Muppet Movie - The Rainbow Connection

Couldn't we use a few more rainbows.

Armageddon Expo

A life-size working Warthog truck from Halo (sans autocannon of course)

We went to a comic/video game conference in Wellington. It was pretty crowded so I only got 2 photos

The Church on Beelzebub Road

Aris looked down at his hands as the bus jostled down the highway.  He tried to imagine them clean.  He thought he could still perceive dried blood on them.  Danyul appeared to be asleep by his side.  This wasn’t true of course.  Angels didn’t sleep.  But more and more often they would close their eyes and struggle to remember why they were here and forget what they had done since they arrived.  Aris’ mind churned over the events of the last few days.  Blood… so much blood… and her face… so young.  Why?

 

Danyul’s head was tipped back with weathered, wide brim hat pulled low over his eyes.  He sensed his companion’s struggle.  Without moving he spoke, “Do we really need to talk to him?”

 

Aris snapped out of the past at the question.  His thoughts re-focused on the now and then extended to their near future.  “I think we have to try.  We always thought he would have one of them.  We just could not violate the Accord.  But the Accord can be Damned now.”  He smiled at the curse.

 

Danyul laughed and sat up.  “Damned, eh?  What else can He do to us anyway?  We are on His mission after all.  We didn’t make up these rules.”

 

“Exactly.  No one said the end of the world would be easy.”

 

“You keep telling me that.” Danyul paused.  “Do you think he’s changed?  It’s been ten thousand years here.”

 

Aris’ vision focused out to the horizon. “Haven’t we changed?”  His mind wandered backward again.  He could recall the Light, the Fall, the cold rain of reality, the sickened creation surrounding him, and the vacant hollowness of disconnection.  “ We have only been out of Grace for a few months.  I can only imagine what he is like now.”

 

“Can he die?”

 

“No.  He can never die… Maybe if he decided to repent.  But if he hasn’t yet… I don’t think he ever will.”

 

The pair sat in silence in their thread worn clothes--each pondering the looming confrontation.  The dried corn rows slid by as the bus slowly plodded down the bumpy, nearly unused highways of New England. 

 

Aris shivered at a thought.  “Do you think we’ll end up like him?”

 

Danyul felt a sick coldness in the pit of his stomach.  “No.  We are here on His Will.  We just can’t remember it.  But that’s why we need the talisman, right?”

 

“Right.”

 

The angel in the hat didn’t feel comforted.

 

The bus slowed and turned down a narrow dirt road.  The bent and faded sign read, “Beelzebub Road” and at the top of the hill stood a lonely country church--the sharp steeple a black knife in the setting sun.  A small graveyard surrounded the white building.  A tall man in priestly black stood on the church steps facing the approaching travellers.

 

Aris shifted in his seat.  “It appears irony knows no bounds.”

 

The bus lumbered to a shuddering halt squarely in front of the church.  Danyul fixed his hat on his head and stood up to grab their packs.  Aris took his long bag and followed the blond angel off the bus.  The door closed and the brakes hissed.  It drove away and left the pair behind.

 

They looked up at the priest.  A trick of the sun and the church foyer made it look like a great pair of black wings was folded behind the priest’s shadow.  His face was kind and handsome.  His hands were folded around a bible.  A modest silver crucifix hung around his neck.  Only his eyes looked old with long lashes and soft lines at the corners.  They told the story of a thousand battles, of loss and pain, of a thousand lifetimes and of immortal loss.

 

Aristiqis shifted the long bag containing his sword to a more ready position and cleared his throat.  “Hello, Lucifer.  The Trumpets have been blown.  The Seals are being opened.  We are sent to bring the end of days… and we need your help.”

 

The priest chuckled with the mirth that an old man reserves for the young.  His eyebrows rose in mock surprise, "Again?"

Friendly Tribute

For quite a while now I have been pondering a blog about my closest friends.  I often write about family, but only rarely about my friends.  I think I can spare a few bits for them.  Each of them has a quality that I admire.  Without realizing it each of them inspires me to attempt to be more like them.

Generosity

Generosity is my friend, Ben.  When I was 24 I remember Ben offering to go to the store to get his roommate brother a case of Cokes.  While a semi-small thing, that has always struck me that at any moment you could do something small but still completely selfless.  I have not always been a generous person.  But now, I always try to be like Ben--to offer to help many times more often than I don't.

Bizarre Intelligence & Intuition

My friend Asa defies description in his quality to see through befuddled scenarios and know exactly what to do.  Asa is not an educated genius, but he has mastered something we can only call "Asa Logic".  Asa Logic is nearly always unexpected--it can't always be unexpected because then it would be slightly predictable.  This works in Asa Logic.  Asa has blended intelligence, wisdom and intuition in to something unique.  When ever I am confronted with unknowable situations, I think about what would Asa do and I try Asa Logic.

