My sister has had the opportunity to babysit a few children who have experienced a very disfunctional family. This is my off week from work so I was able to experience a solid 10 hour stretch of constant whining and tantrums. I can not believe that kids could act like this. SPANK THEM, SPANK THEM!!!! That was what I wanted to do at least. Good thing I'm not a father yet, eh? Anyway, that experience reminded me of this article from the Onion. Since the link won't work, I've copied and pasted the text of the article below the link.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-study-reveals-most-children-unrepentant-sociop,2870/
MINNEAPOLIS—A study published Monday in The Journal Of Child Psychology And Psychiatry has concluded that an estimated 98 percent of children under the age of 10 are remorseless sociopaths with little regard for anything other than their own egocentric interests and pleasures.
Enlarge ImageData shows that many seemingly innocent children—such as this one—are not to be trusted.
According to Dr. Leonard Mateo, a developmental psychologist at the University of Minnesota and lead author of the study, most adults are completely unaware that they could be living among callous monsters who would remorselessly exploit them to obtain something as insignificant as an ice cream cone or a new toy.
"The most disturbing facet of this ubiquitous childhood disorder is an utter lack of empathy," Mateo said. "These people—if you can even call them that—deliberately violate every social norm without ever pausing to consider how their selfish behavior might affect others. It's as if they have no concept of anyone but themselves."
"The depths of depravity that these tiny psychopaths are capable of reaching are really quite chilling," Mateo added.
According to the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, a clinical diagnostic tool, sociopaths often display superficial charm, pathological lying, manipulative behaviors, and a grandiose sense of self-importance. After observing 700 children engaged in everyday activities, Mateo and his colleagues found that 684 exhibited these behaviors at a severe or profound level.
The children studied also displayed many secondary hallmarks of antisocial personality disorder, most notably poor impulse control, an inability to plan ahead, and a proclivity for violence—often in the form of extended tantrums—when their needs were not immediately met.
"Children will use any tool at their disposal to secure gratification," Mateo said. "And as soon as the desire is fulfilled, be it some material want or simply an insatiable and narcissistic desire for validation, they quickly become bored and lose interest in their victims, all the while thinking only of satisfying whatever their next hedonistic craving might be."
Mateo added that even when subjects were directly confronted with the consequences of their inexplicable behavior, they had little or no capacity for expressing guilt, other than insincere utterances of "sorry" that were usually coerced.
Because children are so skilled at mimicking normal human emotions and will say anything without consideration for accuracy or truth, Mateo said that people often don't realize that they've been exploited until it is too late. Though he maintained that anyone can fall victim to a child's egocentric behavior, Mateo warned that grandmothers were especially susceptible to the self- serving machinations of tiny little sociopaths.
Despite the overwhelming evidence presented in the study, its findings have been met with heavy criticism from people who associate with children on a regular basis.
Batavia, NY resident and 38-year-old mother Mary Corcoran echoed the sentiments of many other adults who refuse to believe they are sharing their homes with merciless predators.
"Not my Jimmy. Just this morning, he told me I was the best mommy in the whole world," Corcoran said of her son, 5. "In fact, he's been such a sweet little boy this month that Santa just may bring him everything he asks for."
According to renowned child psychologist Dr. Pritha Singh, author of Born Without Souls, diagnosing preadolecents as sociopaths is primarily a theoretical interest, as the disorder is considered untreatable.
"We've tried behavior modification therapies, but children actually learn from our techniques and become even more adept at manipulating others while concealing their shameless misanthropy," Singh said. "Sadly, experience has taught us there is little hope for rehabilitation."
"Just look at the way most adults act," Singh added.
So, there it is. And IT IS ALL TRUE!
And, if you know anything about Lady Gaga, you might find this next blurb entertaining as well.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/lady-gaga-kidnaps-commissioner-gordon,17789/
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Friday, July 02, 2010
Final Fantasy Top 10
(WARNING: This post might lead you the think that I am a geek. While this is true, to an extent, I assure you that my participation in video games has been marginal, and I have not been adversely affected by this hobby, socially or mentally. I am normal. . .and cool, really.)
I had so much fun doing my top 5 of current female superstars (which I think I will come back too in another post, later) that I want to do another list type blog. The motivation for this one comes with my recent accomplishment of beating the latest Final Fantasy game (XIII if you must know).
Final Fantasy XIII is the first offering from Square-Enix for the Final Fantasy franchise on the latest generation of console systems (PS3, XBOX 360, Wii). Considering that they have a track record of releasing excellent games for new systems, I had very high hopes for the newest game. (If you plan on playing the game later I shall spare you plot details. So I guess it's OK to read on. I'm not going to be that detailed anyway).
Final Fantasy XIII (hereafter FFXIII) does not disappoint when you play it. The graphics are phenomenal, which is to be expected from the PS3. The music is great. And the story is good. All these things are good. However, the best part of the game is the cast of characters. I think this is one of the most likeable casts for a FF game that I have ever seen. And the main character, Lightning, is AWESOME. She's pretty hot. What really helps here is the excellent cast of voice actors. In the past FF games some of the characters came across as annoying (Tidus from FFX anyone?) but here that isn't the case. Everyone comes across well. And Fang and Vanille have Australian accents. Awesome.
