Today I decided to look at the “What’s Hot” stream on Google+, where you see the most popular things people have posted lately. Apparently there is an uproar because some people are reposting other people’s public images without properly crediting them.
The claims are that it messes up ripples and “post stealing” is unethical.

While I don’t argue against the points Carter Gibson and other people are bringing up, I have to ask; why the fuck should it matter?

Look at me, not crediting the original poster of this image. I am a rebel.

From what I’ve seen, the main person accused of this issue is a Mr. Jason Calacanis. I really don’t see the issue. The gentleman in question did not claim the images as his own work, he merely reposted them. He didn’t share them via the “share” button supplied by Google, but does that really matter?
To me, it doesn’t matter as long as I see it. I’d rather see the image than miss it entirely. Half of the things that get posted are things found on Reddit or elsewhere on the Internet anyway. I feel that claiming that because you posted it first everyone should just share your post is just narcissistic, or something like that.

Tumblr is a good example of a community based purely around reposting other peoples works. If someone makes something new and original that is loved by the community, it is reposted a billion times to the point that the original author is forgotten. Do they yell at the top of their lungs about post stealing? No, they don’t.

To me, it doesn’t matter if someone posts the same thing as another person does, as long as people can see it. I’m willing to bet that most of the time the person who originally posted the item didn’t even make the item themselves, but rather found it on another site and thought it was worth sharing.
Even in the event that the item is 100% original, they’re sharing it on a social network site like Google+ or Tumblr because they want other people to see it. If someone else posts it themselves, that just means more people are seeing it. As long as said re-poster doesn’t take credit for the image/post, there really shouldn’t be a problem.

1. “In the butt!”
2. “I’ll be in my bunk.”
3. Anything said in the accent of Lumpy Space Princess.
4. Or as her friend Melissa (Especially this one.).
5. Inappropriately used lines from Team Fortress 2.

Well this one is another easy one to answer. My favourite soundtrack currently is the Super Meat Boy soundtrack. In fact, I like it so much I actually bought¹ the soundtrack from the website of the man who made it all.

I’m no music critic so I’m not going to try and explain the music, but I love it because it all fit the game perfectly, never gets old and some of the tracks can really get you geared up.

1. Yes, I buy music. Big shocker. Blah blah piracy.

I really miss when The Simpsons was exceptionally funny. In the over twenty years that the show has been on the air, it has evolved and usually for the better. However, in the past two or so years it feels like the show is trying too hard to be funny now. With shows like Family Guy and American Dad proving that completely random things can be funny, it feels like The Simpsons is attempting to emulate them to getting better ratings.

Hello, I am Mr. Snrub

Whenever I see a new episode, I’m left wondering what happen to my beloved show.

I’ve always been a bit iffy in regards to horoscopes; the idea that I am built around the time I am born and not the life I live or choices I make seems absurd. I have had an extremely passive interest in my horoscope since forever, now and again looking in the newspaper to see what they think life has in store for me. It’s always the same sort of thing though:

Things will happen or maybe they won’t and these will or will not invoke a feeling within you. You will maybe achieve something and money is used to buy things. You will also find true love one day. Or not.
You may be stubborn, or you might be extremely flexible in your position regarding something.

Above: Every horoscope ever.

As you go through your day you will almost always find a way to fit the horoscope around the events of your day. “Oh wow, money is used to buy things. I feel so enlightened.” you’ll say, and suddenly the entire world has condemned you. By the entire world I mean me, because seriously, if you believe a paragraph in the newspaper that changes every day yet says the same things to be something to live your life by, I worry about you.

That all being said, naturally I don’t really think horoscopes fit me. I do however, feel proud to call myself an Aries.

Well that would have to be Wolfenstein 3D. This game has been in my life for the better part of around twelve or thirteen years. Can’t be too sure. Either way, this game had not just a major impact on my idea of gaming, but on gaming itself, leading the way for other first person shooters to follow over two decades following it’s release.

