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        <item>
            <title>Halo</title>
            <link>http://convolutedwoolymuffins.com//tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=5&amp;comments_parentId=0</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Well.  It's been a while, hasn't it?

I've started playing Halo with a crowd of folk I got by contact poison from Martin.

Seems I'm doing better.  I'm only last in the rankings most of the time.  It also seems I have a hard time keeping track of what color people to kill.  Red.  Blue.  Red. Blue.Red.BlueRedblueredvioletlightishred....Not Pink.

Anyway.  I'm not as afraid of consoles as I used to be.  Now I just don't care that I suck.]]></description>
            <author>suzuri</author>
            <pubDate>Sat, 23 Sep 2006 21:54:31 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Why Atheism is Better</title>
            <link>http://convolutedwoolymuffins.com//tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=6&amp;comments_parentId=0</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Religion, or at least religions with a creator mythos attached to them, claim that the earth and likely everything was made by some powerful entity or entities.  So, human-kind is the product of an intentional design.  Truly amazing, well, not so amazing for an all poweful entity, but impressive for the more limited ones.  Our "purpose" is usually to serve, entertain or generally not piss off the diety.  And that "purpose" is what makes life worth living (that and promise of eternal punishment in some cases for not fulfulling the purpose.)  So, basically we are slaves, or at best little dolls made for the amusement of some petty creator.

Now, atheism says there is no god, no diety, no "higher power".  It suscribes to the idea that we simply are and when we die, we simply are not.  There is no design, no purpose, nothing greater than the universe itself.  It asks, why do you need a purpose to live?  Why do you need the threat of fire and brimstone to live well an a society?  I think the very idea, that humankind is a fluke makes it worth being one; makes it worth continuing on to see what this mere hapinstance is capable of.  I mean, what a wonderful random thing that this lump of chemicals can engage in comminication with other seperate lumps of chemicals.  Isn't that far more amazing than some bored all-mighty willing us into being?  Doesn't the idea that we're the order amidst a increasingly chaotic universe make us more special, more worthy of existence?  Why shouldn't we live as if there is no afterlife and cherrish every moment of our lives?  Life is precious and delicate, we should respect and revere it.

Somehow, religion seems all too capable to justifying irrational disrepect of life and gets in the way of what we really are.  If we, as individuals and as a species, can not embrace our tenuous grasp in the universe, we will miss the joy of being here while we wait to join a non-existent afterlife.]]></description>
            <author>Martha &lt;&amp;#109;&amp;#97;&amp;#114;&amp;#116;&amp;#104;&amp;#97;&amp;#64;&amp;#99;&amp;#111;&amp;#110;&amp;#118;&amp;#111;&amp;#108;&amp;#117;&amp;#116;&amp;#101;&amp;#100;&amp;#119;&amp;#111;&amp;#111;&amp;#108;&amp;#121;&amp;#109;&amp;#117;&amp;#102;&amp;#102;&amp;#105;&amp;#110;&amp;#115;&amp;#46;&amp;#99;&amp;#111;&amp;#109;&gt;</author>
            <pubDate>Thu, 08 Sep 2005 05:49:52 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>God Problems</title>
            <link>http://convolutedwoolymuffins.com//tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=6&amp;comments_parentId=0</link>
            <description><![CDATA[I'm going to get to the brass tax.  I'd like to discuss my problems with the christian god.  I'm very much of the opinion that such a god, as presented, is at best a paradox of philosophies.  Here is my reasoning:

Postulates given by christian religion as I understand them:
1.  God is all powerful.  His will is reality.
2.  God is all knowing.  There is nothing that god isn't aware of.
3.  God created everything.
4.  God is good, sometimes described as benevolent, certainly merciful...

Problem:
  If postulates 1,2 and 3 are true, then 4 most certainly can not be true.

Reasoning:
Take this example, you're sitting there, minding your own business and an apple from the tree you're under drops right onto your head.  An incident of almost certain happenstance, but not so according to the first three postulates.  God knew that apple was going to hit you on the head.  He knew it when you sat down at under the tree, he knew it before anything existed.  He had to have known it if we accept postulate 2.  Now, when he was creating the universe, as postulate 3 demands, it would have been something he was aware of then too; that by creating the universe, he would cause the tree to assault you with delicious fruit.  Now, you could argue that getting smacked in the head is an acceptable price for existence, but it didn't have to happen really.  If god is all powerful, he could have created the universe in a way that the apple didn't fall on your head.  In fact, at any given point in time between the universe's creation and the bump on your head, he could have prevented or changed it.  It isn't just a matter of being in the wrong spot at the wrong time, god intended it to happen.  He intended everything to happen and thus it does.

Now, this isn't exactly rocket science, or Nietzsche level philosophy.  But when you consider god's responsibility for everything you have to admit that god is responsible for things deemed good as well as things deemed evil.  Can god be truly good as judged by the same standards as those that praise him?  The very fact that he's unquestionably responsible for every "vile" act aver committed sort of puts a kink in that concept.  So, unless you define "good" such that it is equivalent as "evil", postulate 4 fails.

