Asking Miss America on a Date

It seems that I am going against the grain here, what with so many defending this kid asking Miss America to the prom at a school assembly, but I think someone ought to make the case for manners and decorum, which I believe the kid did NOT show.

There are plenty of instances of school administrators acting like morons, but this isn't one of them. Instead it's an instance of sensationalist journalism making a martyr out of somebody. The issue isn't that he asked Miss America to prom, the issue they suspended him for was HE DISRUPTED AN ASSEMBLY. If you read the whole story, it shows that he stood up and asked her out in front of the whole school. At first I thought he had got up on stage, but he actually took advantage of a question-answer period. I'll admit it was a bit "cute" but I still think it's attention-whoring. He wanted to look "cool" in front of his friends, and put a famous person on the spot. Yes, she was gracious about it, but did she really have much choice in such a public setting? If he knew he would get in trouble for it, he should take it like a man, and the reports show that he DID know. Asking personal questions in that setting is just bad taste, IMHO.

Also, while I can understand public marriage proposals (when you know she's going to say yes and it's just a formality), I don't agree with public DATE proposals, because it puts the lady in a very awkward position. She has to either say yes, or say no in the most delicate, sweet manner possible to avoid looking like a jerk. It's not courageous, it only makes you LOOK courageous at the lady's expense.

Lastly, if I were a celebrity, I would NEVER date those who only knew me as fans. Sign autographs yes, visit schools and hospitals, yes. But actually spend somebody who merely wanted my aura to rub off on them? No, that kind of shallowness should not be rewarded. While I have not had the experience of everyone on the street knowing my name and face, I've read plenty of stories ranging for silly to scary about fans that just don't know where to draw the line. I also know something of what it is like to feel that everyone wants a piece of you, without regard for what YOU want.

So people, remember that celebrities are human beings also. While they do indeed owe their success and fame to their fans, they are still entitled to some amount of respect. Their time is not merely yours for the asking, and they certainly don't owe you a whole evening just because you want a bit of their star power.

More World of Warcraft Vortexes

Here's some more screenshots of spiral streams in World of Warcraft that I took from right inside the center (and here's the first one I posted).

Read the manual before using the rack.

A new WoW lol!

Exploring Gotham

A while back I discovered a YouTube video explaining a glitch in Batman: Arkham City that lets you leave the Arkham City compound and fly around Gotham. Basically you settle onto a ledge, (I find that corners work best) and start throwing freeze bombs like crazy. Batman will rise higher with each throw, and after about 100 throws you can glide over the boundaries without being turned back. However, you can't land on anything in Gotham, so the higher you go initially, the farther you can glide, but eventually you'll drop below the ground into the abyss.

Below is good old Arkham Asylum from the first game. Obviously they didn't clear away all of Poison Ivy's plants, lazy bums.

Batman in Action

Today I thought I'd show off some Batman action shots, but first, here's a calendar with all the holidays circled where Calendar Man tells you a story (you visit him in the courthouse basement).

Batman goes duck hunting

Batman does a head smash.

A criminal contortionist.

A gut punch.

He never saw it coming.

Ow.

Batman showing off his Sinestro ring.

Batman likes to live on the edge.

Why Batman is banned from the museum.

Video Game Photography

Long-time readers may recall my Pang 96! background collection which I've posted on here. Over the past few years I've also collected quite a few other screenshots from video games and online shows. It feels a bit like real photography, especially in the act of trying to set up shots. I often use Microsoft's Snipping Tool, but plenty of games allow one-button screen shooting. All games offered on Steam, for instance, allow you to take screenshots with the F12 key. Even this can be tricky though, depending on the shot you want. To get an action sequence, you have to time it right, to get the scenery, you want the right position, and it can be tricky to get the game to cooperate.

For the next couple of weeks or so I'll be focusing on shots I've taken from Batman: Arkham City. Following are screenshots I've taken from the menu section. There are a bunch of three-dimensional stills of Batman in action, and clicking through the options advances the sequence, picture by picture. Each time you cycle through the action sequence, there's a different villain at the end. There's a brief period where the buttons disappear and the scene is most uncovered, but only for a fraction of a second, unless your computer is slow. 

I Have Returned!

I'm back, and I'm stepping things up! I hope to return to posting on a weekly basis again, now that I finally have the time and the content to justify it.  To start with, I've started a new Cheezburger site: WoW lols, where I've begun posting captioned screenshots from World of Warcraft.  Here's a sample:



Also to come: select screenshots from games I've been playing on the Steam service, YouTube vids (some I've found, others I'll make), photography, and various miscellaneous musings, so come back soon!