I stole this image from some website because I was too lazy to take my own screenshot.

The game itself is a simple first person shooter, if not the simplest in what you do. Walk through, shoot, maybe find a key to unlock a door, move on. You could literally do nothing else. Levers were 64×64 block mazes, and graphics were basic sprites. Despite this, it has active players even today, shooting Nazis and saying Aardwolf.

It also lead me to the first real online community I became an active part in; the Wolfenstein 3D modding community. In fact, I’m still a part of that community (Though to a very minor degree; I occasionally write an article or two on Wolfing Time when I’m in the mood.), and it’s still alive today. Hundreds if not thousands of mods are available on a website called the Wolfenstein 3D Dome, all made by various members of the community over the years.
The community has done amazing things within the confines of such a primitive engine, and have even pushed it beyond it’s limits and released a completely rewritten engine to make the game playable on modern operating systems like Windows 7, on which DOS is non-existent.

Mods by members in the community continue to push the engine in amazing directions.

Wolfenstein 3D is an amazing game and although I’m not as obsessed with it as I was 6 years ago, it is still an all time favourite of mine, and probably always will be.

Being that today was consumed a little by work, I naturally wore a fashionable business pants, white shirt and gold vest combination for a few hours. Outside of work, I sported an awesome Axe Cop shirt, jeans and converses. Right now I am wearing that same shirt, a jacket and my awesomely comfortable Union Jack lounge pants.

I didn’t really see any way to dress up this particular post, so unfortunately it’s not really worth reading. If you’ve gotten up to here, I commend you.

After a few minutes of thought, I have to say Star Wars: Jedi Academy was the game that initially got me hooked. The game was played third person with aspects of first person, and had a decent single player storyline. However, it wasn’t the single player campaign that I was interested in, though it was really well done.

The shininess appealed to me as well.

I became an active player in the multiplayer aspect of the game. I was a regular on one of the more populated servers (It was so popular you couldn’t get on most of the time), and would invest hours each day in lightsaber battles or just chatting and having fun with the other people there. I got to know many people in the game and really enjoyed the sense of community. The lightsaber duel system was exceptionally fun, and given the combination of lightsaber choices¹ and the different styles of fighting that each person had, all battles were interesting and challenging.
I had so much fun that I ended up applying to be a member of the clan that ran the server I frequented, and soon after became a member. I’d discuss being in the clan but it was filled with drama and well, no one cares.

I played the game for what felt like forever before moving onto Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and eventually Team Fortress 2, and now the game is but a piece of history for me. Now and again I visit that clan’s website and server to see if anything is happening, but it seems as time has gone on everyone else is slowly moving on too. Sad.

1. Single lightsaber, dual lightsabers, and the Darth Maul style staff lightsaber. To further the choice, each choice had further styles to enable other moves and techniques.

My friend has challenged me to another Tumblr blog thing. I responded the way I do with any challenge, by flailing my arms wildly and pulling a funny face. Of course, the challenge was made via text message so he didn’t see, but god damn it I’m sure he felt it. Felt it in his bones.

This challenge is of the gaming variety, so I’ll probably write lots and lots and lots and lots.
Yes, I know I’m still in the middle of my other challenge, but I figure why not do both and just post each on alternating days? Sounds like a good idea? I thought so.

It’s damn important.

Where would you be without doctors who knew what they were doing? What if you couldn’t read and this blog post was just a bunch of shapes to you? That last one in particular is the most terrible for me, as I like the idea that there may be someone out there who reads my ramblings.

I don’t know what to really say about this subject. Of course education is one of the most important things we have because without it, we would be unable to sustain our culture. What separates us from everything else apart from everything else is our ability to be rational and not give in to instinct. We’ve evolved over the years to be able to do amazing things, and it is only through sharing common knowledge of maths, science, language, and so on that we have been able to do them.

Without education, it would be a very different world, and this blog wouldn’t exist. That makes me sad.