Going to the chapel... Part deux

A little over a year ago, Barbra and I were taking our vows far off the beaten path in Big Bend, and as lovely and special as it was, we did miss having our family present. So, in just under a year, one year and 364 days after our first wedding experience, we are going to relive the experience in a slightly more traditional manner, renewing our vows in a small but beautiful chapel built and owned by a family friend in Salado.

Save the date--March 20, 2010!

Rails training

[Update: the training side of Collective Idea is now Idea Foundry--check out the new site for the training schedule.]

All last week I was in San Antonio for Rails training with these guys. I want to put up a review before too much time goes by because when I looked for one, nobody had anything up about their training class. Also, I plan on whoring my blog out to AdSense one of these days and I bet that'll get some traffic.

So, in a nutshell, best professional class I've ever taken. Usually training like this is really dry (not DRY! [bad joke, you'll have to be a Rails geek to get that one]) and it takes an effort simply to remain conscious. The teacher is typically somebody who's following a program, and doesn't deviate far from the outlined path.

Collective Idea takes a different approach. They scheduled the training in a pretty swank hotel, and even took us out for dinner and drinks the first night. The continental breakfast was exponentially better than what you get out of Holiday Inn. But that's all just details--the point is that from the start, Dan, Brandon, and Brian are working to create an atmosphere that's comfortable and entertaining.

The training went way above what I was expecting. I've had some Rails experience, but its been awhile, and I took their beginner class (along with two true beginners from my office) in order to kind of firm up my knowledge of Rails. Because the class was small, we ended up moving really quickly and managed to cover not only the basic ideas of rails, but also at least a snapshot of the current best practices. There really wasn't anything that was off the table--usually in a class like this, if you have a question that deviates too far from the program, the course instructor will either say "take the advanced class" or give you five or ten minutes of explanation off to the side after class is over. CI's style, at least in our class, was really to let us drive the direction. It was a basic class, in that you didn't need to bring any existing knowledge with you, but we managed to cover some more advanced topics like RSpec and Cucumber. They use Rails every day for the work their company does (training is really a secondary pursuit for them) so they're current on what the community is doing and what's going on with Rails Edge. I don't think we actually asked a single question and got a "Gee, I don't know" response.

Hopefully sometime in the near future I'll get a chance to take their advanced class. I really don't have any complaints about the training I did get. Part of me wishes it had been a day longer, but honestly, I don't think my brain could have kept up for another day. I probably would have started spacing out and missing out on what was being taught. And I think the other two guys I took the class with were probably at their saturation point as well. But the class definitely took the steep learning curve that comes with ruby and rails and turned it into more of a gentle grade. So if you're reading this post because you're wondering whether the training is worth it--it is.

updating again

So I can see from my previous blog entry its been awhile since I blogged on my site. I refuse to believe I went the entirety of 2008 without an entry however; I lost the previous incarnation of my blog to a wordpress database gone bad. Out of sheer laziness, I'm going to use blogger for awhile until I a) start blogging enough that it matters what software I use or b) some blogging software REALLY impresses me.

So what's changed in the last couple of years? I'm out of school now, back in software development (school was an aborted attempt at going to med school). Got married, had a baby. Had a few adventures along the way that have been lost to the ether. Planning on blogging a little more often, probably mostly on technical things. Eventually I'd like to start a small software development shop, at which time this will likely become the web page for that. Until then, its just a blog.

Paper or plastic--a thing of the past?

A friend and I have been carrying on an exchange the last few days regarding the recent passage of an ordinance banning plastic grocery bags in San Francisco. With her permission I'm posting the discussion here for more open debate.

Her first post:

As you may or may not know, San Francisco has become the first U.S. city to BAN PLASTIC GROCERY BAGS!! Here's the news story:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/27/environment.baggs.reut/index.html

Let's make Austin the second! What do you think?

My Reply:

I think if they did that i'd be out of poop bags for my dog! the solution isn't for the government to tell everyone what they have to do, its for people to tell companies what they're willing to take. if you want me to stop using plastic, you have to make an argument that convinces me to do so. I'm not personally convinced that cutting down trees to bag my groceries is any more ecologically friendly than plastic, especially when I have a secondary use for plastic bags that I don't have for paper. i have the same bitch about the smoking ban--its antithetical to a free state to tell private property owners what they can and can't do on their own property.

presuming that the argument that plastic is bad holds water (a point yet to be proven) a better strategy would be to make it less desirable for use, or alternatively and probably more attractive an option, make it less deleterious. for example, requiring a five-cent tax on plastic bags would be one way to make paper more attractive, though I'm of the opinion that a tax is almost as bad as an outright ban. perhaps a better solution would be to charge for them (maybe a dime a bag) and offer a rebate for returning them the way glass bottles used to be handled (say, 8 cents/bag). that way there's both an incentive to keep them out of the landfills and for companies to participate voluntarily. a third path would be to convince companies to make plastic bags out of biodegradable components that obviates the ecological argument against them.

at the end of the day though, it should still be my choice as a consumer, and my grocer's choice as a private enterprise, whether to use or offer plastic. plastic bags aren't exactly toxic waste, and they're made chiefly of byproducts of petroleum refining that would otherwise have to be disposed of, creating ecological problems someplace else. So the argument that my choice affects everyone regardless of their own choices doesn't really hold water.

