Whenever I talk about generalizations, this always comes to mind... Why do people freak out so much, or just not grasp the fundamental idea behind "generalizations"? They get upset and tell you that you're "stereotyping", as if that's a horrible thing to do. I will put here a series of generalizations and ask you what's wrong about them!

Let's start off with something everyone knows.

Generally speaking, men feel the need to show off to impress others.

We all know this is true... All the infamous "hey, watch this" scenarios. Most men feel the need to show off in an effort to prove that they're superior in strength to others. It's just a fact of life. This is a stereotype, and I am in it, because I'm a man. Is this stereotype wrong? No. It's very true. Does that make this stereotype bad because there are some men who don't do this?

Let's try the opposite end of this example:

Generally speaking, women are far more emotional than men.

This is where we start stepping on people's toes. I don't know why, because it's the same thing as the previous example! It's true. Most women have stronger emotions than men. All you have to do is take a look at Hillary Clinton crying on TV to prove this. I honestly don't blame her. She's a woman! She's going to cry when things get rough and stressful. It's their way of dealing with it. This is a stereotype. Is it wrong? No... Because it's true. Does that make this stereotype "bad", or "wrong" or "evil" because there are some women who don't do this? No! Because a stereotype is "generally speaking"... Meaning that "for the most part, women are far more emotional than men." The entire idea of a stereotype is to generalize. Of course there's going to be exceptions, but the very term "stereotype" and "generalization" allows for exceptions.

Let's get a little more intense!

Generally speaking, Windows users aren't very computer literate.

We ALL know this is true. The Windows market caters to people who don't want to mess with a lot of the intricacies of setting up a computer. Yes, it has flaws, what OS doesn't when you look at it through unbiased eyes? But the fact remains that most Windows users won't know how to even check the temperature of their CPU. This... Is a stereotype... A generalization. It's true. Does this make you discriminatory if you use it? No. Because it's true, and the very definition of a "generalization" is to say that there are exceptions, and there ARE exceptions to this stereotype. I am in the stereotype, because I am a Windows users, but I also know quite well how to use Unix-based systems, as well. I am the exception, but I am still in this stereotype.

The opposite?

Generally speaking, Apple users are very elitist.

You knew it was coming. You know it's true, though, don't you. The very company itself promotes elitism in their marketing and in their conventions and in everything they do. It permeates into the community and you get people who are attracted and emulate and are the very same way. All you have to do is get on Slashdot or Digg to see it. Now... This is a generalization and it's true. But, as I've been saying, the very term "generalization" means that there are exceptions, and I know PLENTY of Apple users who aren't elitist fanatics. This is a stereotype and they are in this stereotype, but they are the exception.

One more mirrored example. The hot tamale, so to speak!

Generally speaking, Americans are overweight.

This is also true. All you have to do is go to McDonald's or Wendy's or any other fast food restaurant that caters to the impatient NOW-NOW-NOW attitude of the United States. We're a fat, rich country. That's a fact. I am in this stereotype, but I am the exception, as well. I'm a little fatter than I could be, but I'm not qualified to be overweight, I don't think. I don't care, and it doesn't matter. I'm in this stereotype, you are, too. But you could be the exception. You are the exception to the stereotype, but you are still IN the generalization and stereotype, because a generalization and a stereotype, by definition, means that not everyone is, but they are mostly.

And here's the big one:

Generally speaking, terrorists are usually Muslims.

