Brainsprain.net

How bleak a quote is that? Depressing, huh? It gets worse. You know who said it? Mary Ann Simpson. Sad that a person actually get quoted saying something so horrible. She said it while acting as spokesperson for Fort Bend ISD. That’s “Independent School District.” See, it turns out that there was this 17 year old kid, really smart, about to graduate high school. He really likes video games, particularly Counter Strike. He used tools to create a video game level that was modeled on his high school. In our grief over the Virgina Tech incident, we’ve now sent this kid to alternative school and jeopardized his future because his creative outlet wasn’t writing sonnets. His creative outlet was taking something real and turning it into a virtual playground. And Mary Ann defended this action by saying humor was dead.

Mary Ann, you live in a desert land with no hope of the cool waters of happiness, but don’t condemn the rest of us, or even one of us, to walk those dusty dunes. I vow to joke about all things and take absolutely nothing too seriously. Especially video game levels, especially created by 17 year olds.

Read the whole story here.

Hey, did you know that several companies are trying to censor the Internet? It’s true. I’m going to paste in what they’re trying to censor, so if you’re squeamish, you might want to sit down.

09 F9 11 0g2 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 5G6 C5 63 56 88 C0

This number is quite offensive, apparently. It’s the HD-DVD master key. I’m curious if I’ll get a cease and desist letter to take it down…

First, read: Slashdot | Death Threats In the Blogosphere and Kathy Sierra’s take on it here.  Reading this just plain shocked the hell out of me.  I read this story from all sides, and you can, too, by clicking around.  It doesn’t change the fact that some people go too far.  WAY too far.  Ms. Sierra, a prominent author, is getting death threats for… um… being an author.  For having a web presence.  For trying to help developers.  WTF?!  The anonymity the Internet grants you does not give you the right to be an ass for the sake of being an ass.  Events like this will, long term, cause more legislation removing your privacy. In short, if you disagree with someone’s blog and you aren’t adult enough to do so with some semblance of intelligence and without resorting to threats of violence or rape, then you should immediately unplug all electronics in your home and find a shed to live in out in the woods somewhere, because you are not fit to interact with humanity in any venue.