Fireballs

Well, it looks like the Revolution has received a new name. I've already forgotten what the other supposed one was, but it wasn't as cool as 'Revolution'. Alas, neither is this one. It seems rather official, though. Oh, now I remember. Go. Go was the other name. Well, that one turned out to be quite fake. This one, on the other hand, might be a little more real. I'm keeping my doubts, though.

Wii.

Pronounced 'we'. That's supposed to be the new title of the console. Whether this is true or not is still unknown, but okay. Wii. Wii. WIIIIIIIIII. It's odd.

Well, I totally bombed a philosophy test this morning. Sigh. And before that, had an argument with Esmee mostly because I don't want her sister to come to the drama. Because her sister is a bitch.

Yep.

But anyways, that was cleared up, and I'm sure we can think of other things to talk about.

...

Can't we?

Surely. Umm...I don't feel inspired enough to move onto anything relevant. More story stuff and the like. So what can Nate talk about?

Oh, right...

It's turn off your tv week or some other lame shit like that. I remember mentioning the poster removal a while ago, but despite my best efforts (I removed two more later :) ), the week arrived. Bah. Why, why would anybody take a week away from television? To show that we're not dependant on it? Well, guess what. We freakin' are. And there's no way in hell I'd give up a week of tv just to try to feel like I wasn't completely hooked on it. Fuck that shit. I love television. If I don't get my weekly dose of House...You don't wana know what happens. *glares FIREBALLS*

But yeah...

House freakin' rocked this week. As per always. LAN! Lan is here with me. He's cool. Yep.

But I gotta go now. 'cause I'm l33t.

Until next time,
I'm not young enough to know everything.
~Kataron

Where Zero Meets Fifteen

Woo! It let me get that blog post up! It's about goddamn time, I wrote that about two days ago.

So...

Yeah. Not sure what all to discuss in this here 'blog post'.

Well, yesterday I only went to one of my two classes. It was basically pointless for me to even attend. Just like today. I decided yesterday to go to Dave's house instead of philosophy, which was fun. He showed me some cool stuff in Halo 2, stuff I didn't know. Did you know that you can blow up large spikes on the ceiling? And if they land on you, they EXPLODE?! Yeah, it was pretty awesome. Rick was doing it at one point, and one fell down completely intact. So he walked up to it and hit it. AND THEN IT EXPLODED!!!1!

But yeah. Then we went to 7/11, and came back to school. Esmee was going home sick, but apparently she and Eric made a trek to Dave's house to try to find us before she went home.

But...Yeah.

My day was uneventful yesterday. Very uneventful.

Oh, and Kate's back as of tomorrow. Back from university. Yeah. It's been quite a while since I've seen her, and last time was when Ryan was down. So we're gonna hang out soon. Probably not 'til next week, though.

The drama is Friday. I am nervous. I always am. I know the oldies will like us even if we suck. Because...Well, I don't know. But they'll like us. We've done a lot of work on this. And if it doesn't pay off...Well, I don't know that either. Bah. But after that, my Saturdays are free again, and we can spend the youth group doing things that aren't dramatic. Phew. I was getting really tired of some of those songs.

I have elected to miss class on Friday to go and help Andrew set things up, and hopefully get a little bit of last-minute practicing done. Unfortunately, I think Charlotte's seminar in philosophy is going to be on Friday...She'll be pissed that I missed it.

But yeah. I don't think I'll even bother to show up tomorrow. It's a shortened day, and I only have one class. Oh, have I mentioned how I'm only attending one philosophy class this week? I skipped yesterday, today and tomorrow are ISP's, I'm going on Thursday, and I'm not coming to school on Friday. So today, the only class I have is engineering. I'm here mostly for my spares. First period is for blogging and forums, second is for my world, and third is for Justin, Andy, and to a lower extent, Jon. Good old Justin. It's not as good as our spare last semester, with Wyatt, Jared, and Owen, but it's pretty damn good nonetheless. I miss that spare. In fact, that was the greatest semester I've ever had. Math first period, which I just spent working on my world, spare with the dudes second period, lunch, Writer's Craft (the single greatest class of all time.) third period, and then another spare with Rick.

Good times...

Good times...

But I actually wanna get a head-start on my world now. I remembered a few race histories I haven't typed up yet.

Ciao for now, bitches.

Until next time,
Dude, you got HACKED.
~Kataron

Infanta

((NOTE! This post was made days ago, but Blogger has been being a bitch. I had to transfer it to one of my forums until Blogger would let it go up. Let's hope it lets us this time.))

You know what kind of people I hate? Depressed ones. Well, some of them. The ones that are constantly requiring attention. And before any of you go crying hypocrisy, shut it. I'm well aware that I was one of these once, particularly last summer. But that is perhaps one of the reasons I find them so irritating.

One in particular is a friend of Dave, Eric, and Rick. Kathryn or Catherine or some other name like that. One of those ones with oh-so-many spellings, and you're never sure which goddamn one it is. Hate those names. Anyways, best I can tell, she's one of those ones that just wants attention. She crashed out LotR marathon on Easter Weekend to be depressing, and stole away our Eric and Dave for the second half of Fellowship. I also dislike her because I automatically dislike anybody that dislikes me. When she first met me, I proclaimed my hatred for her brother (the pompous jackass), and then she began her dislike for me. I can't help that her brother's a dick, and that I don't like him. For those of you that don't know, her brother is a guy that thinks himself to be a genius, lacks any form of social skills, and considers himself to be smarter and better than everybody else.

But anyways, back to girlface. Because Dave, Eric, and Rick hang around the stairwell at lunch, she's there. Because Dave, Eric, and Rick hang around the tree after school, she's there. She irritates me so. Why does she irritate me, you ask? She's rude, for one. Talking loudly at the marathon after she crashed it and messed it up, when everybody else in the room was sleeping. This was just after the last movie ended, and we were all trying to get a little shut-eye. Except her, apparently, and she was rude enough to carry on a conversation with Eric without putting forth any effort into being quite. Irritated by this point, I told her that Eric was whispering, in this room full of sleeping and attempting to sleep people, and that she might want to do the same. Then she went on in a -slightly- quieter voice to Eric about how hard it was for her to be silent. Luckily I was exhausted by this point, so the sweet relief of sleep soon took me.

Then there was the time that she took Rick's money. I forget exactly howabouts it came to pass, but she took sixty dollars of Rick's money, and he didn't have a problem with it. He basically said she could take it. Which doesn't stop it from being rude of her to take it. Because it's not like it's a small amount of money, just a couple bucks or something. It's sixty fucking dollars, to the guy that's trying to save up for a new video card. Shit, he could almost buy a new game for that much. Then Dave ended up with it, but he actually asked if he could 'borrow' it, which implies returning. Bitchface just took it, which quite irritated me. I do so despise it when people take advantage of the generous nature of others.

And then I when I was over at Rick's earlier, I was leaving and he was signing into MSN. She started talking to him, he said that I stopped by, and she said something along the lines of 'oh...' '...', and then asked why. Why? What the fuck? Yes, it's such a goddamn riddle as to WHY somebody's friend might come over to their house. What the fuck kind of question is that? That irritated me.

*deep breath*

Sorry folks, that rant was a long time in the coming. She's been irritating me for a while.

But anyways...

Esmee wanted me to go and see Silent Hill with her and Courtney today. Alas, my stomach is not well. And I don't really have any money. So I'd rather not beg my mother for money to go see the movie (gotta get enough to get in, buy Coke/Popcorn [I can't go to the movies without them.], and that comes to probably around twenty bucks), and then end up spending large portions of the movie in the washroom, or squirming in my seat from stomach pains. No thanks. Unfortunately, I was the adult of the group, and hence I was expected to be the one with identification to get them in, so they couldn't go. So I suppose they're hanging out with Russell (Courtney's hebitch), and Jessy, that fucking asswipe prick that threw my two litre of Coke around a few weeks ago. Oh no, I haven't gotten over that quite yet. He's still got a case of unpleasantness coming for that little incident, the little bitch.

I was over at Rick's earlier for a while, too. Played some Warcraft 3. Then I left, as I had been on his computer for a while, and my stomach was starting to act up.

And that brings us to here. But I think I'll head off now. Things to do, people to kill. The usular. See that? It's like 'the usual', but more fun to say.

Until next time,
Oh, and check this shit out. Ryan copied me. Neat!
~Kataron

Ken's Song

Well, here we are again.

In the library first period, debating on whether or not to go to philosophy. I might...I might not. Shrug. Periods skipped are actually kind of boring unless you have somebody to skip with. I know Dave has a spare, and I could go over to his house and play many a video game, but I have no idea how to make contact with him beforehand.

But yeah.

