Dear Irish Christians

Dear Irish Christians,

I know I’ve not always been pleasant to you, and I’m sorry about that, but lets face it, your old and new books, as well as the weird old men that have never had a family, yet who are supposed to be listened to as some sort of relevant authority on the matter, tell you (and in many cases DEMANDS of you) that it’s ok to do unspeakably horrible things to people like me and people I love and care for. It’s hard not to take that personally if I’m honest.

That Jesus guy had some brilliant ideas – treat people how you want to be treated yourself and forgive them when they don’t. No right thinking person can argue that’s not a good outlook to have in life, but unfortunately so few of you seem to understand that.

But if any of you actually agree with the sort of message being sent out in the ad in the image below, then give me a heads up and I can just remove you from my life because if you think for even one second that this sort of hate speech being made in your name is ok, I sincerely don’t want to know you.

You have institutes and “churches” who’s outlook on life is 100% incompatible with a modern, smart, “live and let live” society. Most of us sensible people stopped being afraid of women and alt sexuality or alt gendered people a long time ago – what possible threat do they pose to us? If you stopped clinging onto this perversion of thought that something written in a book over a thousand years ago and that has been corrupted and wilfully misinterpreted to further the ends of deplorable and despicable humans, you would realise that you’re not under attack, it’s only your bigotry that is. You can be a Christian and not be a bigot. In fact, one might suggest that the whole point about being a Christian is to NOT be a bigot and not mistreat others. If they are sinners, then it’s up to your god to deal with them – and he said he would – so you don’t need to worry about it.

It’s a new year and here in Ireland we face a referendum for Marriage EQUALITY in a few months – not marriage breakdown or change or anything of the sort. Equality. The people who put out the ad below seem to be deeply afraid of this. If two consenting adults want to get married and reap the personal, emotional, spiritual and legal benefits of that union, who are you to stop them? If a non-heterosexual couple pays the same taxes, water charges, property taxes, universal social charges, raises their children with your’s, sends them to the same schools as your’s, etc, etc, etc, then what possible justification does any state or organisation have to deny them one of the few positives, as your equals, when they already share in all of the negatives (and then some – you’re not risking getting legally kicked out of your job if you happen to work for an organisation that for some bizarre reason is allowed to ignore employment equality law because bishops).There is literally nothing that a same sex couple getting married can do to you or your own marriage except maybe to show you how to have a fabulous wedding reception.

Mná na hÉireann, remember when you had to quit your job when you got married? Remember how you were legally your husband’s property and he could more or less beat and rape you without fear of reprimand because the law supported his “right” of ownership? Remember how we changed that and literally everyone with half a brain looks back at those legalities as barbaric? That was only 40 years ago, in another 30, those of you who object to marriage equality now will be seen as the barbarians. That’s already happening. Just imagine if you were born in an Islamic country, you’d still have to fight those fights and your outlook wouldn’t look good. Please remember, 90% of you are only Christian by virtue of geography and not divine intervention.

There was marriage LONG before we had Christianity and there will probably be marriage long after we finally transcend the need to create stories about the universe’s foundings (and hey, even the Pope has come out and said The Big Bang makes the most sense because SCIENCE). The time has already come when we don’t need to frighten people with the idea of a lifetime of punishment if you don’t adhere to what was once thought of as a pretty solid moral code – we’re all wayyy to smart to fall for that as a control mechanism anymore (note, I’m not denying the possibility of heaven and hell, but you have to admit, it’s the sort of thing that would frighten the shite outta those who weren’t smart enough to see past it and we’ve still got a pretty decent education system in Ireland despite ourselves). If the institutions and weird old men weren’t so afraid of losing their grip of power (and they already are), they’d have been properly teaching you all how to talk directly to your god a long time ago and would have removed themselves as the inefficient middle management types that they are. I’ve spoken to him, he seems like the godly equivalent of a nice but busy CEO and I’m pretty sure he’d listen if you needed to get a hold of him, but remember, as a rule, he generally helps those that help themselves.