And her response:

Thanks for the thoughts. I am all for a ban on plastic bags but I definitely see your point. I am not sure that paper would be the solution either but the fact is that plastic bags are the cause of more trash in Texas rivers, lakes, and shorelines than ANY other form of waste, they use petroleum, a resource that is becoming more and more valuable each day, and, contrary to popular belief, with the exception of a very inefficient and expensive process, plastic bags CANNOT be recycled and are not recycled, even in the places where the option is available. I think that in a city of such progressive and creative people such as Austin, we can think of better ways to take home our groceries. I am not sure that the private sector would be able to carry such an idea (excuse the pun) by charging for bags, etc. Most places already give you a discount for bringing your own bags but it is such a negligible amount and so unadvertised that it's not worth it to the average consumer. The government should represent the priorities of the people and in my opinion the environment should be a top priority for Austin.

I haven't responded to this last yet.

Revenge is sweet...

If you're going to sell bad merchandise on ebay, you should really take more care to clean up after yourself...

How do you spell "irony?" "I-N-D-I-A..."

Indian workers are protesting against a so-called injustice I and many of my fellow IT-ers (current and former) are quite familiar with: outsourcing.  Reading the article it appears they are concerned at the moment about plans for India's national reserve bank to outsource IT needs to a private company, not necessarily out of the country, but its also clear from rising salaries across the board in India that moving IT work out of the country to somewhere that still wears the title for "crappy third-world country."

I've been predicting this ever since the outsourcing trend started taking hold here.  Its a fad, mainly; many companies outsourcing IT and development work are finding the quality of the work produced to be less than adequate, poorly documented, hard to maintain, and that managing teams on opposite sides of the world--and the clock--is a dicey proposition at best.  More than a few companies are finding it to be a workable solution at least in part to a tight budget, but just as many are bringing work back home from what they consider to be a failed experiment.

For those companies that do find it to be a workable proposition, a new problem is arising.  India's software economy has been undergoing the same sort of rapid growth and change that the US economy did during the dot-com boom of the 90's.  So many companies are looking for new talent that salaries have risen far out of proportion to the rest of the economy.  As a result, the economic benefits of moving operations to India is rapidly dwindling, and companies are looking for new ground to take over India's spot. 

I have to confess I read about new developments in this area with a certain degree of glee, not unlike a high school geek who's watched his mousy girlfriend blossom into a supermodel only to be left holding the bag while she runs off with the high school quarterback before prom and shows up at the reunion ten years later forty pounds overweight with a passel of kids in tow, married to an unemployed Al Bundy-wannabe whose greatest accomplishment was the Hail Mary pass that won the regional championships his senior year.  I never lost a job directly to outsourcing, though I did have enough trouble finding work because of it that I switched careers altogether, returning to school to finish the bachelor's I abandoned during the dot-com years with the intent to go into medicine. (Its hard to outsource sticking a needle in someone.)  The jury's still out on that move--nobody drags a four-year degree out like I do--but in the meantime there's enough work coming back stateside that I'm considering a full-time return to the workforce to pay the bills in the meantime.

Take heart, my Indian brothers.  This too shall pass.

Old school PDA: freakin' genius

Everyone who knows me knows I'm a geek.  I don't pretend otherwise anymore; back when I had steady income I put "early adopter" as my religious status.  I've tried half a dozen PDA's and the only one that's stuck was my current cell phone, running windows mobile 4.0 and sync'ing to outlook.  Having spent the better part of the last few years broke, though, I've started using my father's version of a PDA: pen and paper.  I started carrying around a little memo book, which has thus far been far more effective than an electronic PDA costing a few hundred dollars and destined to end up an expensive paperweight.

Finally someone has come up with a PDA for people like me.  PocketMod is a website that lets you mix and match several templates into a disposable (i.e., loseable) organizer that you print out and fold.  It has a couple dozen page styles available, ranging from blanks to various sized grids to blank music scores to sudoku pages. you've got 8 pages in a booklet to work with, although I don't really see anything preventing you from getting creative and stapling several together into a larger organizer. 

I was telling steph earlier that the greatest ideas in mankind's history were the simplest ones, those that were so simple that they were simply overlooked.  These guys should really patent the idea before franklin covey or dayplanner gets ahold of it.

Sometimes a cell phone is just a cell phone...

