Raithe

First we have to get people to agree on what an "assault rifle" actually is. After all, it's not hunting if you can't have an extended clip and easily scalable fully automatic weapons throwing hot copper enshrouded lead at x rounds per second..

This seems to be a really hard topic to have a conversation about without both sides running to extremes and/or bringing politics into it. Are there any moderate areas or compromise issues between the far sides on it?

Well they've announced the first expansion : http://www.swtor.com/rothc And if you're a subscriber, it costs half. Or, if you're not a subscriber it costs double. Depending on which way you look at it... Edit: Oh yes, and if you pre-order before Jan 7th, you get 5 days early access to the content...

Hm, one of those rare moments when I have the house to myself (well, if you don't include the dogs and cat). Decorations are all up and sorted. Mom's at a lengthy hospital/doctors appointment checkup. Having a bit of grr thoughts over the girl I can't seem to get over, and thinking that after a year of "work" as such, while I know that intellectually it's given me things like stuff on my cv, and references, it hasn't actually given me anything "solid". So all sorts of effort, but nothing to really show for it. Having that slightly odd head space, so trying to distract myself with various assorted random things.

Well, if the gun control laws are unlikely to be changed, would it be worthwhile to have all teachers go through a basic firearms awareness/handling course so they know the limits, the safety, and provide a more thorough grounding of knowledge regarding firearms then what you get through tv and movies? Also, would it be useful to run the kids through a mandatory "safety" lessons, and show examples of what happens when you shoot off a gun to reinforce that real life isn't like the movies?

The bit thats grating on me lately is if my connection gets disrupted while I'm playing. My server lag will slowly start climbing and exceed 200,000 ms .. I will have a nice shiny red x saying my connection is not in existence. And then it does nothing but leave me there. Unless I Alt-F4 and quit the game that way, I can't actually do anything.

Shuffling around today doing various pieces of shifting, carrying work for my mother, and dealing with the dogs. Can't seem to focus on other work at the moment, not sure whether it's seasonal thing, christmas mood, or complete procrastination for various reasons. Think I might just try running some TOR for an hour and see what my headspace is like then.

On the film news, potential Tron follow-up http://collider.com/...osinski/217942/

Its pretty much the earth landing, I think there were some minor tweaks to how it ran, but the big differences were when you hit the beam of light to go up to the citadel.

I guess one of those things thats kind of odd, is that Hollywood regularly produces films where the "odd kid" is the hero, and all the jocks and cheerleaders, and the popular kids who inflict on everyone else their own views and insistence of "being normal" are the bullies and villains.. That's accepted as the general view of high school by the media, and people watch these films and enjoy them... But then it's still the whole thing that in real life in high school that the "odd kid" is to be bullied and pressured, and generally given hell. So it's recognised that it happens, but the social encouragement is still to see the jocks and cheerleaders as the top dogs that everyone should respect and allow to pressure other kids. I'd say there's a definite gap in the social / culture aspect here. Or is that a slightly warped view from the distance?

I have to admit I've been pretty much enjoying the solo-able story content for the classes. Sure there are flaws, but there's a fair bit thats entertaining. The mmo-aspect is something I haven't been hugely into, although the casual chat with friendly guildmates and providing each other the occasional help/advice/crafting gear does add a bit more social side to normal game-playing. PvP has its moments of fun, but I couldn't see myself spending hours on it. It's something to just do the occasional dabble on to have a break from story-content. I guess I just have a different mindset to the majority of mmo-folks.

Back to the Scary Solstice... http://youtu.be/w7cHskDDzrk

I think the figure I saw the other day was that there are 88.8 owned, legal guns per 100 citizens in the USA. Although that was from a QI thing. But they're usually quite good with research....

And the comment going around that's being attributed to Morgan Freeman to add that other perspective..

Watched the 25th Anniversary Phantom of the Opera blu-ray. Shot during the performance at the Royal Albert Hall, nicely done. And at the end, they had a showing of the original London cast, along with a grouping of the "best" Phantoms in the role.

While there have been enough Gangnam style adaptions.. this one must be honoured with a mention: A Nasa version.... with dancing astrophysicists. http://youtu.be/2Sar5WT76kE

A Very Scary Solstice? That's a good album. Don't know why but it's being a hard saturday to start. Aimless procrastination on everything, and I can't seem to keep thoughts focused today for any serious time.

The other side of that is the amount of people per square mile... I remember a few years back some American Congressman got in a whole heap of trouble for pushing up statistics and basically saying that the UK had move violent crime then America, so the US of A was a great nation and people shouldn't go to the UK on holiday. It turned out that all of his statistics were based on "non-gun related crimes" and were based around "population per square mile". Which when you take into account the kind of large non-urban areas in America compared to the UK, and average out those statistics... Just goes to show that old saying of "lies, damn lies, and statistics"

I guess one example is the issue of knife control here in the UK. Since we don't really have such a big issue of guns, the majority of violent crime tends to be done with blades of various sorts and clubs/bludgeoning weapons. Over the last decade, there have been stricter and stricter laws about the size of blades you can carry with you. Nowadays, nearly any form of penknife will get you in trouble if the police have any reason to search you and find it on you. Hell, you can't even use the excuse of being a scout or such like. They aren't allowed to carry penknives around, and when on camping trips the scout master hands them out, then has to collect them back at the end of the event and put them in a lock box. Every few years the government runs a "hand in knives" event of some sort, where they establish "safe bins" that people can go to and dump any "illegal knives" into with complete safety from prosecution, which then get taken away to be destroyed. Personally, I think it has gone just a touch silly, but it's one of those processes. Plus, it makes it a pain about carrying my katana to and from dojo.

Ackbarition (noun): The unshakeable feeling that somehow, some way, what you are just about to walk into is a trap.

From the cheap seats that I have over here in the UK, I'm aware that there are a whole slew of various restrictions on the types of firearms that can be picked up in the US and also carry laws. Although certain specifics can vary wildly between states. In some states its legal to get "concealed carry" licenses, in others if you're carrying a gun its legal as long as its in view, but if you hide it under your jacket you have legal problems if found. I seem to recall a few things about certain hunters agitating for access to fully automatic weapons, which suggests that they aren't casually available. Of course, at the same time if you know what you're doing, it's not that hard to convert certain types of semi-automatic weapons to fully automatic. Then again, if you know what you're doing, it's not that hard to turn bleach and certain household chemicals into forms of explosive... Not to say gun control isn't a needed thing, but if memory serves, in a fair few of those school shootings not all of the guns have been legally bought. So gun control laws wouldn't necessarily have prevented them, since they had gotten the weapons illegally from the get go.. Stricter gun controls can be a good thing, but the trouble is it's not going to answer all the problems behind these events.

To take a further step away from the Movie times... And the new year brings close to me : I think a night out at the theatre is called for in the New Year...

Hm, I don't suppose there's any point in talking to the HR people about "hostile working environment" then? Because that's certainly what it sounds like...

No, lawyer in anything is never a good combination...

How is this a problem? What industry is this? If I understand correctly : Female Lawyers. That is never a good combination...