Or: "An open letter to System Wars"

Author's note: I'm going to be picking up GTA IV bright and early Tuesday. So please, no "you're just bitter that you can't play GTA IV" comments. I can and will be doing so.

Normally I keep myself far away from the console wars side of thing because I really don't care about anything other than being able to play games I enjoy. But I've noticed enough silliness in System Wars in the wake of Grand Theft Auto IV getting a perfect 10 that I feel it prudent to say a few words on the matter. Specifically, I'd like to comment on such pleasant statements like "sheep am cry" or any other number of (sharper) jabs people feel the need to level at those who don't own either a 360 or a PS3. So, let's begin.

Ever since the Nintendo-Sega rivalry from way back when, there has always been conflict between people in each camp of gamers. But that doesn't make the current day stuff any less inane or silly, and I can't help but feel that it's getting worse. I'm getting the sense that there's a disturbingly large number of gamers who honestly view video gaming not as a hobby, but as a popularity contest. 360 and PS3 fans alike in System Wars have been positively giddy in the wake of this perfect 10, and that's justified, because this is certainly a monumental achievement. But they're not giddy because they're looking forward to playing a masterpiece of a game that they will thoroughly enjoy. No, they're giddy because this perfect 10 of a game is not available for purchase on the Wii. And that's crucially important to them. Because now they get to laugh and laugh at those dumb, silly people who own Wiis and how stupid their console of choice was! Ha ha! You sorry saps, you enjoy things that I don't! You should be ashamed of yourselves! And now due to your folly, you'll never, ever get to play this perfect 10 game!

Now, let's take a little detour for a short little history lesson and travel back in time to the '80s and '90s. Video games existed during this time, but it was never anything big as it is today. It was, to be blunt, a pastime for geeks, more or less. (I'm allowed to say that because I was one of those geeks.) So as one who got picked on by bullies in elementary school, the trend of video gaming towards a popularity contest is a little concerning to me. Why? Simple: far from being united in our fear of bullies, many gamers today seem to be turning into these bullies. Every time you find yourself unable to resist laughing at someone because you get to play a game and they don't and that's too bad for them (ha ha, suckers!), you are turning into the bullies that gamers were once united against.

Honestly - and you know who you are - do you people even listen to yourselves? You guys sound as if GTA IV is a secret handshake that lets you into a super-exclusive club that all of the cool kids go to and those Wii saps just aren't cool enough to be invited to your awesome tree fort. Unfortunately, I've got some bad news for you: you're not valedictorian football stars. You're playing a video game. Or rather, you're talking about playing a video game on the internet. I don't have a Cool-Kid-O-Meter on hand, but I'm fairly sure that registers even lower than the actual act of playing the video game in question.

Now, I don't like swearing much. But in this case, I'll make an exception. I'm going to utter the vilest, most foul four-letter word you've ever heard of. The F-word. Right here. In this blog. Are you ready for this? Here it comes...

Fun.

"But Gabu," you might protest, "that word only has three letters in it!"

Well, yes. But who's counting? For how taboo the word seems to be, it might as well be a four-letter word. Apparently we've all forgotten why we play video games. I'll give you a hint: it's not so we can go on the internet and gloat to everyone who can't play this awesome game that's totally rad and tubular and all that gnarly slang. It's a close-kept secret known only to those in the elite gaming cabals, but I'll let the cat out of the bag just for you. We - that's you, I, and everyone else - play video games to derive enjoyment from them. You know... fun (oh, there's that nasty word again!). Or at least we're supposed to. I think some haven't received the memo yet.

"Now Gabu," you're probably saying, "this sort of thing has gone on since the beginning of time!"

Of course it has. I know that. But that doesn't make it any less goofy when it happens. So I feel compelled to speak out about it nonetheless.

The bottom line is this: Your system of choice has gotten an awesome game for it that's coming out soon. Great. So stop talking about it and go play it! Sheesh. Do you expect those who either aren't playing or can't play the game to commit mass suicide when you laugh heartily at their game-less status? And if they did so, would your life somehow be improved?

...On second thought, don't answer that.

Two days ago, when I went outside I had to strip down to a t-shirt because it was so warm out.

Today I woke up and was greeted with this:

I think a lolcat entry can sum up what I'm feeling best:

See what I did there? I'm so clever!

