Video

I meant to share this a while ago in a Sunday music but never found a copy on Youtube. Well now there is one, so go take a look. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TM3GbxaNLI

Moral Dilemma: My Judgement

So, some very good comments. Glad to see you thinking deeply about it. It's clear from the start of this quest that our three suspects all carry some portion of blame. All three are at fault and yet one must be found guilty. I'll admit, I did spend a lot of time in thought before making my decision.
It would be very easy to be lenient on Quint, seeing how his fault in this matter was largely passive just as it would very easy to be harsh on Karlat, seeing as how he 'planned' this mass murder. And then Belial as a wildcard. If all three men carry some blame then I realised I would have to look deeper.
Firstly, responsibility.
Is Quint responsible for this whole mess for turning a blind eye to his brother's attempts to summon Belial and seek out undeath? We are led to assume Karlat tried a few times unsuccessfully to summon Belial before managing it and thus Quint had plenty of time to wise up.
Likewise, if Karlat hadn't summoned Belial then this whole mess could have been avoided...
But if Belial hadn't lied?

Well, my next stop was to consider motives. In this sorry saga it becomes clear that Karlat acted out an instinct to protect the people of Charwood. Maybe choosing to do so 'at any cost' was the wrong choice, but ultimately he intended no harm.
Quint acted out of the instinct to bond with his brother and the children of Charwood. Maybe he hoped Karlat had changed his ways and was hoping to spread goodwill throughout the town?
Belial on the other hand acted purely out of malicious intent. He was instrumental in causing these events to transpire and indeed events played out exactly as he planned. There can be no doubt as to his intentions.

Which brings us back to a few comments made by you fine chaps.
Ches asked whether the stone is to blame for being heavy and the answer is of course no. But is Belial culpable for being evil? In my eyes, yes. either Ches or K also mentioned fallen angels and those who have played the game will remember that awful feeling of watching the paladin Lady Aribeth fall from grace and walk the path of evil. Sure it might be in Belial's nature to be evil, and such behaviour is to be expected of him but he still has free will. Just as it was in Aribeth's nature to fight for the greater good, so too was she capable of unspeakable evil and just because Belial is inherently evil does not mean that he could not have acted good, or even neutral in this situation. No one forced his hand, he was not misled as Karlat and Quint were.

After taking all this into account I placed the blame firmly at the feet of Belial. Although there exists a small cabal of gamers who blame Quint for allowing Karlat to summon Belial and an even larger slice of the nwn community who blame Karlat for summoning Belial in the first place I personally think Belial is the one most to blame. It was he who directly planned this crime, it was he who pitted brother against brother and he who forced one of Lathander's own servants against him. Karlat and Quint were unwitting pawns in his game. sure they should both have known better and are not blameless by a long shot and maybe the road to hell is paved with good intentions but ultimately I find them both guilty of stupidity and ignorance where Belial is guilty of masterminding this whole affair. He is naught but an opportunist, taking advantage of the naivety of lesser beings to bend them to his own will and thus I condemn him.

Do bear in mind though that this is merely my interpretation and does not lesson the votes against Karlat thus far expressed by my fellow judges. ;)

Thanks for the comments. That sure was fun.

Cool (or not) things I've learnt to do today

1. Disabled those goddamn annoying adverts in Windows Live Messenger (or MSN as we all know it). Just got so fed up of those expanding and flashing and making noise every time my mouse goes anywhere near them. Peace at last.

2. Discovered how to force Windows Media Player to allow you to do a screen grab with PrintScreen. ^^ I cannot believe it took me that long. Kudos to my bro for being the one to finally discover the solution.

Interested? Maybe you are, maybe not. Figured I'd tell you anyway, never hurts to share.

1. (assuming classic mode) Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, Security, Restricted Sites, Sites. Add the following.
rad.msn.com
global.msads.net
rss.video.msn.com
ads1.msn.com
rad.live.com
specials.uk.msn.com

Tada! Exit MSN, restart it and bingo. :)

2. Within media player. Tools, options, performance, advanced, UNTICK Use Overlays. Click ok, then apply, ignore warning message. :) Now you can screen grab from media player just like you can anything else.

Charon, solving windows problems slowly but surely. ¬¬

NWN: The Moral Dilemma

With bits and pieces of free time in between work I've been playing through the single player campaign of Neverwinter Nights and have just completed one of my favourite quests.

It starts when you, the hero, stumble across the ghost town of Charwood whilst seeking out a cult responsible for the plague that serves as the game's main plot. Charwood you soon find out is trapped in an eternal night and any residents who are killed immediately reappear as though nothing had happened. Talking to the townsfolk you discover that the town is protected by the brothers Jhareg, or at least was until one of the brothers committed a crime so heinous that Lathander (the God of Morning) sealed the town off in a state of eternal limbo.
Venturing into Castle Jhareg to seek out more information is the next step and in doing so you come across a spirit acting as guardian. The spirit sheds more light on the story, explaining that one brother, Quint, was a cleric of Lathander which is why the Morning God felt he was too biased to judge the brothers for the atrocity committed and sealed off the village to await the arrival of an impartial hero such as yourself. The spirit explains that the crime committed was the death of every child in the town.