The grad sleepover was last night, and I didn't go. I'm not sure if they would have even let me. But I can't pull all-nighters anymore. 'tis sad. I blame the mono that I assume I have. Otherwise, I am very sick with some different disease, because I get tired a lot these days. But yeah, everybody that went seemed to have a blast, and most of the grads are dead-tired today. Which is fine by me, it just means that very little will be accomplished in either of my classes today. Should I go to them.

In other news, it's Friday. Meaning youth group tonight, and more drama practice. Huzzah. /sarcasm. And tomorrow as well. But tomorrow is our last Saturday practice, as we're presenting a week from today. I might not even go to school next Friday in order to get a little more time with this. But yeah, it shall be done soon. About freaking time. No more will we have to try to organize those little bastards. I just want to...*obscure batting motion*

Bwah.

Anyways...There's not all that much going on in the glorious life of Nate right now. School is slowly but surely moving towards its inevitable end, and then I will be confused. They already falsely sent me my diploma, and I have all the credits I need (I should fix that problem with my volunteer hours), and I'm basically done...But I have no idea what I'm going to do once I'm gone.

I guess I'll have to get a job. And support Jared, probably. He so poor. But...Yeah. Don't know where I'd get a job. I guess I'll find out, huh?

And yeah.

Anyways...Cypher's back, for those of you that played and want to rejoin. Well, you probably got the email...But...Still. I have rebooted (hahaha, get it?) Team Lightning Magnificent. So, if you want to get back into Cypher and join, feel free.

I think that about covers it...For now.

Until next time,
Why should an American be the first to play the Nintendo Revolution? :(
~Kataron

Doomed Warrior: Another Chapter

((OOC: I must admit to having felt inspired this morning, for one reason or another...So I continued my Doomed Warrior Story, the rest of which is available here if you want to read up on the previous chapters.))

Kataron eyed the man suspiciously as he approached. He was wearing the generic garb of a spell-caster, robes. They hid most of his figure, and the hood covered most of his face in shadows. The red eyes contrasted against the dark shadows, bringing them out even more in the dimly lit tavern.

"And what do you want, mage?" Kataron asked, almost spitting the last word. It was clear that this warrior was not fond of magic-users.

The man held out his hands in a show of peace. He did not seem to be holding a staff, but the robes were perhaps baggy enough to hide one.

"Calm down, young warrior. I am but a humble traveller, much like yourself. I have taken up residence in this town, for...Well, you know," the man replied.

Kataron raised his eyebrow, but removed his hand from the hilt of his sword. This man seemed delusional, as most magic-users are, but he did not seem dangerous.

"What do you mean, mage? Why is it that you have taken up residence in this town, and how would I know?" Kataron asked his hostility still showing clearly in his voice.

The man laughed, a dry bitter sound escaping from his throat.

"I shall them presume you have not yet tried to leave this land. Then might I suggest we go for a walk? It would be far easier to show you than try to explain it to you. You wouldn't believe me. They never do."

Kataron pondered for a moment, scratching his stubbled chin. Should he go with this man, whom he did not know? He could be leading him into a trap. But then, sticking around in this tavern after such a fight was surely a bad idea. Town guards were most likely on their way now.

Kataron shrugged, and jumped behind the tavern. He grabbed a few bottles of the finer ales, and hopped back over.

"All right. Let us go for a walk. Do you drink, stranger?"

The man laughed again, making another dry noise.

"Only the finer Elven brews, which I do not believe one would find in a tavern such as this. Now let us hurry. Staying in one place for too long in this land is...dangerous."

Shrugging, Kataron followed the mage as he pushed through the tavern door and left the building. He walked down the dusty street, and paused.

"It seems our bartender friend has alerted the authorities," he said in an amused tone, "and they appear to be coming in force. The one in charge of this land does not take kindly to visitors."

"You mean the warlord," Kataron asked, "the one that the snake in the bar was telling me about?"

The mage merely nodded, and turned down a small alley between two nearby buildings. Trash littered the narrow space, but Kataron followed nonetheless. The man seemed to have an idea where he was going. Moreso than Kataron, anyway.

The mage paused, causing Kataron to bump into him in the darkness. The warrior opened his mouth to speak, but the man held up his hand for silence. Being in such close proximity, Kataron could see the hand even in the darkness, which seemed to have at least one ring on every finger, sometimes more than one. Kataron fell silent, as two lanterns passed the alleyway, neither stopping to check the space between the two buildings. They remained silent in the darkness for another moment, and Kataron was about to speak again when another light passed by. As soon as it was gone, the mage exited the alley, with Kataron following directly behind him.

"Small town guards are so predictable..." the mage muttered to himself, before walking towards a large town gate. Kataron remembered entering the town through this gate, but now it looked somehow more menacing. It was also completely unguarded. The mage led him quickly from the city and down the path he had taken to reach the town.

They walked in silence for a time, which suited Kataron fine. He was not particularly fond of mages, and avoided them whenever possible. Why he was travelling with this one, he still did not know. The mage knew something, something that Kataron needed to know. Then the silence was broken by the mage's voice.

"My name is Aldan, by the way. Am I right to assume that you came to this town on rumours of the warlord, with intent to vanquish him?"

"I am a mercenary," Kataron replied gruffly, "I go where my employers wish me to go."

"Fair enough, stranger. But now that you know my name, what shall I call you?"

"I am known as Kataron. Perhaps you have heard of me. I am told that my reputation quite often precedes me."

The mage fell silent for another moment, and appeared to be thinking. Then a smile appeared on hidden face.

"Ah, Kataron...Yes, I have heard of you. They call you the Dark Blade, do they not? I have always wondered about the Dark Blade mercenary. Perhaps you can indulge my interests, and tell me why it is they call you that?" Aldan asked.

Now it was the mercenary's turn to smirk. He paused in his step, and Aldan stopped a short ways ahead of him. Kataron drew his sword, the long black blade had acquired so many years ago. Its previous owner had not been keen on giving it up, but Kataron found that he could be quite...Persuasive, when he wanted to be.

Aldan looked at the blade in wonder. It was covered in runes which were visible even in the shadows of the forest. Kataron held the blade towards a patch of moonlight, and it was bathed in its pale light. The runes began to glow a dull white, becoming even more visible on the shadowed path. The runes were inscribed in an ancient language which Aldan could not even begin to decipher.

"Perhaps," the mage began, licking his lips, "you would be interested in testing your formidable skill against me? A friendly match, I assure you. I have heard rumours of your mastery of the sword, but I must admit to have been rather sceptical. A show of skill would be quite...Exciting."

Kataron shrugged, and swung his sword in a long arc around his form. He did indeed have great skill with the blade, but also had a flair for the dramatics. Anything worth doing was worth doing dramatically, he had always said.

"All right, mage. We'll see what you can do," he answered with a grim smile on his face.

"Most excellent!"

Aldan quickly removed his robes, revealing black leather armour similar to that of Kataron. It also revealed the hidden staff that Kataron had correctly assumed to be under the robes as well.

"You do not fight in your robes?" Kataron asked, perplexed. This was the first mage he had ever seen fight in anything other than heavy robes.

"I find that they constrict me too much," he replied.

Kataron shrugged.

"Are you prepared?" the warrior asked, holding his sword at the ready in front of him.

"Yes..Yes, I believe I am," Aldan replied, already gathering his magical energies.

Kataron charged.

((OOC: There ya go.))

IT IS DONE!

As you may have gathered from the title, it is done. It is finished. My seminar was a smashing success, with Jared arriving just in time to witness and be part of it. I was nervous as hell for a long time, and barely slept last night, but now it's done.

I'm good at doing things in front of people, presenting in front of my class, doing a drama, etc. But I get so nervous about it. I don't even know why.

But I just wanted to let you know that it's done...It went well. I'd like to thank all of you for hearing me out and helping me along with this. But I don't think this is the end of this blog's philosophical discussions about God. There's a few more things I'll cover later.

But for now, I'm done.

*sigh of relief*

Until next time,
Save me, Jebus!
~Kataron

More God?!

Hey hey, Nate back. For some more God stuff.

Some of you are probably getting a little tired of all this God stuff on my blog, but have no fear! For it shall soon end, with the end of my presentation. Actually, if the discussions are still going on strong, I might continue it, but we'll see.

As you may or may not have read, Greg stopped by! I miss that man. But he's too 'married' to hang out with us anymore. Yeesh. But as soon as the poison kicks in, he'll be wifeless, and he'll come running back to us. :)

Err...Moving on...

Greg politely asked just why I dismiss these views so. Couldn't really get too into it due to the time restraints, and the fact that I had more to cover, but now I have plenty of time. So let's go through them one by one, shall we?

Let's begin with Ontological. This one was thought up (or at least written down) by St. Anselm. He was a Benedictine Monk. With a name like the big bad in the first Kingdom Hearts game! On, Ansem. And not only was he a monk, but he was also the Archbishop of Canterbury, and one of history's great religious philosophers. And I guess they had enough time for that, with their lack of internet...Poor buggers.