I do have some complaints. I think the game suffers most from the notable lack of side quests and exploration. There aren't really cities and towns to go visit in this game, which I find rather saddening. Shops are done through the save menu, which reminds me of shopping online: pretty pictures, but none of the actual thrill of shopping. Thus you never really get a sense of the world/people that you are trying to save. Because there isn't anything to really change the pace of the game (besides the awesome cinematic sequences), it often feels as if you are playing through one dungeon for the entire game. On the other hand, it's pretty hard to get lost or forget where you are going.
Anyway, I think that's all I wanted to cover in my description of FFXIII. Now, where does it fall in with the best FF games of all time? This is where my list comes in. It's going to be a top 10 list, just because I like FF that much.
10) Final Fantasy 1--This game, released for the original Nintendo, essentially created a new genre of game. It was pretty cool in its time.
The story was fairly lame--the characters had no story period!--but it was a start. I should add that the original (they've remade it a couple times) was incredibly hard.
9) FF 5--For the most part the Final Fantasy games 1-4 followed the same general format.
But Final Fantasy 5, never released in the US until recently, changed that with the introduction of the job system (to the US market. FF3, released only in Japan until very recently actually started the Job system). This little function introduced the possibility of character customization. It was awesome. You could change character classes between things like Knight, Black Mage, White Mage, Samurai, Thief. . .things of that nature. Awesome. Especially for geeks (Really, I'm not!!!).
8) FF 8--This was the second FF game for the original Playstation. The graphics were a significant step up from 7, and the story was pretty good. However, the Junction system was too complex and time consuming for most gamers, though I enjoyed the flexibility and potential it offered.
It also suffered from a rather weak cast of characters, though I did like Rinoa and Squall. It was a love story, which I liked. The ending movie was pretty long and very satisfying.
7) FF X-2--This was part II of Final Fantasy 10. On fist glance it seemed like this game was just riding the 10 cash cow, but it proved to be much deeper, and better than that. The game plays like Charlie's Angels meets Final Fantasy--which in my book is pretty cool. It also brought back the Job system from FF 5.
And it had an all female cast, though there were only three of them. Once you got through the first 1/4 of the game things really picked up. It did kind of annoy me that they changed Yuna's character into kind of a skank.
6) FF XII--This game came with very high expectations as the second standalone FF for the PS2. The graphics were superb, and the new gambit battle system was actually really good. The world was grand, large and well populated.
The story was a little bit weak, though the characters were cool. I think my main gripe was there less of an emotional attachment between the characters than some of the other FF games.
5) FF XIII--I've already spieled about this earlier. It's graphics and battle system are top notch. The story is good. The characters are awesome.
But the absence of cities, and side quests/games is a real let down for me. I don't think the world is as immersive as it could have been.
4) FF 4--
One of best old gen FF games, Final Fantasy 4 was originally released in the US as number 2. The story is excellent with a strong cast of characters (Except for the Bard. He sucks). Its music is also some of the best that I can remember coming out of tinny super Nintendo game music.
3) FF 6--Once we reach this point it's really a toss up between all these games. Final Fantasy 6 (it was 3 when originally released in the US) was as perfect as a FF game could have been.
The music, story, characters, and development system are all excellent. Throw in one of the coolest bad guys ever, the largest cast of any FF (that you can move in and out of your party at will), and an opera scene. . .nothing can get better.
2) FF 7--Oh, wait, I guess it can. Final Fantasy 7. . . take everything good about 6, and add better graphics, materia, and a freaking twisted story
, plus your favorite character dying midway through, plus a darker villain, plus two secret impossible bosses, and the best collection of side games ever (snowboarding? a motorcycle game?) And you have the best Final Fantasy ever, right?
1) FF X--Maybe not. FFX was not a perfect game. It was a little too linear. The freedom of the world map was lost. But it made up for that in the sinister nature of its story. Come on, the bad guy's name is Sin. . . how's that for a complex allegory? The characters were awesome, and there was a real love story, which was heightened by the fact that one of the characters was on a quest which she knew would claim her life. There is no other Final Fantasy that evokes the same emotional response as this one did. The ending was sad, which made me love it. Plus it had a great battle system, and a pretty fun little sidegame called Blitzball.
It also introduced voice acting to the FF franchise, which in retrospect was a real good idea. While this game was flawed, this is the one that I felt the most. And it had some awesome music. I could listen to the ending theme all day long.
I had so much fun doing my top 5 of current female superstars (which I think I will come back too in another post, later) that I want to do another list type blog. The motivation for this one comes with my recent accomplishment of beating the latest Final Fantasy game (XIII if you must know).
Final Fantasy XIII is the first offering from Square-Enix for the Final Fantasy franchise on the latest generation of console systems (PS3, XBOX 360, Wii). Considering that they have a track record of releasing excellent games for new systems, I had very high hopes for the newest game. (If you plan on playing the game later I shall spare you plot details. So I guess it's OK to read on. I'm not going to be that detailed anyway).
