Lil O'Reilly

WE"LL DO IT LIVE!!!

Reality Jumps the Shark

Tuesday night I was channel surfing, "Weeeeeee", and as I was flipping through the channels I stop on MTV. "Oh Shit, Wave!" CRRRAASSSSHH! And what do my eyes behold, but Paris Hilton and her Reality TV show Paris Hilton's My New BFF. Now I'm not a big fan of "Reality TV" I though Survivor was a cool idea until I watched the first episode and thought, "Well that sucked." Here I thought it was about people, oh I don't know, having to survive in the wilderness. It's not about surviving in the traditional sense. It's about being a lying, sneaky, bastard and being able to get away with it. You don't have to have some silly gimmick like throwing people into the middle of some jungle to play that game. Hell, they could have locked them all in a gymnasium and called it High School for Grown Ups and would have pretty much achieved the same thing. Or just get 7 people to play the game Diplomacy.

Anyway I got off on a rant, sorry. Back to Paris. So her new show is about her search for a new Best Friend and I can't for the life me understand why anyone would want to be her friend. But then I can't stand; Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Hannah Montana or is it Miley Cyrus?, just to name a few. When ever their names pop up in some news story (as if you can call that news) I usually have to ask myself, "and why do I care?" What's with the media thinking I give two flips about these train wrecks of pop culture. I understand why they pop up on Entertainment Tonight or Access Hollywood. But they've even polluted what I thought was respectable media outlets like CNN, ABC, Fox News. Now I have to turn to BBCA World News if I want real news. Normally I'd change the channel when I see something like this. I was so flabbergasted, I was like a deer caught in headlights. I was stunned, paralyzed and forced to watch what flashed before me. Paris Hilton has her own reality show? "You have got to be freakin' kidding me?" Well she does, and it just shows how shallow she really is. She has people who are kissing her ass, while trying to sabotage the other contestants (if you can even call them that), all for the chance to be her friend. I think I'd rather be the BFF to a leper or a rabid ferret with a cocaine addiction. Now I'd like to tell you all I changed the channel and never looked back. But I didn't. I ended up watching Scrubs on WGN but had to switch back now and then to make sure what I saw was real. Ironically the theme for the episode was about who was real and who was fake. After some kind of contest, Paris brought in someone to question all the contests, and then rated them on who was the most real and who was the most fake. Then at the end someone went home. I don't know who I could only stomach a few seconds of it at a time. I think if I had top secret information, someone could get me to talk by just forcing me to watch this show. Just when I think "Reality TV" has jumped the shark, they surprise me with something so stupid, so outrages, I just have to hang my head shame and weep that I'm part of the human species. Can I de-evolve back into an ape or something?

Fantasy Football: Week 7 Reflections

Week 7
Well I had a bad week this week. Bad in team performance, bad in luck. A couple bright spots. My QB throw 2 TD may had through 3 had the Steelers didn't take him out because they were so far ahead. Hines Ward Scored for me, other then that none of my running backs or receivers found the end zone. Defense got me 3 turn overs and 2 sacks. Kicker got me one freakin' point. That's the bad performance. Now the bad luck I played the highest scoring team this week. Go figure, sounds about right since I am the highest scored against team. It could be worse, I could have scored 64 points and lost by 3 like what happened to Greek Gods.

Next week I play the 5-2 Slobberknockers.

46.625 Average points scored for the Week.
47.375 Average points scored for the Season.
45.429 Average points I've scored for the season.
11th Highest Scorer over-all, Highest Scored against.

Rule 1 of Gaming

I'm currently reading the Runaways trade paperback comic. I'm up to Volume 3: The Good Die Young. Towards the end, when the kids discover who was the traitor in their midst, this panel comes up. I laughed so hard I nearly fell off the bed.

Perhaps you have to be a gamer to find the humor in it. I thought is was perfect and completely true. That I had to share.

If you haven't read the series, I highly recommend it. The writing is excellent. It's written by Brian K. Vaughan. If you know anything about comics that should tell you something.

