Wisdom Teeth

I'll be getting my wisdom teeth removed today, and I'd have to say that I'm not very worried.  I trust that the dentist's skills are more than sufficient, and considering that the position of my teeth make the procedure fairly standard mean that the likelihood of complication will remain, thankfully, low.  Of course, the other consideration is pain.  I've gathered that most people fear the dentist because of the physical discomfort that they have to suffer, but let's think about this for a moment.  How much does it hurt, really?  Obviously, compared to the continuous pain that certain people have to live with, a few hours of discomfort is more than worth it.  But is the procedure really that painful?  Is the level of pain dependent upon the complications that may arise during the procedure?  Or does this only prolong the recovery period that one must endure?  I honestly don't see why people worry.  It's not as if they don't give you anesthetic to dull the sensation.  Now if they were to go about drilling and cutting and pulling without so much as a warning, I'd be running as fast as I could in the opposite direction.

I'd have to say that I haven't been to the dentist in quite a while.  In fact, I can't even remember visiting the dentist at all.  Being gifted with relatively straight teeth, I've never felt the need for braces, and I don't have any terribly painful cavities either.  That being said, a common quote comes to mind: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."  Just because I haven't felt the effects of any complications now doesn't mean that they're not there.  This is probably why I'm so eager to have these wastes of space removed from my mouth.  As far as general oral health is concerned, I can actually take preventative measures.  Wisdom teeth?  I can't really brush, rinse and floss them away.  If I could, I would, and I'm sure most would do the same.  Fortunately, my wisdom teeth haven't caused much discomfort so far.  But that's only so far.  I'm fairly sure that if I don't get them removed now, they're going to cause me more grief than I bargained for.

Getting more than you bargained for could be said about a lot of things.  It's not just limited to dentistry.  Think about lifestyles in general.  When you're getting your second coronary bypass, getting stuck to a dialysis machine, or being diagnosed with lung cancer, I don't think you'll be saying, "Ah, life well spent."  If it were me, I'd be wishing that I could get a do-over.  I'd think that a little diet, exercise and abstaining from excessive amounts of alcohol and smoking aren't so bad compared to getting a lung cut out of my chest.  I'm not saying that life shouldn't be enjoyed, or that life should be a list of worries and precautions.  Life should be lived, but there are ways to avoid future regrets and potential man-tits.

I guess that's one of the lessons that wisdom teeth impart.  The ailments of the future can be avoided by biting the bullet today.  Personally, I'm under the impression that if more people were to think about the long term, modern lifestyles would be much different than they are now.  We'd have less waste and more investment, less stupidity and more learning.  Global Warming, overpopulation, bad investment and economic prosperity could be achieved simple by taking that ounce of prevention.  The potential goods of humanity are just waiting to be pulled out of the backs of our mouths.  Let's pull them out.

Let's Talk About Vidya

In the recent years of gaming, we've been seeing a lot of the same thing.  Novel ideas are being put aside for tried and true methods that sell units.  Of course, this isn't limited to games.  It seems as though everything in popular media is either a remake or follows the same skeletal structure of its predecessors.  But what makes the gaming industry unique is that they can release a game, wait six months and release the same game with different skins and be heralded as the greatest programmers in the history of game design.  I can't really blame the gaming industry for doing this, they've got shareholders to think of, but I'd like to see them give a throwback to some of the hardcore fans.

For better or for worse, the gaming industry has exploded into the realms of popular culture, embedding itself in the hearts and minds of those who have never even held a Nintendo or Famicom controller in their entire lives.  Throwing the industry into the limelight has bolstered the industry, but what has it done to game quality?  Obviously, video game technology has always tried to stay at the bleeding edge, and as time passes, the visual and audio quality of games will vastly improve.  But it seems that the time for being unique and original has long past.  There's pressure now, and the companies are hard-pressed to pump out another Halo or Call of Duty : Modern Warfare.  Developers don't have room to play with interesting ideas or unique experiences.  The modern gamer wants a prim, polished and, most importantly, familiar game play experience.  It's sad, really.  Each year I see less and less innovation, and more of the same thing.  When will people realize that Call of Grenades: Grenade Grenade-fare 2 is the exact same thing as before?  When will these idiots realize that Gears of War is utter shit?  Probably never, but one can hope.  Of course, this lack of originality isn't limited to shooters.  Many other genres of the industry have been subject to severe stagnation.  Let's take fighting games as an example.  You'd think that with all this time to perfect their genre, people would have figured out how to balance a game.  Developers aren't even close.  In all honesty, it seems like they're further from the dream of creating a balanced game than when they first started.  They can add all the moves and costumes they want, it doesn't change the fact that characters are unplayable and mashers beat the crap out of people who actually try to play the game.

But let's not beat a dead horse.  How about we look at the action/ adventure genre?  This genre is quite a bit more promising.  Developers have understood that this genre is the closest to a cinematic experience and have manipulated to be such.  These games are getting more suspenseful, frightening, and action-packed.  In all honesty, many action/adventure game directors could pump out a summer blockbuster that would put Michael Bay to shame (not that that's really difficult).  What about RPGs?  I'm a huge lover of this genre, but I'm willing to admit that many RPGs are fading into the background.  Ever since the release of the shitstorm known as Final Fantasy 7, people have been ignoring the games that are actually amazing.  Of course, the people at Atlus have given me some hope for this genre, and so have the western RPG developers like Bioware and Bethesda.