Oh, hoho. I really dropped the bomb here, didn't I? This is the main generalization that if you dare utter, will get you a smackdown of epic proportions. But it's true, isn't it? Who's blowing themselves up in the streets of Iraq, killing soldiers and innocent civilians? Who are the ones who kill whoever doesn't convert to their religion? All throughout history! Hey, you can't say I'm biased now, because it was in my secular history book for the course I'm taking in college. Generally speaking, terrorists are Muslims. It's true, and it's a generalization. But... Guess what? As with all generalizations, the very definition suggests that there are exceptions. And there ARE exceptions! There are some non-radical Muslims out there who aren't doing anything. (In fact, they're not doing anything so well, that they're not trying to stop their radical brethren, but that's another topic entirely.) But the fact remains that the majority of terrorists are Muslims who are out for blood and will do terrorist activities in order to be at peace with their god. It is not wrong to generalize this, just like it's not wrong with the previous examples, because the very word "general" means "basically" or "mostly"... Meaning there are exceptions! I didn't say all Muslims are terrorists, but, hey! Generally speaking, they ARE.

Hello, my name is GermanShepherd, and I'm a generalizer.

And as a post-script, as food for thought: Why is it bad to profile based on stereotypes? The stereotypes are true, and while there are exceptions, most of them are going to fit the profile. Just another example of how far down the left side of the hill we've managed to slide if we're too scared to act on TRUE generalizations in an effort to protect ourselves.

I have just become aware of the need for contact information. With my departure from old gathering places, I hadn't had to consider something like this before now. Actually, I used to have one long ago on a very old site of mine, where I had posted articles about the evils of rock music, and I had managed to collect a few emails from disgruntled readers from random areas of the world. It was kinda neat having emails like that... I actually responded to them, too, but I would eventually refer them to the fellows at IBLP, but ANYWAY...

There's a link at the top, but you can go here, too, if you're lazy like I am.

Okay... I want to make something crystal clear:

Two of my posts yesterday have been marked as "Comments Off". That means you can't leave comments on those posts... It also means that I don't want you posting comments about those posts on posts that do allow comments. They will be deleted and they will be ignored. When comments are disabled, it means not only do I not want comments on that post, it means I don't want to hear what you have to think about those posts! If you really, really, really want to discuss it, IM me, email me... Something else. But you do so at your own risk, because I'm not one to change my mind, and if you press a matter I'm trying to put behind me, I'm going to bite you.

So please, whenever you see a post with comments disabled? Do not try to comment on it in another way. It's not by accident that I disabled them, and it's not necessarily that I don't want to hear views on it, it's because I don't want to hear anything about it! Supportive, critical, or otherwise. "Comments Off" means NO TALKING ABOUT THIS SUBJECT. You can go make a post in response, sure, but if trackbacks are disabled, too (they usually are), they won't show up either, and I'm not going to go out of my way to see if you made a post in response because, say it with me now:

"Comments Off" means GermanShepherd doesn't want to talk about it.

I know some of my posts yesterday are going to make ripples but, frankly, I don't care, and I don't want to hear about it, because I'm tired of dealing with everyone who's too hostile to sit and listen without dropping a Seal of Judgment on me before I've even started. Enough is enough.

Remember when I said that taking logs from your tiny bit of the internet in an effort to make a point is next to futile? The example being that a blog dedicated to some pretty in-depth technological explanations was enough to extrapolate the usage of Internet Explorer on the entire Internet. How many people that regularly visit such a such would not be aware of alternative web browsers? Zero, maybe? None? They would all, if they understand what that site says, understand that there are different browsers and most likely use something besides Internet Explorer.

This just bolsters my point:

The latest Slashdot poll about Windows. Is anyone honestly surprised that the majority DON'T use Windows? This is like AOL conducting a poll on their home site asking if you use AOL or MSN or some other ISP to get online. Of course the majority is going to be AOL, because they're the only ones who are going to even bother looking at the home site to begin with! Now, if you wanted to take a poll from Yahoo or Google or some site that has absolutely nothing to do with the questions being put to it, then it might carry a little more weight. (Unless, of course, Google asks which search engine you use the most or something similar.) Slashdot asking if you do or don't use Windows is like conducting a poll on Earth and asking if you breathe sulfur to survive. Everyone's going to vote... Can you guess? "No." They're going to vote "no".

My vote on this Slashdot poll, by the way, is among those who would upgrade.

