You know what? Fuck whatever anyone has to say against it. New Vegas was the greatest Fallout game of all time. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
Anyway, there was a song in the game that - despite my disdain for 99% of all country music - I can never seem to get out of my head. To that end, here are the lyrics to Lone Star.
I can see that lone star from a thousand miles away,
Calling me back home though I’ve ventured far astray.
When I see that beacon shining for me all alone,
It calls me back to Texas and to home.
Lone star shine down on my home town -
Fill my memory light my way!
Cattle in the old corral, the open range all ’round -
Sunlight and the smell of new mown hay.
I remember though I’ve wandered and much happiness I’ve found,
Still I wish that I could be back there today!
I know my home is waiting for me by the river shore,
I know that all the ones I love will welcome me once more.
In dreams I see them now though it seems I’m bound to roam,
My thoughts are still of Texas and of home.
Cattle in the old corral, the open range all ’round -
Sunlight and the smell of new mown hay.
I remember though I’ve wandered and much happiness I’ve found -
Still I wish that I could be back there today!
I know my home is waiting for me by the river shore,
I know that all the ones I love will welcome me once more.
In dreams I see them now though it seems I’m bound to roam,
My thoughts are still of Texas and of home.
15 March, 2012
10 March, 2012
The Rome Rant
This past weekend, with far too much free time on my hands and in desperate search of something fun to do with my out of town company for the weekend, I quested to the local mall and proceeded to demonstrate to my good friend a particularly entertaining store that was contained within.
This store was full of cosplaying things - steampunk coats and pirate dusters and replica robes and Jedi robes and the like; as well as accouteraea such as Star Trek flasks and sonic screwdrivers. It was while showing my friend this wonderful store and bragging about the fact that his lousy Citadel mall in Charleston had nothing like this that I saw it: a stunning replica of a galea that might be worn with segmentata iorica behind a display case full of replica Civil War firearms and knives. In layman's terms, it was a Roman army helmet.
Now, those that know me as my good friend Elisabeth know me can tell you that I have something of a minor... major... obsessive fascination with Rome, both Res Publica Romana and Imperium Romanum. Hell, I'm even interested in the Basileia Rhomaion - that is, the Byzantine continuation of the Roman Empire - of the East. To see such a replica there before me was quite a treat, even if I had no Earthly way to afford such a thing.
I inquired with the shopkeep about the thing, in my haste forgetting that not everyone is as familiar with Rome as am I and drew a strange look from her. "I've never heard anyone actually call this thing what it actually is." She said, revealing that she was a fan of Rome on HBO and, despite her attempts to get into it, found the newer Spartacus series to be somewhat lackluster.
It was while discussing this that I suddenly felt a deep and unabating sadness in my heart. Rome gets nowhere near the attention it deserves in schools anymore, it seems. In American textbooks, when I was a child, Rome would get a passing paragraph in World History. Sure, we got to read all about the influences of Rome on our legal system and our society years later in High School, and this may all be able to be chalked up to a grievous deficiency in Southern United States education, but all the same it seems wrong.
The history of Rome is, in essence, the story of how we got where we are. Further, it serves as an invaluable mirror through which we may examine ourselves. For example, we would do well to remember the courage of Titus Herminius Aquilinus in keeping his homeland safe, the Roman virtues of Seneca, and, most important, perhaps - and perhaps the reason we teach history in the first place - the mistakes of Rome; arrogance, complacency, avarice. These are lessons which are seemingly forgotten by the newest generation of movers and thinkers - of which I am a part - that is moving swiftly to fill the shoes left to us by our forefathers.
Furthermore, is it too much to ask for Latin to return to schools? I remember listening with envy when my parents would describe taking Latin in school - public school. It gave my father an excellent starting point from which to learn Spanish and my mother derived much of her knowledge of French from that grand old tongue. Further, it is used in medicine, law, astronomy, and so many more sciences. An understanding of Latin can be a gateway to so much more.
It was as I pondered these things, leaving the shop, that I gave a sigh. We could be so much more, I think, if we were more aware of our past. It's why I take it upon myself to pour over all the information about Rome that I can get my grubby mits on and why you should, too.
Is there a point to this? Can I properly end an article where all I do is rant and muse?
The answer, friends, to both of these questions... is no. Ta!
This post was originally written on the 28th of February for my dear friend Elisabeth's blog: Shenanigans and Excitement! It is reprinted here to distract from the lack of new, meaningful content.
This store was full of cosplaying things - steampunk coats and pirate dusters and replica robes and Jedi robes and the like; as well as accouteraea such as Star Trek flasks and sonic screwdrivers. It was while showing my friend this wonderful store and bragging about the fact that his lousy Citadel mall in Charleston had nothing like this that I saw it: a stunning replica of a galea that might be worn with segmentata iorica behind a display case full of replica Civil War firearms and knives. In layman's terms, it was a Roman army helmet.
