Friday, November 1, 2013

This did not remind me of World of Tanks, nope, not for a second....


Thursday, October 31, 2013

I am Galadriel....

"The world is changed. I feel it in the reddit. I feel it in the internet. I smell it in the web." --fkd

^did I get that right?


My Grandfather's father died when he was four years old.  He was the oldest of three kids with a younger sister and then youngest being a brother.  At age 10, the thick of The Great Depression hit.  He lived with his mother and two siblings in a single room shack.  Literally, a shack.  It had a stove in it, and he said snakes could crawl through the spaces between the boards.

So he's 10, and his mother tells him to go get food or they will all starve.  He begins work on a farm for 25 cents a week, walks the train tracks to pick up pieces of coal that bounced off the train cars, and once he made a big enough bag of these, he said he would get 10 cents for that.  He then also killed rats, and each rat tail he turned in would net him 1 cent.

All of this money he gave to his mother to feed the family.  He also hunted and fished and brought all of that home.  Rabbits, squirrels, fish, and one time a skunk (he said you only ever need to kill one skunk before you never tried again).

At age 17, he volunteered for the military and said he, "learned the nomenclature of the 50 caliber machine gun."  They put him in recon.  Recon had some of the highest casualties in combat, as they are usually seeking out the enemy, filling-in weak spots etc.  (I've told his story before, but doing it again as I am setting up a rant here).

On June 6, 1944, he hit Utah beach with the first surface-borne division to land: the 4th "Ivy" Division.  Needless to say, he survived the war (or I wouldn't be here).  He saw hard combat from D-Day all the way through The Battle of The Bulge wherein, his division was put there to "rest" as it was considered a place no attack would come.  Those poor guys in that division -- including my Grandfather -- having had the hell beat out of them since the beach, now faced the very last, great, German assault of the war.  He said his feet froze, and he nearly lost them, that he didn't eat for days during TBoTB, and was tossed 30 feet by a bomb.

Out of 124 men in his original troop, only he and six others survived the war.

My life with him was filled with hunting, fishing, carpentry (he had an awesome wood shop) and very manly things such as gun cleaning, honing scopes on rifles, trapping, etc.  He never saw the Internet or used a computer that I know of.  He died in 1990.

He loved to read and write.  He loved to read the Bible.  He corresponded in letters a lot too, to friends and family that lived far off.  He also wrote open letters that made it to print in the local paper.  He was a character, loved people, loved to joke.  The pastor of the local church, retired, would come visit with him just to discuss religion, politics.  He said my Grandfather had a unique way about him, but more than anything, he was nice to people.  He was nice to their face and he was nice in his letters, his writings.

I know I'm not the first to discuss this, but it is dying ... nice is dying.  The old ways are gone and "the world is changed...."

I learned in college (and my Grandfather only had a 2nd grade education, but went on to business school after the war), that in Shakespeare's day "nice" meant "retarded."  It meant someone who is slow-minded, but you see, we are not threatened by slow-minded people.  They don't play passive aggressive games, they are not typically smart-asses.  You can take them at face value.  They are honest, truthful ... they are "nice."  And so, "nice" became a word we associate with someone who doesn't threaten us, or who isn't necessarily mean to us.  But in Shakespeare's day, it meant "not so smart."

Nice simply means people like you as you have done nothing to insult or threaten them.  They like you.  You are nice.  (Try it some time).

And how did my Grandfather correspond with friends, family and even people he argued with?  (And he did argue; he loved to argue politics, religion, etc.).  He started each letter with "Dear" and it ended it with "Sincerely."

^You never see this on the Internet.  Not at all.  It is gone, as Galadriel lamented the loss of the grand-past, so I miss my Grandfather, and not just him (I surely do miss him).  I miss that he was nice to people.  I miss that people were nice to him.  I miss that people used to be nice.

I actually remember getting letters from people in the mail that still said "Dear" and "Sincerely."  Believe it or not, many of these were hand-written, with thoughtfulness, but not anymore.  It seems even close friends and family have succumbed to the zombie-hive mentality, the virus of being, well, just plain fucking mean on the Internet.  Benign emails from life-long friends quickly turn into smart-ass remarks, as we each feel like Louis C.K. or some other celebrity ("but you're not" --Tyler Durden).  And yes, I, too, am fully a participant in the batshitfuckingmeanness that is the gd motherfucking internet.  You bit me you asshole! Now iZombie!

