Something Went Wrong

It feels like the dawn never came
Like the sunlight is hiding or simply lost its way
The nightmare never ended when the sun missed its shift
No light on the horizon to guide this sinking ship

And I know something went wrong
Last night the pieces fell
What the hell is going on
The stars moved out of line
When possibilities collided
Everyone seems fine
But the rhythms out of time
And I’m trying to stay strong
But I know something went wrong

Sometimes change comes in waves
An angry ocean fighting to retrieve a gift it gave
And if the sky is broken and obscuring true north
Then these sails can’t possibly carry us on course

And I know something went wrong
Last night the pieces fell
What the hell is going on
The stars moved out of line
When possibilities collided
Everyone seems fine
But the rhythms out of time
Trying to stay strong
But I know something went wrong

I can’t tell if the sun is blinding or blinded
If it left the sky or is it trying to find it
Did I miss the boat the rest got on
Is it only me that sees the wrong
These ports aren’t where they belong
I know something went wrong
I know something went wrong

As the Casket Calls

So put on the crown
As these empty castle walls
Are falling to the ground
Down before us all

Stand up and take a bow
The lights are fading low
Enjoy the adoration
You’re the reason for the show

The casket calls with broken bells
And tired melodies
The harp is played by lovely fingers
Plucking every dusty string

So put on the crown
And watch the jester’s rouse
The empty house is all in awe
Of an effort just for you

The casket calls with heartless words
And stirring memories
The faithless dance an empty jig
They’re the servants of the king

The casket calls in perfect time
To every word that we sing
The faithless dance an empty jig
They’re the servants of the king

So put on the crown
And watch the castle fall
Listen to the sounds
Of the casket call

I’m going to kick this off with an older one of mine. The flow of the last stanza is one of my favorites of my own writing. It never ended up having a name, perhaps we could get some suggestions in the comments?

Untitled

Far too much time I do keep
To sit alone and wait and weep
In nights too cold to feel my skin
And thoughts so dark I’m lost within
Fate so cruel it takes my hope
Fear it makes me cold as stone

For too much time I was on my own
The weight of Love it breaks my bones
Peace finds itself lost on me
For I dwell with insanity
No longer do I see the sky
Blinded by these tears I cry

Far too quickly you walk away
I lack something to make you stay
Failed attempts to articulate
That to your thoughts I can’t relate
My body shakes from these withdrawals.
Unsturdy steps, without you I fall

 Since  letting Against the Fate rapidly fade into non-existence my other blog 15 Minutes of WoW (a video game blog, for those unfamiliar)  has achieved mild success by my blogging standards. It consistently sees 50-100 views each day and in just a few months is nearly reaching 20,000 total views.

In addition to the poems/lyrics post (not sure which I’ll use for the title), I may feel inspired to reignite my aim of social commentary and my opinions of things for which I created this online word bucket. I also have a twitter which sees occasional attention and can be found at twitter.com/againstthefate . So I’ll take my social media and continue to press forward, though at times some of them stagnate for a while before receiving a little love from me. And to close this short post… a little lyric I’ve been working on. It’s probably not complete yet though I wouldn’t mind a little feedback as it is.

I face a grave decision
I don’t find solace in the ever ending
Eternity
Where is the grace undying

I know I can’t turn around
The past is not open to me now
History is receding
The future calls but I am fleeing

If I’m trapped in the present
Where is the place where fate hasn’t
Called my buff
When is waiting not enough

I know I can’t turn around
The past is not open to me now
History is receding
The future calls but I am fleeing

I face a new position
Moving towards an ever ending
Eternity
Where is the grace undying

Is the logic lying
Can I really fail at trying
Or is the sunset simply saying
Destiny is always fading

Soon: Copyright 2004-2010 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. “Soon” does not imply any particular date, time, decade, century, or millennia in the past, present, and certainly not the future. “Soon” shall make no contract or warranty between Blizzard Entertainment and the end user. “Soon” will arrive some day, Blizzard does guarantee that “soon” will be here before the end of time. Maybe. Do not make plans based on “soon” as Blizzard will not be liable for any misuse, use, or even casual glancing at “soon.”