So I lost my cell phone this afternoon. I realized this as I was driving back over to Steph's place from mine after I went over there to give gus a bath and grab a few things for this weekend in Dallas. I went back to the last place I could remember having it--my apartment, of course--but after looking for the better part of an hour, I still couldn't find it. No big surprise as most small items, animals, and children that find their way into my apartment are never heard from again, lost in a tempestuous conglomeration of unopened junk mail, junk that needs to be mailed, closets overflowing with junk and clothes that should be junked, sprinkled with junk food.

Finally I resigned myself to the idea that I had lost it, and would be without a phone for the entire weekend, since it'll be monday before I can get up to austin to do anything about it (since I still have an austin number and want to keep it, I have to deal with Cingular up there instead of down here because they like to make my life a pain in the ass.)

I get back over to steph's, look her work number up in outlook (thank god i have a phone that syncs to outlook automatically) and called her to tell her about it, when I decided, as guys sometimes do when we're
alone, that it was time to scratch my balls. As I was sticking my hand down my shorts I felt a small rectangular object kind of on the side of my underwear. Bet you can't guess what that was, can you?

I really only have two explanations for this. One is that I meant to put it into my pocket and was preoccupied at the moment and accidentally put it inside the waistband of my jeans, and thus in my underwear instead of my pocket. The other is more freudian in that subconsciously I hate my cell phone--or rather, what it represents, which is being at the beck and call of the entire world 24/7--and want to drive myself crazy with it so I get rid of it all together before it sleeps with my mother. I tend to go with the latter. (Except for the
sleeping with my mother part. Sometimes a cell phone is just a cell phone.)

I was all done blogging for the day

I was about to put away my blogging window when I saw this story from the DailyKos via Pharyngula.

Appalling.

The link is about a Christianist rally called Battlecry, complete with unabashedly militant symbolism that borders on Nazi propaganda. When former Special Forces servicemen are posing as trigger-happy Navy SEALs and this is considered positive PR for the extremist Christians, complete with a letter of approval from our Fearless Leader (keeping Alabama's skies free of Commies since 1972), is there any doubt about the ultimate goal of the evangelical movement in America today?

So much for the land of the free...

[Update: An excellent first-person account of BattleCry can be found at truthdig. Be sure and check out some of the comments too.]

Science scores dropping--is anyone surprised?

The NYTimes is running a story on a "distressing" drop in science scores by 12th graders nationwide.  The article offers a couple of explanations.

Assistant Secretary of Education Tom Luce said they reflected a
national shortage of fully qualified science teachers, especially in
regions of poverty, where physics and chemistry classes are often
taught by teachers untrained in those subjects.

"We lack
enough teachers with content knowledge in math and science," Mr. Luce
said. "We have too few teachers with majors or minors in math and
science. That clearly is a problem."

Some teachers cited the decreasing amount of time devoted to science in
schools, which they attributed in part to the annual tests in reading
and math required by the No Child Left Behind law.

Honestly though, regardless of the above explanations, did anyone really think students in America today were getting anywhere near an adequate grounding in science?  We're living under a presidential administration that is actively hostile towards science in favor of religion, and that takes its advice on matters like global warming from its favorite fiction writer.  Stem cell research has all but ground to a halt in this country, and school boards all over the country are being overrun by evangelical Christians making strong legislative and PR efforts to have creationism treated with parity alongside evolution as an adequate explanation for natural phenomena.

The Christianist movement loves to pretend they're Jewish and have been hated and oppressed ever since Christians were fed to the lions in the Colosseum.  Newsflash: the real attack in this country is directed at rational thought. 

The Anatomy of Power

A friend of mine works for the Texas Freedom Network, a non-profit group whose goal is to ensure religious freedom and individual liberties over the agenda of the religious right in Texas.  The group has just released a new report detailing the merging of the religious right with the leadership of the Republican Party in Texas.  TFN isn't anti-religion (unlike yours truly) and in fact, they work closely with a non-partisan network of mainstream clergy and other people of faith through the Texas Faith Network, 

The report details the rise of the religious right in Texas as well as the influence of a few key groups and players, along with their tactics for portraying religious Americans as a people under constant attack.  From the Executive Summary:

A report such as this is likely to be portrayed by leaders on the religious right as further evidence of a “war on Christianity” and “people of faith” in America today. Indeed, this charge has become the stock in trade for cynical far-right leaders who are adept at using religion to further divide Americans in the raging culture wars. Yet it is hard to reconcile this “language of persecution” with the reality in America today.

The vast majority of Americans proclaim a belief in God and attend church freely and regularly. Religious organizations own and operate radio, television and cable stations across the country, freely promoting religious messages to large audiences. Bible and prayer clubs meet in countless public schools. Decorations and public displays celebrating religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter can be found on almost any street in communities across the country. The truth is that faith and religious freedom are flourishing in America.

Given the current national political landscape, especially the dominance of Texas politicians such as George W. Bush and Tom Delay and the influence of leaders of the far right like the ever-asinine James Dobson on both political circles and the evangelical movement, this report is as much a look at the rise of the religious right nationally as well as in Texas.  Its well worth a read, regardless of your feelings on the matter.