This guy said that God is "that than which no greater can be conceived". You can't possibly think of something greater than God. And if'n God is that than which no greater can be conceived, Anselm argues, then nothing can be imagined that is greater than God. So that's sort of a loose definition of God, that of which no greater good can even be thought of. If God does not exist, though, then something can be conceived of that is greater than God, meaning a God that does exist. To think that God does not exist then, gets you into one big loop where you both can and can't imagine something greater. You then take an Advil, and continue.

Basically, it gives rise to a vicious loop. But I must admit, the site I'm looking at now, which has provided me with more than the bare bones of the argument, is more thought-provoking than the bare bones. But it still doesn't get me. It may have snagged Descartes, another nifty empiricist, but I can't for the life of me figure out how it got him. Descartes was an interesting type of empiricist, though...Kinda like me, he didn't believe in anything that wasn't being perceived. But he believed that God was always perceiving things, and therefore they existed because of that. But then, he believed that something was true if you believed it without a trace of doubt in your mind. He believed in God without a trace of doubt in his mind. And he believed that he existed, because well...His life would have been boring if he didn't exist. So he existed, God existed, the things he perceived existed, and anything else he couldn't perceive at the time just fell under the all-knowing eyes of God. Wacky, huh? What a guy.

But anyways, I should get to why this proof doesn't cut it for me. If I don't believe in a God, then I don't believe that there is something that is greater than all else. So I dismiss the potential 'loose definition' without much hesitation. This one is just too much of a loop to catch me in it. To accept the definition snares you into the loop. To avoid a headache, I steer clear of it. I'm sorry if I can't be much clearer than that about it, but yeah. Hopefully I'll get into this again later, but I need to move onto the next one, and House is on at nine.

But I can say that one of the opposition of this proof was Gaunilo of Marmoutiers. He was actually a fellow monk of Anselm, which is surprising. He argued that this could be used to prove the existance of the perfect anything. His example was the perfect island.

*ahem*

"The perfect island, this argument goes, is the island than which no greater can be conceived. Any island that does not exist, though, cannot be the island than which no greater can be conceived, for it could be conceived to exist which would be greater. Anyone who thinks that the perfect does not exist, then, is confused; the concept of the perfect island entails that there is such a thing."

You could use this to prove the perfect anything. The perfect cheeseburger, the perfect sparrow, the perfect Nate (me!). And it gets even MORE confusing when you try to figure 'perfection', which may be something different to everybody.

...Yeesh.

And then there was Kant, who was a theist, and still argued it, stating that existance wasn't really a property.

But that is WAY too much of that proof.

The Cosmological argument states that the very existance of our world is proof of a God. Basically, all things must logically have a cause. So then the cause of our world itself is God. But that, of course, raises the immediate question, what is the cause of God? If, as it states, all things require a cause, then does not God require a cause? And if, perchance, God is exempt from this, then what stops something else from being exempt, like the world at large? Why does it need a cause if God does not need one? If God is the cause of his own existance, then how did he cause himself if he didn't exist? It ends up being another confusing head-ache inducing loop.

Somebody named Kalam tried to fix this little problem by saying that anything beginning in time had to have a cause. The universe would have a cause in time, but if God is quote unquote "timeless", then he wouldn't need a cause. I see this as just nit-picking, and still doesn't add much to the original argument.

That's all I'll go into for that one, but hopefully you can see why it is that I'm not hooked from it. If you're going to go into saying things like "You agree that everything has a cause, correct?" then moving on to "The universe must have a cause, correct?" and "That cause could only be God, correct?", then it's a little unfair to start popping in little things. After being asked "Then what caused God?", saying "He's an exception" or "He caused himself" is sort of a cop-out, isn't it?

Anywho...Moving onto my favourite.

The telological argument states that our universe is just so gosh-dang complex, it couldn't possibly be true. St. Thomas Aquinas used this one, as well as the first one. Jared doesn't like that guy, but I'm fond of this argument. It was never all that well-formed until William Paley happened by though, and gave the watch analogy. He said that there are so many intricate things that work together in harmony to make things what they are now, that it suggests intelligent design, that things aren't just random chance this and that. It suggests that something made our world the way it is, and that something would of course be "God".

And this is the argument to which I have no clear rebuttal. But, the way I see it, anything is possible. It's all a matter of odds. So in my opinion, things could have come together the way they did without a designer. The odds are against it, but I don't see the odds as going particularly well for an omnipotent designer, either.

But, I am tired. And I want to move on to some argumentss for atheism. So we're not just talking about arguments for God.

First off, I should say that Atheism seems to be the default. You start out not really believing in any sort of God. In some cases, the parents are religious, and it moves onto the children, and in some cases they're not. In that case, they may or may not find religion, but atheism remains the default.

That said, the first problem with God is all that dang evil in the world. If God is truly so all-loving, the caring father, then why is there such hate in the world, so many terrible things? Wars, terrorism. Pepsi. WHY IS THERE PEPSI?! If God exists, and God is omniscient, then He knows how to end it all. End all the suffering in the world, make everything better. Stop the wars, stop the terrorism, stop the starving children around the world. Put an end to Pepsi. And God is also supposed to be omnipotent. All-powerful. So he has the know-how, and the power, to stop all evil in the world. So why doesn't he, if he truly cares for us so? Isn't it a parent's duty to care for their child? To protect them, when nobody else can?

There's problem one.

Problem two.

Ah...This is my favourite. The paradox of omnipotence. Now, this has been said in thousands of ways, but I prefer this one:

Could God cook a burrito SO HOT, that even he could not eat it?

Quite the paradox, huh? If he's omnipotent, he can, but then he can't, but then he can, and so forth and so on until the burrito cools down.

Then there's the problem of divine omniscience, which I don't like so much...I'll just cut and paste that one.

"The doctrine of divine omniscience is the doctrine that God is all-knowing. The doctrine of divine omniscience, though, faces several philosophical objections; there are a number of arguments in the philosophy of religion that purport to demonstrate that God cannot possibly know everything. These include arguments that the doctrine of divine omniscience is logically incoherent, that it is inconsistent with the further Christian doctrine of divine impeccability (i.e. the doctrine that God cannot sin), and that it is refuted by the fact of human freedom. If any of these arguments is successful, then there can be no omniscient God."

etc.

Don't like that one so much.

Then there's the problem with divine justice.

This one states that God seems to be a bit odd with his punishments. He's supposed to be all-forgiving, correct? But God is also supposed to be just. I mean, look at the Bible. He's always smiting somebody. Those two ideas seem to conflict, as well as heaven or hell.

But then, Greg's definition of heaven and hell clear up that part of it. Greg told me before that heaven is basically being close to God. And hell, not as cliche as all the fire and brimstone, is simply an absence of God. Which actually made a lot of sense to me. Good old Greg.

And it goes on...But quite frankly, I'm very tired. I would like to finish, post this, and go to bed. I've still written very little down, and need to spend first period tomorrow preparing my seminar. Hopefully it will go well.

Until next time,
Somewhere out there exists somebody who believes the exact opposite of you. In everything. Your duty as a person is to find this opposite and kill them.
~Kataron

Nate!

Well, as my philosophy seminar on the existance of God is tomorrow, so I'd better continue my works...

I'll let you guys continue to duke it out in that last post, because it's been a long time since I've gotten so many comments. So please, continue arguing. But try not to be hurtful enough to drive readers off.

