it is a fortunate thing that life should often be so cruel. without pain, pleasure loses its relevance. without the torment of loss, we cannot fully appreciate the joy of having.

i don't know what it is about computers that causes otherwise-rational people to become utterly helpless. even people who [claim to] have technical backgrounds seem to lose all logical reasoning when they sit down at a computer.

have a few examples, all just from my past two weeks at work.

example 1:

customer: "so i got a response back from my trouble ticket saying i need to reprovision (transl: request a full reformat/reinstall) my server. why is that?"
me: <after looking up data> "it appears there was some corruption on the server, and our support team cannot proceed with the software install you requested. as there is nothing currently installed on the server, you will need to reprovision it before we can proceed."
customer: "i don't understand why i need to reprovision."
me: "because something has become corrupted on the server and we cannot proceed with the software install you requested."
customer: "why is it corrupted? i'm losing money."
me: "...but you just told me that it isn't set up yet."
customer: "i'm losing money and wasting time running this server that doesn't even work right."
me: "and you won't stop losing money until you click the reprovision button."

example 2:

customer: "i'm resetting my password now... <pause> it says 'validation error'."
coworker: "does it say anything else?"
customer: "um... yeah. <5 seconds of dead silence> 'passwords entered do not match'."
coworker: <10 seconds of dead silence>
customer: "should i try putting those in again?"
coworker: "that would be a good place to start."

example 3:

customer: "why is my website down?"
me: "let me take a look. <pause while i investigate> it appears that our billing system attempted to renew your services, but for some reason it was unable to process the payment on this. the service has been canceled. i can take a payment on this and restore service for you, if you like."
customer: "i paid for two years of service. you can't just cancel in the middle!"
me: "sir, you paid for two years of service on your other hosting account, not on this one. that one is still active for another 22 months."
customer: "why didn't you tell me you were going to cancel this?"
me: <referencing system notes about failed billing events> "we emailed you renewal reminders on <list of dates>, as well as <x> notices that the billing failed. these would have gone to <email address on account>."
customer: "i don't check that account anymore! why do you have that email on file? why didn't you update that to my new one?"
me: "...because you did not ask us to, sir."

in a way, i hate these people even more than the assholes who try to blame their lack of knowledge on us, or who try to force us to support their custom code, or who make wild (incorrect) assumptions about what they can or cannot do with our services. though i think the people i hate the most are the ones who feel that they need to read me an entire paragraph of error code -- and will not stop until they've completed. in the same category are the ones who read off the numeric/hex code, and not the code text.

example 4:

customer: "i'm getting error 08562802 in outlook when trying to connect to your server. <expectant pause>"
me: "...there are thousands of numbers, sir, this particular one means nothing to me. i need the error text."
customer: "i didn't write that down."
me: *sigh*

why, yes. i am the msdn error code library, and i can instantly grok meaning for this number.

example 5:

customer: "it says, 'unable to open ftp connection: unable to contact server...'"
me: "alright, what that mea--"
customer: "possible causes: 1. the server may be typed incorre--"
me: "i don't need that, what we need to do is--"
customer: "--ctly, or unavailable. 2. <...>"
me: *sigh*

in case some of you are wondering why I'm often so grumpy please understand that the above examples comprise wholly 50% of my work day.

so i'm just totally insomniac tonight. i go through these phases sometimes, being completely unable to fall asleep for whatever reason. i'm tired, by body's tired, i can feel the exhaustion setting in, but still i can't fall asleep. laid in bed for an hour, and couldn't drop off.

quick, somebody invade poland.

so i've had some real absolute nightmare calls at work. i've been doing computer support work for a long time, and i know there'll never be an end to the idiot calls that i get. it doesn't happen. make something idiot-proof, and someone will make a better idiot.

the problem is that for the past month, i find myself having nightmares about work. literally, wake up and remember only that i was explaining the same tired shit to someone repeatedly. wake up literally thrashing around, rolling, tossing, and turning, and in a cold sweat.

i haven't slept well in about a month, with the exception of a handful of cases. most mornings i wake up tired... exhausted, even.

i'm waiting for all of this to run its course. is this normal? to have dreams, and thrashing nightmares about this stuff?

so we got a new supervisor at work; almost all the teams did. corp decided apparently 'shaking things up' is a good thing. you know, pushing us out of our comfort zone and the personal relationship we established with our previous sup. i guess it's supposed to keep us on our toes, and stuff. all its doing so far is aggravating us.

on the plus side, we are now 'team technoviking' and we even have our official team logo -- both thanks to yours truly.