Very Soon: Another common term implemented by Blizzard often misleading players into excitement for future content. “Very Soon” is guaranteed to arrive between now and the end of time with a higher chance of arriving on the “now” half of the time table. Although this means closer to now than “soon” there is no guarantee that you will live long enough to see the content finally release.

Now<————–Very Soon——–Soon—————>End of Time

Check out more funny disclaimer here

Are they treating a symptom and not the problem?

Apparently The Jay Leno Show wasn’t holding enough of an audience to lead into the networking after it, so NBC affiliate stations were considering dropping the program.

Perhaps the issue isn’t the time slot.

Now admittedly, Leno is a comedic and late-night legend. I’ve sporadically been watching his show for years and years. But, in recent times, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien has been, well, simply funnier. At least, in my humble opinion it has been. Maybe NBC should consider leaving the things that are working where they are and consider alternate solutions to their problem with the Jay Leno Show. If they lose Conan O’Brien (it’s not confirmed he’ll accept the later time slot and stay with the network as a result of the change) it’s sure to be a bigger hit to the network than the poor showing of Jay’s show.

Of course, I don’t expect them to be reading this blog and make some dramatic change to their plans based on it. What do you think?

(More information here)

So, why all these random topics? Why not one main theme such as Relationships or Movies? The simple and honest answer: I don’t want to. If you want to read a World of Warcraft blog go here. If you’d prefer a how to on successful relationships, maybe try this link. But, if you’d like a hodge-podge of knowledge and interesting subjects, Against the Fates might be the place for you to read. Because you and I both want a little diversity.

I suspect I’ll be touching on a little more social and personal commentary in the near future, so check back if that is your thing.

As for Avatar, if you haven’t seen it already, you’re probably living in a cave somewhere and don’t have computer access and aren’t reading this blog. The visuals are brilliant. The story, although predictable, is a tried and true natives v evil corp that at least doesn’t detract anything from the movie. The acting is solid and the dialogue, while not spectacular isn’t abundantly cheesy. The visuals are brilliant. That was intentionally said twice. If for no other reason, you should see this movie to see it. The short and sweet, there isn’t really anything bad about the movie and the CG quality is worth shelling out a few dollars and a few hours out of the house.

Other major TV makers are expected to join the Korean company with announcements of 3-D TVs later Wednesday at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The industry is making a major push to get 3-D into the home while consumers are still excited by 3-D movies in theaters.

Prices for the new LG sets have not yet been announced. But Tim Alessi, director of product development at LG Electronics USA, said the TVs will likely cost about $200 to $300 more than comparable sets without 3-D functions.

Original Article Here

———-

Personally, I’m not any sort of excited about more expensive “3-D” TV’s and it will likely take much persuading and holiday sales before I’ll venture out for one of these. Besides that overall lack of benefit (I’m still not that impressed with current “3-D” although Avatar was very entertaining), it is a very bad plan.

Say you want to throw a party or a small get together. Now you’ll have to run out and buy a bunch of extra 3-D glasses that you’ll only need when a mass of extra people are over OR realize your costly new TV is obsolete because half of your guests can’t watch. Remember when the flat-screen tv’s had a very limited viewing radius? Wasn’t it nice when they fixed that? 3-D tv’s are likely to undo that progress. Any thoughts?

This graphic (below) has been floating around for a while now, but I wanted to put some of these numbers into perspective. WoW has over 11,000,000 subscribers. Thats nearly 250% of the population of Ireland. 1,200,000,000 in revenue, which is greater than the entire gross domestic product (GPD) of many small countries. I would estimate their revenue a bit higher doing some simple math 11,000,000 players x 15/month x12 months=1.98 billion from monthly subscriptions alone, not to mention merchandise. Enjoy the graphic. Original Link Here.