Final Fantasy XIII (hereafter FFXIII) does not disappoint when you play it. The graphics are phenomenal, which is to be expected from the PS3. The music is great. And the story is good. All these things are good. However, the best part of the game is the cast of characters. I think this is one of the most likeable casts for a FF game that I have ever seen. And the main character, Lightning, is AWESOME. She's pretty hot. What really helps here is the excellent cast of voice actors. In the past FF games some of the characters came across as annoying (Tidus from FFX anyone?) but here that isn't the case. Everyone comes across well. And Fang and Vanille have Australian accents. Awesome.
I do have some complaints. I think the game suffers most from the notable lack of side quests and exploration. There aren't really cities and towns to go visit in this game, which I find rather saddening. Shops are done through the save menu, which reminds me of shopping online: pretty pictures, but none of the actual thrill of shopping. Thus you never really get a sense of the world/people that you are trying to save. Because there isn't anything to really change the pace of the game (besides the awesome cinematic sequences), it often feels as if you are playing through one dungeon for the entire game. On the other hand, it's pretty hard to get lost or forget where you are going.
Anyway, I think that's all I wanted to cover in my description of FFXIII. Now, where does it fall in with the best FF games of all time? This is where my list comes in. It's going to be a top 10 list, just because I like FF that much.
10) Final Fantasy 1--This game, released for the original Nintendo, essentially created a new genre of game. It was pretty cool in its time.
The story was fairly lame--the characters had no story period!--but it was a start. I should add that the original (they've remade it a couple times) was incredibly hard.
9) FF 5--For the most part the Final Fantasy games 1-4 followed the same general format.
But Final Fantasy 5, never released in the US until recently, changed that with the introduction of the job system (to the US market. FF3, released only in Japan until very recently actually started the Job system). This little function introduced the possibility of character customization. It was awesome. You could change character classes between things like Knight, Black Mage, White Mage, Samurai, Thief. . .things of that nature. Awesome. Especially for geeks (Really, I'm not!!!).8) FF 8--This was the second FF game for the original Playstation. The graphics were a significant step up from 7, and the story was pretty good. However, the Junction system was too complex and time consuming for most gamers, though I enjoyed the flexibility and potential it offered.
It also suffered from a rather weak cast of characters, though I did like Rinoa and Squall. It was a love story, which I liked. The ending movie was pretty long and very satisfying.
7) FF X-2--This was part II of Final Fantasy 10. On fist glance it seemed like this game was just riding the 10 cash cow, but it proved to be much deeper, and better than that. The game plays like Charlie's Angels meets Final Fantasy--which in my book is pretty cool. It also brought back the Job system from FF 5.
And it had an all female cast, though there were only three of them. Once you got through the first 1/4 of the game things really picked up. It did kind of annoy me that they changed Yuna's character into kind of a skank. 6) FF XII--This game came with very high expectations as the second standalone FF for the PS2. The graphics were superb, and the new gambit battle system was actually really good. The world was grand, large and well populated.
The story was a little bit weak, though the characters were cool. I think my main gripe was there less of an emotional attachment between the characters than some of the other FF games.5) FF XIII--I've already spieled about this earlier. It's graphics and battle system are top notch. The story is good. The characters are awesome.
But the absence of cities, and side quests/games is a real let down for me. I don't think the world is as immersive as it could have been.4) FF 4--
One of best old gen FF games, Final Fantasy 4 was originally released in the US as number 2. The story is excellent with a strong cast of characters (Except for the Bard. He sucks). Its music is also some of the best that I can remember coming out of tinny super Nintendo game music.3) FF 6--Once we reach this point it's really a toss up between all these games. Final Fantasy 6 (it was 3 when originally released in the US) was as perfect as a FF game could have been.
The music, story, characters, and development system are all excellent. Throw in one of the coolest bad guys ever, the largest cast of any FF (that you can move in and out of your party at will), and an opera scene. . .nothing can get better.2) FF 7--Oh, wait, I guess it can. Final Fantasy 7. . . take everything good about 6, and add better graphics, materia, and a freaking twisted story
, plus your favorite character dying midway through, plus a darker villain, plus two secret impossible bosses, and the best collection of side games ever (snowboarding? a motorcycle game?) And you have the best Final Fantasy ever, right?1) FF X--Maybe not. FFX was not a perfect game. It was a little too linear. The freedom of the world map was lost. But it made up for that in the sinister nature of its story. Come on, the bad guy's name is Sin. . . how's that for a complex allegory? The characters were awesome, and there was a real love story, which was heightened by the fact that one of the characters was on a quest which she knew would claim her life. There is no other Final Fantasy that evokes the same emotional response as this one did. The ending was sad, which made me love it. Plus it had a great battle system, and a pretty fun little sidegame called Blitzball.
It also introduced voice acting to the FF franchise, which in retrospect was a real good idea. While this game was flawed, this is the one that I felt the most. And it had some awesome music. I could listen to the ending theme all day long.
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