Trojan Boy

There's talk of some kind of trojan floating around called "Lost Boy" or some such that causes your passwords to be compromised. I should run a full scan.

Aphex Twin - Alberto Balsalm

Why is it that everytime I promise myself to write something good, I cop out and post a music video instead?

Go

Flood

Now if you're a Filipino, you have probably heard of the big flood in Metro Manila. You know, you would think that given our country has a tropical climate, is located next to the Pacific and typhoons and heavy rainfall are not at all an unusual occurrence that we could handle this sort of thing. But it appears that yet again, there's flooding and people are suffering just like Typhoon Ondoy and Typhoon Pepeng before.

It seems nothing has been learned from those past events. People still throw garbage anywhere and then wonder why the drains get clogged. Squatters or rather, "informal settlers" are allowed to clog up waterways and live in disaster-prone areas. You got infrastructure plans that are frequently stopped or worse, scrapped whenever some new asshole moves into Malacanang Palace.

If I may break off for a moment, this reminds me of the time a Nobel Prize winner in Economics visited the University of San Carlos. I think his name was Kydland. He spoke about the problems of Philippine economics, one of them being the lack of consistency in government policies and long term planning. You see, once an administration is replaced by another one, there's this tendency for the new to veer the government and its policies and plans in different directions. For example, it's no secret that the current administration cancelled a lot of flood control infrastructure projects initiated by the previous administration. Now, I don't know the reason why it was cancelled and I'm not going to go the cynical route and say it was just out of spite, but my point is that there's a lack of continuity and long term planning in Philippine governance in general and not just the economy. This isn't the first time this has happened. In fact, it's a trend going back to administrations decades before.

But why? Well the Nobel Laureate didn't go to the "whys" as that would be more in the realm of politics. My own opinion is that given the prevalence of patronage politics in the Philippines, everything done by an administration is for the good of it's cronies. When a new administration comes in, you got a whole new set of patrons and bootlickers so you need to reset those projects and get them lined up for "your people" instead. Hence, nothing really gets done. This is just my theory though.

Anyway, back to the flood. If the flood wasn't bad enough, you've got people running around claiming that the flood is divine punishment from God for the RH bill. I'm not the most dutiful Christian in the world but I find this offensive. God doesn't cause human suffering, okay? That's a common mistake. You can't have an "all good and loving" God AND have him be a great smiter of infidels too. Doesn't anyone even bother to understand their own goddamned religion anymore?

Besides, how come only Manila is flooded? If it were divine punishment, how come us hicks down south are just snug and comfy in our beds? Also, the RH bill hasn't even been signed into law yet. Come on God, that ain't fair! It's just sad that people would make such stupid comments like that. It really cheapens both the issues of the flood and the bill. Some people even took the date of the disaster, August 8-7, 2012, and linked it to a bible verse in Genesis about Noah's ark and the command to go forth and multiply or something. How stupid. Why Genesis? Why not just close your eyes and pick a book at random and hope you don't get something irrelevant. Hey, let me.

Luke 8:7-12 NIV
"Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the
kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

“‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’
“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.

Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

I guess the lesson here is that we should sow seeds on the floodplains and not houses?

This won't be the last.

The Witcher TV Series (Part 03)

So Geralt is made to live on his own in the wastes. The old dude gives him a knife and tells Geralt to carve notches on a tree everyday. That way, the old man can determine how long Geralt lasted when he finds his corpse...I mean, so that Geralt can mark the passage of time for his own benefit. Geralt points to a pile of skulls near the camp.

Geez, you'd think that they would have the decency to get rid of the remains of previous children that they sent off to die. So they just send kids to the same camp over and over again without burying the bodies? At least Geralt had the common sense to bury the skulls the day after.