There's hope for women all over the world now

Toyota is bringing to market a car that can park itself... Finally, women all over the world can feel free to parallel park.

[Thank god i've already got a girlfriend or I'm betting this post would cramp my dating life for awhile!]

Buy an SUV and get a free year of irresponsibility

GM is demonstrating an even greater disregard (or perhaps its merely lack of understanding) of market forces at  work by offering new SUV buyers a 1,99 cap on the price of gas for one year.  I can't begin to fathom what GM executives are thinking, unless they've got their minds set on going out with a bang.

First there's the economic cost to GM.  Leaving aside the fact that many buyers of these vehicles (including the incredibly fuel-inefficient H2 & H3 series of Hummers) don't care about the price of gas, by limiting their cost during a time when gas is likely to hit $4/gal GM is basically saying, "We'll match whatever you spend on gas."  On the vehicles in their production lines that are going to maximize that proposition.  If I were one of GM's investors, I'd be pretty f'ing pissed.

Secondly, there's the blatant disregard for the role American auto manufacturer's have played in the current gasoline crisis.  For years now they've been virtually assaulting American consumers with a barrage of ads and incentives to convince consumers to buy these fuel monsters.  Not to downplay the personal responsibility consumers have for making rational decisions, but anyone who reads this blog regularly is aware of the disregard I have for the ability of the average American to grasp the idea of "rational."  What GM is doing here is telling consumers, "Hey, we know what a pain in the ass it is to be responsible.  Hell, we've based our entire business model around that!  So why don't you just do what you want, as long as you want to buy one of our monster trucks, and we'll take that pesky responsibility thing and just sweep it under the covers for you."  GM is well-aware of the inability of your average consumer to see past the BS, and is taking advantage of that.

So my question to GM is this:  if you're so fired up about making gas prices cheap, why don't you offer this deal for only your most EFFICIENT vehicles, or your flex-fuel vehicles?  In doing so you'd save your investors a ton of money by limiting the cost of your asinine little idea, and you'd encourage consumers to buy more energy-efficient vehicles, helping to offset the increase in demand you'd be causing by setting a price ceiling.  I mean, bloody hell, how much more powerful a marketing message can you offer than "This car's so efficient we'll pay for all of your gas for the first year."  Might have something to do with the fact that there aren't any American cars that are highly efficient, of course...

The answer, of course, is because GM, like other American manufacturers, has always focused on the profit margin, looking to drive up sales of their bigger, high-margin vehicles instead of focusing on creating solid, reliable, energy efficient smaller cars and trucks.  Foreign manufacturers like Toyota, meanwhile, have been bitch-slapping GM in the marketplace precisely because they took the more intelligent strategy of decreasing their costs of production instead of taking the low road of higher vehicle margins.

Call me a Commie, tell me I hate America or that I'm a terrorist sympathizer.  Call me what you want--my next vehicle is going to be foreign.  I simply can't support American manufacturers when they pull boneheaded moves like this.

I just found my next cell phone

I have a beef with motorola. Many, actually. Mostly I just hate their phones. I've always found them to be overhyped pieces of crap no self-respecting e-dung beetle would stoop to ingest.

They might have a phone to change my mind now.

The "Q," as its called (think James bond's Q) is a slim-factor phone slightly thicker than the SLVR, about the same size as the RAZR. Runs the latest version of Windows Mobile (5.0) Smartphone, which is the killer feature of my current cell (the Audiovox SMT-5600.) Except the Q addresses my biggest problem with the SMT, the lack of a qwerty-style keyboard. short text messages aren't a problem, but for sending emails, chatting, web surfing... its a Major Complication. Most Smartphone apps take this into account, taking care to make applications menu-driven instead of text-driven, but there are a few good ones (in terms of filling a gap) that not only don't follow this convention, but don't take advantage of the predictive text available.

The Q will initially be available only from Verizon, but I'm hoping Cingular gets it soon, since I'm stuck with them for the next couple of years unless I suddenly come into a large sum of money to pay an early termination penalty. Although I'm not really inclined to change providers--I don't like Cingular's customer service or business practices, but the service itself is usable.

"I'm so complicated"

You come over unannounced
Dressed up like you're somethin else
Where you are and where it's at you see
You're makin me Laugh out
When you strike a pose
Take off All your preppy clothes
You know You're not foolin anyone
When you become Somebody else
Round everyone else
Watchin your back
Like you can't relax
You tryin to be cool
You look like a fool to me
    --Avril Lavigne, "Complicated"

I guess she got over being "complicated"... 

How do you know a doomed startup?

When its more about ego than product.

Seriously, every startup I've ever seen that puts headshots of its management team has ended up as a crapshoot.  That should be the #1 tip to potential investors that their money is going to be put to use fueling egos and sports cars rather than spent on hiring developers and designers, ads, or just about anything else that might be useful in a company.

