The Long Road

Archives: April 2006

Thursday, April 27, 2006

So I was asked if I thought any of my friends were ugly. Friends aren’t ugly. They can't be. Or at least they stop being ugly after we spend enough time with them. No matter how someone looks, you get “used to it” and any initial shock at their beauty (or lack thereof) eventually fades. I imagine that getting to know them causes their personality to overwhelm whatever visual impact they made at first. Most people just become “average looking” as you spend more time with them. They become part of the landscape, so to speak. We just have to remember to remember what we initially thought of their looks!

There’s also “sensory adaptation” where, as the name indicates, your senses adapt to their input. That’s why it takes a few seconds before we can see in the dark, or how we are no longer bothered by the smell of skunk in the car, or how the high pitched whine from the monitor behind me just becomes background noise.

That said, if Wii all stick together, Wii will get over this one day =`(

Posted by Rayne @ 04:41 PM EST [Link] [37 comments]

Monday, April 24, 2006

Silent Hill is confusing. Here's my interpretation of the film, everything gets spoiled.

There are 3 dimentions: normal, fog, dark. The Reaper can only affect one world up from where he is. So if he's in Dark he can't interact with Normal, but if he's in Fog he can interact with all 3. Sensing Alessa's anger and pain after the rape and the bbq, the reaper makes her a deal "give me a foothold on this world, and I will give you vengeance" and thus using Alessa as a medium, Silent Hill and its cultists are plunged into the Fog Dimension. The problem is that The Demon/Alessa can't penetrate The Church since it's protected by God.

After 20-ish years of frustration the demon decides it needs an independent outside agent to help it gain access to the church ergo it splits off Alessa's good side into its own being: Sharon. Sharon's role (unknown to her) is to bring said independent outside agent into Silent Hill. Once Rose, Cybill, and Sharon arrive they all make the jump to foggy dimension (including their cars) via Sharon being something of a dual-dimentional creation. So using Rose's love for Sharon, Alessa is able to put her essense inside of Rose. Concurrantly, Rose brings Alessa into the church where The Reaper can finally be unleashed.

Once vengeance is brought, Alessa is reunited with her "good side" and so Sharon's body is left an empty husk for The Reaper to occupy. Now having a body which can access the real world as well as having fullfilled it's obligations to Alessa, The Reaper is free to roam all 3 dimensions outside of Silent Hill as signified by the "moat" around SH dissapearing at the end. Rose's imprisonement in Fog Dimension is a sort of Collateral Damage as the Reaper is not willing to let Rose out and allow her to reveal the secrets of Silent Hill to the real world.

Also: The moment after Rose bloodies the church and turns around holding the knife while the bed rises out of hell...I pictured the music of "Mortal Kombat" beginning to play. It would have been awesome.

Posted by Rayne @ 05:56 PM EST [Link] [36 comments]

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Among many of the fun, and funny, conversations I’ve had about yesterday’s post, one of them led back to the Myers-Briggs personality matrix. I’m sure everyone’s heard of it: you’re evaluated on 4 binary variables and 1 of 16 personality types is determined to be your primary behavioural predictor.

Obviously there aren’t only 16 types of personalities out there, but I do think this works really well if we think of it more as scales than absolutes and as falling into 1 primary type with a gradient mixing a few of the others. The combinations are endless! One of the problems with online personality tests is that they rely on self-evaluation which demands a measure of honesty and objectivity, and it’s long been known that surveys are a very flawed means of obtaining data. There is also the problem of a test’s transparency. If a question is asked in such a way that you know where it’s going, then you are more likely to answer less objectively. For example “do you like the colour red, spicy foods, and sports cars?” “yes” “then you are brave and adventurous” “shut up”. The better tests will have questions where you will not necessarily know how the answer affects your results. Also, if, like me, you already know about all these personality types, you may possibly be answering in a way to re-attain (or avoid!) that result.

That said, my results have always been pretty consistent. I usually rate INTJ, although there was a 2 year period where I was an INTP but my J rating is never as high as the other 3 variables. So what does this all mean? That I am a Mastermind. (Here’s a bonus mastermind description.)

I was going to quote certain parts that I agreed with but found that I agreed with pretty much all of it. However, I will quote here the best part from the INTP personality:

They regard all discussions as a search for understanding, and believe their function is to eliminate inconsistencies, no matter who is guilty of them. It is difficult for an Architect to listen to nonsense, even in a casual conversation, without pointing out the speaker's error, and this makes communication with them an uncomfortable experience for many.

(this is probably where the “look of disgust” comes from)

Here is one of the tests you can take, although I don’t think it’s too great. Because I’m an ego-maniac, you should try to answer the test as if you were me and see what you get! Or not. And not that I’ve tested him or anything, but I am 100% certain that Batman is also an INTJ although he does manage to keep Bruce Wayne as a second personality and I’m not sure where Bruce would fit.

Posted by Rayne @ 11:55 PM EST [Link] [22 comments]

Monday, April 10, 2006

Being a geek, I will very readily admit that my social powers are not all that. There are a few quirks that I am well aware of and some that I even nurture. However, there’s always a fear that I have anti-social tendencies that I don’t know about and go about merrily pissing people off without knowing I do so. When I’m pissing some one off, I’d like to think that it’s on purpose.

As it turns out, I do have one!

Apparently I have a “look of disgust” that I flash very often at people whenever someone does or says something stupid. I truly have no idea what it looks like nor when I do it. Totally instinctual. So, let me assure you all that if I ever give you this “look of disgust”, relax and remember that I’m not intentionally trying to openly express my disgust at you.

What is the difference, pronunciation wise, between “discussed” and “disgust”? Are we really supposed to say “gust”, as in “of wind”?

Anecdotally, we were having lunch at Cora’s when this all came out, and as I was in line to pay for the meal, this girl was behind us and relating some story to some guy. I didn’t catch any of it except the part where she began reciting an equation “4 x 5 / 2 + 4 – 6”, she then said “the answer’s 33 right?”. I turned around to look at who was speaking and quickly turned back to the cashier as the guy was like “can you repeat that?”. You just KNOW I gave her that look.

Posted by Rayne @ 01:38 PM EST [Link] [4 comments]

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