to my standards... ^_^*

Speaking of standards, I've taken a sudden interest in Linux, the free operating system. I downloaded Knoppix from skolelinux.no, there was a file that just fit on a CD and came ready to burn. Once I put the newly burned CD-R in the portable and turned it on, it booted a Norwegian Linux instead of Windows, just like that. It was kinda cool to see, although it was unable to connect to the wireless home network. In fact, I did not see any recognition of the Bluetooth device at all. But I wasn't all that disappointed. What you get for free may be worth what you gave for it; anything more is a bonus. I think this is better than nothing. But of course I don't hold it to the same high standards as Windows XP ...