I found a rather comical website....Godless Geeks, apparently. If you're Christian, it'll probably offend you, if not, you'll find it rather comical. Here are some of my favourites:

ARGUMENT FROM INTIMIDATION
(1) See this bonfire?
(2) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM ABSURDITY
(1) Maranathra!
(2) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM ECONOMY
(1) God exists, you bastards!
(2) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM GUITAR MASTERY
(1) Eric Clapton is God.
(2) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM SMUGNESS
(1) God exists.
(2) I don't give a crap whether you believe it or not; I have better things to do than to try to convince you morons.
(3) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL
(1) God loves you.
(2) How could you be so heartless to not believe in him?
(3) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM UPPERCASE ASSERTION
(1) GOD EXISTS! GET USED TO IT!
(2) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM ARGUMENTATION
(1) God exists.
(2) [Atheist's counterargument]
(3) Yes he does.
(4) [Atheist's counterargument]
(5) Yes he does!
(6) [Atheist's counterargument]
(7) YES HE DOES!!!
(8) [Atheist gives up and goes home.]
(9) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM EXHAUSTION (abridged)
(1) Do you agree with the utterly trivial proposition X?
(2) Atheist: of course.
(3) How about the slightly modified proposition X'?
(4) Atheist: Um, no, not really.
(5) Good. Since we agree, how about Y? Is that true?
(6) Atheist: No! And I didn't agree with X'!
(7) With the truths of these clearly established, surely you agree that Z is true as well?
(8) Atheist: No. So far I have only agreed with X! Where is this going, anyway?
(9) I'm glad we all agree.....
....
(37) So now we have used propositions X, X', Y, Y', Z, Z', P, P', Q and Q' to arrive at the obviously valid point R. Agreed?
(38) Atheist: Like I said, so far I've only agreed with X. Where is this going?
....
(81) So we now conclude from this that propositions L'', L''' and J'' are true. Agreed?
(82) I HAVEN'T AGREED WITH ANYTHING YOU'VE SAID SINCE X! WHERE IS THIS GOING!?
....
(177) ...and it follows that proposition HRV, SHQ'' and BTU' are all obviously valid. Agreed?
(178) [Atheist either faints from overwork or leaves in disgust.]
(179) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE (I)
(1) The Pledge clearly states that America is "one nation, under God * * *."
(2) The existence of God is thus a necessary condition for the existence of America.
(3) America exists.
(4) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM STAR TREK
(1) You will be assimilated.
(2) All your salvations belong to us.
(3) Resistance is futile.
(4) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM WIND
(1) You believe in wind.
(2) But you can't see it.
(3) God's the same way.
(4) It IS TOO analogous!
(5) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM AMERICA, aka GEORGE W. BUSH'S ARGUMENT
(1) God bless America.
(2) You're either with us or against us, remember.
(3) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM MASSIVE OPIATES (aka KARL MARX'S ARGUMENT)
(1) Got to keep the public distracted.
(2) Therefore, God exists.

Good times...

I found that all rather comical, though I'm going to guess that it offended a bunch of you. As mocking as these are, I don't doubt that some stupid people out there have tried these arguments, or arguments similar to these.

RANDOM LINK!!!

But let's get into the 'PROOFS' a bit more. I capitalized to wake you up in case you dozed off.

THIS is a nice site. It has all sorts of neat proofs. It, unlike a lot of other sites, get rids of all that dang bias(I think those Godless Geeks may have been a little bit biased).

EPOCH UP!

First, the Telological argument. It states that our world is so fancy, so fine, so freakin' awesome that it couldn't be chance. Through this, it says that God must be the creator. This is the best argument anybody has ever come up with for a God. Right there. You've probably heard this in its clock form. A clock is so fucking intricate. All them gears and whatnot. It's a precise time-piece. Could this time piece possibly just be due to randomness and chance? Probably not. Keyword: Probably. There's an incredibly slim chance of it happening ever, but in my eyes, anything's possible. But it's trying to say that if you get a kick-ass clock, you're not going to question the existance of the clock-maker, the clock-lord, the God-Of-All-Clocks, are you?

But yeah.

Then we've got the...*checks* Cosmological argument. This one basically states that all things need a cause. If you push somebody, it might cause them to fall down. It might cause them to implode. But it would 'cause' something, correct? Or at least, it wouldn't happen without cause. Or such. It's...Logical, but it doesn't really get me off. Not that any of these should. It doesn't get my brain off. That's it, that's what I'll go with. Anyways...That's cosmo.

Then we've got that other one...Which is called....The Ontological thingy. It basically says that God is poifect. Not like that spelling. This is the single worst proof ever. It states that since God is perfect, then clearly existance is a part of perfections. If God exists, then he must be perfect. And since he's perfect, he must exist. What. The. Fuck. ?!. It's just a giant illogical death-loop. Yeah.

Oh, and then we've got the proof by morality. Basically, all peoples are engrained with a sense of morality. And as such, these moralities are generally similar. Don't steal, don't kill, stop raping that donkey. Etc. And clearly, this morality must come from God, correct? Scott tried this one on me, and it didn't really work that well.

But anyways, I'll get to other proofs later. Proofs of athiesim and agnosticism.

Until next time,
It's spelled killer. Two l's. Psh.
~Kataron

More God Stuff

I'm too tired to continue my earlier stuff, but after a few comments on that post, I have something on my mind.

One of the things that bothers me most about people is when they assume that they're right, that they have some sort of knowledge that others do not possess. In the case of the comments on the last post, it's Christians assuming themselves correct about all things God. And, of course and to be fair, it's not only Christians, it's a whole lot of other people, but in this case right here, it's Christians. And I understand, I guess. It's what they believe. But it's always just irritated me when somebody tries to tell somebody something with no evidence to support it whatsoever.

And let's face it, religion in general, and I'm talking all religions around this globe of ours, runs on little to no evidence. The Bible? I'd hardly count that as evidence, it's a book. Besides, if we're to believe everything that's written in the Bible...Well then. Too many things in there are just too unbelievable to even be considered as truth. In my oh-so-humble opinion, they're stories on how to live your life. Like fairy tales with morals and such. Don't trust strangers, don't set fire to your pants, etc. But of course, I could be wrong. Everything there could be absolutely true. It's absolutely impossible to know.

This is why I can't believe in any sort of God. I'm an empiricist. I can't believe in anything without evidence. Not really. This goes back to my whole philosophy that I've discussed oh-so-many times. Where everything out of my immediate sensory range does not exist. So right now, as I write this, none of you exist. It's a bit weird if you're...well, sane, but I like my philosophy. But yeah.

I can't believe in anything that I don't have evidence for. That's part of why I go to the youth group, part of why I chose this seminar topic. I'm trying to figure out exactly what's what in the universe at large, but none of the quote unquote "evidence" I find just doesn't cut it for me. Proof is very difficult to come by. With...Well, anything.

But that's what irritates me about people, they firmly believe in these things that they have literally no evidence to support. Because I can't. I can't believe in anything without this evidence. So it usually ends up bothering me when people demonstrate that they can indeed believe in these things without proof. But I guess that's why it's faith, isn't it? But I can't freakin' do that. I can't have faith in anything.

So...Could somebody, Dave, or Eric, or somebody, tell me exactly how it is that you can believe in something without evidence? I don't understand. You can't possibly know this for sure. So how can you believe, how can you have faith in these things?

Fuck I'm tired. I don't even remember half the things I said up there. I'm just gonna go sleep, and hope that it makes some sort of sense.

Until next time,
Indeed.
~Kataron

The Philosophy of God

I guess I'd better continue preparation of my seminar, to be presented next Wednesday, huh? It's about the philosophical existance of God, for those of you that don't know.

I'll have to make a note at the beginning about how I am neither Christian nor Athiest, but a safe Agnostic right there in the middle. Well, not really safe if God does exist, but safe enough so that I'm not biased in my discussions. Huzzah! Anyways, I plan on starting off with a joke...For those of you that I've told this joke, or Rick and Eric who were on the bus when I heard it, I apologize for now repeating it.

*ahem*

So, there was this church, that had been fundraising to get a new coat of paint on the outside of it. It was a nice enough church, but it was starting to look a little ratty. Anyway, they raised a bunch of money to buy the paint and equipment, but decided to save some cash by doing it themselves. Unfortunately, they were nearing completion when they realized that they wouldn't have enough paint. So they then mixed some water in with the paint, which thins it, but makes more of it. They then finished the painting, and were looking on it in satisfaction when it began raining.

The thinned paint all washed off, much to the chagrin of the painters. Then a booming voice comes down from the heavens, saying "Repaint! Repaint, and thin no more!".

Hahahaha...Good times. Get it? It's like "Repent, ans sin no more", but about PAINT. I'm hilarious.

Anyways...

First, I should probably discuss what 'God' 'is'. I'm discussing the Christian God, simply because I know so many Christians, and it's hella-easy to get information. So from what I've said, God is an omnipotent being. All-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful. He can do basically whatever the fuck he wants. And he loves us with an unconditional love, the way a father loves a child unless that father is a dick. Because the Christian belief is that we are his children. Man he must get around...errr...Moving on...

I also mean to discuss early on the Bible as 'proof' of God's existance. I've heard a few people offer up the Bible as proof of God, but after thought and research, I've decided that this is incorrect. The Bible doesn't prove God. It doesn't try to. If you write a book about tasty, tasty pies, you're not going to spent the first half of the book trying to prove the existance of tasty tasty pies. You're going to assume tasty tasty pies, in the same way that the Bible assumes God. It doesn't prove anything, because it doesn't try to. God is as pies.

With that covered, I'll go into Pascal's Wager.

I know I've covered this on my blog before, but please be patient with me. I need to present this in less than a week, and I'm hardly ready. Good thing I'm so good at speaking in front of a class, eh? :D

Anyways, Pascal's Wager goes as follows.

There either is a God, or there isn't.

You either believe that a God exists, or you don't. Then there's Agnostics that don't believe either way, but then technically they don't believe that he exists, so they get clumped in with the second group.