I know I haven't covered all genres, but I can say similar things about all of them.  Gamers today need to actually look at what they're playing and decide whether or not they're satisfied with the same thing every year.  Is the industry actually earning your hard earned cash?  Or are they exploiting your trust and giving you a steaming pile of shit with a pretty package?  Decide for yourselves.

On Social Darwinism

Have you ever looked at a group of people and wondered why they existed?  I don't mean some existential pondering bullshit.  I mean people that have no value as human beings.  People that should be wiped from the face of the earth in order to save the future generations from their overall failure.  Before you start calling me a racist or an extremist of some type, I'm not targeting a specific race, creed, gender or whatever, I'm talking about idiots.  I'm pretty sure you've encountered these people before, and if you're like me, you've wondered what should be done about it.  Now my solution would be genocide.  To put it simply, there's nothing faster and less troublesome.  Obviously education didn't work, and imprisonment would just drain your resources, so you might as well dispose of them.  At the very least the corpses of those worthless individuals can support the crops that'll feed the significantly less retarded.  

But let's be a little compassionate here;  I'd hate to offend my more liberal readers, so let's give a few "less extreme" solutions to these societal failures.  1) Slavery.  Okay, I don't want to get labeled as some kind of backwards extremist, but it's not like slavery was started in the US.  People have been practicing slavery for a long freaking time.  DEAL WITH IT.  Now, the problem with enslaving idiots is that they weren't able to do things properly when they were free, it's not like they'll do any better when enslaved.  In all probability, their performance would just decline.  This bring us to option 2: Corporeal Punishment.  We should just beat the crap out of these people.  I for one am strongly supportive of this idea.  Threats of physical harm always promote a better work ethic and vastly increase the units that an individual may produce.  Actually beating the shit out of these people make sure that they know you're not bluffing.  But let's think about all these solutions for a moment.  Having 5 billion idiots under your control still leaves you with 5 billion idiots to take care of.  The problem hasn't been solved, simply covered up.  This doesn't mean that we should go with Plan A and annihilate them all.  That would take a significant amount of work and I'd rather not get another mean cramp in my leg from thousands upon thousands of Norris style kicks that I'd have to throw.  So let's look at another, less immediate solution, Population Control and Eugenics.  Genetic engineering has given us the keys to God's tool shed.  We've been screwing with DNA ever since we figured out that having two fat-ass cows hump the crap out of each other usually produces a fat-ass calf.  By that logic, having two stupid-fucks hump the crap out of each other usually produces a stupid-fuck.  Now whether this is caused by genetics or upbringing is debatable, but I'd rather not risk increasing the number of stupid-fucks.  So how do we deal with these individuals?  Sterilization.  We castrate all stupid men and falcon punch all stupid women.  They're free to waste their lives and hump each other till Doomsday without ever creating another terrible waste on the world's scarce resources.  There you go nature-lovers, I just stopped one of the biggest causes of global warming.  You can send me my nobel prize in the mail.

So now that I've single-handedly stopped global warming and saved much of the world from stupidity, I'm forced to deal with the reality that the vast majority of idiots don't want to have their balls chopped off or have their uterus' pulverized into deep space with a pseudo-god like punch.  So I'm left with a conundrum best worded by my internet counterparts: "wat do?"  Since most of these idiots would resort to violence (they don't know much else), we'd have to find some other way to control their means of perpetuation.  Even though I'd like to go out there and deliver all the crotch kicks and falcon punches I could, I'd probably find myself in prison before I could finish kicking and punching 90% of the US population.  So let's go with an even more lenient idea, Licensed Parenting.  Think about this for a moment.  You need a license to drive a car, you need a license to teach, hell, you need a license to dig cesspools, but apparently you don't need one to raise a child.  This is grade-A retarded bull shit.   Steering the course of a child's development is shit tons more important than steering the wheel of a single, stupid car.  Allowing idiots to run around willy-nilly, teaching kids stupid shit and ruining lives is the equivalent of driving an 18-wheeler through a school during recess.  

It's not as if the process even has to be that difficult.  Just a series of tests and evaluations and a few parenting classes.  These people should at the very least show some kind of competence for raising children.  Think of how many cases of child abuse we could potentially rectify.  Imagine the vast improvement to test scores and the overall skill level of American workers.  Mental and emotional health would improve, we'd be smarter, kinder and more prepared to handle the world of tomorrow.  But, I guess people just aren't ready to be better parents.  People prefer that parenting stay free so that we can have parents raise incompetent fucks.  I guess society as a whole doesn't want to get rid of child abuse or rape or domestic violence.  I guess giving rights to shit heads is better than saving kids from the horrors that no one should ever have to face.  I GUESS THAT THIS SOCIETY IS FULL OF A BUNCH OF STUPID FUCKS THAT NEED TO BE ERASED FROM EXISTENCE.  But if you don't think so, you're welcome to disagree.