Ethics

So I've been reading "The Scarlet Letter" for my American Literature class. I read this a few years ago, in high school (Junior year I believe), and I hadn't noticed then that it's not a bad novel. While I doubt it will ever become one of my favorites, it does seem to possess some endearing qualities. But aside from that, because of the vast amounts of time I have to read and contemplate the text at work, I have begun to think on the topic of ethics. Yes, you heard it here, Me and ethics in the same post.

While some of you may believe me an unethical bastard, following whatever whim suits my tastes at the time, that is wholly untrue. Now I will not go into my own personal ethics here, but I decided that that statement was necessary. But, some of the questions the book has raised on ethics, and some answers that I believe.

Let's get this started with a big'un. Is there a universal set of ethics that govern the way people would and should not act set forth by some higher force or being?
My answer: I think not. The first flag coming from the fact that I do not believe in a higher force or being that would necessitate a strict moral code. While I do ascribe very much to the Tao I don't view any sort of ethical code. There is a model for behavior that will help you achieve a spiritual connection with the next world and your ancestor spirits, but I don't see any ethical code set forth by this belief. I also believe in certain actions having the best results, but those are not rigidly set, not are they always falling into the category commonly called "right". I do believe that in certain circumstances killing is acceptable, though I very much hope I will never be thrust into one of those circumstances and forced to make that choice. Some possible circumstances that I devise in my head, the choice to kill is not the one considered ethical. I will not explicitly comment on these, but for situations that may be close, see the movie "Saw". But also be warned, it's extremely violent, and pretty gross. Don't watch it while eating food.

Since I need to get back to reading, I'm going to end this post now. But feel free to comment on ethics, I do love hearing what other people think.

Quack Quack ~Emu Sound~

Friday

It's kind of weird, everyone here at my work seems to look forward to Fridays and I don't really know why. Ok, so maybe they can duck out a little earlier, but most of the time they could leave at that time if they wanted anyway. Most of the consultants aren't in until 9 or later. Well, it looks like it will be a long Friday...for Garret (He's the other student assistant). We have several hundred, possibly a few thousand, copies to make by Tuesday, and one of the copiers just went down. Have to wait for help desk to come deal with it, which could take a few minutes or a few hours, depending on how busy they are. So yeah, one copier, thousands of copies, 2 days. It should work out. In other news, tomorrow we play Neko's game, yeah. I like being able to play D&D instead of just running it again. And Neko's a very good DM. It helps that he knows most of the commonly looked up info in the books, so he usually doesn't have to stop the game to look something up, it just helps keep the mood of the story. Anyway, time for copies. :P

Ginga

After recovering from a massive blister and several smaller blisters I went back to Capoeira last night. It was a lot of fun, and I'm learning more and more about the whole Capoeira experience. It's not just a martial arts. It's a dance, a game, a religion, a way of life. It is so much more than just kicks and spins, it's vast in it's scope of influence, and I continue to find these new aspects I learn about it fascinating. But enough speaking in awed terms about it, the people and the instructor are just plain fun. Yesterday we had a game of hackie soccer going before practice. And there's always someone playing the drum or the Berimbau. And of course they're willing to teach anyone else who wants to know how to play them. It's a whole lot of fun and I encourage anyone with an interest to come and check it out, maybe take a trial class. It's a free trial class. Anyway, onto other things.

I got to sit in a room watching binders to make sure no one took them and used they're extremely boring contents to beat out the competition for some pension thing. I don't know. It really comes down to me being bored in a room with binders for several hours. Then I went home.

I am so freaking sore from Capoeira, I hope I can go tomorrow. CoV is having problems now. I got kicked off and couldn't get back on until the beta time was almost over for the day, so it kinda sucked. I think that's all for now.

Quack Quack ~Emu Sound~

Dealer has 21

You are the Justice card. Justice preserves the
harmony of the world. Working with opposite
forces, Justice does not seek to criticize or
condemn but rather to accept. The idea behind
the card justice is that opposite forces are
complementary; you could not have good without
evil or light without darkness. Justice's
position is to make sure that if a thing is out
of balance, the weight of its energy is
realigned with its opposite force. This card is
also a card of humour, for it is in pointing
out contrary positions that humour is often
found. The attitude that is found in the
humourous person, being able to shift
perspective and flow with an instinct, is
important in the maintenance of good balance.
Image from The Blue Moon Tarot Deck.
http://www.themysticeye.com/pics/bluemoon.htm


Which Tarot Card Are You?
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So, for those of you who don't know, I started Capoeira last night. Yeah, I went to a trial class about a month ago, but I actually signed up and really started last night. And wow, it's pretty cool to watch on a movie, but it's amazing to watch in person. It was really a lot of fun, but I have substantial blisters on my feet. I'll probably be going twice a week to start out, maybe three times if I can, but I'll try to go four times a week once I can really start to do it without blisters or days of terrible agony. But it's insanely fun, and really good exercise.

In other news, I've been playing CoV, the beta. It's hella annoying because there are a lot of Disconnections, but the server is very full because you can only play for 3 hours a day, so EVERYONE AND THEIR MOM IS ON! But it's a great game. And good news for those who play CoH and want to play CoV. If you have both games the price will NOT change. It will still be 14.99 a month. And since Villains and Heroes are on the same severs, if you have both games you'll have 12 slots for characters per server instead of the usual 8. Hehe, and I can make an almost identical Razor's Edge villain. It will be terrible! Unfortunately, Lenny will not be able to construct Mirage Arcana as a villain, because there is no Empathy power set, and I think Illusion control is gone too, but that I'm not sure of. Oh well.

Quack Quack ~Emu Sound~

Polar Bears

Damn it's cold at work. They need to seriously turn down the AC. Yeah, and I'm in pants and a long sleeve shirt. Anyway, other things. D&D was great this weekend. Neko's games are fun, oh except the fiasco in the bandit camp. I mean that was still fun, but that part wasn't great because PC's hella got dead. Oh well. I wonder how much exp we would have gotten for successfully defeating all those bandits. There were 30ish guys, and they were either cr1 or cr 1/2. And we were lvl 1. Oh well don't suppose it matters. We get to be lvl 3 now! I'm gonna keep playing the same character, but I'm changing his alignment so that he's not evil. That made it very difficult, though Jess and my character got along just fine. And now the super important extra cool announcement...................I get to start Betaing City of Villains!!!!!! I'm all patched and what not. Only suck thing is there are only certain times to play. Fortunately it's from I think 4-7 Mon-fri. So it still gives me plenty of time to play. It also limits my time so that I go get other things done, like my homework and my D&D game, which I'll be running this week. Anyway, that's probably all. Greenday was fantastic, but you can read more about it on Liam's blog.

Quack Quack ~Emu Sound~