If you believe in God, and there is a God, then you will be rewarded with a hot tub and a big-ass television in heaven. Or something like that. Infinite rewards, etc. But if you believe in God, and there isn't a God, then you've basically been a good person all your life, and lost a few illicit pleasures. As fun as they are.

But if you don't believe in God, and there is a God, then you goin' to hell. Yes, you shall supposedly burn for eternity in an incredibly unpleasant hellfire. Not fun. And if you don't believe in God, and you're correct, then you've gained a few illicit pleasures.

So the illicit pleasures are really quite small when compared to eternal happiness or eternal punishment. So if you don't really pay attention to that, it's either heaven or hell. With Pascal's logic, it seems quite reasonable to believe in God whether or not he exists. You don't lose much, and you have a lot to gain if'n you're right.

But while Pascal made this wager to seem quite reasonable, it can't really convert anybody. As I said last time I covered this, if you choose to believe in God simply to avoid a fiery hell, then I don't think that's true belief, and you're pretty fucked anyway. You can't scare anybody into true faith, it just doesn't work like that. So while Pascal's Wager is plenty reasonable, it's not very convincing.

I would move onto other proofs, but I seem to be out of time. I'll get back to this later, maybe after lunch.

Until next time,
God is as pies, I tell you!
~Kataron

Hey You

Hey hey, kids. Kataron here.

Sorry I didn't get back to my blog again and post over the weekend, but my lady-friend came by for the rest of the weekend, so I was distracted.

But anyways, I wanted to get a blog post on the top that wasn't just bitching about kids. Don't get me wrong, I still hate kids, but yeah.

I guess I have not yet blogged about what all happened over the rest of the weekend. So anyways, practice for the drama on Saturday went well, for a while. We got up to the point where we would have our first break, but then Peter showed up. And he was pissed. He bitched at us for a while about our treatment of the kids and stuff, and was talking about some bullshit of apologizing. I flat-out refused to apologize. But yeah, so after he bitched at us, he went to get some of the parents, so they could bitch at us, and so we could talk to them, and although he said he'd be back in a minute with them, we were waiting for half an hour. It was quite irritating. And then when they did show up (two fathers of parents, one I know, one I don't), they bitched at us for another half-hour. I tuned them out after a while and thought about other things, but then Peter broke my concentration with asking each of us, in turn, if we could write something about discipleship. I numbly agreed to, having no intention to actually carry out the request, but I didn't want to seem like a trouble-maker in front of the kids.

Anyways, when they finally fucked off, we were left without any kids to practice with, so we hung out in the kitchen and played twenty questions for a while. Then I went home, Esmee came over, and video games.

I miss the old youth group, before it became deeply religious. I used to feel like I fit in more. Then they started doing evening devotionals, which I still didn't mind because it gave me a chance to learn more about the religion. But then Peter started showing up and treating all of us like we were Christians. I don't want to join him in prayer, I don't want to think about God's love, I don't want to do any of that stuff. Whenever Peter comes by, he treats all of the older members (myself, Rick, Eric, Dave, and Andrew) like Christians. Which is fine for all of them, because they are, and I'm the only one that isn't. I have no intentions of converting. But I do not want to be treated like one of them, I don't want to be included in all of these things, because it makes me feel uncomfortable.

But anyways, I mentioned this to Eric, and I guess he talked to somebody, because Peter came by and apologized for making me feel uncomfortable. But yeah.

Anyways, that's enough youth group business. Now we dive into video game stuff.

Well, video games are still being bashed by assorted organizations that simply do not understand them.

This article, gathered from the delightful Gamasutra, discusses a bill that is going to make ratings take up about half of the box of a 'Mature-Rated' video game. But so you don't have to leave my blog, I'll copy and paste the article.

"Games rated as Mature by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) are set to receive a makeover in their box design, if recent legislation in the State of Virginia passes.

According to Senate Bill 368, which is only currently being considered by the State, and has not yet passed, such Mature-rated games, which account for 16 percent of games sold according to the Entertainment Software Association, must feature an ESRB rating that is “deemed to be clearly and prominently printed on or affixed to the front of the video game's box”.

This in itself is not odd, but in addition, the rating in question must be “...a square with sides not less than three inches long, and with type stating that the video game may be suitable only for persons age 17 or older that is not smaller than twelve-point type.” In many cases, this would mean that the logo would cover as much as one half of the front of the game's box.

The proposed legislation comes in the wake of last month's subcommittee hearing entitled “What’s in a Game? State Regulation of Violent Video Games and the First Amendment”, which featured a gathering in Washington D.C. of witnesses from both sides of the debate surrounding violence in video games.

The hearing, presided over by Kansas Senator Republican Sam Brownback, focused on the difficulties in getting proposed video game-related legislation signed into law, and continues on from a plethora of individual State-related violent game bills, a number of which have been passed and subsequently injuncted for First Amendment-related reasons."


*smacks whoever decided to make this law*

Over at EvilAvatar, the poster of the article on the news area added his two cents, saying "This is pathetic. Next thing you know, they'll be requiring that games rated M for Mature be displayed in brown cardboard sleeves with only the title and rating visible."

It's a terrible idea to try to force video game companies to put the rating so large on the box. It doesn't have to be that goddamn large to be clearly labelled. It's just another way for parents to ignore the fact that they are responsible for the games their children play, not the companies that make them.

Here's another article from the same source, the first link in the other article:

"A report from MTV News regarding Wednesday's subcommittee hearing entitled “What’s in a Game? State Regulation of Violent Video Games and the First Amendment” indicates that the gathering in Washington D.C. of witnesses from both sides of the debate surrounding violence in video games resulted in a rather heated, if only one-sided discussion.

The hearing, presided over by Kansas Senator Republican Sam Brownback, along with the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights, focused partly on the reasons why laws which have been signed over the past year by governors in California, Illinois and Michigan banning the sale of violent games to minors have been struck down by federal courts.

"As a matter of law, any attempt to justify content-based suppression of speech based on the theory that particular content carries too much risk of causing listeners to engage in bad behavior is categorically ruled out under the First Amendment," said video game industry lawyer Paul Smith early in the testimony.

The hearing also included testimony by Reverend Steve Strickland, the brother of policeman Aaron Strickland, who was shot and killed in an Alabama police station in 2003 by a teenager who was said to be a fan and player of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series, a case still rumbling through the courts. "These games in the wrong hands played long enough are detrimental to our family, our friends and our entire society," he said.

Researcher Dmitri Williams, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign noted that most game studies do little if any follow-up for hours, days, or even years following their exposure, commenting: "With a study that short you might be measuring excitement, not violence. You could effectively get the same effects by having them throw a Frisbee.""

In my not-so-humble opinion, Reverend Steve Strickland needs to pull his head out of his ass. So what if a murderer played Grand Theft Auto? I play Grand Theft Auto, and I've never killed anybody. What about the Columbine murders? Those kids went and played bowling before they shot up their school, does that put the game of bowling at fault? Certainly not. It's stupid to think that a video game could be responsible for somebody to kill somebody else. The only way that it could affect somebody in that was is if they are clearly mentally disturbed to begin with, and then they shouldn't be playing the video games in the first place. And if they're that mentally disturbed, they could get the same images from television and the movies, without having to play a video game.

And as if all of this wasn't bad enough, I've now officially heard the stupidest thing to ever be said about video games. Bar none. This...article, if you could bear to call it that, claims that video games are 'A Gateway Drug'.

I'll copy and paste...

"According to a recent study, young men are more likely to believe it is okay to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana after playing violent videogames. That is the conclusion of Dr. Sonya S. Brady at the University of California, San Francisco and Dr. Karen A. Matthews at the University of Pittsburgh.

"Parents have been told the message that violent video games and violent media in general can influence the likelihood that their kids will be aggressive," Dr. Brady said. "What this study suggests is that they might increase any type of risk-taking behavior."

The research, featured in April’s Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, is based on assessing the behavior of 100 male undergraduates between the ages of 19 and 21 playing Grand Theft Auto III and The Simpsons: Hit and Run.

Blood pressure rises were noted in the guinea pigs playing GTA, with a stronger effect being marked in those from more violent homes of communities. Whatever the gamer’s background, the report suggests that those playing GTA were less co-operative and more competitive in assigned tasks following a period of play compared to those playing the Simpsons game.

The research also suggests they were also more likely to have a permissive attitude to risky behavior such as alcohol or illegal drug use."

*bangs head on desk*

How can they even be this stupid? They've now decided that trying to link video games to violence isn't bad enough, but now they have to link it to drug use? That's...That's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard in my entire life.

So stupid that I'm going to end this blog post now.

Good day.

Until next time,
Man, I could sure go for some GTA and a nice...what are the kids calling it these days? Toke of weed? Something like that? Fuck it.
~Kataron

I hate kids.