(What? I can't be as avid about Windows as some are about their own favorite operating systems?)

As an epilogue to my last post, I'm tired of this. I'm tired of explaining why I left Uru, I'm tired of defending myself for the decisions I made and what I think. I'm tired of seeing the word "uru" and "community". You are all driving this into the ground! I'm tired of going over the same things, over and over and over, because someone, somewhere, can't accept that someone doesn't think the same way, and decides to make it look like we're the bad guys.

As of this post, I will never mention Uru again. Not for a very, very long time... Not until something changes. I don't want to deal with it, and I don't want to have to feel like I have to explain myself. From this point on, I won't even consider myself a Myst fan, because I'm tired of dealing with everything about it in general. I hope all my friends understand this and don't think this is something against them, but I'm not going associate myself with the community anymore, because I will always have to choose sides. I obviously can't choose to like Uru, so I'm always going to be the "bad guy", so I'm not going to put myself in a position to choose in the first place.

Have fun! I hope Uru does well, for the sake of Cyan.

Clarification: This post was initially in response to this post by Whilyam. He then posted this post in response to my comment. I then commented on his latest post, and have included it at the end of this post, so you can perhaps get even more clarification.

So I've been reading MystBlogs against my better judgment, because old habits die incredibly hard. Don't think I haven't been seeing the multitudes of posts calling out those of us who don't think Uru is all it's cracked up to be. The posts wondering why in all Creation could we be so determined to "prove" that Uru is so horrible? Why can't we just accept the fact that Uru is what it is and deal with it? Well, again, against my better judgment, I'm going to post here what I posted in response to one of these posts in an attempt to explain why I, at least, think we're so out to "prove" that Uru is so horrible. It'll be a little different, since I'm re-reading it as I write, but the point will still remain the same. However, I doubt that anyone who could benefit from this post even reads this blog, because I've most definitely been labeled a stupid old past-dweller who can't get his head out of his butt long enough to see the "good" in Uru. But here you are anyway:

As part of the "old guard", so to speak, as someone who's been around since before Uru was even called DIRT or Mudpie, I think you're missing a huge point. I think everyone is missing a huge point and they like to attack those of us who don't play Uru and decry what it's become. We were around when Uru was supposed to be something VASTLY different than what it is now. We dreamed of different things, we were given hints of different things... We expected something else entirely from what we actually got, and Cyan knew this, too. Regardless of who was responsible for the changes, the changes happened and everything we dreamed about didn't happen. We still got a game, sure, but it wasn't what we expected, and then it was canceled by the same short-sighted brass that insisted on the changes.

It was canceled and Until Uru came out, and then Cyan actually went temporarily out of business and many, many of the original visionaries of the game we were promised then left to move on to something else. When Cyan was revived by GameTap, they set out to work on the game they had in the aftermath: still something entirely different than what we were promised to begin with.

I understand that these things happen, and that some people can accept it, but YOU people need to understand that some people don't want to accept it because it's not what they expected and it's not what they want to play. Every time they play it, they think of what should have been and what could have been, even if they don't want to. This is something that people who joined yesterday can't comprehend. They don't know what could have been, so it doesn't bother them. They only know what they see right now, and they like it. Fine! More power to them. Honestly! It's great that the love Uru.

One of the reasons I stopped playing Uru was because this "new guard" couldn't understand why the "old guard" didn't like the game, and they don't WANT to understand, they just want to attack us for being stuck up and doomsayers and stuck in the past. This "new guard" thinks they're better because they can accept the game as it is now, but they have absolutely no clue what it's like to look for to something for so long, only to have it ripped away from you.