It's about 6 kids who discover that their parents are part of a secret society of villains. They runaway after witnessing a murder of girl as part of an annual ritualistic sacrifice that their parents must make. They also learn that as they reach puberty that they have superhuman powers. They form a rag-tag superhero group that vows to go after their parents and bring them to justice.

Even if your not a comic fan but want a good coming of age story, you'll like it.

A+

Ecstasy of Gold (what I'm listening to right now)

I loved this tune the first time I heard Metallica use it for the opening to one of their concerts. I didn't know what it was at the time, but still I loved it. Years later when Metallica released their S & M album, there it was. Ecstasy of Gold. I was in love again.

Sunday I was watching football, if you can call the Dallas/Arizona game football, but thats for another time. Cut to a commercial break. I leave the room to check on my fantasy team. I come back and what do I hear but the intro of a piano followed by a melancholy violin that leads into a haunting female vocals accompanying by a myriad of other instruments. I'm intrigued at what I'm hearing. I sit and watch the commercial as if I'm watching a movie. The music builds and adds to the suspense to the story the commercial is telling. A story of two kids as they grow up playing football. Ending with a bone crushing tackle. The two kids, now adults, meet on the football field in the NFL. A wonderfully done commercial, dare I say moving. But ever since I heard and then saw the commercial I can't get the song out of my head. I've listen to it repetitively like a morphine addict continually pressing the button to get his next dose. I've listen to the original motion picture score version from the movie The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. I've listen to Metallica's version. I've listen to Philharmonic Orchestra versions. I listen to Yo-Yo Ma's version on the cello. I watched people on Youtube play their versions of it. I can't get enough of this tune and the more I listen to it, the more I crave it.

Damn you Nike.

Or should I be thanking you for reintroducing me to this wonderful piece.

Edit: Here's the commercial.

Fantasy Football: Week 6 Reflections

Week 6
Despite having 4 of normal starters on Bye weeks and starting 2 zeros, I managed to have good week. In fact I won my game 49 to 45. I'll start with the zeros. I started Matt Leinart at Quarterback and D.J. Hackett at Wide Receiver. Leinart is the Arizona Cardinals backup quarterback and didn't get to play. I started him because the Quarterback I had picked up to start for Roethlisberger during his bye week was injured last week and didn't practice this week and was scratch for Sunday's game. So I was hoping that Kurt Warner would get hurt and I might get some points out of Leinart. That didn't happen so, a big Goose egg. Hackett was also hurt last week and didn't play this week. All my other Wide Receivers were on Bye weeks too. Another goose egg. I used my waiver move to pick up a defense. I figured I'd get the most points out of them. They got me 3 points. So who came through for me. My running backs. Maurice Jones-Drew. 2 TD's and almost 150 yards. Frank Gore had another good week. Over 100 yards and a TD. My kicker David Akers had a good week. 4 field goals and 4 extra points. Although it was against my Niners, which was painful to watch. My other 2 receivers, Camarillo and Driver got me a few points for yards.

So I am now 3 and 3 with 8 more games to go. I've scored 285 points for the season.
Next Week I'm up against S & S Express. They are 2 and 4 and have scored 236 points for the season.

45.125 Average points scored for the Week.
47.5 Average points scored for the Season.
47.5 Average points I've scored for the season.
7th Highest Scorer over-all, 2nd Highest Scored against.
39.333 Average points S & S Express scored for the season.

Arizona Ballot Intitive: Proposition 100

This post is in response to a friends post. You can read her post here. As I said in her comments sections of her blog, but I think it bears repeating. I know her to be a Intelligent and well educated person and I respect her opinions. I just happen to disagree with her on this one. That doesn't mean I think she is wrong and I am right. It just means I have a different opinion.

So onto the rebuttal.
Prop. 100 - Protect Our Homes (As pulled from AZ Republic)

Would amend the state Constitution to prohibit the creation of a real-estate transfer tax.

A yes vote would constitutionally bar the state, or any county, city or government entity from collecting a new tax or fee on the sale, purchase or transfer of a home or other property.

A no vote would leave open the possibility of such as tax or fee.