So Geralt does well on his own; too well, in fact. He catches some fish, keeps the fire burning with no difficulties and manages to keep his face completely clean. Geralt, however, is later confronted by this mean looking wolf. Apparently, the camp is right next to a wolf's den. It's like the Witchers want to kill these children on purpose. Anyway, Geralt stares the wolf down, he befriends it and even heals its injured paw. This is all getting a little too unbelievable even for me.

A few days later, Geralt spots a caravan of people going down a trail. The people spot him and think he's an elf. They throw rocks at Geralt and he backs off. He hides behind a tree to watch from a distance. Suddenly, Gwidon and his band of Witcher/Knights hail the caravan. It seems alright at first but then Gwidon gives a signal and then the Witchers fucking kill everyone and make off with their goods and children, proving once and for all that Gwidon is every bit the asshole we suspected him to be.

After the raid, Geralt checks out the ruined caravan for supplies. He takes an axe(practical) and then a bead necklace(useless) from a dead woman. "Why take a bead necklace?" "Is he gay or something?", you wonder. Well, Geralt takes the necklace for the sole reason that it would become an important plot trinket later. Geralt can see into the future I guess. That's the only explanation.

Gwidon brings the stuff and orphans to Witcher HQ. The elder asks what happened and all the children answer that elves attacked them and that Gwidon, the man staring at them threateningly right there and then, saved them. What is it with Witchers and children? Enough pedo-vibes. Anyway the elder smells bullshit. He asks Gwidon where the girls are since its quite the coincidence that all of the orphans are boys, you know, the only ones allowed to be Witchers? Gwidon just goes, "Whatever." and rides off.

The story goes back to Geralt who finds a girl survivor of the attack. He manages to save her life with herbs and stuff. You know, I'm getting pretty annoyed with Geralt. Is there anything he can't do?

The girl notices the bead necklace Geralt is wearing and asks him where he found it. Geralt mentions that he found it on the road. Instantly, the girl realizes her mother is dead and Geralt hugs her and tells her to be brave.

The old dude finally arrives to pick up Geralt. He notices the notches on the tree and the warm fire so he sits by and waits. He puts down his sword behind him for a moment. Suddenly, he is confronted by the wolf. Just when he reaches for his sword, it's missing and he's in trouble.

Surprise! Geralt somehow managed to steal the veteran Witchers fucking sword and then calls off the wolf. The old guy just laughs all impressed and shit. Geez, if I were him, I'd be pissed. I mean, I just helped your sorry ass survive by giving you herbs, a knife and survival advice from years of experience. But no, Geralt-Sue has to troll the old guy. Eh, whatever. They chat a bit until...

Geralt reveals he saw Gwidon's act and has the young girl to prove it. I suspect Geralt may have shown the Witcher the remains of the caravan as well but that wasn't shown. I'm only speculating. Gwidon's screwed.

Geralt says goodbye to Fangtooth, his wolf friend. I found this scene funny because young Geralt actually talks to the wolf, like in human speak. Can Witchers talk to animals? I don't think they can. They don't talk to beasts, they kill them. It looked stupid, It was like he was Mati from Captain Planet or something. Geralt and the old dude ride back home and tell the elder what happened. It's bad. It's so bad, he double facepalms. He calls EVERYONE to a meeting including the druid.

When Gwidon rides back, they confront him. Gwidon is such an asshole, he doesn't even make the effort to deny the accusations and instead, insults everyone in the entire order and spits on their traditions. Enough was enough.

Gwidon is made to surrender his badge and sword, and is expelled from the order. There goes his pension. Gwidon shoots a look of hatred at Geralt and threatens him.

To which Geralt replies.

By this point in the show, I was already annoyed with Geralt but I have to admit, it was pretty a badass exchange. After having made a dangerous rival who wants to kill him, Geralt tells the elder he's ready to be a Witcher and that's the end.

All in all, it was pretty good.

Andy Mckee - Rylynn

I've been sickly lately with some kind of flu. The final Witcher update will be posted soon. I wrote the stuff but now I just need to take the pictures.