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/...../28921tv02.jpg

no, i didn't art it up, i just found it on a random search.

i, for one, welcome our new technoviking overlords.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q29CmMHSQ3M

i can't comprehend

the music dances to technoviking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1nzEFMjkI4

some door-to-door cleaning agent salesman came to the door. roommate answered before i got there, but through my open window i heard part of his sales pitch.

"i'm selling soap, not dope, giving kids hugs instead of drugs."

so

my roommate just left for army basic training a few minutes ago

i'm really happy for him since he thinks this is what he needs to get his life going in the direction he wants to go

but at the same time i'm really going to miss him

lookin for someone who could draw my 'yena character. looking for a good piece of art too. nothing sexual. tame work.

if you are an artist, or if you know someone who might take a commission on this (and do a good job on a hyena!), lemme know!

danke

there is no hope for mankind in the coming war vs the machines

i for one welcome our new robot overlords

yeah so the weekend was totally made of awesome. thursday night after work was spent harassing  kyoujin via im cuz he's totally hot and won't admit it. went to see the new Rambo with  sohjin on friday. last 20 minutes can be summed up as "machine gun."

got thai food, generally slummed about, and did all sorts of 'yena things with Sohjin. <-- best license plate ever, by the way.

played shadowrun on saturday, then went and hung out with my gaming group at a new store - a good one that doesn't smell like nerd and is quiet. this is a nice thing.

tried to do a kickflip off of a tree planter, landed on my side and looked generally ridiculous which was then absolved by driving a pack of fat (except zack cuz he's thin as a rail) hungry friends to get some bbq while blasting funkervogt.

it was the best weekend ever.

i just spent the past ~2 hours creating a simple 403 page for my site

about 15 minutes was defining the css form and building a pretty (yet basic) layout

45 minutes was spent trying to make it work with ie

60 minutes was spent, after failing to make it work with ie, to at least display a "you need a standards-compliant browser" error

coding for a non-compliant browser sucks... especially when it has as much penetration as ie. heh. penetration

http://www.projektatomik.com/

Customer: "If I don't pay for my services, will you take my website down?"
Me: "If I don't pay my rent, will I be evicted?"

Customer: "Why do I need to pay for this domain name?"
Me: "Money is exchanged for goods and services."

Customer: "Why do you charge $9.99 now? Five years ago it was $8.99."
Me: "Why do I need to pay $2.94 per gallon? Last week it was $2.93 per gallon."

Customer: "I didn't use this service for the first three months I had it. You should refund me."
Me: "I was on vacation for three months. I shouldn't have to pay rent for that."

Customer: "You can't take away my hosting just because I didn't pay my bill!"
Me: "You can't take away my car just because I didn't pay for it!"

Customer: "Why do your free services come with advertisements?"
Me: "Because we aren't in business to go bankrupt."

DEFCON

It's been around for a few years, and it's not even a big-name title, but it is absolutely THE MOST compelling, tense, and gripping game I've played in... well, maybe ever.

You really have to try it out to experience just how amazingly awesome this game truly is. The soundtrack is perhaps the best part.

https://www.everybody-dies.com -- get the free demo

Maybe it's just my boyhood cold war fantasies of mutual annihilation, but I think this, quite simply, phenomenal.

goodnight.

I've about had it with this fucking fandom, with everyone being so shallow and egocentric and having a complete lack of balls.

People ask me if I'm a furry and I say "no" because I'm not, and I don't want to be associated with the (all-too-true) negative general stigma that it's just a group of whiney assholes. I'm not a lifestyler and I don't go around telling people I'm a wolf/whatever. I do roleplay, and I enjoy the artwork, but as far as the lifestyle and "culture", I've about fucking had it.

