This may be cheating but it's also a test

Most online quizzes are a bit silly really. The title is 'which so and so are you?', the questions and responses are pretty clear that if I pick response A, I'm leaning towards Character A, and the results are no surprise. I took a 'Which Doctor Who are you?' today and the questions and responses were nicely mixed, perhaps because there were ten Doctors to pick from, they had to work harder. I actually had no clue Who I was getting and was quite pleased to see my result.

Your Result: 2nd Doctor

"Oh my giddy aunt!" You are fun-loving, and excitable but that doesn't hinder your ability to plan ahead. Although when things get tough you may have trouble at first, you'll always find a way through. You may overact to entertain or take cover, but you're a solid person underneath, something only true friends understand.

Ugh

Yesterday my left ear felt a little clogged, closed, or stuffed up. Eventually it relaxed.

Now it's my right ear's turn. It feels like there's a crayon loose in my head and someone's slowly pushing it out my right ear. My hearing is a little wonky as a result.

It's very distracting.

Beyond that I'm feeling better. Hopefully my ear will relax tonight and I'll feel active enough to do something, anything, tomorrow.

That would be nice.

Grumble

I am sick and because of that illness I am missing this year's 'behind the scenes' night at the Milwaukee Public Museum. I'm hating that. I've only been to the 'behind the scenes' night once and was looking forward to going back and taking some pictures.

Last night I took a big, slightly more than recommended dose of Nyquil with the idea that it would knock me out for the night. That's the sort of thing that the commercials suggest will happen anyway. That did not happen for me. I slept for a couple hours, was far too awake for a period of time, and napped fitfully for the rest of the evening. I woke up tired. My throat felt less rough but I'm not sure if the Nyquil or the vaporub did that. I ended up sleeping most of the afternoon away.

I've never been much for cough syrup upon becoming an adult. The primary ingredient in most cough syrup (the Nyquil included as I looked) is alcohol. Why not just drink brandy or whiskey? Bound to accomplish the same things by in large. Get some blackberry brandy, that'll coat your throat and off you go.

Don't mind me. I'm just tired and bitter for missing my photo-op with a polar bear.

Radio on the TV

Thought I blogged yesterday. Woke up this morning, had a look, and realized I hadn't. Bother. The days are blurring together a bit as I'm sick again. Unpleasant that. Let's not dwell on that.

The topic I wished to discuss yesterday and managed to remember into today was that I'm not using my television very well. I'm using my television but not much as a television, more like a radio. I switched to a different media provider a few weeks ago and this new monolithic company provides me with a comedy radio channel. I get clips of comedy albums, radio programmes, stand-up, all sorts of good stuff, much of which I don't have. Which is nice.

Why isn't there a video channel like this? There's a load of performers from the 60s and 70s for which I'd love to see more video. Not that there aren't performers after that I wouldn't mind seeing as well but more of their work is available in one form or another. Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Cosby, etc on a television talk show in the 60s is something I have seen so little of over the years.

There are some down sides. Some of the tracks are mislabeled. Like any radio, some of the tracks, pleasant as they may be, are repeated too often. I've heard Bill Cosby's 'Chicken Heart' routine a lot these past few weeks. I like it but it's long and stops being as funny when you hear it three times in the course of three hours.

All these channels and I spend most of my time listening to the 'radio'. Silly, isn't it?

I just don't get it

At the risk of sounding like the crazy old man who ain't what he used to be, I don't understand the point of Twitter.

I understand some of the points of Twitter. It's like sending a text to a mailing list. I can see how it could be handy when reporting from an event. "Hey I'm at the Brewer game and almost caught a foul ball." That sort of thing. Just walking around on a daily basis though? How many people are interesting enough or witty enough to use 240 characters on a regular basis and have it be of interest. "Hey, I'm eating a hot dog!" is not the sort of thing that really grabs the interest.

I'm afraid that the next step is a mobile device with a GPS that would automatically update a site with your location. Then you can read 'Steve is in bed.' 'Steve is in the kitchen.' 'Steve is in the bathroom.' 'Steve is still in the bathroom.'

Won't that be fun?

Pondering heroes and villains

Not every villain needs to be horrible. Not every hero is a boy scout. Both can have codes of honor that they follow.

As an example, let's pick on El Hombre de Silla.

El Hombre tries to act as a hero while in the wrestling ring and out. Yet he carries a folding chair to the ring to use as a weapon. This could be the sort of thing associated with a cheater as he has an item that could be used to cheat. However, so long as he uses it only when it's legal, makes it clear that he's bringing the chair with him (it's not a secret that he has it) and has chair in his name (Silla being Spanish for chair), this suits his code of honor. He considers himself something of a warrior with the chair acting as both sword and shield. Having the chair could be a villainous act, but, under the circumstances, it isn't.

What can be the only difference between the way hero and villain acts is their goal. El Hombre tries to fight for the downtrodden. He fights crime. Therefore, he's a hero to those who are victims or possible victims. To criminals, he is a villain, preventing them from their goals.

A villain can become a hero if the villain fights against characters deemed to be greater villains than himself/herself. The character may change nothing apart from his opponent to facilitate this transformation. You use a hacker to catch a hacker, a thief to catch a thief, Rowdy Roddy Piper to defeat Bad News Brown or whatever.

It's the overall goal that generally determines the character's alignment in a 'ends justify the means' society.