Sound of Sodomy

So look at this picture. If the content of this ad represents how you really think, then I’ll light a candle for you and hope that you stop hating in either this life (ideally) or your next lives. The reaction today has been to get the word sodomy trending on Twitter to show the world just how pathetic we think this sort of hate speech is and how hilarious it is that actual adult humans with houses and cars and bank accounts and the ability to breed would put out a message like this as though something bad is about to happen to their children because we want to treat all people as people.

Lets not mention the hundreds? thousands? of children that were actually and definitely abused and killed and dumped in septic tanks or homes or delivered into lifetimes of physical and mental anguish at the hands of the most prevalent of Christian sects in Ireland.

Lots of love,

Dav

PS: Lets finish with some music from the delightful Garfunkel and Oates (and a shout out to Ciarán for reminding me of the name of thise tune).

What’s It Gonna Be? Episode 4 – 800 Babies

What’s It Gonna Be returns with Episode 4 – 800 Babies.

What's It Gonna Be? 800 Babies
What’s It Gonna Be? Episode 4: 800 Babies

Our introduction comes from the late Maya Angelou who talks about the impact of the death of her childhood abuser had on her.

Some of the highlights from this episode:

We mention Solar Roadways. It seems pretty damn cool.  Then there was the article saying it’s a terrible idea.

When we get into talking about the latest atrocity from Tuam, Neal read’s from this article  on Irish Central.

Our first musical interlude is Big Black’s Jordan, Minnesota. You can read the harrowing story that inspired the song here.

The World That Never Was by Alex Butterworth is the book that mentions the telepathic snails.  My Tank Is Fight is the SA Goon book that also got mentioned.

Here’s the startrek.com article on the episode “Darmok” – Sokath, his eyes uncovered!

Our second musical break is Rage Against The Machine’s Born As Ghosts.

In our discussion about the education system, this RSA Animations video based on a lecture given by Sir Ken Robinson is the one Dav was talking about.

The International – DOTA2’s annual event. m prize pool and counting…

You have to watch Time Trumpet and 15 Storeys High.

Article about Brian Harvey running himself over (sorry about linking to the Daily Fail).

We wrap up the cast with Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) taken from the film The Wall

Music:

The PC has been completed

Spec List:

  • ASRock Z68 Extreme4
  • Intel Core i5 2500k (running at stock)
  • Thermalright Extreme 120
  • 8 GB Kingston Hyper X Ram
  • 2 X Sapphire Radeon 6950 1GB graphics in Crossfire
  • Asus Xonar D2X soundcard
  • 480 GB Crucial M500 SSD (OS + App drive)
  • 2 X Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB
  • Western Digital Green 2TB
  • Western Digital 500GB
  • Seasonic M12 700 PSU
  • Nanoxia Deep Silence 1

The Graphics cards are showing their age a bit and Titanfall has massive issues with things in Crossfire.  I’m dying to get stuck into Battlefield 4 tonight as SSD’s and Windows 8 are supposed to give a nice performance boost.

Now, some pics…

PC Upgrades

Any time you get to upgrade your tech is a good time!

I was holding off for the longest time on getting a Solid State Disk.  Mostly price was preventing me committing to it – I didn’t want a small drive so was aiming for around the 500GB mark.

This week a 480GB Crucial M500 arrived and only cost me €200.14 so thank you very much!  Last time I was seriously looking at one, they were €300 and that was only a few months ago.

I’ve also got a copy of Windows 8.1 to install too, so it’ll be a clean slate for the PC.

This weekend will see a transplant of all parts into the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 I purchased ages ago (I had intended a much faster upgrade path, but life got in the way).

Pics will follow 🙂

Music!

I’ve been neglecting you my blog.  Quick post to share my Last.fm profile so anyone who’s interested can see what it is I’m listening to and maybe pick up some recommendations.  I’ve also stuck a Last.fm widget on to the menu there on the right so you should see the last few things I’ve been listening to.