First let's just go over my most recent comment. Another anonymous one telling me to 'shut up'. I mean, I can understand if somebody is around you, talking to you, and saying something stupid. Then you can say 'Shut up', and hope that they'll stop. If somebody is talking around you and you take offence to what they say, then you can say 'Shut up' and hope they'll stop. But if you're going to go to somebody's blog, that's like walking into somebody's house, sitting down and listening to somebody for a while, then telling them to shut up and leave. It really makes no sense.

I could understand if you come to my blog and read my rantings, and take offense to that. I'm perfectly fine with that. I don't mind at all if you want to poke holes in my arguments, try to prove to me that I'm wrong about a subject. Go ahead and argue with me all you want, but if you're going to come on and simply tell me to shut up, then you're not really accomplishing anything, are you? I'm certainly not going to shut down my blog and cease the rants. Oh no. Honestly, that has to be one of the most pointless things you could go on somebody's blog and say.

Damn hippies.

Anyways, the drama rehearsal went pretty terribly tonight. We tried to get work done, but the kids just didn't want to do anything. As per usual, they continued to act stupid and irritate us as we tried to work and prepare for this thing that we're charging people to see so that we can keep the youth group open. Then we got bitched at after the youth group ended by the parent of a few of them, who is also a key figure in advertising for the drama. The owner of the pet show, which is selling tickets and has around half a dozen kids and friends of his kids in the drama.

We were bitched at mostly because of Dave and myself. I swear a lot and raise my voices at the kids because they don't listen to anything else. I get angry. A lot. Perhaps you've noticed this from many of my rants, about many things that irritate me. The fact is, this blog is a good way for me to vent my rage so that I don't vent it into the face of a small child with my fist. But yeah.

I'm wondering if this guy has ever tried to control a group of about a dozen or so small children, when working on a dead-line and trying to come up with a product that people are supposed to pay for. We only have a couple more weeks until we have to present this thing, at fifteen dollars a ticket. We try to keep the kids in line while we're working on the drama. If not, they fight, and they yell, and they do all sorts of stupid shit. And maybe we occasionally raise our voices, but the fact is that we're working on a deadline. I realize that I swear too much, and I've been making an effort to swear less, but these kids just piss me off.

Last Saturday, they had Eric and I to the point of hurting each other. I can't stand another Saturday like that.

But I think I'm going to go sleep now, something like that. And I hope the father doesn't decide to stop by tomorrow and talk to us personally, because I will not be in the mood for that.

Until next time,
Hopefully he won't bring a hatchet.
~Kataron

Broken Mirror

Well, here we are again.

Philosophy passed without incident, though my stomach was acting up. *shrug*

When lunch began, it came to my attention that Esmee was not present. I noticed her absence this morning, and thought perhaps she had slept in. So when lunch began I went over to her house and hung out with her for a little while. Turns out she was just really tired. Still is. But then I had to return to reclaim my belongings. Good old belongings.

And...Well, that about brings us here. Though there's a few other things I'd like to discuss. One thing is the 'turn off your tv week' or whatever the fuck it is. There are posters all around the school telling people to leave their tv's off for a week. Now, that sounds like hippie bullshit enough as it is, but as if it needed any more, it reads on the bottom of the posters 'Show The Man you're not his slave!" or something like that.

Goddamn hippies! I quickly created a counter-poster, advising people to leave their televisions ON, and to 'Show the man that you're his Bitch'. I thought it was good advice, but it was gone within a period, not having been approved by the VP. Accursed stamp. What I'm wondering is how that hippie bullshit got approved...*shrug* They defiled my stairwell, so they'll get theirs. Nobody defiles my stairwell, dammit. That's my stairwell. I colonized it, back in the day. With Mitch. We decided it was a cool spot to hang out, and BAM! A generation was born.

Good times.

But yeah, I don't see the point in leaving our tv's off for a week. Then I don't get to watch House, or Andromeda, or Mythbusters. Or Star Trek! What will I do without Star Trek?!

So screw you, hippie posters. I am going to leave my television on for the ENTIRE week. So suck it. Suck it long and suck it hard.

Bitches.

According to Eric and/or Dave, my blog has less substance than it used to. Now apparently I just swear a lot and get angry about things. While I cannot deny this, I must remind my readers that before the anger was a terrible terrible depression. And I'll take anger over that any day. I doubt I'm ever going to have a well-balanced set of emotions. I hate things too much. But I do recommend going through some of my archives. They're fun! As long as you avoid the first month, and some of the other times when I've been...well, fucked up. I've said some interesting things back there. I've sworn a lot. Complained about a lot. Gone over many days.

I'd like to continue going over my days, but they're just not much to discuss anymore. I go to school, I go to my two classes, I come in here and I blog, then I get home and play video games.

I miss the old days, when I used to offend the fuck out of people, and then get seven to ten comments on that post, with lots of arguments and other good stuff. I miss those days, dammit. I miss them heartily. I liked the arguments. I liked the comments. They meant that people were actually reading what I was saying. Good times...

And here's something to discuss. Something the damn dirty hippie was talking about in philosophy. Apparently she went to some damn hippie meeting the other night. Some anarchist(sp?) was there, talking about how our society is going to have to revert back to our 'roots' at some point, and the sooner we accept that the better it'll be. I say screw you, I am not reverting back to any roots. You think that all the world's technology is eventually just going to go away? Hells no, technology is here to stay. Even if there was a world-wide EMP, there are certain technologies that are EMP-Proof. You can't eliminate it entirely. You just can't.

Now let's disuss this. Let's argue about something. Let's give Nate a discussion topic to rant about.

...

GO!

Until next time,
I'll be fine as long as I don't get killed.
~Kataron

Oasis

Hey hey, kids.

Nate here.

Umm...Yeah. As it turned out, yesterday had the last two periods swapped, and a buy-out. This happens occasionally when the administration realizes that last period classes are constantly being bought out of. Not knowing what to do about it, they occasionally switch the two periods. Yep. Meanining that if I wanted to go see whatever stupidity was showing, I would have had to buy-out of my spare. *unimpressed look* And I'm rather fond of my spare, thank you very much. It's a good spare. Anyways, Jared elected not to go to his class, and I paid for Esmee to get out of hers, so I had a choice to make. Esmee wanted me to hang out with her, and Jared wanted me to RP with him. I decided to split the period with the both of them, first hitting the library and popping out a few RP posts, then wandering around with Esmee and Jared. The RP was good. Jared so rarely gets on these days, not having any internet of his own. Then we all went over to Food Basics and bought some stuff. Food good. Then we hung out outside and listened to Jared's cell-phone ring tones while Esmee went to try to do something about silk an a t-shirt and such. But yeah.

I haven't put an image on here in a while...*finds one*















Look at THAT! Some guy painted it. Nifty!

But class is almost over...I should hit the boards.

I'll be back later.

Until next time,
I have tape.
~Kataron

Smack My Bitch Up

Well, folks, Ryan's already going off and trying to make a new blog layout for me. And he's doing a damn fine job of it. You can see his work...

here...

http://test-of-fire.blogspot.com/

So give me questions, comments, anything like that. Do you guys like the layout? 'cause I'm mostly just writing it, not so much reading it, you guys are the ones doing that. So I need your opinions on it. I think it looks damn good so far.

I was fond of my old layout for a long time, but now I've seen it in too many other places, it's too...cookie-cutter. I need something new, something to distinguish me from the other blogs. No other blog should have the same layout as the Katablog! Man I need a life...Ah well.

The last couple days I've been paying more attention to my blog than my forum, but I intend to pop a few more race histories onto there this afternoon, as well as possibly a contiuation of the Doomed Hero story. And maybe, maybe I'll post more about the Shadow story. I've got a bunch more written down about it, more than I've put on the forum, so yeah. Characters, events, all that jazz.

Oh! For some reason that reminds me, I had the most insane dream last night. I was stuck in a cabin in the woods somewhere with the Cudney family. Seth, Scott (though not technically a member of the family), and his parents. His sister was absent for whatever reason. And I don't know why I was there. But that's besides the point. We were besieged by zombies! And they were people I know, too. Charlotte was there, and...umm...some other people I've seen around...Most of them I didn't actually know. And the Mythbusters, Adam and the other one were there. And then Ryan showed up, through the window! The zombies weren't very good at sieging the cabin, and we had some guns, so when they showed up, we shot them in the head. But anyways, Ryan showed up through a window. I asked him if he was a zombie, he said no, so I let him in. Then some of his friends came through the door. For whatever reason, there were numerous magnum revolvers in the cabin, as well as a rather large shotgun called a 'Decemberist'. So we held off the zombies for a while, but then they broke in. I forget how. The Cudneys left in a van, and I have no idea what happened to Ryan and his friends, but I presume they escaped. That left me to deal with the zombies. But luckily, they were incredibly mellow zombies. I hung out with some of them and talked for a while. One of the ones that I hung out with was zombie Charlotte. They looked just like normal people, and could talk and everything. It was weird. Then one of them bit me, finally, but it didn't hurt much. Then we went to attack a city, then I woke up. Good times.