I want to make it clear... I appreciate the fact that the "new guard" enjoys the game. I love Cyan and I would never wish anything bad of them. I want them to succeed as much as anyone of you, but there's still too many reminders and remnants of the past and there's still too many of you who are intolerant of us for seeing them, and there's still too many of you who think you're far better because you either still play the game, or you know more about the language, or you're a moderator of the Uru Live forums, or you have direct contact with the DRC, or you were endowed with that special bit of information that nobody else knows. I think the community has regressed in this sense. In everything, people want to be the best. In Warcraft, you get the best equipment. In Uru, a game driven by story and information, the more you know, the "better" you are, so to speak. That's perfectly fine. But as in Warcraft, you get people who are the best and are mature, and then you have people who are the best and are anything BUT mature. They hold positions of "power" based on what they know, and they know it, and they aren't mature enough to deal with it.

I really couldn't care less if this is human nature, or this is what to expect in the real world, as people have so fondly told me so, so many times... It's a game! I don't want to deal with the real world when I play a game. I don't want to have to deal with some arrogant turd who flaunts his status at me because he spend night and day in front of the things while I only visit on the weekends. I don't want to have to deal with someone who started their own personal guild that I can't be involved in because I don't know anything about it. In such a social and story-driven game, this stuff is hard to ignore. It's everywhere. It is Uru. There's no escaping it and there's no denying it. I don't mind the fact that people know more than me, I just mind the fact that people who know more than me enjoy making me know that they know more than me, and that I can't be anywhere near as influential because I'm not playing 24 hours a day. The community is just not mature enough to deal with something like that.

As more and more of my friends, the "old guard", leave, and as more and more of the new people arrive, the more and more I feel detached and left out and completely ignored. There was a time where everyone knew "GermanShepherd", and wherever I went in Uru, I saw someone who knew me and we'd at least give each other a hearty "hey!" But now? Growing is a good thing. If Uru is growing, then they're doing something right, but whatever it is, it's not what I expected and it's not what I wanted and there's no use seeing it differently right now. I tried. I honestly tried to play Uru when it was Until Uru. I tried making myself log in and have fun, but I couldn't do it. I tried... I honestly tried to play Myst Online when GameTap invited me to join the Beta and when they finally released the final, public version. I tried playing the new content and interacting with the new people and I tried keeping up on everything that was going on, but I couldn't keep doing it, because every time I logged in, I would see something that would remind me of what Uru was supposed to be, and I would always think about what Cyan, the makers of the Riven masterpiece, for crying out loud, could have done if nobody had interfered with their creative process. I see what Cyan's dreams were and I remember the excitement we all had in the years leading up to Uru and then the intense disappointment to learn that this wasn't the Uru we were promised, and that Cyan was equally crushed at having to change it, and then it was canceled. That's incredibly difficult to forget, no matter how hard you want to try.

So, in closing, to recap, the reason I, at least, have for leaving Uru and for being so set on trying to "prove" that Uru is so terrible? It's because the "new guard" doesn't understand why the "old guard" is so depressed and reflective on the past, and they lash out and call it pride and intolerance without actually trying to comprehend what's wrong. They have no idea what happened before, and they're playing the game and enjoying the game and they're learning new things and becoming experts in things... And then they're using that knowledge to gloat and influence everyone around them, and they're blind to anything anyone else says because, after all, they are the "experts".

But the "new guard" can't understand and, alas, none of the one's I've spoken to even seem to try, and they yell at me for being the problem with Uru, and they yell at me to get over myself and just have fun.

So I left. Because I couldn't forget, and they wouldn't stop yelling at me.

HERE BEGINS MY FURTHER ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN:

It's not you, specifically, that I'm referring to. I was speaking about the general populous of the community. Generally speaking, most of the people I talk to and try to share ideas with respond with hostility and close-mindedness and tell me that I should get over the past and just accept Uru for the way it is, and that I'm a bad guy for not wanting to participate and for canceling my subscription and not showing my support. There are exceptions, as with all generalizations, but this is too common for me to just simply ignore. Maybe I'm not finding the right people to associate with, but, then again, maybe the right people aren't making themselves known in the sea of bozos.