As those of you know who have read my blog for a while, I don't normally post about most games I play. However, I do like to go to bat for the underdog when I find underappreciated gems that I really think ought to see wider exposure than they're likely to receive. So I'd like to continue that tradition with this one that I picked up recently:

In brief, you play as Amaterasu, a sun god who takes on the form of a white wolf (as seen on the cover). An ancient sealed evil has been released by an unknowing individual, and it's up to you to save the day and restore color and beauty to the world once again.

If you own a Wii and enjoy adventure games like Zelda, I can tell you right now that you owe it to yourself to go out right this instant and get this game. Not only is this game absolutely beautiful in the way it tries to make the game look like a painting, its gameplay styIe is very reminiscent of Zelda games (in a good way), and it's just downright fun and awesome. It also makes really good use of the Wiimote as an extension of an in-game paintbrush, which you can use to paint on the screen in order to interact with your environment (e.g., drawing a quick straight line to chop trees down). If you liked any of the Zeldas, you'll love this game. Heck, even if you don't like Zelda, you might like this game.

So go buy it!

Pretty please?

Okay, I can't take it anymore. No more Master Chief. I'm a chocobo again.

For those who had the wondrous fortune of not having seen my April Fools' Day blog, you can just view the previous blog entry while visualizing this as the appearance of my blog. You'll get roughly the same effect.

And yes, the banner was purposefully made to look bad. I checked the correct banner dimensions solely to ensure that I'd get it wrong, and I then made the JPEG image as horrifically compressed as possible to make it look as amateurish as I could. I think it came out pretty well.

i just got unsuspened (THANKS A LOT MODS) and it wuz for sumthin sooooo stupid i just sed that a guy is stupid and he should kill himself but THAT WAS TRUE so i mean wtf y did i get suspened 4 that i think mods r just out for a power trip or somethin

but wutever now im back! yay! so heres a recap of my day

lol ok so to start i had the WORST morning evar it was sooooo stupid my mom was all like "LUCAS GET OUT OF BED" and im like "ill get out of bed when i feel like it" but she kept nagging and nagging and school is so dumb but eventually im just like fine and i was l8 for school but like really who cares? school is just for nazi teachers to yell at us and crap lol, u dont learn nothin

so i get to class and mrs smith (THE WORST MATH TEACHER EVER) was all like "lucas solve this problem" and it was all this weird crap with like the letter a and plus signs and stuff and i dont know what all that is so im just like "solve it urself, your the teacher" and she gets all huffy and stuff and is all like "go to the office rawrrrrrrrr" and im just like wutever so i got suspened from school, that makes 2 suspensions now lol wtf everyones so dumb and uptite

i mean lets see isnt this a free countrey nemore!?!?!??!?!?

so i get hoem and my moms all like "wut r u doin bak earley" and im like "i got suspended" and she just throws a fit and crap but im like wutever so i just go up to my room and turn on my 360 to play some halo 3

it was pretty sweet i had a good game and stuff me n my budz were all pwning some stupid n00bs and they're all like "WTF YOUR USING HAX" and im like "lol ya wut r u gonna do about it" cuz me n my guys always turn on uber skills liek infinte ammo but i dont no y ppl always gotta be so whiny about it i mean seriously its not like ammo wasnt already in the game lol

but then my mom came in and was like "RAWR U GOT SUSPENED U CANT PLAY HALO" and i was just like OMG leave me alone!!1 but she turned it off so i threw my controller at her but then she grounded me, i mean wtf who gave her the ability to boss me around? i never said "yes okay i can get a stupid woman and lord over me and run my life" did i? no i didnt lol

so now im posting to gamespot lol

so ya thats my day, it sucked pretty hard lol o well mebbe owning sum n00bs on system warz will help, their al so dum y cant ever1 see that the wii is for sissies?? xbox 4 life

k peace

Author's note: I can't believe I'm even attempting this one. I considered not even writing this entry. However, it's an interesting enough topic that I figured I'd give it my best go and let the chips fall where they may.

There are many questions within the universe that pose unsolved mysteries to mankind. But there is also one other question that poses another unsolved mystery. I'm referring, of course, to the universe itself. It's not something that most think about, but it's nonetheless a valid question: why does the universe exist? Where did it come from? Or has it simply always been here? There is perhaps no larger question relating to existence than that pertaining to existence itself. Thus, I figured it would make a worthwhile entry to my series of academic blogs to discuss this question.

