Life or Something Approximating It

The past week was busy by my standards and this week looks to begin that way. Saturday and Sunday combined to make for a marathon run of events, so I am not feeling terribly good today. Two D&D sessions in a row contributed mightily to that, but at least we had one TPW (Total Party Wipeout). I did try to get the party killed in the first session, but the level five party managed to survive a mummy lord thanks to me and defeat a young adult green dragon that I attacked. He did have it coming after torturing my character, I must say.

I was rather surprised to be given the Diablo III Book of Cain hardcover by my friends hosting the second session. While I cannot yet afford the game, I always enjoyed the lore and storyline contained in the series which this book covers. It looks like it will be a fun read.

The Dark Knight Rises Theater Review

Despite the horrific events in the early morning, I decided to go see the movie to spite the shooter’s desire to instill fear in people. I also did it so I could be a proxy for the people who waited with such fervent desire to see the film, but were permanently denied the chance to. So I dedicate this review to the victims in Aurora.

Super hero film series have a bad tendency to go south in the third installment for some strange reason. Batman Forever, Spider-Man 3, and X-3 all were terrible disappointments. So the question of whether Christopher Nolan could deliver was very valid to ask.

The good news is he delivered a worthy conclusion to the trilogy that is at once familiar, yet very different than the previous movies. Duality has been a theme throughout, so that is fitting. The Dark Knight Rises is a more emotion driven piece that explores how people handle things in a worst case scenario. While neither Batman Begins or The Dark Knight were cheerful, this is a story about losing hope and trying to find it again in an utterly grim setting.

14 Dead and 50 Wounded at The Dark Knight Rises Premiere

Having trouble sleeping thanks to a mouse running around (since dispatched), I got online to find out that a midnight showing in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, Colorado was attacked by a gunman wearing body armor and a gas mask. Just watched an interview here with a survivor who had friends in the specific theater and it sounds like the shooter used an AR-15 and at least one tear gas grenade. Also, the killer waited in the parking lot for the police to arrive and is in custody.

Speculation is rampant, but there is no given reason for the shooting yet. It could be terrorism, but it probably is a nutcase again. Since the theme of the movie is terrorism, it no surprise that people are thinking that. One thing is for sure, he wanted to be caught and get attention.

Hearsay is that a baby was shot and children are among the victims, including a little girl seen with bullet holes in her back.

It is horrific and sure to generate a lot of political blame all over the place, but I wish people would just leave that alone until we get the motives of the shooter.

Another local talked on camera that the theater was not considered one of the safest in the area and usually had three police officers in the lobby. With so many people dressing in costumes for the movie, how would anyone tell the threat was real at first?

It is the typical confusion and it will be awhile before a true picture emerges.

The irony of the movie being about a society disintegrating into violence and terrorism is profound, not to mention depressing. My fear is that we will see a lot more of this kind of thing once the economy collapses completely.

My prayers go out to the victims, their families, and their friends.

UPDATE

Things are still murky, but at least the death toll has been reduced to twelve. The baby has been verified as being three months old and being treated at a hospital and so is a six year old girl.

People commenting online are angering me greatly from both the left and the right. It may be my lack of sleep, but I wish I could slap them silly. Attempts to make it a racial or religious issue irks me no end. The area is mixed and so was the audience.

Name of suspect is James Holmes, 24, with only a traffic ticket for a record in Aurora.

UPDATE

The baby was uninjured, the parents were concerned and wanted the child checked out. Tear gas is confirmed and that was smart of them to do.

Supposedly the gunman entered the theater by kicking down an exit door by the screen during an on screen gun fight.

Mitt Romney is being dinged by idiots for saying 15 killed, for awhile the live coverage said that an additional person had died at a hospital raising it to that number. I know that because I was watching it and that tells me Mr. Romney was too. Non issue folks.

Likewise, the proximity of a large Muslim community to Aurora has nothing to do with what happened. It is like people want this to be worse than it already is so they can grind axes. Sigh.

UPDATE

Imagine surviving a crazed gunman on the rampage only to be killed by another six weeks later. This may turn out to be one of the most tragic stories out of the shootings. It is made even more poignant by her last tweet waiting for the movie to start.

Meanwhile, the media has decided to try to pin the killings on Rush Limbaugh and the Tea Party movement both. And they wonder why they only have a 26% approval rating with the American public.

Then there is one of Howard Stern's pranksters calling in and posing as cop with a local TV station. What slime.

After those last two items, I do not feel very motivated to keep up with the news.

Health 7-18-2012

Not the best day, but far from the worst of late. Either allergies have kicked into overdrive or I have gotten a cold. Given how bleary I am, it is probably the latter. Despite the sniffles, I did go out to eat with my father.

Now that the antibiotics are done, I am free to wander in sunlight again. The past two days I have hiked up to the mailbox in high heat without too much trouble, though today took a small eternity.

One lingering side effect from the bout with Lyme Disease has been bad headaches accompanied by swelling along the fissure lines of the skull. While this happens with very bad cycles of CFS for me, it is different in that it never completely subsides. I am hoping this fades in time, since it is making listening to music, watching movies, and playing video games painful.

Maybe things will be better tomorrow.

I am Now Officially a Weird Uncle

My sister gave birth to a healthy baby girl with an impressive set of lungs, I must note. So after years of aspiring to be an eccentric uncle, it is time to settle for being a weird one since I don’t have enough money to be eccentric.

Congratulations to my sister and her husband, may they one day get normal sleep again.

This, That, and the Other Thing

Things have been what I would classify as eventful since the weekend. Though in at least one case, more like eventful stalled – but more on that later. This is going to be a long post since I want to record the happenings for posterity. Hopefully it will not be too boring for other to read!

It all started with the celebration of a five year old’s birthday party. One of the families I home teach (explained here) is a young family with small children. The oldest one is a boy who has taken a shine to me for some inexplicable reason and is something of a problem child. Being very big and strong for his age, he is also very willful. He is also a miracle baby who should not exist according to doctors, for his mother was not supposed to be able to have children.

I have a code I live by that goes something like this: If a person who is not a moocher or leech attaches themselves to me, I feel an obligation to be as good a friend I can be to them. Now this is not a reluctant, foot dragging kind of “I have to do this” kind of feeling. Rather it is a sign to me that I need to make an effort and that the likelihood that God set this up is high.

So in this case, I have a little kid doing it and that is a first for me. It is also terrifying for a hopeless bachelor such as myself. While I am told I am good with children, my lack of experience with them makes it a very scary experience indeed. Maybe one day I will get past that, but not today.

Link Referral Spam from aptratings

One of the banes of blogging is link referral spam that is only visible to the website’s administrator, or in this case, the owner of the blog. Much of it comes from Russia and I note the rare occasions when a legitimate search from there lands on my blog. 99% of hits on the blog from Russia are from spammers.

The latest to come out of there is falsified links from aptratings . com, which poses as apartmentratings.com which is a real site of questionable reliability, but no spammer. They do this by having a banner link to the real site on top, but the content is a come on to make money by clicking on links or pushing links on social media sites. I suspect the fake site content changes from time to time, but do not want to waste time finding out.

The only ones making money off this are the people running that site in Russia, so do not fall for it. I have seen novice bloggers online getting excited to get linked to without realizing what it is really about. Sorry to burst your bubbles, but they randomly scour blogger looking for people to sucker in.

Then there are the post spammers, which is why you need to enable reviewing post before they are put up. One got by me this week when I missed with the mouse cursor and had to go delete it. Forget idle hands, shaky hands are really the devil’s plaything.

You will not get a virus from clicking on the referral spam, but you most likely will get more of it showing up in your stats in the control panel.