This is an older title. I'd heard about it when it came out, heard people talking about how it sounded like it could be such an awesome game. The potential was certainly there: the setting is phenomenal. It's 1964. World War 1 never ended. The world's economy is centered around the continuation of this war and the development of new weapons for it. These weapons are a combination of modern-ish firearms with obviously turn-of-the-century look and feel to them. Mounted machine guns have water-cooled barrels as was frequently seen at the time. Your assault rifle you carry around is big and bulky, looking as if its own barrel is perhaps water-cooled. This sounds like it could be a really, really neat setting, though perhaps appealing to a fairly small niche. I had big hopes about an immersive game experience that really made me feel like I was there.

The only thing I feel now is a gaping, festering hollow where my soul used to be. A mere hour, perhaps two, tops, is all that was required to destroy all happiness in my life and drain any hope for the future. I know, now, that mankind has developed it's most terrible weapon, and that weapon is IronStorm.

The game's biggest flaw is it's engine, and graphics. As I said before, it's an older game, but the graphics look atrocious even when you take that into consideration. The game came out in the early 2000s, and it looks horrible. Unreal looked better. There were lots of PS1 first-person shooters that looked better than this game. Hell, in some ways, Duke Nukem 3D and it's sprite-based character objects looks better than this game.

Colors and textures are bland and dull; while there's some interesting elements in some of the levels (such as bombed-out buildings), the fact remains that everywhere you look is the same grey and brown uninspired textures.

While we're talking about bland and dull, let's go into gameplay. Imagine Wolfenstein3D. Yeah, that one, the predecessor to DOOM. Now imagine that you've removed all of the side-rooms so that all you're faced with is an endless maze of hallways, and the Germans are, instead, Russians. BINGO! You've got IronStorm's level layout in a nutshell. True, there are the rare moments where you get to leave your trench network (to face almost-certain death at the hands of enemy machineguns, but more on that later), but these are few and far between. The level design pretty much consists of running around in circles in the trenches until you eventually end up where you're supposed to be. Did you take the wrong way? You'll soon find out when a bomb lands in the trench, or you step into a puddle, or walk into a cloud of gas. Any of these instances, you die. The most infuriating of these was walking into a puddle and dying. A puddle. You're apparently some well-trained soldiercommando or something, and you drown in a half-foot of water. This is like GTA3 all over again.

Let's get to the real horrible part of this game, the engine itself. Oh my god. I've met some horrible game engines before, be they shoddy AI, rampant cheating, ridiculous physics, or frustrating controls. None of my previous experiences even come close to the agitation I've experienced in playing this game. My dear sweet Jesus Christ Son of God, this is atrocious. Allow me to detail the problems I have.

First and foremost is the physics. If you get shot, you inexplicably skid back about a foot. Now, I'm not one of them big-city lawyers or anything, but I'm pretty sure that a (on average) 60-grain bullet moving at *maybe* 2000 feet per second is not going to hit your body and make you float back like you're a tissue paper in the fan. Worse still, this effect applies itself even when you're laying down - and sometimes in real absurd ways. I was laying on a slope, where my right side was higher than my left, and I was shot from the front. For no reason, my body began to slide a bit to the left. A few more bullets came. Just before dying, I slid further left.

Damage is another irksome aspect of the game. As is my norm, I started the game for the first run-through on the easiest difficulty (this gives me time to get accustomed to the feel of the game without being overwhelmed). Even on this so-called easy difficulty, I was being one-shotted from across the map by snipers I had no reason to suspect were even there. This, of course, means I have to load the last save, and carefully approach the position, and see if I can find the sniper. Usually, this takes about three attempts.

Other infuriating aspects are machine gun ambushes. Round a corner and - HEY! There's three mounted machine guns there, ready to turn my body into hamburger. Well, time to load the last save, once again. I have no problems with games putting obstacles in your way; it wouldn't be a challenge and wouldn't be worth playing if it didn't make you work for it. But a good game isn't built on obstacles that you only know about after they've killed you, forcing you to play through again to it, armed this time with the foreknowledge that something will be there. That isn't fun. It's infuriating. It's fun when you're confronted with a "OH MY SHIT!" moment and have to dive for protection and then figure out a way around it. Turning a corner and being cut in half by machine gun fire instantly is not entertaining.