A friend of mine recently declared (after my request of) that he wouldn’t (and that I shouldn’t either) eat Chinese food because it contains too much MSG. Now, lets all keep in mind that I am not a doctor. I know little to nothing about MSG, the effects of it, what foods contain it, or what it even stands for. So I shall not be making a statement in regards to its health contribution. The conversation went something like this

Friend: No, not chinese. It has way too much msg.

Me: So?

Friend: Well, msg is bad.

Me: How so?

Friend: It just is.

Me: What makes you think that?

Friend: I read it somewhere.

Me: Where?

Friend: I dunno.

Me: Well, what’s it do then?

Friend: I dunno.

Me: Even know what msg stands for?

Friend: Nope.

Needless to say we got some Chinese for dinner. Go Panda Express. Did I sentence my friend and I to die in some obscure and awful death as a result of eating an inordinate amount of msg in that box of ever-so-tasty orange chicken? Maybe. Or maybe msg isn’t as bad as everyone likes to rant about currently. But then again, I don’t know one way or the other. And even if I claimed to know, you shouldn’t believe me, because I’m not an expert on the issue.

On the other hand, had I done a sufficient amount of research. Read doctor comments, looked up clinical test results, google searches, etc, and was willing to cite or at least make reference to some of this, perhaps the opinion or believe I had formed by then could hold some more weight. At which point you could start considering whether or not you believe me and the information I would be trying to convey. Of course, the importance of any given issue will often determine how much effort you should (or at least might be willing to) put into the decision. I personally am not that concerned about msg or most health fads. So I haven’t taken the time to research msg. On the other hand, when the Atkins diet sprung up, I looked into that a little. Most of what I found showed that losing weight is a result of overall healthy lifestyle. Eating properly and exercising. Not eating fatty hamburgers with lettuce wrap instead of a bun.

So far most of the big disease scares of the last several years have turned up to not warrant the hype surrounding them. Anthrax in the mail, West Nile virus, and bird flu all tapered away and disappeared from the media focus, not killing off the promised millions. Even swine flu now seems to be tapering away and somehow the majority of us have survived. I had the West Nile virus, or at least a majority of the unique symptoms to it. So I looked into that one in more detail. Sure, for the unlucky few %, the consequences of the disease can be tragic. On the other hand 98% of people who get it are almost completely fine and 50% never even show noticeable symptoms according to this I read online (omg, did he say online? Isn’t that bad?) which include articles by the CDC (as close to experts as you might find).

All decisions of what to believe aren’t related to health of course. Everything ranging from politics to lunch choices can be presented to you from disregardable sources. If a friend tells you the new burger joint in town is bad, ask if he ate there him/herself; or if the person who did eat there even likes the same things in a burger that you do; or if maybe he just read a comment on it on yahoo from some disgruntled person who wasn’t able to get a job there.

Consider the source.

Is the source a field expert? – Doctor, biologist, food enthusiast, God, etc.

Has the source done research or studied results from the experts?

And finally…

Is the source trustworthy in general. Sure politicians or big business might have a good idea of whats good for the overall economy with all the money they can put into studies, but are they just concerned about their own elections chances or bottom line. Maybe you’d love the burger joint you want to try out, but you friend wants to convince you otherwise so you’ll go halves on a pizza.

All in all I guess most of this depends on how much you care about any given issue. If you’d rather not have to think about it and just believe what you’re told and evade the things people say are bad and do the things people say are good, then go ahead. One less thing to worry about. Just remember: Dont eat anything containing msg (fast food, chicken, sausage, ranch dressing, caesar salad,  Doritos, soy sauce, french fries, etc); Always avoid any birds you see, living or dead; Free with terror from sites with mosquitoes; don’t pet pigs at zoo’s; Don’t eat bread, pasta, or other carbs, Be aware the hole in the Ozone will kill you from cancer if “Climate Change” does cause us all to burn up or freeze to death.

But who am I to say? Believe what you want, I’m not a psychologist.