I'll try to explain what I feel about Uru, and what I expected it to be before a certain company interfered. I was never actually in Choru, but I had lots of friends who were that didn't understand why I wasn't invited, so I got some... Shall we say, inside glimpses more often than others, so I was able to put together what it was going to be like.

The whole Bahro thing was a snap decision in an effort to comply with the demand for a single-player experience. There didn't used to be pillars that you hunted down to repair the Bahro's soul or whatever it was. I'm not sure how much of Yeesha there was, but there was much less "magic" to the game back then. Back then, the Myst universe would not have even considered that standing in a circle in K'Veer would summon a Bahro. It felt more real and Linking Theory was something that you could almost explain "scientifically", and you would exchange ideas and make a pseudo-thesis sort of write up and show everyone. Everything felt real and somehow made sense and nothing that couldn't be explained ever happened. Now you have the Bahro running around, changing the state of Ages while you're in them? While I understand that Linking Theory is just a silly fantasy idea, it at least felt like it could be real.

Now, when something happens, you just have to accept that it happened and move on. There's no wondering how something happened, because you can't explain something like the Bahro screwing around with Linking Books to create personal "instances". The universe has taken on a far more magical approach to things than Myst and Riven.

We were expecting something like Riven, and Cyan was working on something that would satisfy that, but then it was changed, and barely anything that I expected, and barely anything my friends witnessed in the early Choru stages, ever came to pass. At one point, one of my friends said Rand logged in to Choru to tell all the testers that what they were playing was not the Uru that Cyan had envisioned. He said it wasn't Uru at all, and that's when everything just... Changed. The entire mood of the game completely changed and everyone knew it.

That's why I'm saying that the "new guard" just can't understand what the "old guard" expected, and why they're more apt to just toss in the towel after hoping so long that things would set themselves straight. The "new guard" wasn't there for all that happened before, and I don't blame them for that, but there's no use denying that they can't understand what the "old guard" is feeling. All they know and expect from Uru is from the "new Uru", so it all makes sense for them. But for us, who were exposed to the "old Uru", we see how things were supposed to be, and we see how things are now, and we see how things will probably never be what they were supposed to be, and that just disappoints us. Some of us have tried to like "new Uru" but I, among others, just CAN'T. Not yet.

It also doesn't help, like I said earlier, that some of the more knowledgable and influential people in this game driven by information, enjoy pressing their influence and overriding those of us with perfectly valid ideas. This, also, isn't true for everyone, but in my experience, it's the general reaction to me and my "old Uru" ideas.

I'm tired of wanting to play Uru and wanting to like it and then constantly being reminded about what it was supposed to be, and constantly being hounded that I'm just stuck in the past and that I need to move on. I'll move on when I'm ready to move on, and having everyone who thinks they're better fans than I am constantly press me to just accept Uru and like it because that's how it is doesn't help matters in the least bit. I'm tired of all that, so I canceled my subscription and I turned my back on it. I may return when I see that enough has changed, but it hasn't yet. So I'm moving on.

Okay... CAPELLA! I need you. I have that interview thing to do, and I decided to use you, since you're the only person I know who's even been remotely officially stationed in a technician environment. (A help desk job is actually exactly what I want to discuss.) The only problem is... I don't have any questions yet and I don't even have your email address to contact you when you're off IMs. So, uhm... Yeah. If you read this, get in contact with me! Or you can just email me, too... germanshepherd@ that nice Google emailing place.

Er, and for the rest of you 2 readers completely in the dark about what's going on... I started college again. I pretty much killed myself a little with the huge load of classes last semester, and this time I've only taken 4 classes: Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Server 2003, English Composition, and Pre-Civil War American History. Yes, I know... English and History isn't exactly what I would be using in a computer technician environment, but colleges are stupid about prerequisites, and History was an elective out of a lovely group of things like sociology, psychology and philosophy. Granted, I could have also picked American Literature or British Literature, but then I would have had the brilliant luck of having to give an in-depth review on His Dark Materials or Harry Potter or something.

