This video is a response to NonStampCollector's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4uWXvRd8b0
Which is itself a response to gothatfunk's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LS6UvvLHoU

If you think it's silly to not be able to draw Muhammad without receiving death threats, you are encouraged to join in and draw a stick figure labelled Muhammad and post it on YouTube. Give it the same title and you're all set. You have successfully made a statement.

I was sitting in a boring meeting this morning and started writing down a conversation that was going through my head. It all started with one line and grew from there. I'm typing it from my own handwritten source, keeping the formatting intact. It is an incomplete conversation, since the meeting ended before I could reach a satisfactory conclusion.

• Did God really take eternal life away from us?
• We "die" in this world only to live eternally somewhere else
• Is it a punishment/test?
• Maybe, but the unbalance between age and death suggest otherwise (i.e. baby deaths, people that live 100+, &c.)
• Let me see, eternal life was taken from us after we gained Knowledge, so we could not become like "us". Once we die and go to the afterlife, do we reach final apotheosis or do we lose the Knowledge?
• What if "life" is indeed a punishment?
• He wishes us to live through a sin-filled world, and if you try to get out of punishment early, you get more punishment.
• Maybe it's meant to be both punishment and test.
• Punishment for your ancestor's sins?
• Nah, that's silly [awesome face doodle]
• Roight, just a test, then
• This "life" is a test to determine whether the remainder of one's eternal life continues in Heaven or Hell.
• Why, then, would a tree of life even be needed?
• Perhaps this life was always to be temporary and required timer resets from the tree of life.
• Why would it need to be temporary before "the fall"?
• Did God expect us to sin and set everything up in preparation for that?
• Did He intend to punish us from the start?
• God said that He changed the world slightly to make it more hostile, but there's no reason to believe it wasn't already set that way
• What was the exact wording in Gensis?
• Going back a few thoughts: when we die, do we retain the Knowledge?
• If we do, we become gods (well, maybe just angels)
• Wait, doesn't He use the royal-we anyway? We may very well become gods (check exact wording)
• Even if we're on the highway to Hell, we'd still have that knowledge.
• We would have eternal life & Knowledge, thus making even the damned gods/angels (that has to suck)
• Well, even if we are, so what? We would still be human
• Wait, that shouldn't matter. God was scared if we ate from both trees, human or not.
• Maybe He was worried that a combination of limitless ingenuity and limitless time might result, eventually, in a legitimate challenge to His power.
• God is selfish?
• If that's the case, shouldn't He be more worried about us eating from the tree of life, rather than good & evil?
• Also, why would He give us eternal life back after we "die"?
• Maybe this goes back to being a test. The good are given eternal life and the freedom to do good with it, while the naughty are also given eternity but no freedom.
• Ah, He doesn't want to test us for "goodness". He wants to test our obedience.
• After eating from the tree, Adam & Eve disobeyed and were no longer worthy of keeping eternal life.

--EOF--

Just in case you didn't realize, I am still on hiatus. I now have a job, but replaced that difficult task with finding a new place to live that's closer. I am also still deeplyn engrossed in Pokemon SoulSilver. If you want to follow along on my epic quest, I made a Twitter feed for it (my first ever):
http://twitter.com/JimbosPokemon

Last night, a buddy of mine and I decided to perform an informal social experiment. We were trying to determine what would happen to a Minecraft* server if it was left open and unmoderated for a night. On the map there were a few structures: a pink heart adorned Reichstag building, a Launch archeology, an observation tower, a tree on a lake, and an underground RPG town whose only access point was via a well a few miles away. We were both pessimistic about what would become of it. We thoroughly expected to see it torn up by the unwashed masses that make up the Internet.

Being a morning person, I had the unique privilege of seeing what damage hath been wrought before anyone else was even awake. The damage was what we expected: random destruction, underground city flooding, a monolithic penis, and construction that makes no sense. Somebody also decided to build a church, but what's more awkward is that no one decided to destroy it after it was built. My thoughts on the destruction:

• I'm actually rather impressed. It must've taken a bit of time to tear up all of the roads we built between structures and then flood them.
• Why did they only mess with the bottom seven levels of the observation tower? Were they too lazy to go all the way to the top? Maybe if they did climb to the top, they would realize the breadth of their destruction and look shakily at their own hands wondering what they were doing with their lives.
• Why would they build a moat and castle walls around the tiny, wooden church they made? Were they afraid people would get in? Or out?

