Safety Abroad

So now I guess it's not safe for me to travel anywhere beyond Europe. Not that I would though. As if being American wasn't bad enough, now the pope, as I affectionately call him "Joey Ratz", is pissing of the Muslim world. So when traveling I will pretend to be a Canadian Protestant. I doubt it will work. Can't we all just get along?

And So My Reign of Terror Begins...

The Dawn of a New Era

Multi Touch

So I was talking with Mark, Mark and Jake today and we got to touch screens. I showed them this Multi Touch demo, here

So I began thinking, actually something that probably started either freshmen or sophomore year with Sam's capstone project, which I guess was an advanced visualization sort of thing. But what if you could create a visualization first and then hear the associated music? Would a cool looking visualization sound good? Is it more a matter of programming than anything else? What would really good music look like? I think it would be interesting to do, especially in a format like Multi Touch, particularly if they can differentiate between fingers.

Virtual Reality

So this is really just an idea for a video game. To the best of my knowledge, the only video game remotely related to the Congressional Medal of Honor is the Medal of Honor series. There are over 3,400 recipients since it's inception in 1862. Thats 144 years of US military history, not to mention the greatest military actions performed by one person. Spanning 6 major conflicts, not to mention smaller actions in between, there would be enough gameplay to span several titles, not to mention that there are hundreds from World War II alone. Give a gamer the opportunity to play as these factual heroes, give them a history lesson at the same time, and make damn sure that the next generation knows what they did, not to mention how hard it was. Example:

Beauford T Anderson
When a powerfully conducted predawn Japanese counterattack struck his unit's flank, he ordered his men to take cover in an old tomb, and then, armed only with a carbine, faced the onslaught alone. After emptying 1 magazine at pointblank range into the screaming attackers, he seized an enemy mortar dud and threw it back among the charging Japs, killing several as it burst. Securing a box of mortar shells, he extracted the safety pins, banged the bases upon a rock to arm them and proceeded alternately to hurl shells and fire his piece among the fanatical foe, finally forcing them to withdraw. Despite the protests of his comrades, and bleeding profusely from a severe shrapnel wound, he made his way to his company commander to report the action. T/Sgt. Anderson's intrepid conduct in the face of overwhelming odds accounted for 25 enemy killed and several machineguns and knee mortars destroyed, thus single-handedly removing a serious threat to the company's flank.

I suppose having an entire game of these might near impossible standards, but I'm sure someone out there has enough free time on his/her/its hands to do it.

Retroactive English

So this post should actually have been posted in the middle of the summer, but at this point I find it hard to care. I am guessing that maybe about 60% of you have not heard about the whole debacle with Geno's Steaks in Philadelphia this summer. The news story is here. And as I sat in the Union tonight, listening to a table speaking in nothing but Spanish, or at least what I assume to be Spanish, I wondered what it might be like to be that counterman at Geno's. Quite frankly, I don't see anything wrong with what Vento did, although I've not heard recently of any sort of resolution. Is this equivalent to the days of Colored only restaurants and bathrooms? No. Not by a long shot. If these people are indeed here illegally, it would behoove them to learn the language, at least enough to get by. And as to these "community leaders" who take offense to this and consider bringing a class action suit? I would certainly think that you would have more important things to do with your time than worry about something that, in my opinion, is designed more to help than to hurt or discriminate. America's for Americans, or at least those who speak Americanese. Or is it Americish?

Old Time Radio Hour

So on the way home for dinner, I'm listening to the radio, 98.1 WOGL to be precise. The announcer starts talking about the "Jones' for the Stones" referring of course to a block of the Rolling Stones played at a regular time. Similarly other radio stations have blocks. Getting the Led Out (Led Zeppelin). Breakfast with the Beatles (duh.) The 10 Spot (Pearl Jam). And I sat there, listening to the beginning of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and wondering what other bands/musicians could you accomplish such a feat with. As far as I can tell, there are 2 requirements: 1) Have an extensive album catalogue and/or a wealth of live recordings. 2) Be able to come up with a cool sounding name for the block.

So I pose the question to whoever reads this as a write in ballot:

Band/Musician
Block Name

Send in your responses via the comments section.