Thoughts on the Titanfall Beta

Like a lot of people, I spent the weekend playing the Titanfall beta. My first impressions are that it’s a really good game.

So what makes it so?

Well it’s got that “pick up and play” friendliness that CoD does so well.   Not surprising of course given the people making it are the people who brought us CoD (some time ago, these people worked for Infinity Ward, had a big bust up with Activision, then left to start their own studio called Respawn who make Titanfall).

I wrote this on Boards about it:

A shotgun is very, very blappy and will usually take everyone out with a decent player who’s patient enough to wait for that moment to pull the trigger.

The carbine is solid too, I’m a bigger fan of the SMG myself but I tend to be in these sorts of games. You won’t do well if you’re just spraying bullets everywhere though with it, so it’s not like you’re just pissing bullets out for an easy kill.

The smart pistol is grand, but now that I’m up a few levels, and I’m guessing the game’s matchmaking is based on this as all the people I play against seem to be a minimum of 9 or 10 (I’m now 14), no one seems to be using it, so maybe it’s already been relegated to noob tube status. I think it’s an interesting weapon to have put in though and I’m curious to see what more comes from it.

Hit detection seems to be really good, so I’ve never felt like I’ve been “cheated” of a kill or that I’ve been unfairly taken out.

There’s a definite skill to be learned about how to fight in titans. Never try a 1 on 1 if you’re damaged, you’re better off backing off and finding a friendly Titan buddy. 2 on 1 is where it’s at, 3 on 1 is just messy 

Someone mentioned the AI were kinda like creeps in MOBAs and that’s a perfect description. They’re there to help you speed up your titan’s activation and some of the weapon unlocks and “challenges” are tied to killing certain creep types (grunts are humans and spectres are robots). They should provide you no challenge except when an enemy pilot appears whilst you’re reloading after catching a pile of them coming out of a drop pod 

I don’t think it unfair to suggest that if you enjoy CoD, you’re probably going to enjoy this. It’s very accessible, it’s very fun for “pick up and play” in exactly the same way I always thought CoD was (and I don’t mean to suggest that there’s no complexity to high level CoD, but it’s a very “casual” friendly game). There are definitely some comparisons to be drawn with Tribes Ascend too in terms of how the movement is, but Brink is probably the closest example for that. It takes some adjusting to get into it, but you can see that someone who’s competent with the jumping and wall running etc will out-class someone who isn’t in a 1v1.

This game won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it’s got a broad appeal and it does what it does very well. It should sell well and for XBone owners, you probably won’t see a better “arcade” shooter for some time.

I can definitely see myself playing quite a bit of this when it comes out. If anyone’s on the fence, I can only urge you to get in on the beta to help you make up your mind.

Rather than retyping my thoughts which haven’t really changed in the 2 days since I wrote this piece.  Generally, the responses I’ve seen to the game have been very positive.  Activision/Infinity Ward (what’s left of them)/Treyarch will undoubtedly be worrying.  CoD Ghosts was simply put appalling.  I was fortunate enough to receive a gift copy from a friend who works in Demonware and I’m glad I didn’t pay for it.  It was (and still is afaik) completely broken.  It’s been universally panned by die hard CoD fans and I think it shows that the real talent left IW when Zampella and West were fired (details here in a good write up by Euro Gamer).

I’m looking forward to the final release, based on what I’ve played with the Beta, it’s going to be a fun game.

Small victories

I’ve been told to make more of small victories as they all add up.  Well this morning I had something of a minor victory in that I was successful in getting out of bed on time .

That will seem really strange to most of you I’m sure, but getting out of bed is the hardest thing I do every day.  I suffer and struggle with depression on a daily basis and this first battle of the day usually determines how the rest of the day goes.

Today I won. I hope I do tomorrow too, but I can never say for certain.