Excerpts from my friends Blog Post. I will be making references to it and don't what it to look like I'm quote mining or taking things out of context.

I am voting no on this amendment - I don't believe this is grounds for a constitutional amendment, and I am agreement with the Arizona Education Association, which states: "It is clear that Arizona is too reliant on taxes that do not produce consistent revenue in tough economic times. The current down turn in the economy has caused the state a $2.2 billion deficit, and Arizona does not have a viable solution. PROP 100 will change the constitution of Arizona to protect real estate corporations and developers. Changing our constitution to protect wealthy special interests will cripple our state's ability to support the needs of a growing state. The Arizona Education Association opposes this initiative because it will have long-term damaging effects on public education. A vote in opposition is a step toward a stronger economy and high-quality services, including great public schools and universities, quality transportation, and health care needed in the 21st century knowledge-based economy, and funded by a sound and equitable system of taxation."

The $2.2 billion deficit is a non issue in this matter. I'm not aware of any tax like this in the works, so if the prop fails to pass that doesn't mean our deficit problem would be fixed. Even if there was title transfer tax, that doesn't make it right. If I make bad financial decisions, I can't go to my boss and force them to pay me more money. That's what the politicians would be trying to do. The deficit problem was caused by the legislators not being able to budget properly. They saw all the revenue coming in with resent real estate boom and budgeted like it was going to continue indefinitely, despite advise that the real estate bubble was going to burst. Instead of preparing for the downward trend they ignored it and got us in our current mess. So instead of being responsible and budget like you or I would have to do, they would want us to fork over more money to bail them out. You and I have to live within our budget, Arizona should have to as well.

Prop. 100 may protect developers and real estate corps. but they are in the minority. Mostly it protects the home owners of Arizona. I don't know the statistics and if anyone can find them, I'd be willing to revise my position, but I'm sure the number of families that owns a single home out numbers all the homes real estate corps and developers own. By taxing the sale or transfer of titles, this hurts families more then the real estate corps. and developers. Also it could drive the value of houses down. Here's how. Say you're looking to buy a $200K house, you find one you like within your price range. You manage to come up with the down payment and financing you need. But there is this transfer tax. Lets say it's only 1% (maybe low, maybe high, I don't know, but it makes working with numbers easy), so now you need to come up with an additional $2,000 for your $200K house. Either you pony up the extra money or you try to get the seller to drop the price of the house by $2,000. $2,000 my not seem like a lot of money when it comes to a house, but it could be a deal breaker and that benefits no one. So either you are forced to pay more then the value of your house. Or the seller has to drop the price of his house. When people look at houses they look at the prices of houses recently sold in the area as a guild before making any offers. If most of the house in the area sold under there value to cover the tax, property values drops.

It's not just a tax on the sale but on the transfer of title. So if you leave a house to your children, your children are taxed. And if they can't pay the tax and are forced to sell it to cover the tax. Then the same tax gets reassessed to the new purchaser. Also any time a family looks to upgrade or downgrade their house, they are taxed on the purchase of the new home and the sell of their old home. The corps. aren't affected much because they will just adjust their prices to cover the taxes.

The Arizona Education Assoc. statement about "long-term damaging effect on public education" is just fallacious. It is just scare tactic, an appeal to your emotions, a tactic that politicians love to use. No where does it say that any title change tax would go towards education, health care, transportation, or other states services that we think to be beneficial. A title change tax could be a blank check for the legislators to spend as they see fit. To be used on special projects that benefit them. Since they mismanaged the budget already, I don't see them managing it any better with more money. I have a friend who retired this year after 35+ years as a juvenile probation officer. She has a nice pension now but while she worked there, she did not get a raise in years, aside from the occasional cost of living adjustment. (Which didn't really adjust to the raise in cost of living.) The department also had more and more budget cuts, and hiring freezes. Even during the real estate boom when Arizona saw an increase in revenue from property taxes. You would think that some of that money would go towards helping troubled kids. Help that might prevent them from becoming career criminals and hopefully transform them into honest, respectable citizens. But getting funding, even federal grants, for these children was difficult to say the least. I don't doubt that Education in Arizona is underfunded, but I don't believe that is why we are ranked last when it comes to education. Funding helps, but money is not the solution. Letting schools do what is they do by getting out of their way would go along way to improving our schools system. How can people you've never met, probably didn't even vote for, know what's best for your children's education then you and your school?