I expected that and it only reconfirmed my previous assumption that most human beings are scum. What made me worry, however, was the server log. All conversations within the server were logged and reading through it made me lose even more faith in humanity (of which I already have a short supply). Here are a few of my observations relating to this:

• They actually complained about how the server map was flat and didn't have any holes to flood. That would be akin to an arsonist in the real world saying, "darn, I hate this town. All of the houses are made of stone so I can't light them on fire."
• Why would anyone ever type the word "lawl" or, worse, "lawlers"? The acronym LOL is already only three letters. All they did was make an already deplorable acronym longer. Now it's not even an acronym; it has become an onomatopoeia (of sorts).
• One particular player, Aimer, seemed to be, and I say this lightly, completely functionally retarded. Actually, I think the mentally handicapped might be insulted just to be compared to this individual. He made it frequently clear that he was a troll for quite a while, yet still did not seem to understand how to actually DO anything. It was bizarre. He seemed to be programmed to go around, arbitrarily destroy blocks, flood anything below sea level, and type grating phrases like "lawler" or "NEXT SERVAH!"
• Had one person log in, type "hi" into the chat window, sit there for ten minutes not doing anything, then log off. Maybe he was just waiting for someone else to be a burden on.
• One guy on the server seemed to be alright until the aforementioned Aimer spread his retardation contagion upon the land. He then went off and joined the path of destruction.
• It is never alright, in any circumstance, to utter the phrase "haxorz".

Video showing the extent of the damage after being left unprotected for about seven hours…

*Minecraft: a free online building tool similar to Lego that is about as addicting as chocolate-flavored crack-cocaine.

I usually try to have Word catch any of my more grievous grammatical errors before I post. Sometimes, however, Word fails me...

Video based on this post.

Thank the gods, it is time for a fresh new anime season. After each of last season's anime came to a… lackluster conclusion (to put it lightly), I'm hoping this fresh batch of new IPs will be able to, at the very least, tell a complete story in 12-13 episodes without hinting at a sequel that may or may not actually be produced. As per norm, I will list the series I'm watching in the order of my priority/interest. (last season)

Kaichou wa Maid-sama
Genre: romantic comedy

Hands, please. Who can guess where his male gaze is directed?Now this is the sort of anime we need to see more of. The protagonist is a strong, independent woman who has to do what she can to assist her household after the father walked out on them. At the same time, she has to uphold her grades and her prestige as student government president. She struggles valiantly against these hardships and is largely successful. And then! She gets a job at a maid café and has to debase herself to male customers. She also needs to be assisted by generic, handsome male character #44529098. Oops.

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou
Genre: fantasy comedy

KANEDA!!!"Like Harry Potter but…" is a good way to start the summary of this series. This anime is "like Harry Potter but…" with just slightly more H. The main character is a run-of-the-mill wizard in training with a scarred face preparing for his first year in a new magic school. He finds out while at school that he is destined for greatness and shunned by most students while revered by a handful of others. Okay, I suppose I'm stretching things to make my comparison work. The anime is occasionally "laugh out loud" funny and only barely gets beaten out by the above.

B Gata H Kei
Genre: ecchi

I just think the background girl's expression is pricelessI knew I was on to something good when I saw the capital H in the title. I am promised an anime with a variety of characters, an entertaining sampling of humor, an engrossing story, and beautiful artwork. Ha ha ha, sorry. It's just generic ecchi with as much substance as a conversation between two nerds arguing about the physics of the Star Wars universe. Watch it for what it is: boobs, panties, and lulz.