I have this one friend that I've known now for over 20 years.  I remember sending him his first email reply.  He didn't reply back.  I asked him later, and he said he was offended at the "on this date, you said this, and in reply, fkd says" body-header crap <-- get that?  He was so normal, so natural back then, so used to the "Dear" and the "Sincerely" of "normal" correspondence, that even that benign auto-header crap offended him.  Today ... today?  He is one of the most nastiest, trolling people I ever communicate with via modern text-based communication.

And whereas my Grandfather faced: starvation, poverty, war, combat, killing, national upheaval, and worrying each day, often, as to whether he would eat or not, or if his family would eat or not, today, in this 1st world country, we are greatly concerned over ... fonts and memes.  Yes.  We need to insult someone else, be no-so-nice to them over their usage of a font type or meme nuance..

Enter the Internet:
Enter 2013:

I'm going to explain this as if I'm talking to my Grandfather on his first use of the Internet/reddit/the-web/wtfever:

Dear Grandfather,

I am so very happy to see you are going to use the Internet finally.  It is truly a wonderful place.  Do make sure to visit Wikipedia and search for anything you can possibly think of.  It is an incredible site.  It is basically the greatest encyclopedia you could ever imagine.  You can read all about your Army division, your favorite president (Roosevelt of course), etc.  You can even make additions yourself!  Imagine adding your own knowledge to the page on D-Day.

By the way, a "page" on the Internet is simply the current screen you are looking at.  Some of the words will have different colors.  These are called "hyperlinks" and when you move the arrow over them, and click the mouse (left button) it will take you to another page!  You can always go back and forth between the pages you are viewing.

Google is awesome too, and I highly recommend it.  You can find places nearby to eat, or where to get your oil changed, or you can search for info on ailments/cures, etc.  You can find just about anything using google.

At some point, you are going to want to add your own 2cents.  Everyone does on the Internet (and I mean everyone..).  It is here that you need to be extra careful.

First, do not use "Dear" or "Sincerely" no one does this, and it will make you appear foreign.  When you see words such as "what's on your mind" or "comment" there is no need to say "I have nothing on my mind" or "I have no comment."  This too will not help your reputation in this global arena.

A blog is a great way to start out.  People will probably never read it, and if they do, they will not read much of it, will quickly leave it and so on.  But just maybe, someone will like what you write or they will not.  Either way, they might leave a comment (and most comments on the Internet are not nice at all).  If they are nasty, you can block them from your blog as you own it.  But if you are on a website such as reddit, then you are just like everyone else, and if they say something insulting there isn't much you can do about it.  (You can downvote them, but if other people think their put-down is funny, then your downvote won't have much impact).

You will also be able to do things such as: set the font style.  Fonts are incredible things as I know you are familiar with them from type writers and such, but with modern computers and the Internet, you can have literally endless font styles.  I know you like to be creative, but please note here that you should not try any of these fonts.  You should stick to the fonts everyone else uses.  Especially, most especially, never use a font called "comic sans."  I would rather see you not even try the Internet than to use that font.  It is the death-nail of those who use it.  It tends to drive people using the Internet nuts.

You can also add pictures to your blog or on reddit, and you can make pictures using tools on your computer or on the Internet.  You can search for pictures others have made, and you can even reuse these perhaps.  At some point, you will see pictures with words.  These are typically called "memes."  Memes are pretty much like fonts -- although you have the ability create endless types of memes, DON'T DO IT!!!  If you even slightly miss the very subtle nuance of a meme, then people will not like it.  Furthermore, they will not like you at all.

Now, Grandfather, I would like to explain to you what a troll is....


Come to think of it, why do you and I even want to use the Internet?  I say let's not today.  How about we go fishing Papaw?  I really would like to do that again with you.  I miss it.  It is very nice.