True Blood: A TV Review

True Blood
Sundays
8:30pm
HBO

So I heard about this show from a friend that was all excited about except for the fact that she does not have HBO. Being a fan horror stories, films, thrillers etc. (not necessarily Vampires) I figured I'd give it a try. True Blood stars Anna Paquin, which is the only name I recognize. For those that my not know who she is, she played Rogue in the X-Men Movies. In True Blood she plays Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress at a bar in a small Louisiana town. She also has telepathic abilities, which the show never explains how or why she has them. She can hear peoples thoughts, although she tries to turn it off when around people she's close to. She falls for a vampire that enters the bar she works at one night. She's all excited because it's the towns first vampire. Because she can hear peoples thoughts she over hears some bar patrons planning to steal the vampires blood. Ok, I should probably explain somethings about vampires in True Blood. Vampires openly walk the streets ever since they "came out of the coffin". Scientist have created synthetic blood so vampires don't have to feed off of humans any more. They still like to from time to time, they just don't need to. So there's the whole discrimination, fear element with the humans that don't understand the vampires. Vampire blood also has special drug like effects. So there's a black market has sprung up. They changed the lore around vampires a bit. Things that have killed vampires in other shows or movies don't necessarily work. And other wards that work on other mystical creatures like werewolves also work on vampires. So now that your caught up, these patrons attack the vampire and pin him down with a silver chain. Sookie comes to the aid of the vampire and saves him before they can drain him of his blood. This is were she starts to fall for him. I guess it's the whole forbidden fruit thing because did I mention that Sookie is a pretty reglious person. This sets up an interesting dynamic between the two. Sort of attracted yet repulsed all at the same time.

Acting is ok. Some of the characters aren't very believable, like Sookie's, sleeps with anything that has boobs and a pulse, brother. And the gay fry cook at the bar Sookie works at. After watching three episodes it didn't pull me in enough to keep me watching. It definitely has potential, but the story seemed to be progressing too slowly. It's kind of like the writers aren't sure where they want to go next. In the end Anna Paquin would be the only reason I'd continue to watch.

C-

Road Trip: Arizona and New Mexico

Wednesday Sept. 24th
I pick up my rental car from Budget. It was a new red Saturn Vue and had only 750 miles on it. It had many more after I was finished. Around 1pm I left my house for Iowa. Over 1700 miles. On the first day I traveled over 700 miles, making it to the Colorado New Mexico border before bedding down for a few hours of sleep.

On the Road 5
Originally uploaded by Skald_Saga

About 20 minutes outside of Flagstaff I ran into a bit of traffic. Apparently there was an accident on the freeway and caused traffic to stop. We sat for about 10 minutes before traffic started moving again. This gave me a chance to play around with my camera.

AZ NM Border 2
Originally uploaded by Skald_Saga

Near the New Mexico border I pulled over to take a few more photos. You can see all of my photos at my Flickr page including the photo merge I did from 5 separate photos. Some of the photos were taken while I was driving. They actually came out better then I had expected. Look for the reflection of the camera in some of the photos.

AZ NM Border 1
Originally uploaded by Skald_Saga

AZ NM Border 3
Originally uploaded by Skald_Saga

Photo take of the sign welcoming me to New Mexico.

