Reflections

I finished my first semester of grad school the other day. I came home to my precious Lancaster and settled back into my parents' house. So the only thing to ask myself is now what? What do I do with myself now?

I am used to working constantly. I may be writing papers or working at my partnership. I may be cleaning my apartment or reading a book on a historical event. Point is I work constantly. I never really allow myself to have down time. And since I returned home, I am not quite sure what to do with myself.

So to occupy my time, I have been playing video games, but not as much as I would like to. Most of my time has actually been spent baking. I bake some mean holiday cookies, and so far, I have turned out four different kinds in less than a week. Tomorrow I'll turn out two more.

And in between baking cookies, I have been working on a short story. Even though I only have a few pages written, this is actually the first time in years that I have written anything of fiction. It's not like I have not tried. I used to have a very active writing imagination. I used to write all the time, but it stopped once I started anti-depressants which I think may have fried that portion of my brain. I have never really gotten over the death of the me that was before anti-depressants, but since I stopped taking them a few years ago, a new person emerged, unfortunately, it has been one who can no longer write something as simple as a short story.

But today I've had a spark that I have not felt for a long time. I suddenly had the urge to write a short story about a deep space probe. And while I feel like the story is not very good, what is important is that I have suddenly regained a small part of my brain that I thought died long ago.

Forecasting Fallout 4: My Predictions

I have been trying to guess, recently, where the new Fallout 4 will be set. I wonder if it will even be set in the United States or possibly even Canada or Mexico. It would be interesting to see how other countries faired in the Great War, but here are some predictions that I have had and that have been gathered from the internet:

Jason Bergman said: "You'll get no tips from me. But the Mojave Wasteland was a fun place to explore, wasn't it?"

So what can we gather from this? Well that it may end up being in a dessert climate again.

A friend suggested that the next game would take place in Idaho because giant, irradiated potatoes would be "awesome." This is a silly suggestion, but with Bethesda, you never know.

I have tried to do my research on the topic, but Bethesda has not released much information about it. The most information that you can get on it is in the Fallout Wiki's FAQ on it: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_4_FAQ

This is disappointing but I guess it's still a little early for them to be releasing information on it considering its projected release date.

Tell me though: Where do you think it will take place?

Mitt versus Mitt and GOP Clowns UPDATED AGAIN

I don't normally write about politics, but lately I have been following the circus that is the Republican party.

But before I do that, I want to say a bit about my political background. I am a rather liberal Democrat. I come from a family full of Democrats. The only Republicans in our family married in and often feel like outcasts among us. When I was in high school I was much more liberal to the point that when someone in a class called me a Communist I kicked their ass and told them if I ever heard such filth come out of their mouth again I would break their arm.

I find that people today think that when you say you're part of any liberal party, they are under the impression that you hate your country. Quite the opposite. I love my country so much that I keep a mini version of the US Constitution in my wallet. I consider going to Washington, D.C. a religious pilgrimage. I love my country and anyone who believes otherwise about me because I'm a liberal Democrat is a fucking moron.

Anyway, lately it has been hard to ignore the growing circus in the Republican primaries.  Adultery, sexual harassment, child labor, "person-hood," etc. it's all becoming a little ridiculous but admittedly hilarious to watch. You could make a fortune if this stuff were pay-per-view. And when they have debates..... ooooohhhh when they have debates I can hear the Benny Hill theme playing in the background. Grab some popcorn! Another Republican debate is on! WOO HOO!

The other night I was sitting down to watch the evening news and eat some soup. As I took a big gulp of soup this commercial sponsored by the DNC comes on:

Soup spitting commenced as I collapsed into fits of laughter. Honestly, does anyone really know what he ACTUALLY believes in?! A friend called him a "vote whore" as in he'll say anything to win votes! Typical politician but hey Mitt wtf? What do you REALLY believe in? Stop flip-flopping already!

Earlier this week, Herman Cain dropped out of the race amid accusations of adultery and earlier accusations of sexual harassment. Honestly, when he first came in to the race, I was interested in what he had to say and I agreed with some of his ideas, but like most Presidential candidates, he got crazier and crazier. His stance on abortion killed any slight chance of me voting for him. I can't stand politicians and people who only see Planned Parenthood as abortion clinics. Only 2% of what Planned Parenthood does has anything to do with abortion. They offer a laundry list of sexual health services and education that many communities could not function without.

Anyway, when Herman Cain dropped out, he made a hilarious quote and for those who were in on it, we jumped right on it:

That's right: he quoted the first Pokemon movie in his departing speech. When I realized what had happened I nearly died laughing.