It was odd...And apparently, Rick had a sex dream with me in it. Odd, I know, but I was just in the car with a friend of mine (presumably Ryan, though Ryan can't drive. But Rick's dream didn't know that), and we drove him to a place with lots of naked ladies. wooooooooo.

But yeah. Today in philosophy, there's two seminars. One on beauty, which I'm sort of interested in, and one about free will and fate, which I'm quite interested in. Plus, that one's done by Kerry. Kerri. I have no idea how to spell his name. But he's in both of my classes, and pretty cool. But yeah, so that's all we're doing there today. I guess I can get a few more race histories done while listening to the presentations, and I should probably start on the homework that's due tomorrow. I so rarely do the homework...Which makes tests difficult. Except yesterday's, that was hella-easy, but I did spend all morning studying. *shrug*

And my seminar seems to be set for the 19th. For some reason, I thought it was the 15th, but it turns out that's a Saturday. Crazy, huh?

Oh, and on Urban Dead, I finally caught that horrid PK'er, BGolan. He was sitting in the Garniss building with the dead bodies of Scott Boone and Eldest right there. That bastard! I killed him good, but needed to dump all the bodies in order to prevent the PK'er from rising as a zombie and having actual reason to kill us...But alas, I know that I will now be targetted by his PK'ing stupidness. But it was a small price to pay to fill his ass full of bullets. It felt goooooooooood. I barely hunt for zombies anymore, I'm too distracted to make good hunts. But lately I've spent a lot of time looking for this guy so I could shoot him in the face. *grins*

But anyways, please everybody check out the other blog layout. I'll be forcing people there during Engineering to get their input, so yeah. And thank you, Ryan. You window-hopping-through driving-Rick-and-I-to-Sex-Places Dream-Guy, you. Wow that sounded odd.

Until next time,
Did...Did you hear that? That parrot just told me to sod off. *cocks shotgun*
~Kataron

Again?!

Yeah...Back again for post number four. I don't know why, but I just don't really feel like working on my forum much.

Anyways, I wanted to give you guys a link that Mitch gave me yesterday, regarding iPods. Now, I've never liked them, and perhaps that bias is why I liked this article so much, but yeah.

Linkage!

Jared and Wyatt weren't particularly pleased with it. Ah well, who cares about their opinions? Well, I guess Wyatt holds a bit of sway, but since I highly doubt either of them are going to get around to reading this blog post, *shrug*. I've always been irritated with the lower-case 'i' of the product. Surprisingly, Jared wasn't bothered by this. I was surprised, but then I realized that we both have our own forms of obsessive compulsion. But anyways, it irritated the hell out of me.

Just like that Mcdonald's slogan "i'm loving it". Either their shift key is broken, or they're trying to seem different. Either way, it irritates the fucking hell out of me. Why the fuck wouldn't you use proper grammar and punctuation?!

Honestly, it's just as bad as so many kids today using those goddamn internet short-forms. Oh, YOU KNOW THE KIND. Those little fuckers that might have a sentence without a single actual word in it, if you could even call that a sentence. The only short-form I would condone to use is the 'brb' one. Be right back, just because it is probably the most commonly used. Even I use it. But those people that have to shorten absolutely everything...

And what the fuck is up with people using numbers instead of letters? 'any1'? What the fuck? And hell, I doubt they'd even properly use 'any'. Bastard fucking kids these days. Lazy as hell. And hey, there's nothing wrong with being lazy, but when it makes you look like an uneducated cyber jackass, you might just have a problem. I tend to just block people that talk like that. But it's worse when you're playing on-line games, then you just can't avoid them. They're everywhere. Everywhere you go, there's somebody talking to you, somebody that has no idea how to spell the word grammar, let alone follow it. Somebody that is just too lazy to use punctuation. Those hideous short-forms.

That's what I liked about Mordor. People used PROPER English there. It was good. Hell, we even bitched out the people that didn't use proper English. Good times.

But anyways, I need to go through my archives now and find old quotes to use for advertisements.

Until next time,
Since when can Jared afford a cell phone?
~Kataron

What?! 500 already?!

Well, ladies, gents, and none of the above, today seems to bring us post number five-hundred. I'm certainly impressed with myself.

But as I note that I'm trying to post as much as ever, my readership seems to be slowly shriveling. So, to remedy the immediate situation, I have launched a new wave of advertisements. Huzzah! But since my last advertisement scheme was so cruelly shot down by the administration, I have refrained from putting anything on the walls this time, and I'm avoiding some of the more...profane advertisements. Just comical things I've said in the past. Like..."Do you have any idea how hard it is to think like a plant?" and the like. I've even avoided some of Jared's favourite quotes. But since they can't censor the internet, I can put them up on here.

One of Jared's favourite quotes of mine goes as follows:

I felt a pang of emotion once...But then I finished carving the baby.

Or something along those lines. Good times...I'm not entirely sure why or when I said that, but Jared copied it for a quote, so I don't care.

Anyways, I'm not really sure what else to discuss on this post. This marks my third of the day, and number five-hundred...When I hit a year, I decided to go through my archives and read all of my mistakes in the past year, but that proved to be too time-consuming, so I gave up. For post five hundred, I will give you...well, five hundred is a big number....umm...Yeah, let's go with however many reasons I can think of, that you should read this blog.

1. Kataron is awesome.
2. Many comical things are said here.
3. Sometimes it's serious. Usually not, but occasionally.
4. I tackle whatever issues I happen to come across or give a damn about.
5. My grammar doesn't suck, contrary to the opinion of one damn hippie.
6. I've been at this for a very long time.
7. Honestly, do you have anything better to do?
8. I take suggestions for topics.
9. I actually read every comment I get.
10. Hate mail makes me laugh.
11. I write stories.
12. I review things when I can't think of anything else to write about.
13. If I have five hundred posts, and still have loyal readers, I must be doing something right.
14. I'm addicted to caffeine.
15. Quite frankly, I'm better than you are.

Well, that's fifteen reasons you should read my blog...I'll come up with more later, maybe, but for now I tired of listing reasons.

So let's discuss something else. The definition of "hippies".

Dictionary.com says that hippy, also known as hippie means the following:

"A person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society, especially one who advocates extreme liberalism in sociopolitical attitudes and lifestyles."

Leslie today at lunch claimed not to be a hippie. Yes, any of you that know her understand how simply insane that statement is. But no, in her mind she is an 'activist'.

So let's clear a few things up, on just what a hippie is.

If you don't eat meat because you feel sorry for the animals that were bred to die, you are a HIPPIE.

If you are a vegan, you are a HIPPIE.

If you protest frequently or just more than rarely, you are a HIPPIE.

If you have a shaved head and are female, you're probably a HIPPIE.

If you love drugs and sex without any sort of emotional commitment, you're probably a HIPPIE.

If you worry about where your coffee beans are coming from, or adamantly try not to wear any brand name labels, you are a HIPPIE.

If you are a member of PETA, or even support their insane and terrorist actions, you are a HIPPIE.

And I think that about covers it...So if you, dear readers, fall into these categories, please slap yourself until you stop your nonsense. Or better yet, get somebody else to do it. They won't go easy on you until you've given up your hippie douchedom. If you're going to be a dirty dirty hippie, at least admit that it's what you are. Don't try to make yourself seem like something somehow better, calling yourself an activist because it makes it sound like you're active in change. You're not, you're just a bunch of damn dirty hippies. You complain about things, irritate people, then go smoke up and proceed to do more stupid things. So please, do yourselves a favour...Go buy some brand name clothes, get a decent job, cut your fucking hair (grow it if female), and lay off the drugs and shitty music. You fucking hippies.

*deep breath*

Sorry 'bout that, folks. Hope I didn't offend too many of you. Well, unless you are a hippie, then I really don't give a shit about your opinion, nor does anybody else.

And with that, you have post number five-hundred.