AZ NM Border 9
Originally uploaded by Skald_Saga

Fantasy Football: Week 4 and Week 5 Reflections

Week 4
Despite having an off week, I won my game 35 to 28.
None of my players scored a TD and the only position that did anything useful was my defense scoring a TD off a fumble recovery. My QB, Roethlisberger did nothing the first half, but managed to have an respectable finish with 1 TD pass and had is best game of the year (which isn't saying much) with 191 yards. But me managed to say in the entire game. Wide receivers sucked I got a 2 points out of the whole bunch. My running backs did a little better. Frank Gore had a decent game, running/receiving for over 100 yards and catching a 2 point conversion, but was kept form scoring a TD. Jones-Drew had only 49 yards. Had a another good game from my kicker David Akers of Philadelphia.
Picked up Greg Camarillo of Miami in waivers.
Since I won my game, my Niners lost, so we are both 2-2
Averages for week 4.
Average points scored in week 4, 49.188
Average weekly points scored for the year, 47.578

Week 5
Lost to Pool Boy 47 to 62. Currently 2-3.
I'm frustrated with my Quarterbacks. I'm losing faith in Roethlisberger. He is always injured and has not had decent week. He was up against another tough defensive team vs. the pass. Brian Griese of Tampa Bay has been look good at times. Had a really good week a couple weeks ago and is up against an easier defensive team. Although I don't think he is the better QB, I played him instead of Roethlisberger. Ben was listed as questionable even though I figured he'd play. And his tough match-up on the road, and the fact I'm sick of watching him suck it up as my bench guy does better I pulled him. I've come to realize I'm cursed. It doesn't matter who I start, they will suck. Griese struggled against Denver. He only had 88 yards and then got knocked out of the game from a blind sided hit. Next week Is Ben Roethlisberger's bye week so I may not even have a starting QB. My Defense is also off so I was planning on using waivers to pick up one. But now I'm wondering if Garcia will now be starting for Tampa Bay next week. Since I benched Ben, he had a great game, finally got over the 200 yard mark by throwing for 300 yards and throwing 3 TD's. If I would have started him I would have gotten 15 points out of him. Instead I got 1 point from Griese. Still would have lost my game, but it would have only been by 1 point. My Defense last week was my savior, but this week did nothing against the Cardinals. COME ON??? it's the Cardinals. WTF. Grrrr. My Receivers decided to show up this week got a TD from each of them as well as a TD from both my Running backs. Expected a little more out of my kicker, he missed a 50 yard field goal, but other then that kicked 2 extra points and 23 yard field goal. That netted me 5 points. Had he hit the 50 yarder, would have gotten an additional 5 points for that one.
Averages for week 5.
Average points scored in week 5, 49.563
Average weekly points scored for the year, 47.975

My Niners also lost so that breaks the streak of they win when I lose and vice versa.
Up next week, the 3-2 GridIron Doom. Total points scored by Doom, 267.
Expecting a bad week. I have 4 of my regular starters on Bye weeks and the players I had expected to replace them are banged up and may not start.

Road Trip

Objects in the mirror
Originally uploaded by skald_Saga

Two weeks ago I left for trip to visit my folks. So if you haven't heard from me in a while that was why. "No internet makes Jack a dull boy." I will be detailing my trip here going state by state sharing some of the photos I took and reflections I had along the way.

A Ritual of Blood

Blood Ritual: Blooding the Soldiers
A Soldier is only as good as the training he's received. And a soldier with no real combat experience is no soldier. This ritual is known by very few ven. Only the Mwrr family knows it and they don't give it out freely. The ritual is designed to give soldiers the combat experience they will need if they are to protect and/or conquer for their Liege. It is Bloody, it is effective, and sometimes, it is deadly. When a noble ven conscripts a personal guard or secret army, the sorcerer will go out with the army on the eve of their first battle. The battle is usually against a soft target, one that can be easily defeated. The target doesn't even have to be against another guard or army. As I said it is designed to give experience not to conquer. The sorcerer cuts himself and bleeds into a large bowl. The soldiers then wash their hands in the blood as the sorcerer performs the ritual. As the blood is still wet on their hands, they charge into battle.

Blooding the Soldiers Ritual
A ven can only learn this ritual by using a story adventure. If they succeed in the story adventure, then they may spend a season action to learn the ritual. Once he knows the ritual the sorcerer swears never to reveal it to anyone. Well anyone that is not Blood of the Serpent, more specifically, anyone not of the Mwrr family. This ritual may only be used on green soldiers, soldiers that have not seen combat. Otherwise it doesn't work. Only PC or NPC characters may perform it. Ranked Vassals may not know this ritual. When the Ritual is performed the sorcerer cuts himself and takes at least a rank 2 injury. The Personal Guard or Secret Army then washes their hands in the blood as the sorcerer performs the rest of the ritual. The Personal Guard or Secret Army then gains a number of dice equal to the rank of the injure on their very next attack. So if the sorcerer give himself a rank 5 injure, the guard or army gains 5 dice to use during the attack. After the attack, whether successful or not, the Personal Guard or Secret Army becomes a rank 1 Band Vassal. Although they have 1 free bonus dice to use on all actions that correspond to their duties. This bonus dice lasts a number of seasons equal to the rank of the injury the sorcerer received, minus one. So the sorcerer that gave himself a rank 5 injury, the Personal Guard or Secret Army would have the bonus dice for 4 Seasons. Were as if the sorcerer only gave himself the minimum rank 2 injury, then the Personal Guard or Secret Army would only have the bonus dice for 1 season. Also the injury the sorcerer gave himself in order to perform this ritual doesn't heal at the normal rate. It takes 1 season per rank. So even the rank 2 injure that normally would heal in 2 days takes 2 seasons to completely heal.


I'm not completely satisfied so I'll be still working on the details. I think I will run it by the folks at the HotB Forums.

Blood makes the soil rich!

Blood makes the soil rich!

Blood makes the soil rich!

Character Profile: Jade

Jade
System: D&D 3rd Edition, Homebrew world.
Status: Deceased.
Mary Sue Test Score:
38,
36-55 points: Mary-Sue. Your character needs some work in order to be believable. But despair not; you should still be able to salvage her with a little effort. Don't give up.

29
22-29
Some definite Sue-like tendencies here. A little polishing might be in order to put original fiction and RPG characters back into the balance, especially if Kirking is involved. Fanfiction characters should probably have some work done.

About Jade
Jade's family were refugees during one on the many Ork Wars when she was still a baby. As they traveled away from the war torn areas, their caravan was attacked. Jade's father tried to defend the caravan as Jade's mother tried to escape with Jade. She managed to make it into a nearby woods, but the ork raiders were close on her heels. She hid Jade in the bushes before running deep into the woods. Drawing the orks away from her baby. The orks eventually caught up to her and killed her. Most of the others in the caravan were also killed in the raid. Including her father. The orks took what they wanted and left.

A group of monks were traveling to a pick up their monthly supplies from a nearby village when they came across the remains of the pillaged caravan. They searched for survivors but found none. During their search, one of the monks heard the crying of a baby in the woods. They went and searched the woods and found a baby hidden in the bushes. They took her back to their monastery and named her Jade after her green eyes. Even though she was a girl in cloister of male monks, they raised her as one their own.

When she became of age, she ventured out to discover the world as Monks are instructed to do. After several years they return to the Monastery to recount their experience. This is were the adventures starts. She meets up with a group other adventurers and after many non-connected stories, starts to dream of her home at the monastery. But then the Orks rise up again. They have turned their attention to the Elves. Normally the Elves can take care of themselves. They are skilled with magic as well as with bows and swords. But the orks are also using magic. Something they've never used before. They are also using strategies and tactics instead of just trying to overwhelm their enemy in brute force and superior numbers. The war wages on and it looks like the elves will be eventually defended. The group of adventurers that Jade was traveling with offer to help the elves. On the eve of the Elves last stand, the battle that will determine the fate of the elven race. Jade and her party prepare themselves for the upcoming battle. The battle was long and fierce. Their were huge casualties on both sides. Jade single handily kill many orks before she was finally overwhelmed by the orks. Jade died that day on the field of battle, but the elves won the day. They finally had turned the tide in the ork invasion. We discovered the source of the ork magic and how to defeat it. The elves would eventually drive the orks out of the Elven lands. Jade's body was returned to the monastery she grew up in and the monks made a special memorial to her for her sacrifice.

Next Character Profile will be Gunther, the character that inspired me to create this blog.