You know those times when you stare at something and all you can think of is "What the heck?". This is now one of those moments.
Now I find those traditional Chinese preserved fruits/veg too sweet. I could barely finish a piece of preserved lotus seed pod just now. Bleh. The sticky rice cake, nian gao, is worse. Either the cake itself is too sweet or my tolerance for sweetness has lowered, but I found it to be so sweet it was bitter. Not exactly bitter, but it was more of a feel than a taste. Ever ate something so sweet the back of your throat tasted sourness? Imagine it gone so far that it became bitterness instead and that's what I'm talking about.
Democracy is a civilized chaos. When everyone has their say in things, how can it not be chaotic? Democracy is an idea that deludes the masses. By allowing everyone to have equal rights, the stronger will be able to eat the weak. Democracy does not protect the weak! It merely enables our natural chaos while removing the element of violence.
In no way does providing equal opportunities for everyone means everybody will prosper. Everbody can't prosper. If every single one of us gets a raise, it's called inflation. And that sucks.
Theoretically, communism protects the weak at the expense of reducing the motivation to work in everyone. If there isn't more reward for working more, why do more?
Similarly, if everyone is really taxed more heavily when they make more money, there is little reason to work harder. That is why there are so many legal leeways to escape heavy taxes for wealthy people, like using company funds for travelling during vacations in the guise of a business trip. This only works for large companies because for sole proprietorships, it's basically a one-man-show. Taking money from the business is the same as taking money from his own wallet.
The only way democracy works best is to work in the form of direct democracy. It is not perfect but it is the most effective version. Its efficiency leaves much to desire, but if democracy means everyone has an equal say in all major issues, this is what it is.
Therefore the most democratic society must be a small society, a town or smaller. Unfortunately, something of that size can not retain its sovereignty for long. Other, less democratic societies will attempt to swallow it up. It can be out of greed, or that they think it's best for everyone. For protection or prosperity for everyone. Whatever. Either way, the more people there are, the less power they have in anything.
In a large country, the amount of influence of the average guy in national issues is close to none. Of course, if many people are saying the same thing at the same time, all their soft whispers will form a scream. If the scream is loud enough, it can have enough influence on these matters. That is what democracry is. But in a representative democracy, many people pick some guy to represent them in this screaming contest. The direct link becomes indirect.
Fewer people having a say means each would have much more influence. On one hand, it's easier for the people because most of them don't really care about anything. On the other hand, when any of these people actually cares, their representative may not agree with their views. In addition, these representatives may try to change their peoples' views to suit theirs.
This is still democracy, but it's lost part of its meaning in order to gain efficiency and convenience.
So the Commonwealth in the Fallout world refers to the former state of Massachusetts and the "Institute" from which the android escaped from is quite possibly the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Interesting. Apparently there is very little data about it because this appearance in Fallout 3 is its first. There is no way to go there because Fallout 3 only contains Washington DC. I hope it appears in one of the future expansions.
But I don't see how that will happen. None of the future expansions will feature the Commonwealth. The first expansion features Alaska, the second Pittsburgh and the third goes back to DC for a final showdown with the Enclave.
Oh shit! The first Fallout 3 expansion is already out! It was released yesterday, on the 27th!!! OMGOMGOMGOMG!! It's a simulation of the liberation of Alaska from the Chinese during the Great War of the Fallout world, and it's similar to one of the main quests except it's filled with fighting.
They should have hired some real Chinese speakers to be the voice actors of the Chinese soldiers in that main quest. Since they weren't programmed to kill me, I was able to interact with them like trying to talk to them or hitting them. Some of what they say were real Mandarin that I could barely understand, but some were pure nonsense that sounded Chinese. They probably got some ABCs to do it.
Picked the Explorer Perk for my 20th and final Perk in Fallout 3. It reveals all places in the map of my Pipboy. I wanted to find the Nuka-Cola Plant and also thought this Perk would make it easier for me to explore the world. Unfortunately, the moment I saw the map with everything labelled, my interest in the game dropped.
Part of the fun in exploring is finding something you don't know about. You may or may not know that the place exist (better if you don't), but the moment you discover it, there's always the joy, the exhilaration and the uncontrollable curiosity about what mysteries it holds. Knowing exactly where the place is spoils part of the fun.
Now there's only the curiosity left. I don't see how I will play this game a third time. Damn I just spoilt the game for myself.
I had a shock just now when I discovered my bro playing CS: Source. He must be really running out of games. Not enough good games being released except for MMORPGs, which he can't play during the school term.
Speaking of MMOs, Fallout is going to have its own MMORPG, known to fans as Fallout Online, or FOOL. It is, as yet, unannounced and is only known as Project V13. The major clue for fans to believe it's FOOL is that the Fallout 3 team is involved.
It's a very good idea, since most of the geography is already done for them - they just need to copy the world map for their first template. Major American landmarks will be there, so those will be some of the dungeons/towns. All they need is to add more instead of starting from scratch or vague descriptions like WoW or any other MMOs.
It'd be even more interesting because everyone would want to see the virtual counterpart of the landmarks. If it gets big enough, the developers may even create the whole world some day. Then players can travel around the world without leaving their homes, Fallout style.
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