Now, those that know me as my good friend Elisabeth know me can tell you that I have something of a minor... major... obsessive fascination with Rome, both Res Publica Romana and Imperium Romanum. Hell, I'm even interested in the Basileia Rhomaion - that is, the Byzantine continuation of the Roman Empire - of the East. To see such a replica there before me was quite a treat, even if I had no Earthly way to afford such a thing.
I inquired with the shopkeep about the thing, in my haste forgetting that not everyone is as familiar with Rome as am I and drew a strange look from her. "I've never heard anyone actually call this thing what it actually is." She said, revealing that she was a fan of Rome on HBO and, despite her attempts to get into it, found the newer Spartacus series to be somewhat lackluster.
It was while discussing this that I suddenly felt a deep and unabating sadness in my heart. Rome gets nowhere near the attention it deserves in schools anymore, it seems. In American textbooks, when I was a child, Rome would get a passing paragraph in World History. Sure, we got to read all about the influences of Rome on our legal system and our society years later in High School, and this may all be able to be chalked up to a grievous deficiency in Southern United States education, but all the same it seems wrong.
The history of Rome is, in essence, the story of how we got where we are. Further, it serves as an invaluable mirror through which we may examine ourselves. For example, we would do well to remember the courage of Titus Herminius Aquilinus in keeping his homeland safe, the Roman virtues of Seneca, and, most important, perhaps - and perhaps the reason we teach history in the first place - the mistakes of Rome; arrogance, complacency, avarice. These are lessons which are seemingly forgotten by the newest generation of movers and thinkers - of which I am a part - that is moving swiftly to fill the shoes left to us by our forefathers.
Furthermore, is it too much to ask for Latin to return to schools? I remember listening with envy when my parents would describe taking Latin in school - public school. It gave my father an excellent starting point from which to learn Spanish and my mother derived much of her knowledge of French from that grand old tongue. Further, it is used in medicine, law, astronomy, and so many more sciences. An understanding of Latin can be a gateway to so much more.
It was as I pondered these things, leaving the shop, that I gave a sigh. We could be so much more, I think, if we were more aware of our past. It's why I take it upon myself to pour over all the information about Rome that I can get my grubby mits on and why you should, too.
Is there a point to this? Can I properly end an article where all I do is rant and muse?
The answer, friends, to both of these questions... is no. Ta!
This post was originally written on the 28th of February for my dear friend Elisabeth's blog: Shenanigans and Excitement! It is reprinted here to distract from the lack of new, meaningful content.
07 March, 2012
My Thoughts on Kony Slacktivism.
All this "Kony" BS just highlights how fickle people are.-/b/
Was everyone blind to child soldiers before this?
No.
Will an awareness campaign to alert the public to an issue they knew full well about but did absolutely nothing to help, solve the issue?
No.
Everyone is so quick to jump on a bandwagon and show how much of a good human being they are because they wear a t-shirt or post a status on Facebook while doing nothing to get to the root of the problem or address the issue.
What is truly sad is that when people get bored of the issue they forget about it entirely and move on to another feel good cause the same way they move onto a new fashion trend. This month's child soldiers is next month's South American deforestation.
Stay classy 1st world.
This Kony2012 business is all well and good. I'm all for making tyrants and murderers pay for being tyrants and murderers. However, social media won't do anything towards arresting Kony. After all, if the people who've wanted him dead for all these years can't get him, what good will a little slacktivism do?
People mindlessly throwing their attention to whatever trendy fad cause someone shits out is far from productive. If you want to do a good turn for the world, you need to pick something, focus on it, and spend YEARS of HARD WORK on the subject. Just watching some over produced shitty video designed specifically to tug at your heart strings won't do shit. "But I'm spreading awareness!" You say? Horse shit.
Awareness doesn't do a damned thing beyond letting people think they're doing something when, in reality, they're just in a massive hipster circle jerk patting themselves on the back and pretending to be globally conscious.
Tell you what. You know who made your clothes? Your phone? Your computer? Child slaves in China and Indonesia. Where's the outcry about that? Are you going to change your profile picture? Want to post a video about it? Oh, make us aware. That will fix everything. Except it won't.
If you aren't willing to actually physically help things and want to pay it off to the next person down the line, essentially what slacktivism does, then you aren't helping. Besides that, there's literally nothing we can do. All awareness is going to do is make yet another thing for hipsters who pretend to give two shits about the world something to talk about for a week as they drink their non fair trade coffee, in their child labor produced name brand clothes as they type on their overpriced, slave produced electronics.
We're all part of the problem and unless you're completely willing to give up living in the first world there is literally nothing you can do about it.
Food for thought, readers. Food for thought. /rant
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