Mayoi Neko Overrun!
Genre: comedy

The front "geek" character hits a little too close to home for my tasteI really should take this space to thank AIC. From this day forward, if anyone asks to see an example of a bad first episode, I can point to this anime. Having the male protagonist monotonously narrating and describing each of the characters is not an effective hook for viewers. For all intents and purposes, they could've just used scrolling text and it would be just as effective. Even worse, by the time the episode was over, I still had no idea what was going on. I did, however, learn enough to realize all of the characters are boring, unlikeable, and cliché.

Angel Beats!
Genre: action comedy

He puts the "men" in menstruation.The story revolves around an amnesiac male character, Yuuichi, who finds himself at a new school at the start of the series. He is quickly recruited by Haruhi Suzumiya, an energetic schoolgirl with a complete lack of tact, into a student organization whose outward purpose is to cause the school trouble. They are frequently held back by Yuki Nagato, a mostly silent superhuman being capable of killing you quite handily. Why does an anime that sounds sure to be a big hit find itself on the bottom of my list? Disappointment. I know Key is better than this. Kanon and Clannad still remain in my top three anime of all time (bisected by Nodame Cantabile), but it seems the studio bumped its head in the dark and forgot what made their anime good. Maybe they just need to go back to making visual novels and team up with KyoAni whenever they wring enough vending machine change from the sales. Hopefully it'll get better as the series progresses, but I remain pessimistic.

The second season of K-On! is on the prowl this season too, but it would have to hand out free milk and cookies every episode before I give half a poop.

I'm taking a short sabbatical while I play through Pokemon SoulSilver and work towards getting a new job. Please adjust your lives accordingly.

by Jimbo
Jimbo News Network

Surrounded by supporters and media cameras, Prime Minister Jimbo today signed the colloquially known Free Pie Bill into law. "It cannot be argued that the opportunity to eat delicious pie is an inalienable human right," said the Prime Minister. "With this bill, every citizen in this country will have the free pie that they so deserve."

The new law is expected to fill the gap in pie ingestion demographics for legal members of Country 1023. All 1023ans are able to purchase or bake their own pie and are eligible for tax credits, while low-income households who cannot afford pie will be automatically enrolled in the new government pie service. In summary, this service will involve daily pie deliveries to these low-income households. They will be able to choose their pie daily from a list of available pie types. During this first year, the pies available will be apple, pumpkin, pecan, and lemon meringue. The selection is expected to extend over the course of the service's lifetime.

Detractors of the new law have been critical of it from the onset. Members of the rival Wright Party have called it "frivolous" and "a government takeover of pie in the country". The Lepht Party and its supporters have often attempted to play down these opinions, but the voting public is starting to put pressure on them.

"Look, we never asked for this bill; we never wanted it," said critic John McCartney at a recent town hall meeting. "What this Prime Minister is trying to do is shove pie down our throats whether we want it or not." Even Lepht Party members have spoken against the bill. "I have nothing against giving pie to the poor, but I simply prefer cake," said card-carrying Lepht member Paul Starr. The Lepht will likely lose several seats in the coming parliamentary election. "You'll see more of us here in Jimbuary," said Wright Party MP George Lennon when confronted outside of the parliament building.

Tomorrow, the Prime Minister's chief spokesman Ringo Harrison is expected to give an announcement to the press regarding this historic day. He will likely cover the immediate effects of the new law and explain how it will not result in the doomsday that he says members of the Wright claims.

There has long been a deep theological question in my mind that, to my knowledge, has not yet been answered: what exactly do angels do with their hands? In most of the animal kingdom, a creature's hands double as its wings. If you require some sort of proof for this concept, just look at the very scientifically accurate Daffy Duck. With angels, however, you have beings that are mostly human with a separate set of wings sprouting inconveniently from their back. Their arms are free to do anything while they fly.

It is in that freedom that my question rests. What do they do with their arms? I suppose when they're working, their hands are busy with tasks like plucking a harp, tooting a horn, wielding a flaming sword, &c. I have a hard time believing, however, that this is the only part of an immortal beings life. Surely there are times when they fly around with hands free. What do they do with them? Do they hold them clasped together as though in prayer? Do they hold them out in a T shape like Jesus? Do they hold them straight forward like Superman? Do they hold their hands in a Z shape like the Zoltan followers in Dude, Where's My Car? What!?