I have, however, discovered one nearly-foolproof tactic in the game. I believe it is the only tactic that the game has. That tactic is called laying down. If you lay down and crawl through the map, you're much less likely to take damage from enemy fire, you won't inexplicably float backwards nearly as much, and the enemy has a harder time hitting you. In one of the few times it makes you leave your rat-maze of a trench network, this means that you can (read: have to) lay down with a sniper rifle and take out the oncoming zerg rush this way, or else you will be chopped into dogmeat faster than you can say "load last save."

This isn't to say that laying down will save you. No, you will still die. You will die a lot, and you will be tapping autosave every 20 seconds as you grind your teeth and wish terrible, horrible things upon the programmers. My current favorite is imagining them crushed to death beneath a pile of unsold copies of IronStorm.

But at least you get to shoot people, and like every good FPS out there, you can use mounted weapons. This is one of my favorite parts of a good FPS, giving you an opportunity (and perhaps more importantly, a good reason) to use a mounted weapon. Playing with the heavy hardware is very gratifying. Sure, sneaking around and popping people with your silenced broomhandle mauser can be entertaining, but the chance to mow down hordes of Russians with a mounted machine gun... how can you go wrong? That has to be fun, right?

The game designers managed to find a way to suck the joy out of this event, as well. You sneak up behind a guard and plug him, and his machine gun nest is now unmanned and looking out over a sea of unsuspecting troops. What mayhem might we wreak now? None, until you've pressed the "use" key no fewer than five times.

You heard me right: five. Allow me to explain why.

1. You put away your gun.
2. You equip your "fists".
3. You step behind the mounted gun
4. You grab the gun.
5. You are now able to actually fire this gun.

And then after you're done firing the gun, you have to equip your old gun -- to do this, you press the corresponding key on your keyboard, then press the "fire" button to confirm that you want to use that. Apparently, the game really enjoyed that last gun you were using, and offers you that last chance to verify that you want to put it away in favor of something else. Nor does the game recognize the mouse wheel, so fast-switching by rolling the wheel won't work.

In short, I hate my life and I am going to go run into the nearest burning building. I no longer fear hell, for I've been there. It's name is IronStorm, and it is an abomination. Don't buy this game. Don't steal this game. Not even as a joke. Not even to verify the veracity of my claims. Don't give this to someone else as a joke, or even as revenge. Nobody has done anything bad enough to deserve this. Give it half an hour with the game and you'll be looking for something solid against which to beat your skull until your brains come out.

Trust me, it isn't worth it.

I see that nobody bothers to comment on anything in here, and I doubt anyone even reads it unless I send them a link to it.

Not an emo whine, just an observation.

Check this out:

http://www.sovietsub.co.uk/acatalog/Militaria.html

Second row, first item on it, the black wool overcoat. I had one of those some time back, but it was a large, and just a touch too small for me, so I had to return it. I've been looking for a larger one ever since. I'm trying to find another one, one which will actually fit.

I've been searching on and off for the past four years. I need your help! I've been unable to make any headway, but my netsearch skills leave much to be desired. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Want to help, but not able to find anything? Too busy to do much? You can still help. Just post this in your own journal and see if you get anything.

Again, any help you can provide is really appreciated.

So I've decided on a new rifle. This one will take some monetary saving in order to afford, so I won't have it for several months.

The rifle I want is an Ohio Rapid Fire RF-94. It's an MP5 clone, built to (almost) the same specs as the original with the exceptions:

o It's limited to semiauto-only. No 3-round or full-auto modes. :(
o Due to firearm class restrictions the barrel is built at a full 16 inches rather than the 5.5 that the original SMG has.

The lengthened barrel does, however, come equipped with a mock suppressor (though it looks a little corny at nearly a foot long), so it helps to make the thing look a little bit better than if it were just a straight barrel. The big downside to this though is that it makes the rifle front-heavy, which brings into play my next objective:

Obtain a Class-II tax stamp and have the barrel professionally shortened. $200 for the tax stamp. Another $100-$200 to have the barrel shortened and recrowned professionally (I'm NOT going to touch that myself).