Obviously, this is just the tip of iceberg of problems I have with these concepts...  But, I'd like to discuss with people who truly believe god is good and why my logic is wrong.  I'd like to understand why these readily available concepts in not just christian religions are whole heartedly accepted without question...]]></description>
            <author>Martha &lt;&amp;#109;&amp;#97;&amp;#114;&amp;#116;&amp;#104;&amp;#97;&amp;#64;&amp;#99;&amp;#111;&amp;#110;&amp;#118;&amp;#111;&amp;#108;&amp;#117;&amp;#116;&amp;#101;&amp;#100;&amp;#119;&amp;#111;&amp;#111;&amp;#108;&amp;#121;&amp;#109;&amp;#117;&amp;#102;&amp;#102;&amp;#105;&amp;#110;&amp;#115;&amp;#46;&amp;#99;&amp;#111;&amp;#109;&gt;</author>
            <pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 06:26:28 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>silver cube of wonder, that I somehow thought would be purple...</title>
            <link>http://convolutedwoolymuffins.com//tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=5&amp;comments_parentId=0</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Well, about six hours ago I arrived home with a shiny new box under my arm and a held copy Pikmen at EB downtown.  I thought, "I'll just pop Metroid Prime in and see what happens.  If I like it, great.  If it's not my dish, I'll just go pick up my game."

At 5:00pm I called EB and asked them to hold Pikmen until tomorrow....

Now, having found the third save point and almost all the runes in that 4 rune room, I have decided to give my hands a break and maybe deal with some of those boxes that seem to be infesting my room. 

Or maybe I'll corrupt that Dan guy with some anime...that could be fun.]]></description>
            <author>suzuri</author>
            <pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2004 03:23:33 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Bike Stuff</title>
            <link>http://convolutedwoolymuffins.com//tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&amp;comments_parentId=0</link>
            <description><![CDATA[The days are getting shorter and I can now ride across town and not break a sweat. All the twinkle-y bits on my bike function.  I have a helmet.  In theory, all ir well. Yet, my mind is heavy.  'That' time is coming.  The time when you have to wear multiple layers of clothing, when drivers loose all sense...I think of this and I fear.  

So, once I get this aprtment thing squared, I'm gonna get a new bike.  It's gonna have shorter crank arms (the things the pedals are attached to) so I don't have to move my legs through as large a range of motion while wearing lots of clothes and long jackets.  It will have slightly wider, more knobbier tires, so don't get stuck in as many ruts.  It Will have fenders.  Big, Wide Fenders.  Nobody likes damp ass syndrome, after all. OOh.  and a few lights.  Lights are important in the darkness. It would be cool to have a rack on it too, But I doubt I'll get that as I am never really able to fit those on my frames....(three tries, three misses)

yes.  So.  a new bike.  

What will the rest of both of you be aquireing to make your lives more liveable?]]></description>
            <author>suzuri</author>
            <pubDate>Wed, 10 Nov 2004 01:59:42 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>'cause it's been a while</title>
            <link>http://convolutedwoolymuffins.com//tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=4&amp;comments_parentId=0</link>
            <description><![CDATA[lots of new shows have shown up in the last, what, about seven months?

However, I doubt most people are much interested in that.  if you acctually feel the need to learn what new stuff is out there, it's not terribly difficult to discover it on your own. Instead I would like to poat about the random community associated with fansubs and the state of anime in America (that sounds too formal somehow.  Ahh, well.)

The fansub community is comprised mostly of males aged 16-22.  Most information is exchanged via iRC - a land of moving text and flexible naming practices. meaning someone can be anyone one minute and themself the next and no one would likely notice.  This environment of wicked fast data exchange thinly veiled in anonimity lends itself not only to anime of a more germaine nature, but also 'hentai' or porn of the inked line.  Being part of that teeny-tiny-one-half-of-one-percent-minority (female, over the age of 25, not in college) I have learned that I'm happier if I just point and laugh. 

Bittorrent has also greatly affected the face of file exchange.  No longer to you have to be a compete geek, understanding the finer points of ftp, emule, irc, newsgroups, or one of a host of group filesharing programs.  BT is point and click.  Anime files, running between 100 and 200Mb seem to be an ideal size for BT, taking thirty minutes to six hours to aquire. Also, the inital demand is very great, tapering off in as little as five days.

The fansub community is further shaped by the grey legality of it's existance.  some BT sites stick very close to the credo of "if it has been licenced, it will not appear here" others not so much so.  BT trackers come and go.  gone in the night.  re-appearing briefly and then disappearing.  