The goal of the quest is to find both brothers, Quint and Karlat and find out exactly what happened to allow you to judge which one is at fault. It soon becomes apparent that Karlat played a big role in these events. He sought a form of undeath, to become a Baelnorn. A Baelnorn is an everliving protector and achieving such status would have allowed Karlat to watch over Charwood forever. To achieve this Karlat summoned the Demon Lord Belial who told him that the ritual would require the sacrifice of innocents and that he would need to kill all the town's children, at which point he and the children would be resurrected unharmed. To this end, Karlat tricked his brother Quint into luring the children to the castle.
Summoning Belial for his side of events adds more to the story. It seems Belial lied and was, true to his nature, simply sowing the seeds of evil and chaos. This he admits openly, being a demon this is his raison d'etre and he points out that he should never be expected to act contrary to that.
Finally Quint reveals his side of the story, explaining that he invited the children to the castle on the orders of his brother for a 'party', something he found odd knowing full well that his brother had a dislike of children and hated having them around the castle. Worse still, he was coerced into helping Karlat kill the children and was also responsible for interrupting the ritual, causing Lathander to intervene.

Sounds complicated? Ultimately the goal of the quest is to assign blame so that the town may be released. It seems most players have differing attitudes on who was truly to blame and so I ask your opinion...

Was Belial to blame? After all, it was his lies that kickstarted these events. Without his deceit Karlat would have never thought to sacrifice the children of Charwood. Or is he simply acting as a demon is expected to act, being inherently chaotic and evil?

Was Karlat to blame? Were he not so eager to cheat death, were he not so eager to enlist the help of a demon, were he not so trustworthy as to think the demon's words correct, would things have been different? Did his tricking of Quint leave him at fault? Or was Karlat acting in good faith? Was he simply trying to ensure eternal protection for his people by acting out a ritual that, to his knowledge, would ultimately end without any real sacrifice?

Was Quint to blame? As a cleric of Lathander and protector of the town should he not have prevented his brother from consorting with demons? Should he not have been suspicious of his brother's sudden generous invitation? Should he not have been so blind to his brother's plans? Is it not his duty to report such things to Lathander? Or is he guilty of nothing more than being gullible, than trusting his brother without question knowing in his heart that Karlat always has Charwood's best interests at heart?

It's a tricky one for sure. A real head scratcher and there is no right or wrong answer. Blame can be given to any one of the three (but not all three). Give me your musings and I'll explain who I assign blame to in a couple of days. :P

Learn English With Charon

Yes, the revival of everyone's favourite, Learn English With Charon.
Today's lesson: Less Vs Fewer.

This is one I find fairly easy yet I see many many people using Less and neglecting Fewer. Sadly, they are often wrong when doing so. I've also seen unnecessarily complicated rules for sorting the two out, when in truth, it's fairly easy.

Charon's hard n fast rule.
Less = Singular
Fewer = Plural

If you have ten coins and I have five... coins are plural and thus, I have fewer coins. However, money is singular so I have less money.
Likewise if you buy ten pens with your money and I buy five, I have fewer pens and thus, less ink!

So ok, there are some rare situations where it might not work like that, but for the vast majority of usages, it will be correct. Sure saves all this subclassification of nouns that I see going on. :S

Advanced Ninja English.
Ready ninjas?

Few Vs Lesser.

Yeah. O_O
Let's start with few. This is an interesting word that can mean varying amounts based on context.

1. A small amount. There are few birds around in winter.
2. A slightly larger yet still small amount. Yeah, I have a few shirts you can borrow.
3. A lot, when used in conjunction with Quite. Wow, that's quite a few pens you have there.

:) Weird.

Lesser. The dictionary claims lesser means little but it my mind, it's closer to smaller in this sense...
1. I chose the lesser amount of gold as my reward.
See, smaller. Yup.
But it can also mean lower in importance.
2. He was the lesser man. Or... The lesser of two evils.

So smaller or lower are my definitions rather than little... which just doesn't really work. :S

Well done. Off you go. Try not to stab yourselves in the pancreas while practicing.

More.

Why Humans Need Sleep

Elroy the magical banana
Began to exist in the speed of a blink
"Hang on a moment", he thought
"I'm a banana, how can I think?"

Which is more philosophical than the thoughts
You'll find in the heads of most of today's men
And Elroy reached the conclusion that
He didn't exist and so vanished again

The moral of the story is this my friend
Whether you're a lawyer or humble llama farmer
How do you know, you're not just a thought
In the head of a magic banana?