Here's some pics:

http://www.ohiorapidfire.com/photos/94fwss.jpg
The rifle in its original configuration

http://www.ohiorapidfire.com/photos/SW5C5.jpg
How it will look after being shortened

Of course my ultimate objective is to eventually be making enough $$$ to afford some REAL class-3 stuff. I'd love to head to the range with a REAL MP5 rather than the civilianized version...

It's hyena appreciation day. That means go out and appreciate all the hyenas you know. For, you know, being hunks. Or hunkettes. Remember, December 1st is Hyena Appreciation Day.

Today I'm appreciating:

 alabaster_tbsb
 kyoujin
 preyfar

And, of course,

 devik

EDIT:

Now appreciating  rex. Clever bastard tried to hide.

Sick of all this same old shit in the world, sick of politics, sick of bureaucracy, sick of "business as usual", sick of the status quo, and sick of apologists saying that it's okay that the administration rapes the ideals of my nation on a daily basis. I'm sick of people standing back and watching it happen, shaking their heads and balling their fists and saying "Why doesn't somebody do something?" and not acting.

What's wrong with America? YOU are wrong with America, Mr. John Q Non-Voter. YOU are, Mr. Apologist. YOU are, Mr. Alarmist. You people who blindly followed Bush's Patriot Act - a law which is anything but patriotic. You people who called for a need to tighten security after "the worst terrorist event on US soil" - a record that's not hard to set given the dearth of terrorism in this nation's history. Prior to 9/11 the nation had suffered very few attacks, in a global sense. But one well-orchestrated attack and the alarmists are shouting on the radio, the government steps in with the fearmongering and the promises to make it all go away if we let them have complete control over our lives. The people who supported these draconian measures are reprehensible, but they are not the true villains here.

The people who sat back, saw what was happening but refused to act, they are the real culprits. The ones who refuse to stand up for their beliefs, to attend a peaceful protest or a march, or to write a congressman, or to attempt to educate others on what's going on. The people who sat in their armchairs watching the evening news, shaking their heads sadly while saying "Ain't that a shame..." while doing nothing to stop it... you ALLOWED this to happen.

I believe in America. I love my country, and I love the basic ideology on which it was founded. I believe that somewhere in the past 50 years, we lost our way, sacrificed our ideals. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness... what greater ideology can there be? That moral compass was replaced with the much more sinister "Dictated life, limited liberty, and the pursuit of shut the fuck up about the government or go to an extraterritorial prison where we'll torture you."

Don't like what you're reading? Tough shit. It's either because you don't agree with me, or because you realize that it's true. If you don't agree with me, bugger off; I neither require nor desire your approval. If you're picking up what I'm putting down, though, get off your ass and do something. Write a senator. Write every senator. Find a protest to attend. Tell your friends. Write an article. Do something, not nothing.

I'll leave you with the famous words of Pastor Martin Niemöller:

In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;

And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;

And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;

And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.

Funker Vogt - "Gunman"

That is all

Warning before we continue: many people may find this post controversial or questionable. If you feel very strongly in favor of traditional, puritanical views on sex, you should probably move on. If you're willing to read on with an open mind, feel free to continue reading.

When younger, I often agreed with the Age Of Consent laws (referred to hereafter as AOC laws) in the United States. I now attribute to this as having a narrower view of the world, not having enough experience in the world as a whole and especially not in the sex world. Now that I'm older, I personally believe that the puritanical values on which our current AOC laws are based are... flawed. Flawed is, perhaps, too weak a word to describe my feelings towards this. Allow me to elaborate...