Until next time,
Sexual innuendos make the world go round.
~Kataron

Doomed Hero: Another Chapter

OOC: Now, if we all remember, the hero was just about to get into a bar-fight. Yay! You can also read the story in full on my forum.

~~~start~~~

Sighing, Kataron grabbed the hilt of his sword and raised it from its sheath, showing off the dark blade, hoping to deter the other patrons of the bar from attacking. When they continued forward, Kataron replaced the sword within the sheath. It would hardly be a good bar fight if he used his sword against unarmed opponents, after all.

A veteran of such fights, Kataron assumed a defensive stance and waited for the closest one to reach him. There were about five in total, and all looked like they were no strangers to barfights themselves. Ducking as the first one reached him and tried to punch at him, Kataron dodged the attack and returned with an uppercut, sending the man back into his friends and pushing them back slightly. As he recovered, the man was pushed forward again by his friends. This time, he was not in control of his speed, and Kataron knelt down to put his shoulder at the man's chest level as he was pushed into him, and hit back with his shoulder, grabbing the man and pushing him over himself and dumping him on the floor behind him.

The other four looked more wary at this point, as it became clear to them that they were not up against a mere amateur. Seeing one reach for a dagger at his belt, Kataron charged and put both hands together to smash into his stomach, sending him backwards and knocking the wind out of him. The other three stood back, as if waiting for Kataron to finish. As the man began to get his breath back, Kataron picked up a chair and smashed it into his back, knocking him flat on the floor and unconcious.

Looking between each other, the other three then charged Kataron in unison. Jumping on top of one of the tables to avoid being bashed into, Kataron looked around the tavern. Most of the other patrons had fled, but the one seated next to the fireplace had put down his book and was now watching the fight intently. The three men tipped the table as he was distracted by looking around the bar, and sent him toppling to the floor. Rolling and landing on his feet, Kataron immediately charged the nearest of them, and bringing his knee into the man's stomach. As he doubled over in pain, Kataron quickly brought his elbow down to the back of the man's head, sending him down to the floor with his two companions. With three down and two remaining, Kataron was surprised when he saw a fist flying towards him at incredible speed. With only seconds to think, he could not avoid it, and was knocked backwards into a table, which he subsequently crashed into and broke in half.

The larger of the two remaining men grinned as he rubbed his fist, and brought out a large axe. The smaller one pulled out two daggers, and followed his companion as they approached Kataron. Kataron was coming to his sense just after his collision with the table when he saw an axe coming down at him. This time ready for it, Kataron rolled forward, between the large man's legs, and reached out as he rolled, grabbing the man's ankles and bringing him to the floor. The man grunted and started to stand when Kataron gave him a quick kick to the face, rendering him unconcious.

The one remaining opponent gave out a low murmer, dropped both of his daggers, and fled the bar. He would later tell his friends how he had chased the man outside and down the street where he lost him in an alley.

Turning back to the bar, Kataron realized that even the bartender had fled, and that the only other patron was the lone man by the fire. The man let out a few slow claps of applause, which echoed through the empty room, before he stood and approached Kataron.

Kataron put his hand on the hilt of his sword, but knew immediately that there was something different about this one, that he wasn't a simple warrior, looking for a fight. For one, he was far too small and weak-looking. For another, his eyes glowed a dim red. The man was a mage.

"Well done," the man said,"I've been waiting a long time to see somebody beat those brutes."

~~~end~~~

And with that, I'm off to study.

Until next time,
Man...He doesn't even know he's gonna die.
~Kataron

Double Bass

Well, here we are again.

And I've realized, that I've been blogging for over a year, and still have the same background, same basic blog layout as when I started. Now, I'm well aware of the fact that I know next to nothing about HTML and making sites look pretty, but I'm sure some of you possess the knowledge. *winks at Ryan* I've seen some of your blogs *winks at Ryan again*, and I know that you can do some cool stuff. So I'm asking for the help of whoever is willing to help me fix up my blog.

We'll call the whole project...Umm...AHA!

"Let's pimp out Nate's blog. Yo."

So fitting. Well, now that we've got that out of the way, I'm accepting applications for HTML bitches and site fixers. I'd make Jared do something, but that fucker is still without internet access.

So...I managed to get in here first period, rather than just third. Again on the announcements today I heard reference to third period as fourth, and last period as fifth. Bah, I say! You can't call them all the same thing unless they have the same amount of time, says I. Each period is...What is it, an hour and fifteen minutes or whatever? Well, lunch is an hour. There's a good difference there. That's just my latest justification for it...Lunch just isn't a period, dammit.

But anyways...I have a philosophy test next period. *bangs head on desk in frustration* I don't want to do it. We're talking about all sorts of different philosophers and their views on permanence and change, and what they think the world in general is built out of. Thales of Miletus believes its all about water, Anaximander believes there's another substance that makes that up too, and Heraclitus believes that fire is the shit. Then there's Pythagoras...That crazy motherfucker thinks numbers are everything. And 'one' is some sort of divine number. Crazy bastard.

Anyways, I think that's mostly what the test is on...Plus Plato and Aristotle. And some Chinese philosopher that I keep forgetting the name of. I should do fine.

Cypher is about to end its current round, and then we're all back to square one. This is when things get interesting between the higher-ranking players. They all try to outhack each other to be rank one when it all comes down. Rank one, best I can tell, gets the beginning computer named after him or her. So if I got number one, it'd be a Katasomething. Something like that. Yeah.

Anyways, I'm not sure what else there is to talk about...But I don't want to move on to forum stuff, so I'm going to keep blathering about this and that...I really need more people to check out my forum. Right now Ryan is my only real reader, and Wyatt's made one post when I loaded up the site on his computer in Engineering.

To those of you that just can't remember,

http://p103.ezboard.com/bkataronia

is the url. Go there, read of my world, commentate, and give me your ideas. I needs them.

Yesterday I did some work on documenting the wars, and created a few new races. I also have some story ideas on there that I wouldn't mind comments on. Oh, and I actually did the next chapter of my Doomed Hero story, but just put it up there. I'll copy that out onto here, I guess...I might as well do that now, then go do a few minutes of studying before the test.

Until next time,
I challenge you father!
~Kataron

One-Winged Angel

Well, Nate back. Sorry I didn't really get on to post over the weekend. I had meant to, but then...Resident Evil 4. Sooo good. I beat it on Saturday. Good times.

The story and dialogue of the game were both good, but the dialogue could have used a bit of tweaking at certain parts. But man, Leon was suave.

Anyways, there was a few things I wanted to cover...

One from Friday, about hippies. I know I've said it before, over and over again, but I fucking hate hippies. Leslie turned a discussion about security cameras into a debate about police officers. She talked about how they're mostly power-thirsty jerks that just want to screw with people, but then everybody else in the class argued. It all started when she complained about getting arrested for trespassing because of video camera footage. Doesn't that just infuriate you? No, not that she got arrested. If that part infuriates you, you either are her, or you're just a dumbass. No, the part that infuriates me was that she complained about getting punished for doing something bad. She knew she was trespassing, she knew that it was illegal, and she's complaining about getting caught and punished for it? What the fuck. That's what I hate about hippies. They're constantly complaining about everything, and quite often breaking the law, and when they get punished for what they did wrong, they complain more. I can understand complaints if you didn't know that you were doing anything wrong or some such thing, but these people generally know exactly what they're doing, and they do it anyway. That just bugs me.

So anyways, she basically spent the rest of the period bashing cops while we disagreed with her. Her opinion is just biased because she's done so many things wrong, and gotten in trouble with the law. Then she complains about cops judging her and assuming that she's doing something wrong. Well, congrats, you've done enough things wrong that they do. There's nothing wrong with that. If you've done enough shit to know their names and badge numbers, then you've been doing a lot of things wrong.

But anyways, that's my anti-hippies rant for today...

Now moving onto my anti-administration rant.

Don't you just hate when you're expected to follow rules that nobody in five years has explained to you? Having left our stuff under the stairs as we frequently do, we wandered a bit, and returned to see Ms. Burns walking away with our stuff. What the fuck? When we got down to the office and waited for ten minutes for her to get to us, she told us that we can't leave ou r things unattended anywhere in the school. Apparently that's a rule now. One that nobody has told me at any point in my five years of attending this school. So then we had to identify our things in order to get them back. Which was also dumb. Because she, of course, knew who they belonged to. Who else spends time there during first period, who else did she see there earlier, who else would leave a guitar, backpack and coat down there? She knew it was ours, but required us to identify them anyway, which is an incredibly pointless system. It's a good thing Matt remembered the model number of his guitar. I just told her about the folded paper in one coat pocket and the change in the other, and the things in the outer pocket of my coat. Apparently she had just been, or was just about to be, going through them in order to try to find identification. *unpleasant look* I don't like the thought of anybody, especially the VP, going through MY backpack to try to find identification. That's my personal space, that's where I keep my journals, my notebooks, everything that's important to me that I need at school. I don't like the thought of some strangers, especially one on a power trip, going through it to try to find out who I am. If we left our stuff there, then we goddamn know that we left it there, and we'll be back for it. And she already fucking knew to whom they belonged. God, I hate the administration of this school.

*deep breath*

But that's about it for now, I want to get some forum-hopping done before class.

Until next time,
Now it's clearly labelled on my backpack "Nate Effin' Morse". No confusion there!
~Kataron