Older than the Internet

Please add the following catch phrases to the cultural lexicon:

“He/she’s older than the Internet”

“Never trust anyone older than the Internet”

With that, lets all wish the Internet a happy birthd

Armstrong the Explorer

Neil Armstrong Caps Classic Earth v. 1969

Who said achievements were meaningless?

And for those of us there, we all got a “Species First” achievement of witnessing the first time a human being set foot on an extraterrestrial object– our first steps as a species on some place not our home.  Hard to believe its been 40 years since my Mom dragged me as a wee four year old into watch the moon landing live on television (our old exceedingly crappy black and white)– one of my earliest memories.  I can only imagine that kids alive in the 1500s or during the great age of polar exploration could have been as captivated by tales of the derring do of the explorers.  Their exploits provide the spark to fuel the ambition of a generation or more.

After Apollo 11’s moon landing, having gone to the moon and done the other thing (not because they were easy, but because they were hard…), NASA nerfed moon exploration and introduce the raid grind with the New not-so-Galactic Exploration patch that  brought us Skylab and the Shuttle Missions.

Instead of continuing exploration of the old world “endgame content”….

Old Lunar Endgame Instances

…we were treated to the raid grind of Skylab and the Shuttle missions giving us such firsts as:

• First Latin America Get Away Special canister to fly aboard a Space Shuttle.  STS 108
• First occurrence of combustion product penetration into the J-joint of redesigned solid rocket motor (RSRM). STS 78
• First plants to complete a life cycle in space – a crop of wheat grown from seed to seed. STS 81
• First landing with new synthetic tread tires. STS 50 and
• First use of drag chute during landing; deployed after nose gear touchdown for data collection only. STS 49.

With all due respect to all invovled in the Shuttle program and a nod to the many, yes, lets admit it, boring but necessary and useful achievements (cough, Hubble fix, cough), lets face it, its not even as exciting as Ice Road Truckers.  Likewise with all due respect to the Shuttle crew members lost in the Challenger and Columbia disasters (and their families and loved ones)– both bona fide “where where you then” moments– don’t get me started with the attunement raid grind for the International Space Station which apparently requires no less than 3 international space agencies to participate and has a seven year reset timer.

We stand to lose the knowledge and wisdom of these first generation of extra earthly space explorers (Armstrong is now 78).  For those with the inclination, I highly recommend the Discovery Channel miniseries, When We Left Earth, likely the last documentary to include first person accounts of this extraordinary period of human exploration.

Fundamentally, I think Armstrong had it right.  He capped in 1969 and rather than pursue so called “endgame” content doing laps around the planet, he parked himself, remained largely out of the public eye and slowly faded into the icon of our last greatest boldest achievement.  Yin to Armstrong’s Yang, Buzz Aldrin has cultivated a more public profile as a zealous advocate for human space exploration.

With the more time that passes since those halcyon days in the early 1970’s, I gain even more appreciation of the extraordinary boldness, courage and achievements of all off those involved in the moon exploration effort.  Was a time when the saying “If we can land a man on the moon, we can certainly accomplish X…” was a good natured challenge for our society to match the best efforts of those in the vanguard and to achieve something truly human in scale.  As I scan the phrase with my eyes, I can’t pull them off the first clause– “if we can land a man on the moon…”  Frankly, I don’t know if that’s true anymore.

When I was young and naive and a life was full of possibilities, landing a man on the moon was no longer a goal, it was a fait accompli, a measure of our both our achievement and a testament to the possibilities open to us should we bend our efforts collectively toward the common good.  On July 20, 1969, for a brief moment in time we were all merely human and the universe stood before us through the opened door of space exploration.  Forty years hence, the audaciousness of such goals seem almost as inconceivable as they might be inachievable again in our lifetime.

Hopefully, the next expansion will rekindle the flame of exploration that is fading as Apollo receeds into the past.

Research Redux

Ravious at KTR has some thoughts on the MMORPG “research” that Tobold linked the other day.  I’m convinced that any monkey with a copy of the DSM-IV could do a search are replace and come up with a fundable research plan.  Lets all play!

WORK: The following statements concern how important WORK is for you.

• WORK has created real problems for me, but I keep working.
• Sometimes I only plan to WORK for a few minutes and wind up spending hours on it.
• WORK takes up almost all of my leisure time.
• I would be a lot more productive if I didn’t WORK so much.
• My family and friends get angry and tell me that I WORK too much, but I can’t stop.
• I often WORK for a longer time than I intended.
• I spend much more time WORKING than just about anything else.
• I would spend more time with hobbies if I didn’t WORK so much.
• Sometimes I feel like my whole life revolves around WORK.
• I often think that I should cut down on the amount of WORK that I do.
• When I can’t WORK I get restless or irritable.

WEARING FUNNY HATS: The following statements concern how important wearing funny hats is for you.