For those of you who are outside of the US (or those who aren't familiar with US AOC laws), I'll sum them up in a vague description. 18 is the age of consent. Two 18+ year old people can consent to sexual intercourse with one another without needing to face any possible legal ramifications (excepting, of course, if you live in a state which actually outlaws oral or anal sex -- yes, they exist). There is a legal "grey-area" for those under the age of 18... if two sixteen-year-olds mutually consent to sexual intercourse, and someone finds out and pushes a lawsuit, it's entirely likely that such a case will be open-and-shut, the "defendant(s)" found not-guilty and the case set aside. Although, according to law, the two committed an illegal act, the law sometimes looks the other way in such instances, though there are times when the parties are charged with a misdemeanor offense and fined. Now, a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old, this is a darker shade of grey in the eyes of the law. There's no real cut-and-dry answer on the subject; most seem to be taken on a case-by-case basis with no uniform code to dictate, or at least none that is strictly followed.

As for my views on the subject, I believe that these laws are complete and utter bullshit. These laws, just like tobacco and alcohol legislation, is based on the notion that a 17-year-old is not responsible enough to make an educated, logical opinion on a subject and make their own choices. But, when you turn 18, suddenly you're endowed with some magical sense of responsibility, now you're suddenly capable of making these decisions which, only a day earlier, were beyond your ken. This is, of course, a stumbling-block which is difficult to get around; we live in a society of laws and, in law, a clear definition must be laid down, lest it be left open to abuse. If age is to be a factor -- a de-facto necessity for an age-of-consent law -- it must have a set date. A sliding-scale simply is not acceptable in the eyes of the law, as it is far too vague a scale to judge against.

Do we need an age-of-consent law? Certainly. To do otherwise is to invite pedophiles to lead children to dark alleys and do terrible things; there are few eight-year-olds who understand what sex is, let alone be responsible enough to make an opinion on it. I personally find pedophilia disturbing, and I don't in any way shape or form endorse or advocate it. But I personally don't consider sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old to be pedophilia. Don't agree with me? A few years ago, I wouldn't have, either -- but think about these facts for a few moments:

The majority of cultures throughout history considered a human old enough to be an "adult" (I use this term to refer to someone who is afforded full legal status to make their own decisions and live their own life) when they reached the age of 12. Twelve. One-two years old. At this point, they were generally sexually mature and, in these societies, were given a dosage of "real life" - the same "real life" that many US parents try to shield their children from until they're much older. At twelve years old, these people were marrying, reproducing, holding down jobs, running their own homes, and exercising self-determination. Here in the US, a twelve-year-old is still considered a child by most, incapable of making real decisions on their life, and certainly incapable of performing a real-world job and providing for themselves. True, in these times, it was rare for a person to live past 30 - many mothers would never live long enough to see grandchildren. Still, the fact that these 12-year-olds were able to contribute to the workforce, run their own lives, and reproduce speaks volumes on the capabilities of a young mind. Someone able to evaluate their environment and make potentially life-or-death decisions is certainly capable of practicing self-determination in the matters of sexual intercourse.

In the US, most people believe in the false "innocence of youth" - that children are pure, untainted, and incapable of handling the real world and its true nastiness. They think that a child seeing violence on TV will turn them into a mass-murderer or serial killer. They think that even the merest glimpse of sex will turn them into a ravening porn-fiend with an appetite for all sorts of despicable sexual acts. They believe that no child is capable of logically approaching real-world problems and taking a look at the situation as a whole, evaluating the factors, and reaching an educated conclusion. On this point, I would have to agree with them, and this is because of one simple fact...

They shield their children in the first place. They shield their children, "protect" them from the evils of the world rather than letting them face the bad parts of life, letting them see first-hand how truly terrible some things can be. As a result, they end up having a difficult time comprehending anything but their white-bread, picket fence, happy suburban lifestyle; in the eyes of these shielded children, everyone in the world lives like they do, happy and peaceful, everyone getting along together with no problems in the world whatsoever. They live in a fantasy world constructed by adults who believe that the proper way to prepare a child for adulthood is to give them an utterly false impression of the world, to brainwash them into believing that life is nothing but joy and happiness, free of any hardships, hatred, or troubles. This of course results in a human being who is freed from the responsibility of needing to make decisions for themselves; the parents take care of this for them. Thus, when required to make a potentially life-altering decision, something that deeply impacts them, or are confronted with any sort of crossroads, they are not fully equipped with the tools required to make such a decision.