Creativity

My friend Aaron is perhaps the most creative person I have ever known.  The ideas he has and the precious few things he has written are some of the most amazing things I have ever read.  But far from being wild, all his dreams have a clarity to them--a truth behind the fiction.  He is a keen observer of people and motivations.  When ever I find myself rejecting a fanciful idea, I stop and remember my friend Aaron who taught me to write down my dreams and not forget them.

Honor

My friend James taught me Honor.  James is a self-styled biker.  He works maintenance at a manufacturing plant.  He routinely is armed... with extra ammunition.  James is scornful of adversaries, but he would jump in front of bullets for his friends.  In more ways than I could describe, there can be no better friend than James.  When someone really needs my help, I hope I can be like James.

Love of Life

My friend Jon loves life.  Many people would judge him harshly for the way he lives.  But I say Jon lives one of the best lives I know.  Jon knows the comfort of home-made soup.  He knows the ease of slow days and a big couch.  Jon lives simply, but he lives well.  When I get to choose between ambition and comfort, I also consider carefullly and think of my friend Jon.

Wisdom

Wisdom is my friend Fritz.  While he may not know how much I have appreciated him, he has taught me lessons I still hold as my most valuable today.  I asked him for some advice once when I was going through my divorce.  He told me straight.  He had been through a hard divorce too.  What he had to say was hard, but it was true and it helped me through.  I never thanked him for it.  Thank you, Fritz.  If I have found any wisdom in the hardships of my life, Fritz taught me how to learn them.

Tenacity

My friend Mike taught me tenacity.  Mike can ignore all distractions, all other factors, and he will march to his goal without yielding or slowing.  He my die at the end, but so far that has not been an issue!  Mike has taught me that you can make sacrifices to make a goal.  The key is that the goal is attainable.  The rest is just managing your resources.  When sheer determination is required, I remember my friend Mike.

I have many other friends.  But these are my brothers. I remember them and try to live as they taught me even though I am far away.  I'll toast you all tonight. 

Armageddon Expo

Start:	Apr 19, '08 09:30a
End:	Apr 20, '08 6:00p
Location:	TSB Bank Arena, Wellington, NZ

Comic/Game conference
http://www.pulpexpo.com

Free Broadband and File Sharing

This issue comes up a lot in my line of work.  95% of the folks that probably read this don't care about it--you can skip it.  If you are in the 5% that know techy talk and care, you can follow my ranting.

Here's the deal folks... Network equipment and leased circuits that carry your Internet traffic are FREAKIN' EXPENSIVE.  We're talking millions of dollars for a small network (to serve say 25,000 subscribers) in both one-time equipment costs and ongoing (monthly) circuit and maintenance cost.  To say nothing of Customer Care, Sales, Marketing, etc.  I know it totally feels like it just falls out of the sky, but there are literally thousands of miles of infrastructure and probably several thousand people involved in every bit you send.  It ain't free.

The only way anyone can make money in this game is to over sell.  That is you build a network capable of 100 meg of total service and then sell 5,000 one meg connections to your subscribers.  This is entirely legitimate as most users *never* tap one meg download speeds and if they do, they don't do it very long so the sharing works out.  5,000 customer get cheap reliable Internet service and they just have to agree to share it a little.  The service provider or carrier (that's me) has to monitor the total usage and upgrade when financially viable to do so.

Lately, more and more press has be coming up criticizing carriers for limiting heavy users on their networks.  Remember that in order for the cheap bandwidth model to work it has to be shared.  When a single user consumes 20 meg of the 100 meg aggregate, the other 4,999 subscribers are forced in to sharing the rest.  Everyone's performance goes down.  The responsible provider (that's me again) has to protect the bulk of its users (you) by limited what any one consumer can monopolize.

Yes, your equipment can peak out at 10 meg a second.  But that is NOT guaranteed to you 24x7.  If it were *guaranteed* then my 100 meg network would have to be a 50,000 meg network to physically guarantee that my 5,000 subscribers would *always* have their 10 meg peek available.  This network will, in fact, cost 1,000 times as much as the 100 meg network.  Soooo... if you were paying $40 a month for service before, you are going to have to pay $40,000 a month for it.

What? You can't afford $40,000 for high speed guaranteed porn, pirated movies, pirated songs and pirated software?  What? You don't do any of those things?

Of course not.  Most consumers don't do those things and because of this, they have reduced bandwidth needs.  The ability to burst occasionally is all you need.  It is only the 10% that "demand" their traffic be treated "fairly".  By fairly, they mean exclusive of anyone else's rights to use or the carrier to make any profit on it at all.  They are also screaming for this free and fair access so they can pirate their weaselly guts out.

This hypocrisy knows no bounds.  To pound the table about how it isn't "right" to restrict their bandwidth while they break the law, steal anything they can download and degrade network peformance for all.  Now even in that 10% there are relatively few who are the grossest offenders.  These individual literally down load terabytes of stolen software and media.  They do it for no reason other than bragging rights about their access to anything.  Many of these same individuals also download the vilest porn you can't imagine--often this stuff is deplorably illegal.  The good news here is that this type of traffic is easy to identify on the network.  As a carrier I can categorize it and shunt it off to rate-limited links that allow it, but keep it off the 100 meg shared by everyone (this isn't exactly how it works, but it is easier to explain this way).

