Processing

I get so caught up in what I'm doing sometimes that I forget about all other things. But sometimes, getting caught up in whatever I'm doing gives me time to come up with something so awesome I just have to focus.

Keep it moving!

And when that happens, I just need time to process it all... get it unpacked from my mind and into something more physical, metaphorically speaking. I'm going to keep doing that while I sleep tonight. And then I'm going to wake up, go to work, come home, and figure out how this all plays out.

The Infancy of Infantry

Any decent military-minded person will tell you that infantry is one of the most important (if not the most important) resources of winning wars. There are some who would say otherwise and claim things like artillery, logistics, naval and air supremacy, or armour are paramount. The artillery can soften up the enemy forces; the supply officers can make sure the troops are well-supplied; the navy can control the sea and air routes; the armoured divisions can sweep across the battlefield and outflank the enemy.

However, without infantry, I believe all of the above are moot points. Well-entrenched soldiers on the ground can hunker down and keep casualties from artillery strikes to a minimum. Even if they're undersupplied, a well-trained grunt will keep the fight going in whatever way he or she can. The navies and air forces can sweep the seas and skies but they may miss a hidden trooper who can alert the rest of his/her forces. Armour can take on most ground threats, but the moment they run out of fuel or are surrounded, all the infantry has to do is bring in a cheap anti-armour weapon or shove grenades into the hatches.

As a U.S. Navy brat, it almost feels wrong for me to admit to preferring the typical (army) foot soldier over a navy's sailors, but the ocean can't sustain life on a grand scale - land can. And how does one win land wars? With actual people on the ground, armed and ready to take the land from the other guy (or stop the invader from doing so). The other things I listed above can support the infantry, and at times they may prove to be superior. In the end, artillery is useless without someone on the ground calling in the strike. Supplies are useless if no one can use them. Naval support (in the case of a marine force) and air support also need a set of eyes on the ground to ensure lethal accuracy (or to call off a strike if friendlies are getting hit). An armoured vehicle is (from a financial standpoint) a much more valuable target than one measly soldier and is more likely to get hit hard with something.

Of course, everyone will have their own counters to my lines of reasoning, and I'm sure there's some general who's going to dismiss my logic simply because "tank beats everything" - and in some cases, it does.

Playing With Work

Before I went to sleep last night, I told myself I'd work a bit more on the whole "Terani" project I'm doing for my tabletop RPG campaign.

Normally, whenever I get focused on a project as fun as this one, I get easily distracted by some other form of amusement. I might be typing up a storyline or developing stats for (originally not-vital) NPCs when all of a sudden I get caught up in one line of thought (e.g.: How much damage would a semi-automatic Steyr AUG A1 do in-game using the d20 Modern system?). Initial research done on the Internet soon has me winding up at TV Tropes looking up something completely off topic like the "Funny" page of Game of Thrones - all within a span of five minutes. While entertaining in its own right (hearing sweet Lena Headey constantly insulting Joffrey with curses in the second episode's commentary: frakking hilarious, especially when you consider who she plays), it usually puts me behind.

The above paragraph is true - it only took me two minutes to type it out, yet the overall time spent using those two minutes ended up being a half-hour - getting the link for Cersei Lannister somehow got me to read TV Tropes - and as I typed this out I kept switching from Blogger to Tropic Thunder's trope page. *shakes head in amusement*

Okay. I'm getting distracted. I need to focus. *deep breath*

Anyway. I said I was going to put myself to work on Terani, and here I am, typing things up and... and, uh... *looks below*

This is "work." It's me taking a picture of (Lego!)me taking a picture of... me. Photoception?

...what the frak am I doing...!?

Snapshots of Work

Working on things takes a lot of work.

Getting pictures is hard work.

Trust me... I know. Hehehehe.

Playing the Adventure

Today's a good day off so far. Within hours of waking up, I came up with an idea for an excellent entry to post up here. I'm fleshing out these ideas and turning them into something I can incorporate into a writing project... something that just might get that jump-start I had planned for the end of this month become something worthwhile.

What's funny is that it's incorporating a great amount of ideas from both past projects and current ones. There was a saying out there that nothing is really "new" anymore - just recycled into something fresh and (hopefully) unheard of by today's public. And just like that, nothing I have is entirely 100% "new" - it's bits and pieces from the things I enjoyed most from my (many incomplete) works put together into something that has now taken my interest.

Let the Second Half Burn!

It could be said that this month has not been one of my strong ones thus far. Sure, I've been living and having fun, but in terms of me writing decent things on my blog, I've been huddled in the fetal position. So after what feels like an eternity of not posting anything substantial on here, I finally got the courage the strength something going in my mind to get me to type today!

Asian Porco Rosso, reporting for duty! (Isn't that just awesome? *gasps* IDEAAAA~!)

So, let's get this fire started and let's get this blog entry of mine rolling! *rolls out*

Reconstruction of Deconstruction

It's a pretty warm day, don't you think? And as such, I felt that it was necessary to construct something decent despite the fact that I'm on vacation and I have plans for today.

Toast gets plain ol' boring after a while. So right when I figured it out, I decided to try something new: slap on some butter and some kind of salad dressing before tossing it into the toaster oven.

So, without further ado, let's get this entry started! Right after I finish this toast...

Disproportional Return

You know it's going to be an interesting day if the first five seconds of your day started with a tired sign and the words: "I need a drink."

Sunday night looked something like this. Plus three friends. Plus beer. Plus fun.