Also, the fact that this "social network" is anything but social might also be a clue.  Here's a tip, guys: snobby people don't go online to be snobby.  They prefer to do it in person so that they have other rich people to pat them on the back for being rich, and peons to exclude in order to brush away those pesky insecurities about their self-worth.  What's the point of a gated community if no one can see you driving through the gates every day?

So this is the face of senility...

Pat Robertson, ever mindful of his complete and utter irrelevance in world affairs, has apparently been having tea and crumpets with God again.

Longtime readers of the political pages will remember his previous conversations with God, which included "Kill Chavez now!" and the classic episode in which Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke as divine retribution for attempting to bring peace to the holy land.

I had a friend once who was convinced her grandmother (a very nice lady, by all accounts) received messages from God.  Not in the "dove perched by an open window" kind of way, but in a verbal, "Tell so-and-so to turn left instead of right at 12:03pm today."  I was never able to convince her that her grandmother was probably a lifelong schizophrenic of some sort, but she spoke in tongues herself, so I had my work cut out for me there.  [as a side note, how convenient is it that some people are given the gift of speaking in gibberish, and other's the gift of interpreting it?  Let's hear it for accountability!]

What boggles my mind is how people can be so convinced of such a preposterous idea merely because once or twice in a blue moon the recipient of such messages manages to be right.  I mean, you fling enough crap at a wall and something's bound to stick sooner or later.  Which is, of course, exactly what Roberts is doing here.  He's predicting a lot of storms on the coastlines (Imagine that... a storm on the coast.  whodathunkit.)  during a period in which everyone from the meteorologist at the local news to government climatologists to academic geologists has shown that global warming is a) a reality and b) creating conditions for highly active hurricane seasons with stronger-than-normal storms.  Sorry, Pat, you don't get credit for a divine prediction when everyone already knows it.  As for the tsunami prediction, he's clearly using heightened public awareness and fear of tsunamis to get everyone's attention, knowing full well that if a tsunami doesn't show up everyone will forget his little prediction and if it does (unlikely in the extreme) he got lucky.

"I think maybe I kinda like you..."

Not a line that's going to end up on the top ten of all time, but it worked for this guy.

Here's what I've figured out about women in the last few years.

1.) Nice guys finish last.  Its not because nobody likes the nice guy--its just that nobody wants to sleep with him.  Don't get me wrong.  Being a jerk doesn't get you laid much either (although marginally moreso than being a nice guy.)  Its because a nice guy has no backbone, no spine.  He'll let a girl walk all over him--or anyone else, for that matter--so that he can retain his internal picture of himself as a "nice guy."  When girls do go for the nice guy, its for a very specific, very temporary purpose: rebound.  This is a nice guy's bread and butter.  If there's one thing he's good at, its picking up the pieces of a girl's broken heart, putting them back together again, and restoring her sense of self and self-esteem.  Oh, and he's pretty good at getting left behind for the badass on a motorcycle too.  There are few hard-and-fast rules in dating, but I'm pretty sure this is one.

2.) Nobody likes a jackass.  These guys tend to get laid more than the nice guys do.  That's because there's no dearth of women who seek out trouble like a moth to a flame.  They're unable to have or maintain a normal, functional relationship with another adult human being because they have no real identity of their own, so they look for what they see as a strong personality to whom they can attach themselves in order to have some sense of identity.  Unfortunately they're also really poor judges of character, not having any of their own to use as a reference.  (Women like this, incidentally, are almost always unsalvageable--stay away.  They may learn one day, but they'll learn of their own accord.  No one will ever be able to show them.  Especially not the Nice Guys of the world.)  At the end of the day, though a relationship with the Jackass may last awhile, it will be rocky and fraught with peril.  Her friends will hate him, mostly because at least twice a week she will call them with yet another story about what a jerk he is and how she should just leave him for good--and then she will return to him as soon as he calls.  Its annoying, really.

3.) The rules for Getting Laid and the rules for Being Happy are vastly different. Getting Laid, unfortunately, usually involves a little bit of being a jackass.  You will never find a relationship that makes you happy this way, because the pretext under which you start it is not who you are (hopefully.) 

Suppose you're the Nice Guy in your group of friends, and by some miracle, or perhaps through the machinations of your friends, you manage to do the exact opposite of whatever your instinct is: instead of complimenting her hair, you tell her what a big ass she has; instead of reading her poetry, you make her buy you a drink.  Whatever the case may be, you find yourself the next morning laying next to the only semi-attractive wench that's voluntarily dropped her panties for you in months. [before women reading this get their panties in a wad and start complaining that no woman would respond to that, shut up.  Yes, you do.  Maybe not all of you--those with a little self-respect tend to fall into this category--but most of you do.  Now go bring me some cheesy poofs and shut your pie hole.] 