Allow me to put it another way, an example. Imagine, if you will, that you never knew violence, you had no concept of murder or malice. You lived in a fantasy world in which such things were unheard of. As a result, you never learned how to respond to a real-world problem, such as a mugging. You see someone on the street being held at gun-point and forced to surrender their belongings. How would you feel? You've never heard of such a thing, it's unfathomable to you; you have no concept of such an act and have no idea how to react, or if you should react at all.

Now, think about sex. Sex is a natural act, a biological function required of nearly all life. Sex is the means by which we reproduce, and amongst many mammals with highly-ordered minds, it is also an act to strengthen relational bonds and produce a euphoria. Arousal is a biological response to certain stimuli, both external (such as genitalia or an arousing image) and internal (such as a mental exploration of an intimate setting). At an instinctual level we understand what reproduction is and how to go about it; all animals do. As such, even someone who has never in their life been exposed to any form of sexual stimuli or explained to what sexual intercourse was, would experience the same biological responses and urges when presented with such an experience. Contrary to popular belief, sheltering someone from sex their entire childhood will not mean they won't take an interest in it; it's inevitable, for the majority of the population. It's instinct, something we are born with, much like a baby's instinct to nurse from its mother, or the instinct to crawl and explore. A baby need not be taught how to feed, or how to crawl. This is genetic knowledge built into all of us, just the same as sex.

So with the knowledge that sex is a vital, necessary function of life, and that all humans are born with an instinct for it, and that these instincts begin manifesting themselves around 12-14 years of age, why, then, do we insist on sheltering our children from this fact of life? We shield them from pornography, and insist that they not participate in sexual education classes in school. We delude ourselves into believing that this will keep them from knowing about sex. We tell ourselves that they would never find out about it from their friends, either. If we shield them from sex, they'll behave perfectly. We "protect" them, and don't see how damaging this truly is.

The "rebellious teenager" is a relatively modern phenomenon, developed over the past 100 years or so, after child labor laws kept 12-year-olds out of the factories (when stricter safety codes in factories were what was really in order). Curfews, regulations, and strict lawmaking began to restrict these people who, until recently, were afforded all the legal rights of an adult. At a point in their life where someone is feeling the urge to explore their sexuality, express their own life, and practice self-determination, we began telling them that they weren't capable of doing such, they were now no longer capable of making these decisions and needed to be sheltered and looked after. Is it any wonder that these people act out, rebel against authority, and express a desire to live their own life?

Is it any wonder that, when faced with a sexual decision, many sometimes make the "wrong" choice? They've been shielded from the requirement of problem-solving and logical thinking, and thus aren't equipped with the proper resources to think it through. Above that, it's viewed as yet another chance to rebel, to do something that they possibly wouldn't otherwise do in another situation, but they want to feel edgy and live their own life, and so decide to commit an act that they aren't supposed to, according to law and their parents. Were these children exposed to this reality, and more realities of life, from an earlier age, they would have time to build the skillset and tools that is needed to come to a logical conclusion on the subject. Further, if it wasn't explicitly forbidden of them, the "edge" would be gone; they're no longer living risky and proving themselves a rebel.

All in all, where I'm going with this, I believe the AOC laws should be lowered. Most nations in the world have AOC at 15 or 16, and some even to 14, 13, or lower. To this date, nobody has been able to give me a good explanation of why the US AOC is 18 while most other countries are at 16 or younger. Most of these explanations come across as sounding smugly superior; "they're just a bunch of hedonists" or "well, they're a bunch of child-molesters" or "that's disgusting!" Valid *personal opinions*, perhaps, but far from a good legal definition. My view is that the AOC laws are just a small fraction of the larger problem, that until we stop shielding our children from life in order to maintain this facade of innocence, this is a problem that will continue. Lowering age of consent is a step in the right direction, but as long as alarmists continue to shriek about every drop of blood on television and in video games, the problem will not resolve itself.

Life happens, our children need to learn this, and sheltering them from this fact and trying to raise them in a magical fairyland in which nothing bad ever happens does nothing but sour their palate for later in life, when they realize that not everything fits the lie they were raised to believe.