But what made the article that published it even better was what I saw in the comments section:

In case you missed out on Newt Gingrich's part of this three-ringed circus, a couple of months ago the news came out that while voting to impeach President Clinton back in the late 1990s, Gingrich was having an adulterous affair himself. For some odd reason or another he claimed that he had "done it out of his love for his country." Wait... what? THAT MAKES NO SENSE! Someone explain this act to me! Is this one of those  new modern arts clowns because if it is it's not funny. Seriously wtf.

And more recently, just in case you missed it, Newt called child labor laws stupid and said that children from poor families should replace janitors in their schools. *facepalm* You're kidding, right? Well no, apparently he was NOT kidding. He later defended his comments and stood by the idea. I have to admit that I did not find this comment funny. As a historian, I have studied the evolution and eventual adoption of child labor laws. Yes they were enacted to protect children and to keep them in school so that the population could grow and become successful. This basically helped many people rise above the chains of poverty. But sociologically we have child labor laws to protect adults from children too. As in, if there were children filling jobs that adults would normally fill, the unemployment rate would be much higher. So if you were to get rid of school janitors in this country to replace them with the children of the poor, how many unemployed adults would you create?

Also, children need time to BE CHILDREN. It's essential to a child's healthy physical and psychological development to BE A CHILD and to HAVE A CHILDHOOD.

And you know what, you can flood the comments section below with your outraged comments and accusations of me slandering the Republican party, but you know what: I don't give a shit. I'm exercising my First Amendment rights here.

UPDATE


LOOK I FOUND MORE GOP CLOWNS!!! CLICK ME FOR GOP CLOWN!


RE-UPDATED


Thank you Jon Stewart: OH THE HERMANITY!

Could the Fallout franchise be taken as a warning against thermonuclear war?

So I was watching The Atomic Cafe earlier today. I love old propaganda films mostly because some of them are so full of it that I have to avoid drinking anything while watching them because I might spit it all over everywhere in a fit of laughter. Kind of like the other day when I was eating soup and a MittvMitt.com commercial came on for the DNC. I almost spit soup all over my apartment and then proceeded to laugh my ass off.

Anyway that's besides the point right now. While watching The Atomic Cafe I started to think about how the Fallout franchise "mirrors" it. The Atomic Cafe holds the mirror of truth up to the United States. It shows us how utterly ridiculous we acted at the beginning of the Atomic Age. Part of the reason why I love studying the Atomic Age is because of how ridiculous our reaction to it was. We acted like complete morons in the face of catastrophe and I often feel like we're still acting like this. Especially during the 90s when we were so happy about the Cold War being over that we began to severely under fund our local, state, and federal civil defense and emergency management agencies. (Any pre-9/11 airport goers remember how lax security was?) We're still doing it too! My boyfriend works in emergency management and I have to say for the kinds of hours they pull and the nature of the work that they carry out and the BULLSHIT that they have to deal with, they should probably be paid more than anyone.

Boyfriend: "I really hate how stupid people are when it comes to their own safety. We tell them NOT to do something and then after a natural or man-made disaster they act like it's our fault. Then we have to clean it up! WE TOLD YOU NOT TO DO THAT! WHAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT THAT?! But of course it's our fault." -_-

Me *thoughtful*: "So basically you're everyone's mom?"

Boyfriend: 

Me:

So I would like to take a moment to think about the Fallout franchise from the viewpoint of an emergency manager, of which I am not. I am a historian/librarian/information scientist, NOT an emergency manager, but when you spend most of your time with one, you start thinking about the world from their view point. So I'm starting to look at my favorite video game from a different view point. 

Some lessons and warnings:

1. Don't piss off the Chinese/Russians/Any country with enough nukes to seriously hurt us.

2. Do not worship false idols (sounds like the Commandments huh?). By false idols, I mean the atom. From what I can tell in the world of Fallout, before the Great War, the people "worshiped" the atom and even idolized it. Well look at where that got them. And then the Children of Atom do it again! WTH?!

3. Be prepared.

4. Don't take clean water for granted.

5. If you want everything to look like crap, drop a bomb on it, and refuse to clean it up even 200 years later. (Just because everything has been destroyed by a nuclear bomb doesn't mean that you can't tidy up once in a while! Moira gets this! Even though she's a pain in the ass...)

6. Atoms should be used for peaceful purposes. And I am NOT a stupid hippie. Hippies suck.