So now, sober and back to your old self, you proceed to do all the things your instincts tell you to do: make her breakfast in bed, buy her flowers, call her just to say hi, leave her sweet little have-a-great-day notes on her car while she's at work... all those little romantic things you'd love to be able to do for your presumptive girlfriend.  Except guess what, douchebag... She didn't respond to that in hopping in the sack with you.  She responded to you treating her like crap.  Anybody want to take a guess at what comes next?

The disconnect in our hypothetical NG's behavior is this: he went out to Get Laid, but once he'd fulfilled that need, he was trying to convert the product of those efforts into a Relationship--into Being Happy.  That's a no-no.  Its like going to a sex shop and buying a big bottle of sensual massage oil, then trying to cook with it or put it in your car.  You can try it, but its not going to produce good results.

So how exactly are you supposed to be happy and get laid at the same time?  Personally, I see it as a pretty simple technique:

Just Be Happy.  [Its not just a song lyric anymore, people.]

Be satisfied with your own life.  Do the things that make you happy, whether its riding a bike, hiking, being a Beer Snob, whatever... If you want to meet people, then find things that make you happy and are somewhat social, like art openings, or political organizations, or something like that.  Be the person you want to be, and be satisfied and content.  The thing is, other people gravitate towards that peace, and like drops of oil on the surface of water people who share that quality tend to find each other and stick together.  Sooner or later  you and one of those other drops of oil will find that your lives complement each other, and if you don't cock it up by pretending to be something you're not, she (or he) will sleep with you.   Maybe even more than once.

If you focus on that first though, you're introducing a need into your life, and artificial needs are antithetical to being happy.  Needs have to be fulfilled.  That's why they're called needs.  Everyone has needs of course: you need to eat, sleep, shit, and breathe.  If your need doesn't fall into one of those four categories, its artificial--you're creating it for yourself.  That doesn't make it a bad need, necessarily, but you have to decide what needs you want to let control your life.  In a relationship, for instance, I need to be with someone who's intelligent and shares some or all of the ideals that are important to me.  That's a need I'm willing to allow to have some control over my life.  I'm not, however, willing to let my desire to get laid become a need that overrides that more primary need. Its a matter of prioritizing your needs.

Maybe later I'll take a break and write more about my philosophy of needs.  Right now I need to take a crap.

Hosting change

Update: Transition complete.

I just changed my hosting setup, so KJ may be hosed for a few days... if you get a 404, or some weird front page, bear with me, I'll be back to my usual annoying self shortly.

mental diarrhea

I'm just kind of going to link a bunch of stories/links/etc that I'm finding today that I'm too lazy to blog about individually today.

I'm not exactly a big fan of the cowboy diplomacy that will likely be the most noteworthy aspect of Bush's presidency, but I've really got to wonder what the hell Iran is thinking here.  They've been offered time and again alternative paths to a nuclear power program that don't also give them the ability to produce nuclear weapons, something the international community can all agree is practically the worst idea since filming Tammy Faye Baker living in a house with Vanilla Ice and Ron Jeremy for a month.  Russia's offered to do the enrichment for them.  The EU is all but offering blowjobs for everyone if they'll give up the idea of uranium enrichment.  I think there's even been an offer at one time for them to do their own enrichment under close supervision.  Instead, we get Halocaust denials and railings against Israel's right to exist from the Iranian president.  Honestly, sir: do you really think if you push the situation far enough we won't kick your ass?  I'm no fan of Bush, but even I will acknowledge that the US has the firepower and manpower to eliminate your ability to function as a nation in the 21st century, even if we can't control your nation as a whole.  The Republicans will likely lose control of Congress later this year, and lose the presidency in '08, but rest assured, whoever comes in behind them will still put on a pair of shitkickers and beat you senseless if you force us to.

Google's release a new version of Desktop.  I've been a big fan of this ever since they added the feature to detach applets from the sidebar to be positioned on your desktop and the ability to show or hide these applets with a double-tap of the shift key.  Now they've kicked it up another notch, with the ability to write said applets (called Gadgets now) in javascript and/or C++.  I think C# or any other .Net language might work as well, if you write and compile it as a COM component.  I'll have to investigate that more--one of my projects this summer is going to be to write a project tracker/timer with subtasks.  Hopefully I'll be able to do that completely in Javascript; I'll do a write-up on the success of the venture when I'm done.

Pavlina's got a great article for college students, along the lines of keeping you focused and motivated.  I sure could have used that one back in '96 when I started college.  Hard to believe its been 10 years... never thought of myself as "that guy".

And lastly... Kuro5hin demonstrates that there is no end to the lengths a whackjob will go to prove his whackjob street cred.

It really takes a lot for me to bitch about the "nanny state"

...but this did it:  lawmakers have proposed a bill in the House that would ban access in federally funded schools and libraries to any site that "allows users to create Web pages or profiles that provide information about themselves and are available to other users and offer a mechanism of communication with other users."