With IRC, the servers themselves become targets.  In most cases fansub groups dwell in different channels of the same server.  The current home of the main groups is irc.rizon.net, formerly known as a haven for warez.  The comminity moved there after irc.mircx.com went down in a flurry ddos attacks.  Same reason the neucleous moved from irc.aniverse.com.  While groups operating in the full light of day might have complained to someone about it, the fansub groups search out new digs.  

huh.  this is kinda starting to feel like a paper.  if only I had something I wanted to write about in college....Guess I'll stop now.]]></description>
            <author>suzuri</author>
            <pubDate>Sun, 11 Jul 2004 16:50:16 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>moooov-viiiiing!</title>
            <link>http://convolutedwoolymuffins.com//tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&amp;comments_parentId=0</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Well.  lease is up at the end of April, and I am apartment hunting.

things are going, but they aren't really going forward.  I'll figure somethign out.  worst comes to worst, I'll pay a lot of money to someone, or live farther out than I care to.  we'll see what we see.

When I know more, i'll let folks know.]]></description>
            <author>suzuri</author>
            <pubDate>Wed, 07 Apr 2004 14:32:20 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>balatro?  what's that?</title>
            <link>http://convolutedwoolymuffins.com//tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&amp;comments_parentId=0</link>
            <description><![CDATA[So, as I was wandering about my friends' pages, doing the rounds, keeping up to date, I come across a link I had not seen before.  and it was to a site, balatro, by name.  and I knew not what it was about, nor how it had come to be or who was resposible.  

So I have decided to ask.

Who?  What?  www.balatro.com  When?  Why?  php nuke(?)
]]></description>
            <author>suzuri</author>
            <pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2004 02:21:34 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Everyone else is talkin' about it...</title>
            <link>http://convolutedwoolymuffins.com//tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=3&amp;comments_parentId=0</link>
            <description><![CDATA[So, everyone else is talking and speculating and rehashing this topic, I though I might hit on it.

Saddam Hussein....  captured..... soon to undergo some sill trial somewhere and then "pay" for his crimes....

How, exactly do you pay for killing and torturing 400,000 people?  

Personally, I think he should have to write apology letters to everyone.  And GW Bush too.  I want a written apology from both of them for perpetuating stupidness and doing all those bad things everyone says they did.  

What do you guys think?]]></description>
            <author>Martha &lt;&amp;#109;&amp;#97;&amp;#114;&amp;#116;&amp;#104;&amp;#97;&amp;#64;&amp;#99;&amp;#111;&amp;#110;&amp;#118;&amp;#111;&amp;#108;&amp;#117;&amp;#116;&amp;#101;&amp;#100;&amp;#119;&amp;#111;&amp;#111;&amp;#108;&amp;#121;&amp;#109;&amp;#117;&amp;#102;&amp;#102;&amp;#105;&amp;#110;&amp;#115;&amp;#46;&amp;#99;&amp;#111;&amp;#109;&gt;</author>
            <pubDate>Sat, 20 Dec 2003 01:16:44 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Second Life</title>
            <link>http://convolutedwoolymuffins.com//tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=5&amp;comments_parentId=0</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Linden Labs, a small company in San Francisco brings us a MMPOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Game) called Second Life.

Describing this game is difficult, there's no common goals, no storyline and no overall theme.  I could say that its a glorified chat engine, but that doesn't do it justice.  I could call it an open 3-D MUD where everyone can make their own rooms, but its more than that.  

The best I can do is describe what you can do in the game.  You design your avatar to every frightening detail.  You can build objects, like houses, clothing, poodles pretty much anything you can imagine.  You can shop and buy things others have built.  You can script.  The scripting engine is pretty good and you can do many many things in the C style code.  You can explore the world and watch the ever changing landscapes as people move in build and maybe move on to other places.  And the of coarse you can socialize.  Chatting is one of the main focuses of the system.    But you can make people laugh by attaching a house to your avatars head or whipping a car from your pocket and go tooling around the world.

Second Life hase been out now for 6-7 months.  The reason I'm bringing it up now is because they are making some pretty enormous changes soon.  One of them, being the reason I'm writing, is that for users who just want to explore and socialize, there is a $10 one-time flat fee.  That's right, total cost will be $10 from your pocket.   Of course if you want to be cool and own land in-game and make cool persistant things, it'll cost you $10 a month which ain't too bad.

All of this will be coming live by the New Year, so try it out, there's a 7-day free trial if you can't hack the $10, ya cheap wad...  You can stop on my my mad evil tower of doom and we can kick it to my In-world neighbor's collection of music!  Word.

The End.]]></description>
            <author>Martha &lt;&amp;#109;&amp;#97;&amp;#114;&amp;#116;&amp;#104;&amp;#97;&amp;#64;&amp;#99;&amp;#111;&amp;#110;&amp;#118;&amp;#111;&amp;#108;&amp;#117;&amp;#116;&amp;#101;&amp;#100;&amp;#119;&amp;#111;&amp;#111;&amp;#108;&amp;#121;&amp;#109;&amp;#117;&amp;#102;&amp;#102;&amp;#105;&amp;#110;&amp;#115;&amp;#46;&amp;#99;&amp;#111;&amp;#109;&gt;</author>
            <pubDate>Sat, 20 Dec 2003 01:11:33 +0100</pubDate>
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