Sincerely,

Your Grandson,

-fkd





















Friday, September 20, 2013

Melted Faces

My first/original title for this rant was:
fatkiddown: a novice student of evolution, science, materialism, philosophy, art, bubblegum and low carb diets that include beer's take on World of Tanks

^That sucked!  Or did it?  I think "Melted Faces" is more catching ne how....

Lemme continue (who can stop me?)

I am writing this to the aliens what will find a spent-earth 1.2 billion years from now, after all of humanity is gone, and all life is gone from the planet (they will find only an android-boy and his stuffed/robotic bear, submerged in a vehicle, frozen in the solid-ice-ocean):


In World of Warcraft there was this famous (well, it _was_ famous) meme-thing called: "melting faces."  It went like this: "You will melt faces as a shadow priest in pvp."  (Aaaaand urbandictionary.com comes through)

faces, melt, will, you -yoda

Playing off of that WoW meme, lemme make (try to make) -- by changing just one letter in WoW -- a WoT meme:

"You will melt stats as a unicorn in wot."

ugh, again:

"You will pad stats as an M7 Priest in pvp."

I'm blowin' it aren't I?

"You will learn to pad stats to put down baddies in WoT, maybe in a priest, not really. You cannot really pad stats in artillery and/or, artillery kills your stats, forgetting the fact that the big-mouthed goodies [shouldn't that be the antithesis to 'baddies'] will hate you for playing artillery ... anyhow, no way this will become a meme, but, see, you will simply go for stats, eventually, no matter how bad or good you are, stats will drive you, in wot, in a tank, melting tanks, and faces, etc...."

Time for: Deep Thoughts with fkd:


Reality is non-existent and/or, simply a matter of how an entity (us) approaches it.  A dog would look at the keyboard/mouse of our computers, logged into wot in a new account we made for them, and not a single fuck would be given.  A dinosaur would crush the computer.  A moth would beat itself fuckless against the monitor.

(How does one beat oneself fuckless?)


The vast majority of the 7 billion+ people on the planet wouldn't bother to touch the keyboard, but would go outside to find food.  A small minority would take interest.  Of that minority, an even smaller set would really play it.


(Just in case you're paying attention, this video game -- _any_ fucking video game -- is a 1st world problem)


Of this set (vastly male and young -- and more likely virgin), a very, very tiny set would try to "beat" the game.  Since the game has no goal, this would evolve (or devolve?) into: those who think "winning" is getting all the tanks and those who "see stats!!!!"

Of the first set, a small minority of those would google/find out about bots, and load those (I saw a guy with 57k games this week), and they might indeed complete all tanks (until next patch -- higher chance of virginity here), but their stats would be utter shit (30s / bright red).



Of the latter set, some would try hard to win in all the tanks they play -- not building 'situational awareness' that some tanks simply suck, and that trying to complete all trees/get all tanks is not practical to stats at all.  They might, finally, after thousands of battles realize that: it's time to pad/focus on tanks that win, and get my stats up! (/Charlies Sheen "WINNING!!!"). <-- it's around this time that seal-clubbing comes-into-play (nuh uh, we don't! unicorns never seal club! none do! liar!!!)



But a very, very small set of this latter set would realize very early, very very early: A. do not chase trees. (fkd idiot! I know this unicorn who _did_ do all the tree! fkd! u r the worst blogger evar!!!)  B. pad with tanks that win/have edge. C. form-up with others who can carry you (and this is the part where the trolls said "win rate is the best measure of skill" -- they've been carried by 'friends' <-- not real friends, just other people on the internet, fact is, they have no friends ["you have no friends, nobody likes you" Gollum-to-Smeagol] tl;dr: win rate is the least measure of the major attributes IMO ... I'll take higher eff/wn7/tiers over win rate any day (but idiot-fkd! you cannot have high those things without high w/r!!!) I know this Mr. Self.  I know this, but within variables.  Stop being so gd black and white and throw some gd gray/grey into your life!!!  I.e., yes, you _can_ find those folks with lower w/r but higher eff/wn7.  It is not huge, and it will be players who are near 100% solo-pub!


And an even tinier set of this latter, latter, latter set (I've lost count/track) would then troll blast others/develop a following of those who also wish to shine with stats, regardless of just how much fun they're really not having anyhow....

tl;dr: it's all about stats....