© Charon 2009

Best Poem I've Done in a While

Star-tangled Banger

I spend my days in a timeless haze
Not knowing if I'm coming or going
Trundling through a lifelong morning
Don't care if my apathy's showing

My wants and needs like summer sandals
Flip flopping in the sand
My mind aches more than the painful twinges
Shooting through my hand

And the lazy, loping, lacklustre rhythm
Just echoes the state of my mind
Crying out of tired exertion
Against the shackles that bind

People seem to frown upon
The navel-gazing poet
But self emotions are the strongest
It's true and you all know it

You are what you eat and I'm eating nuts
'Cos there are no foods made of awesome
And I'm running low on happy juice
It's a nightmare to secure some

It's not my thoughts that are random
But when I verbalize
I can see incomprehension
In other people's eyes

Even when I'm snoozing, my brain just keeps on cruising
Night riding like a certain jet black car
I'm just a passenger on a journey, or a patient on a gurney
A burnt out shooting star

© Charon 2009

No, seriously now.

This is officially the greatest car advert ever. I want one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhnly1MNGOQ

Awesome huh? But you know what isn't awesome?
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/94100/Europe-says-Give-vote-to-convicts

Are you fucking kidding me? Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this government? Criminals should be isolated from society, not given the right to vote! And under pressure from Europe? O_O This is the bit that drives me nuts. Bloody meddling. I think it's about time Britain cut itself off from Europe.

"Offenders getting the vote could include those guilty of manslaughter and terrorist offences."

Well that's just moronic. Let the terrorists, whose raison d'etre is to bring down our government, vote for who's in charge? O_O

"The principle that those who are in custody after conviction should not have the opportunity to vote is a perfectly rational one. Civic rights go with civic responsibility."

Damn right! And it should be us fine folk that aren't in prison who get to vote on stupid legislation like this. I bet if this were put to the public vote it would be a landslide NO.

"Voting in a democracy is a basic human right for all citizens, not just those thought to be deserving."
Bollocks. Prisoners have the right to basic nutrition, warmth, shelter and medical treatment. That should be it. Oh and maybe the right to sit and fucking think about what they've done and how much nicer their life would be if they weren't evil bastards.

"The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2004 that the ban on prisoners voting, which dates back more than 140 years, was unlawful."
It's the LAW. Hence, lawful. ¬¬ Retards.

This has to be the most ridiculous PC bullcrap I've heard, ever. What's next? Gonna give them the right to go watch England play football in the world cup? Or let them go home for bank holidays? Maybe we should just let them off entirely if they say sorry and promise never to do it again?

I sometimes wonder why I even bother obeying the law. Seems I'd have a much higher standard of living in jail. No bills to pay, free high speed internet, gaming consoles, luxury accommodation, meals cooked for me. The only downside is the slight risk of forced anal rape. :S Tough call...

Oh Hai.

New poll is up, sorry for the delay there.

I've been a busy bunny. I have Neverwinter Nights working once more so I'm planning on playing the original campaign on there for fun, and getting back into online gaming with it.
I've also been working hard to get my bro's new comp up and running. We've been having trouble with a virus called x.exe hijacking the svchost process, but, after some serious research, multiple formats and some trial and error it seems it may actually be a false positive stemming from Cmedia's sound drivers. Which means tomorrow it's time to disable DEP, tell Avast to ignore it and see just what it does. Computers eh? Fun all the way. (/sarcasm)

I'm also going to have to arrange a visit to the opticians to get better lenses again. Seems my eyes are worsening rapidly and I'm getting fuzzy again beyond a four foot radius. The neverending niggles of life.

In good news, only four days to go until the four brand spanking new episodes of Red Dwarf hit Dave. I am extremely excited about that. :)

There'll be a proper blog before long honest. :P

Portability

I have been working hard like a good little bunny and with my hard-earnt monies I have bought myself a laptop. I've been meaning to get one for years after all. :)
It's an Acer Aspire 5535, with a 220GB HDD, 4GB RAM, 2Ghz AMD Turion processor and Windows Vista.

Yes, that's right... Vista.

A few people have been asking why I'm running vista on it instead of just wiping and installing XP but here's my thoughts on it.
For one, Vista allows me to utilize that 4GB of RAM rather than the 2, or 3 with a little tweaking, that XP will take.
Secondly, this is a good opportunity for me to actually learn some basic Vista skills. I'm fed up of people coming to me with problems only to reveal they are using Vista and thus leaving me completely unable to help them. This way I am expanding my own knowledge, which is always fun. And if, in the end, I don't like it, I can just wipe and slap on XP. :P

But anyway, I have portability now, so that's just freaking awesome. :) It's working and that too is groovy and I've also just finished rebuilding my bro's new computer and that too is working! Hoorays all round. Things working = fun.