The Vista class? Well... laughably light. You know me! Microsoft fanatic. I bought Vista the day it came out, so I know the ins and outs as much as anyone else on this fair planet. Chapter 1 was installing and listing features. Blah-blah-blah. Did you know that the Aero Glass interface requires a video card with a GPU? Holy gosh, man, I totally did not! Oops, wait. I lied. I had to take screenshots of amazing things like switching users and installing the thing. Except... I don't think the instructor exactly realized that you can't take screenshots of the Vista log-on screen, and you can't take screenshots of the installation process... Like durr. They say use a Virtual Machine only as a last resort, and I don't need or want one, so there was no way to get a screenshot of this stuff. So I had to do a little creative thinking.

The Windows Server 2003 class is pretty much stagnated at the moment. We don't have the academic server download keys, yet, and that's kind of important to have before we continue very far in the book. Luckily, I have a purely theoretical knowledge of how Server 2003 works, and coupled with my extensive knowledge of all other Windows systems, I think (no, I know) that this class will be a breeze, too. Most of the harder stuff like Active Directory and such were already covered in my Network+ class, so this is just to prove that I know how to actually use it. (Technically, the Vista and Server classes are Microsoft certifications, not A+. Easy to do, essential to have.)

English... Oh, where do I begin? Massive amounts of reading that turn out to be nothing more than professional insights in to how to do National Novel Writing Month, so I skip over a lot of it. Especially when they decide to give you 75 pages of examples of other people's writing. It's interesting for the first 25 pages, but then gets insanely boring and repetitive. It's supposed to "enlighten" you as to how to write, but I've been told by countless people that I can write as well as anyone, so I'm taking a little leeway with this, too. I have the first draft of a paper due in a couple weeks, so we'll see how this approach works. This is where I need Capella or anyone else with professional computer technician background. (By which I mean anyone who's held a real job in the field, dealing with people.) I think my paper's going to be on the multitudes of people who simply plop their computer down and say "it's busted" and expect us to fix it. Not that I don't appreciate a challenge, but it'd be better for everyone involved if the users would document the problem they're having before they come to us. That'll be the subject...

History. Ultimately pointless in a technical situation, but it was better than psychology, and my school (technically homeschooled) was intensely focused on history, and I've developed a sort of liking to it, so I decided to take it. I already know most of this stuff, now that I read it again, but I wanted to see what it was like and how much of history has been screwed around with. (You know it happens, don't give me that look.) It's interesting to read things from a secular perspective, although it is obviously incorrect. Native Americans coming over a land bridge at 20,000 "B.C.E"? What is that? Before Current Era? We couldn't have just stayed with BC "Before Christ" could we? Nooo... Too religious, I guess. Can't have that anymore in our enlightened society (that's spiraling the drain of moral corruption). Yes, they came over a land bridge, but I'm going to have to say that it was after that great global flood, where everything was fundamentally different and the water levels were all askew. Yeah. Also, they made absolutely sure to mention that the evil Christians were traveling to America, saw the peace-loving Natives and how they were worshipping spirits and using shamans, and decided to either convert or destroy them. (Excuse me? Convert or destroy? I think you're getting use confused with, oh, I don't know... MUSLIMS?) At least learn to differentiate between Christians. Come on, you're a HISTORIAN for crying out loud. The Catholics are the conquering zealots. That was the entire point of the Protestant Reformation! The Catholics were going insane with power (still are) and were burning heretics at the stake for challenging their authority. Yes, I already know I'm going to enjoy this history book. Lots of reading, little writing... Although I have to write a class paper on this, too. You know who it's going to be about? I just came up with it last reading session!

Martin Luther. The guy behind aforementioned Protestant Reformation. He had a tiny little snippet about how he was defying the Pope, and then they moved on. Way to skip over the good stuff. This should be interesting...