In all honesty, I didn't drink anything today. (Not yet, at least.) However, it got me thinking about some things, which as we all know leads into more thinking about more things. And then it hit me like a slippery fish: I haven't posted anything yet. Frak! *downs a screwdriver and begins typing furiously*

Distracted By Awesome

For the first time in a while I got a Sunday off that I didn't ask for. That partially explains why I haven't posted anything here until now, but what else was responsible for me slacking off on my writing?

Pinkie Pie doesn't know the answer to that question, and frankly, neither do I.

Dreaming Mini-Hero

You will read this entry. If you don't, we're going to go ahead and execute this random girl we found in Japan. She claims to be some "Moon Princess," so that means she's royalty, and you goody-do-good readers out there like saving royalty.

Thought I was joking, did you?

Oh, we're dead serious. Haha. Get the pun? Get it? *glares* You don't!? *pulls the trigger*

Stagnancy Building

Evening, everyone. Here's me attempting to type something for today, but before we begin, let's welcome back something I haven't done in a while: my pre-blog things!





CURRENT MUSIC:
Nobuo Uematsu - "Fragments of Memories"
Final Fantasy VIII Original Soundtrack

Part of me wanted to just sleep all day. I think it has to do with the fact that this was on for a bit of time while I stared at this screen asking myself, "What to type?"

Anyway, it's a nice and peaceful track, perfect for relaxation and recovery. Just close your eyes and listen along... you'll find yourself... nodding... your...self... to... *ZZZ*



"It seems to me that the problem with diaries - and the reason that most of them are so boring - is that every day we vacillate between examining our hangnails and speculating on cosmic order."
- Ann Beattie
(Picturing Will)

This brings up a major point that can be used to argue why blogs aren't popular like most people (such as myself) would hope them to be. On one hand, I'll be inspired to write something involving a researched and collected view on topics like love, information control, and politics. The next day I end up ranting about something inane and trivial, like my discovery of Five Guys or the announcement of an archive nobody will ever want to access. Between the things we writers write that people want to read and the things we write that just seem almost unnecessary, we'll write. It's up to our viewers whether or not they want to read, much like it's your choice whether or not you want to continue reading on for this entry.

Artillerie!

"Most people use the guns and armor analogy: one side gets a better gun, the other side gets better armor, which inspires a still better gun, and so on. The truth is that a better gun inspires a chemical counterweapon, which inspires a telepathic strike, which then brings about an artificial intelligence guiding the weapon. The pressure of war does bring about growth, but it is never the neat, linear growth that you learn about in the classroom."
- Arcturus Mengsk
(StarCraft: Liberty's Crusade)





Mengsk brings about a point with his quote. Much like jumping the gun in dares (e.g.: going from a "double dare" to a "triple dog dare"), you can't expect any kind of force in warfare to merely counteract something done by their opposition. Sometimes some clever outside-the-box thinking is necessary (and sometimes crucial) in developing a weapon or piece of technology to better yourselves against an adversary.

The guns and armor analogy doesn't just apply to rudimentary warfare or anything involving the military - such principles can also be applied to aspects of daily life. Information security is a prime example - with financial saboteurs and thieves scouring the world for some juicy prize, it's necessary to create something that can't be cut open or be decrypted. In turn, these people develop software that can crack the toughest codes or make a portable water jet cutter. The process goes on and on and on.

Of course, sometimes a group doesn't have the luxury of creating something that can respond to the latest threat they've received. While some will fret and accept defeat, others will instead modify something to the point where they can make their own threat for the opposition to respond to. Once that happens, you get a standoff situation, and in some cases that's all the time you need to create something to tip the scale.

Downloading Diorama

Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the first entry of the last trimester of 2011!

Now, as mentioned before, all the entries I post for September (including this one) will contain at least 1,000 words (barring footnotes and all pre-blog things). While that will definitely look like a mouthful of random sputterings and potential dorky-babble, it'll all count in the end.

*rubs hands together* Okay; here we go!

Internet-Spammed Legos

So much talking; so little time! Let's get on it!

And yes, the title references the three main topics for tonight's entry.

Downsizing Geo-Political Reality

Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. Take corporate downsizing, demilitarization or even border reduction for example. Funds get lower due to decreased profits; the ability to defend your country is reduced; your overall governing power looks more and more like a joke. Despite all that, there are silver linings wedged between all those gray clouds - smaller management brings the staff to a more personal level; state funding can be used for better things like education; you have yet to be conquered and driven out out complete power.

However, in some situations the bad is all you'll ever get. Stocks fail to rise to where they once were; armed forces can no longer respond like they once did in an emergency; surrounding rival nations prod your countrymen farther inland. Things start going from bad to worse to God-knows-how-bad, and it's only a matter of time before someone hits their limit and breaks - at which point nobody can guess what could happen next. With enough provocation, even the tiniest group of doves can find themselves becoming blood-thirsty hawks in a blaze of self-perceived glory - all due to metaphorical blindness.

...Become Something

The night is young. Sort of. Here's a blog entry to start your weekend off right!

Across the Studded Border

We spotted something on the border... something we need to investigate muy pronto.

Mind you, we're not talking about the actual U.S./Mexico border... but a fictional one... with fictional soldiers.

Lego time! Yaaaaaay~!

Not Like a G6

A Monday... not one of my favorite days, but still, it's a decent day nonetheless to get things done. Will today finally break the slump of "crap-ass" entries?

You decide. I'll just eat a sandwich while you do. *noms*

Three-Dimensional Moon Building

Today's title corresponds with the three things I'll be talking about in this entry. For once, it's also in consecutive order, as well. Enjoy that while it lasts.

I honestly don't have much to say today. It's just one of those days where I felt like relaxing before work. Sure enough, I did. So, to make up for today's apparent lack of text, here's some other text (and pictures!) to make up for it.