• WEARING FUNNY HATS has created real problems for me, but I keep WEARING FUNNY HATS.
• Sometimes I only plan to WEAR FUNNY HATS for a few minutes and wind up spending hours on it.
• WEARING FUNNY HATS takes up almost all of my leisure time.
• I would be a lot more productive if I didn’t WEAR FUNNY HATS so much.
• My family and friends get angry and tell me that I WEAR FUNNY HATS too much, but I can’t stop.
• I often WEAR FUNNY HATS for a longer time than I intended.
• I spend much more time WEARING FUNNY HATS than just about anything else.
• I would spend more time with hobbies if I didn’t WEAR FUNNY HATS so much.
• Sometimes I feel like my whole life revolves around WEARING FUNNY HATS.
• I often think that I should cut down on the amount of WEARING FUNNY HATS that I do.
• When I can’t WEAR FUNNY HATS I get restless or irritable.

ENJOYING LIFE: The following statements concern how important enjoying life is for you.

• ENJOYING LIFE has created real problems for me, but I keep ENJOYING LIFE.
• Sometimes I only plan to ENJOY LIFE for a few minutes and wind up spending hours on it.
• ENJOYING LIFE takes up almost all of my leisure time.
• I would be a lot more productive if I didn’t ENJOY LIFE so much.
• My family and friends get angry and tell me that ENJOY LIFE too much, but I can’t stop.
• I often ENJOY LIFE for a longer time than I intended.
• I spend much more time ENJOYING LIFE than just about anything else.
• I would spend more time with hobbies if I didn’t ENJOY LIFE so much.
• Sometimes I feel like my whole life revolves around ENJOYING LIFE.
• I often think that I should cut down on the amount of ENJOYING LIFE that I do.
• When I can’t ENJOY LIFE I get restless or irritable.

And one more:

SUFFERING NEEDLESSLY: The following statements concern how important suffering needlessly is for you.

• SUFFERING NEEDLESSLY has created real problems for me, but I keep SUFFERING NEEDLESSLY.
• Sometimes I only plan to SUFFER NEEDLESSLY for a few minutes and wind up spending hours on it.
• SUFFERING NEEDLESSLY takes up almost all of my leisure time.
• I would be a lot more productive if I didn’t SUFFER NEEDLESSLY so much.
• My family and friends get angry and tell me that I SUFFER NEEDLESSLY too much, but I can’t stop.
• I often SUFFER NEEDLESSLY for a longer time than I intended.
• I spend much more time SUFFERING NEEDLESSLY than just about anything else.
• I would spend more time with hobbies if I didn’t SUFFER NEEDLESSLY so much.
• Sometimes I feel like my whole life revolves around SUFFERING NEEDLESSLY.
• I often think that I should cut down on the amount of SUFFERING NEEDLESSLY that I do.
• When I can’t SUFFER NEEDLESSLY I get restless or irritable.

Um, Ok.

I’m feeling just a bit um, uncomfortable about this.

Discuss. Or not.

If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say…

Boy oh boy do the summer doldrums continue.  Unbearably hot weather and the all consuming fires of hell devouring our fair state of California puts the kaibosh on most fun outdoor activities.  Almost a recipe for an extensive gaming jag– not unlike those short day, long stormy nights of winter that almost force you to game to excess.

Sad to say, I haven’t had that itch much.  More acccurately, I’ve had the itch, just found nothing much to scratch it of late.  When I start digging through the old game box, you know its bad.

I got into the beta of Wizard101 which many have mentioned of late.  I’ve explored a bit, but am loath to say more without having explored more.  Suffice it to say the turn based card combat is interesting and a new twist.

To show you how bad it is, Mrs. P and I picked up a couple of shooters for the CONSOLE and we are anything but console players.  We do enjoy a good run around and shoot em up from time to time, but its like eating popcorn– great as a snack, but unless you’re still in college, hardly a meal.

Summer vacation schedules has kept the WoW group on informal status of late.  With our self imposed level cap removed, the horses, now unleashed, largely remain at the gate.  I’ve mentioned it before, but doing anything outside of an instance in WoW as a group is almost shooting yourself in the foot, groin and then head.  Diligent progress can be made as a group, but it pales in comparison to any focused solo effort.

As I managed to ding 69 and get a good way into the level, I did start to get that horse-to-stable itch.  One. More. Level.  20 chiclets… Its pretty tempting and watching the bar slowly progress from left to right on its (for now) last march has got me in that “lets just get it over” mood though I’ll see if it lasts.

Oh, I guess I should say something about Warhammer and the recent hoo dee doo.  I told you so.  Actually I didn’t, but lacking sufficient insight as to whether the sky has fallen with the announcement that 4 classes are getting cut and 4 out of 6 capital cities wont be in at launch, all I can really comment on is the fact that EA Mythic-no-just-call-me-Mythic has even less cred now.  Assuming launch is actually coming, seems like a crappy interview is probably the last place to Make a Major Announcement.  But then again, they’ve been blathering incessant jibberish for three hype-filled years, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when they developers run out of unobtainium to finish all the features marketing sold to the public over the last few years.  Of course how could the hype about the hype ever live up to the reality about the hype?

Another week or two like this and I think it might be about time to reload Age of Kings.