Now I am a fair minded guy.  I do not care what weirdness you are in to.  The Internet has a place for you.  Go for it.  Do whatever you can do.  But you can not expect the rest of society to pay for your terabyte downloading habits.  This traffic needs to be controlled and should be controlled.  I do not even suggest that it should be banned--only restricted so that it can not overwhelm the rest of the network.  That is what carriers are doing today and they should.  The individuals that are banding together to some how legislate against the carriers are arguing that their right to download illegal media and software supersedes your right to affordable Internet access.  If you force a carrier to allow all traffic "unlimited" then that carrier is going to have upgrade and pass on the cost to you the 90% user who never (or rarely) taps their full line and never (or rarely) indulges in file sharing.

Go download what ever you conscious allows, but don't be dumb and make your carrier charge you more because of a small number of abusers.

Free Broadband and File Sharing

This issue comes up a lot in my line of work.  95% of the folks that probably read this don't care about it--you can skip it.  If you are in the 5% that know techy talk and care, you can follow my ranting.

Here's the deal folks... Network equipment and leased circuits that carry your Internet traffic are FREAKIN' EXPENSIVE.  We're talking millions of dollars for a small network (to serve say 25,000 subscribers) in both one-time equipment costs and ongoing (monthly) circuit and maintenance cost.  To say nothing of Customer Care, Sales, Marketing, etc.  I know it totally feels like it just falls out of the sky, but there are literally thousands of miles of infrastructure and probably several thousand people involved in every bit you send.  It ain't free.

The only way anyone can make money in this game is to over sell.  That is you build a network capable of 100 meg of total service and then sell 5,000 one meg connections to your subscribers.  This is entirely legitimate as most users *never* tap one meg download speeds and if they do, they don't do it very long so the sharing works out.  5,000 customer get cheap reliable Internet service and they just have to agree to share it a little.  The service provider or carrier (that's me) has to monitor the total usage and upgrade when financially viable to do so.

Lately, more and more press has be coming up criticizing carriers for limiting heavy users on their networks.  Remember that in order for the cheap bandwidth model to work it has to be shared.  When a single user consumes 20 meg of the 100 meg aggregate, the other 4,999 subscribers are forced in to sharing the rest.  Everyone's performance goes down.  The responsible provider (that's me again) has to protect the bulk of its users (you) by limited what any one consumer can monopolize.

Yes, your equipment can peak out at 10 meg a second.  But that is NOT guaranteed to you 24x7.  If it were *guaranteed* then my 100 meg network would have to be a 50,000 meg network to physically guarantee that my 5,000 subscribers would *always* have their 10 meg peek available.  This network will, in fact, cost 1,000 times as much as the 100 meg network.  Soooo... if you were paying $40 a month for service before, you are going to have to pay $40,000 a month for it.

What? You can't afford $40,000 for high speed guaranteed porn, pirated movies, pirated songs and pirated software?  What? You don't do any of those things?

Of course not.  Most consumers don't do those things and because of this, they have reduced bandwidth needs.  The ability to burst occasionally is all you need.  It is only the 10% that "demand" their traffic be treated "fairly".  By fairly, they mean exclusive of anyone else's rights to use or the carrier to make any profit on it at all.  They are also screaming for this free and fair access so they can pirate their weaselly guts out.

This hypocrisy knows no bounds.  To pound the table about how it isn't "right" to restrict their bandwidth while they break the law, steal anything they can download and degrade network peformance for all.  Now even in that 10% there are relatively few who are the grossest offenders.  These individual literally down load terabytes of stolen software and media.  They do it for no reason other than bragging rights about their access to anything.  Many of these same individuals also download the vilest porn you can't imagine--often this stuff is deplorably illegal.  The good news here is that this type of traffic is easy to identify on the network.  As a carrier I can categorize it and shunt it off to rate-limited links that allow it, but keep it off the 100 meg shared by everyone (this isn't exactly how it works, but it is easier to explain this way).

Now I am a fair minded guy.  I do not care what weirdness you are in to.  The Internet has a place for you.  Go for it.  Do whatever you can do.  But you can not expect the rest of society to pay for your terabyte downloading habits.  This traffic needs to be controlled and should be controlled.  I do not even suggest that it should be banned--only restricted so that it can not overwhelm the rest of the network.  That is what carriers are doing today and they should.  The individuals that are banding together to some how legislate against the carriers are arguing that their right to download illegal media and software supersedes your right to affordable Internet access.  If you force a carrier to allow all traffic "unlimited" then that carrier is going to have upgrade and pass on the cost to you the 90% user who never (or rarely) taps their full line and never (or rarely) indulges in file sharing.

Go download what ever you conscious allows, but don't be dumb and make your carrier charge you more because of a small number of abusers.