In case you missed it, that's a shot across the bow of myspace, facebook, and essentially any non-static page on the internet.  From the article:

The legislation is aimed at "protecting children from
terrible individuals who would aim to use Facebook and MySpace to harm
young children," says Michael Conallen, chief of staff to Congressman
Michael Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who sponsored the bill.

Where, oh where, do I begin?

First of all, facebook is for college kids, not young children.  Myspace doesn't allow young children on it--you have to be at least 14, by which is a nice segue into point #2:

how about you teach your kids a little common sense, and while you're at it, maybe take a shot at raising them yourself instead of letting the internet or television do it? 

Whatever happened to the whole "Never talk to strangers" bit that was so prevalent when I was a kid? When I grew up, my father had me convinced that everyone he didn't personally introduce to me was an axe murderer he had put in jail himself (Dad was a prosecutor.)  I was 12 years old before I learned that garbage men weren't always convicts.  Once I even attempted to spread the word about the dangers of garbage men to every kid in the neighborhood (which, in my neighborhood, meant the little girl whose backyard bordered mine, and a kid who lived three blocks over.  The rest of my neighborhood was basically a retirement community.)

Sometimes I really hate election years.  This is obviously a stunt to get the soccer-mom vote.

I guess they were all out of shrimp on the barbie...

Somebody the kiwis up for sale.  Not the fruit--the country.

more fatcats come out swinging against digital music

This time its Real's CEO, Rob Glaser:

About half the music on iPods is music obtained illegitimately either from an illegal peer-to-peer networks or from ripping friends' CDs, which is illegal.... If you want interoperable music today, there is a very easy solution:
it's called stealing... it's the only way to get non-copy protected,
portable, interoperable music.

Ok, Item The First: if only half the music is "stolen", then that must mean half the music is bought, right?  That's a pretty big f'ing deal for iTMS--five years ago, you could pretty much count on all the music being downloaded from peer-to-peer networks or ripped off CD's, which leads us to...

Item The Second:  Ripping your CD's OR your friends CD's isn't illegal.  Sharing for personal use among your friends is now and always has been fair use, despite what the RIAA wants you to believe.  Uploading it to a server for all the world to grab... not so much. 

What Glaser is really pissed about is that nobody's playing music from Real's music store on iPods.  Sour grapes.

What is it about CEO's that makes them such asshats?

This is why I left Mississippi (*not* that Texas is much better)

Disgraceful.  First they convict an innocent man--a hardworking farmer and a fucking war hero--on trumped up charges of theft because he's black, its 1960, and he was stirring up trouble by trying to integrate Southern Miss.  Then he dies because of poor health acquired in the prison.  And now, even though he was clearly innocent and ought to be given a posthumous award for trying to advance civil rights, they won't pardon his name because he's dead.

Don't ever let anyone try to tell you attitudes in MS are any different than they used to be.

SBC finally good for something...

Something you might not know if you're an SBC/AT&T DSL subscriber...

Barnes & Noble's wireless is admin'd by SBC.  Normally, you have to either become a member at 19.95/mo with a 1 year committment, or buy a prepaid connection card, which comes to about 8.00/day for connection, or pay 3.95 for a two hour connection.  Not bad, if you really need connectivity, but not great either, if you use it a lot.

I was looking at their options, and noticed that if you're a DSL subscriber, you can subscribe to wireless connectivity as well for an extra 1.99/month.  $2 a month.  That's it.  Month to month.  Gets you connections at BNN, McDonald's (!), UPS stores, Caribou coffee houses(don't have those around here) and a few other assorted places.  possibly in airports as well.  now THAT's a deal.

That's the first thing SBC's done that didn't piss me off in years.

AWOL

I haven't been in a very bloggy mood the last month or so... School's intense this time of year, I got into a relationship (finally! a good one!) Some of my Faithful Readers will understand how big a deal that is, considering what a committed bachelor I've been the last few years (interrupted by a year or so of on-again,  off-again with someone).  Its probably going to last awhile longer... I've had a lot of sad news the last few days, won't be done with finals until the end of the week, and I've got some other stuff going on I can't talk about for awhile.  not bad stuff, just stuff.

Yeah, this post is kind of a waste of your time, dear reader.  sorry about that.

Maybe Katie isn't as dumb as I thought...

Check it out--Katie Holmes, going back on the open market... (3rd story down)

Welcome to the Bank of Exxon...

I think this approach is likely to take off in the near future as a way to beat gas prices.  A high-capacity gas station in Minnesota sells gasoline in any amount to consumers at current prices, then allows them to withdraw the gas at any point in the future.  They actually have customers who paid less than $1/gal who are still driving on that "deposit."  I know I'd probably put easily a thousand dollars on an account if i could get the gas at anything approaching $2/gal, which would probably keep me driving for at least a year, maybe two or three with my current usage.  It would also allow me to better budget my fuel needs.  I don't really see any downside--the gas station buys petroleum futures on the Merc for large orders to ensure they can provide the gasoline when needed, and they've got 50,000 gallon tanks for the short-term orders.