But regarding events on the forums this summer (and I quit the forums long ago).  I can only offer this:







I'll be got dam if someone didn't get Gollum tatted on they leg..

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Hands down one of the most thought provoking expositions on religion I've read

"The predisposition to religious belief is an ineradicable part of human behavior. Mankind has produced 100,000 religions. It is an illusion to think that scientific humanism and learning will dispel religious belief. Men would rather believe than know... A kind of Darwinistic survival of the fittest has occurred with religions... The ecological principle called Gause's law holds that competition is maximal between species with identical needs... Even submission to secular religions such as Communism and guru cults involve willing subordination of the individual to the group. Religious practices confer biological advantage. The mechanisms of religion include (1) objectification (the reduction of reality to images and definitions that are easily understood and cannot be refuted), (2) commitment through faith (a kind of tribalism enacted through self-surrender), (3) and myth (the narratives that explain the tribe's favored position on the earth, often incorporating supernatural forces struggling for control, apocalypse, and millennium). The three great religion categories of today are Marxism, traditional religion, and scientific materialism... Though theology is not likely to survive as an independent intellectual discipline, religion will endure for a long time to come and will not be replaced by scientific materialism." --E. O. Wilson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson

E. O. Wilson is a world renown entomologist, considered _the_ authority on ants, and has studied them for a life-time, drawing comparisons between them and human behavior.



E. O. Wilson, Father of Sociobiology.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

World of Tanks: Tier V Heavies and Sprem

I made this!



Basically, I went through all tier 5 heavies and compared their highest tier guns and then what loading sprem will do to: penetration and damage.

The biggest factor or noticeable change is penetration of course, with only the T1 Heavy showing any change to damage when loading sprem.

Of course, this does not show DPM or any other factor.

The UK Churchill I pens the most at 202, with the T14 being least, with darn near close to half the penetration of the Church1.  The premium Churchill III (lend/lease) enjoys the most boost to penetration when loading sprem:

And finally, for some odd reason, the T1 Heavy loses 5 dmg when loading sprem.

Sorted by total/most penetration with sprem

Sorted by most boost to penetration with sprem

Sorted by least changes to damage due to sprem

Monday, July 29, 2013

World of Tanks: More El Halluf Gold


"A [tank] Chorus Line"
A real chorus line


The wiki.worldoftanks.com entry for El Halluf reads thusly:


A large valley filled with rocks, vegetation, and a small village surrounding a dried out river bed separate the two teams. The large hills on either side of the valley offer many firing positions, and very little cover in the valley will protect a large tank completely against all positions. Regardless of approach, attackers will face a long climb into the enemy's camp, and effective use of the cover en route is essential. The northern approach offers plentiful protection to attack either hill, but the southern approach makes up for lack of protection with shorter distances and better concealment. 

Camo Type: Desert

I offer the following edits:


A large valley filled with dead tanks, dead tanks, and small dead tanks with bigger dead tanks. The large dead tanks on either side of other dead tanks offer many firing positions, and very little cover in the valley will _not_ protect a large tank completely against all positions. Regardless of approach, attackers will face a long climb into the enemy's camp (emphasis, "camp"), and effective use of the cover en route is essential useless. The northern approach offers plentiful no protection to attack either hill, but the southern approach makes up for has a total lack of protection with shorter distances and better concealment. 

Camp Type: Desert

[Note: that edit is _not_ serious; I'm joking; calm down Francis]

Btw, whilst composing this and visiting wiki.worldoftanks.com/Maps, I see some put a "Hi" at the top of the El Halluf entry.  I did _not_ do this, but I'm thinking I'll get, "yes you did fkd!!!"  I promise, did not.  Someone fix.  I'm too lazy....


Stop writing on our bathroom walls!!!


Sunday, July 28, 2013

World of Tanks: The Tank Graveyard: El Halluf

A3 ... bad tings man .. bad tings
A3 on El Halluf _has_ to be the most/best place for tanks to pile up and die.  I think it holds the record for the most dead tanks.  Show me a better place where everyone goes to die?

This screen I took tonight inspired me to post this:



Here's more of the Bermuda Triangle of tank death, El Halluf's A3: