DJ Larkin

Just a fun little meme.

You type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search.

Then, using only the first page, pick an image.

Then, copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into this mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

First, I have to say that I love the Onion.

Wii Video Games Blamed For Rise In Effeminate Violence WASHINGTON—Concerned parents are again blasting the Nintendo Wii for an incident of effeminate violence following a 13-year-old boy's limp-wristed attack on three of his classmates at a Cleveland-area middle school Tuesday. The incident—the sixth of its kind in as many months—has left parents searching for answers and struggling to comprehend the dainty assault, which left the necks of two sweaters severely stretched out and countless fingers stubbed.

In other news, Britain's government finally wises up. Their ratings board, the BBFC, had previously refused to rate Manhunt 2, a notably violent game, due to the incorrect linkage between the original title and a murder several years ago. By not rating the game, it was effectively banned from the UK.

Yes, this kept the game out of the hands of children. However, it also kept the game out of the hands of everyone else. Not a fair compromise for the large number of mature, adult gamers

I love it.

I've always wondered how a lawyer could get away with brazenly attacking the supreme court, and the bar association in the state he's licensed. Jack Thompson, mentioned numerous times above, does just that. A lot.

Quote:

02/19/2008 ORDER-SHOW CAUSE TO: JOHN BRUCE THOMPSON It appears to the Court that you have abused the legal system by submitting numerous frivolous and inappropriate filings in this Court. Therefore, it is ordered that you shall show cause on or before March 5, 2008, why this Court should not find that you have abused the legal system process and impose upon you a sanction for abusing the legal system, including, but not limited to directing the Clerk of this Court to reject for filing any future pleadings, petitions, motions, letters, documents, or other filings submitted to this Court by you unless signed by a member of The Florida Bar other than yourself.

His response?

To the news media:

Quote:

This is the single greatest gift that any court has ever given me in my 31 years of practicing law. I shall now, through a new federal lawsuit, deconstruct The Florida Bar… Thank you, Supremes! You have given me the weapons I need.

Thats right, DECONSTRUCT the Florida Bar. Good luck with that.

To the Supreme Court Themselves:

Quote:

This court’s panicked threat against Thompson… has wonderfully proven not just that Thompson has no “adequate state remedy” but that he has no state remedy at all. This court threatens Thompson if he even files this pleading. This is a brazen attempt by this court to repeal the absolute right of every citizen, under the First Amendment, to “petition the government for a redress” of grievances… The [Florida] Bar threatens a whistleblower with retribution because he dares to keep blowing the whistle? This court has threatened Thompson. He does not threaten back. He hereby informs this court that he will see it in federal court. This court has just thrown Brer Rabbit into the briar patch.

Norm Kent, who consistently finds his clients on the defensive from Thompson has this to say:

Quote:

This is game, set, match for Mr. Thompson. The Supreme Court gave him a warning last April. Now he is going to be barred from even arguing or pleading his own case. And once the Supreme Court does this, other jurisdictions will follow suit. Looks like his only venue will be Fox News and gaming site blogs…

In related news, the 2008 Game Developer's Conference in SF is going on right now. One of the more interesting panels was from Lawrence G. Walters of law firm Weston, Garrou, Walters and Mooney, cautioning about
"Junk Science" and how it affects the industry.

Quote:

The concept of protecting children from inappropriate material always gets some traction. Look at the list of legislation at the federal level — the number of bills that have the word ‘children’ or ‘protect’ in them is staggering… In the court cases, the government keeps looking for evidence… to show that video games harm kids, but they have not been successful so far. The morality and media types are forced to take a step back recently, and figure out what they’re going to do and regroup a bit and maybe come up with another line of attack… This is what you’re up against. You have people who will accept anything that the junk scientists try to present as fact, and try to create legislation upon it… The video game industry needs to clearly and overwhelmingly debunk these theories with its own extensive research… To the extent that the industry can develop a research bank… it should do so before it needs it and not at the 11th hour.

Oh Jack. How predictable.

Jack Thompson on Fox news talking about how the NIU shooter "trained on murder simulators". Note, in the video, that this is before the press conference that gives any detail about what happened during the shooting, or the shooter.

I've cross posted this here and here, but I feel like its more of a blog post. So its going here as well.

Please, just stop. For the love of God, Yahweh, the FSM or whatever diety you choose to believe kills kittens when someone does something wrong. Today I came across a video, which I'll talk about later in this post, which really rubbed me the wrong way. It was so blatantly misinformed that it really made me angry. So, hopefully I can incite change in at least a few people.

If nothing else, I'll ask one thing. Stop swallowing the propaganda thats being fed to you. Video games are not training your kid to become a mass murderer, sociopath or felon. Its gotten to the point where people are regurgitating this nonsense with no factual basis, simply because they've heard so many other people say it. Its untrue, and frankly, idiotic.

Well, my journal is now friends only, for various reasons. What a pain in the ass that livejournal doesn't have batch processing. I had to edit each entry to friends only, one by one. It was interesting to read some of my stuff from 2001 though, oh how I've grown.

If you'd like to read it, let me know. I think most of the people who read it are on my list anyway.