I'll begin on an inflammatory note to get this point out of the way and off the table right off the bat: the universe is not six thousand years old. Or, it would be more precise to say that there is no evidence that the universe is six thousand years old. And, conversely, the evidence that it is older than that is staggering both in its apparent conclusivity and in its breadth. For example, potassium-argon dating has successfully determined the age of many rocks to be well into the millions of years of age.[1] We can also see stars whose distance has been accurately measured[2] to be millions of light years away, and for us to be able to see these stars, it must be the case that the universe is at least millions of years old, or else the light from these stars would not have reached us.

This list could be longer, but there's little need. If you wish to believe that the universe is only six thousand years old, that is your prerogative, but if that is the case, you should stop reading now, as the rest of the article assumes the contrary, and argues the notion of the Big Bang to be an accurate depiction of the origin of the universe.

Now, a good starter question to ask might be with regards to why I take the Big Bang to be accurate. There are, in fact, many pieces of evidence in favor of it. The most obvious is the expansion of the universe. Scientists have observed concrete evidence that galaxies within the universe are, in fact, moving apart from each other.[3] One of Newton's laws of motion stipulates that objects that were once at rest don't begin moving unless a force acts upon them. Thus, one can reasonably conclude that a force must have pushed these galaxies apart.

In addition to this, another bit of evidence comes in the form of what is known as "cosmic microwave background radiation". This is a really big term for a fairly simple concept. In essence, the Big Bang idea would imply that the universe was much, much hotter shortly after the "bang" than it is today. Thus, there ought to be evidence that the universe was hotter in the past. And this evidence has indeed been found[4], giving further strong evidence in favor of the Big Bang.

So, if there was the Big Bang several billion years ago, this raises further questions, one of the biggest being, "What caused the Big Bang?" Here, there is a temptation for some to say, "Well, God created it." But let's not go there yet, as there are many other more natural options to consider. One suggestion that has been raised in the past is that this universe is simply one of an infinite number that have come before it. This suggestion relies on the idea that, eventually, the expansion of the universe will slow down, stop, and then the universe will come back and collapse in on itself. And for a long time, there was not much in the way of evidence against this suggestion.

Today, however, there is indeed evidence against it. That evidence is simple: scientists have determined that the universe's expansion is not slowing down.[5] What they found was that the expansion was, in fact, accelerating. This would strongly suggest that the universe will not collapse in on itself, and will instead merely continue to expand until everything is infinitely far away from everything else. Why exactly this is occurring is not yet known, leaving scientists to currently ascribe it to some mysterious "dark energy".[6] However, the reality of this situation is nonetheless well-established by now.

So where does that leave us? Simple: it provides extremely strong evidence against the idea that the universe will collapse in on itself and against the idea that there will be another Big Bang in the future once our universe ends. And if there is no infinite cycle such as this, that leaves only one other option: our universe must have existed for only a finite amount of time, which would imply that something very likely created it (unless one can show how something can create itself). So something created our universe. What, then, was this "something"?

Unfortunately, on this note, we have now reached the boundary of modern science. Any scientist worth his salt who is asked for a factual response to that question will answer with a simple "I don't know". I'm sorry to report that science quite simply cannot touch on this topic, as there is currently no evidence whatsoever for or against any theories regarding the origins of our universe. So after all this, have I done nothing but merely talk myself into a corner?

Not really. This is simply where you, the readers, take over. One of the most enjoyable parts of the universe, in my view, is precisely the existence of the unknown and the possibilities which it provides. If there were no unknowns to contend with, it could very well be the case that humans might not even have invented such things as fiction writing or art, having no need to explore possibilities (or even technical impossibilities). Nor would humans have any sense of journey, discovery, or enlightenment. We ought to rejoice, not be disappointed, by the fact that there are unknowns in the universe, as that provides us purpose and direction in life.

I myself cannot resolve this question without bringing in the concept of God, by which I mean some being that created the universe. What you have read above is essentially an outline of the precise reason, in a nutshell, for my belief in God. But this is not necessarily the end that you will reach through your exploration of ideas. And should you arrive at a different conclusion, your conclusion is no more or less possible than mine until scientists unearth further information regarding the universe we live in.

I wish you luck in your journey.

---------------

Sources:

1. http://id-archserve.ucsb.edu/Anth3/Courseware/Chronology/09_Potassium_Argon_Dating.html

2. http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/distance.htm

3. http://www2.glos.ac.uk/gdn/origins/earth/ch1_1.htm

4. http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2000/pr-27-00.html

5. http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010625/story.html

6. http://www.discovermagazine.com/2007/apr/the-birth-of-dark-energy