Another win for the free market approach...

The latest on Delay (or, "What, you mean that's illegal???")...

Quote from the article:

Prosecutors have e-mails showing Rep. Tom
DeLay's office knew lobbyist Jack Abramoff had arranged the financing
for the GOP leader's controversial European golfing trip in 2000 and
was concerned "if someone starts asking questions."

Consider the questions asked, Tom...

Next on al`Qaeda's Funniest Home Videos: Zarqawi

Apparently he's got a blooper reel... 

And this is the terrorist mastermind keeping American forces occupied in Iraq?  Bush et al's degree of incompetence just became a whole lot clearer.

Working at Dunder-Mifflin...

Ok, I don't actually work at Dunder-Mifflin.  But I'm on their mailing list all the same.  A bit from last months newsletter:

Mad ups to our very own accountant Oscar Martinez, who thwarted an attempted mugging last Friday!  The incident occurred around nine pm near the woods on the outskirts of Crowley Park.  Oscar was parked in his car with an unidentified male companion when a female jogger was accosted.  With the same eagle eyes he uses to spot clerical errors in our expense reports, Oscar saw what was happening, bolted from his car and scared the would-be assailant off.

In typical hero fashion, Oscar didn’t even want to discuss his bravery.  Said Oscar, “What I do on the weekends is nobody’s business.”  He’s Mr. Modest, and hey -- that’s why we love him!

It should be noted that this only came to light because volunteer sheriff Dwight Schrute had been astutely monitoring his police scanner at the time.  Mr. Schrute also placed sixth out of fifteen in the Lackawanna County Volunteer Sheriff Pistol Target Competition last weekend, so congratulations to him as well.

Oh yeah, and Dwight's got a blog...

Exxon Posts First-Quarter Profit of $8.4 Billion

NPR is reporting that Exxon posted a 1st quarter profit of 8.4 BILLION (yes, with a B) today. 8.4 Billion. with a B.

Now, I don't like paying $3/gal more than anyone else for gasoline, but I understand the economics of the situation. Gasoline supplies are tight, and if the price of gas doesn't rise then we end up with gas shortages as people continue to drive their SUV's and Hummers with not a care in the world. As it is, gas reserves are dangerously tight--another disaster like Katrina and we'll be remembering fondly the days when you could get a gallon of gas for about the cost of a Double Whopper with cheese. But honestly, that's not what pisses me off.

What pisses me off is that the oil industry get some of the biggest governement tax breaks in the entire budget. Ostensibly for "exploration", it is these subsidies that finance $400 million compensation packages for executives like Exxon's CEO. Its these subsidies that allow oil companies to post ridiculously high profits like this. And when the few politicians that AREN'T firmly in the oil industry's pockets talk about reducing or, god forbid, eliminating the tax subsidies, they make veiled threats about passing the burden onto consumers.

Its exactly that kind of attitude that gets an industry regulated. The oil industry is a boil on the ass of humanity. So here's my proposal: get rid of the subsidies altogether. No company that can post profits--PROFITS!!! not just REVENUE, but PROFITS!!!!--like that in a 3 month period needs government help. That's more than the entire economy of some nations. The additional money in the government budget should be earmarked to push alternative energy technologies--research into fuel cells, ethanol development, tax breaks for ethanol stations, doubling or even tripling the individual tax credit for hybrid vehicles, wind & hydro technology, and especially research into converting military assets to green energy derivatives. Its ridiculous that so much of our national security infrastructure relies on a region of the world with whom we seem to be constantly at odds. Eliminating this tax subsidy would go a long way to financing the tax breaks for the wealthy the Bushes seem so intent on providing.

Additionally, I think any vehicle over a certain weight should require a special class of license to drive, and state laws for this requirement should be tied to highway funding the way it was when the Reagans, in their infinite wisdom, decided should be the case for alcohol. I'm not sure how much exactly, because I'm not a car person and I don't know what trucks weigh, but basically anything bigger than something like a silverado (and maybe not even that big) ought to require some kind of additional certification on one's ability to drive. You shouldn't be able to own or operate something like a hummer at the age of 18, period. While this isn't tied directly to fuel efficiency it would certainly reduce the number of these vehicles on the road.

Lastly provide incentives both for the development of products like biodiesel mods and plug-in hybrids that can be charged off the power-grid, and for greener grid technology like wind energy. For individuals with a daily commute of less than about 20 miles, this would give them the ability to get as much as 180 mpg, reduce demand for gasoline (which would allow gas to be cheaper again, assuming the oil industry would reduce prices to match, which we all know they wouldn't--again making the case for antitrust action and tight regulation as a public utility) and allow consumers to use green credits to charge the cars. Merely by switching to the power grid we reduce our dependence on foreign oil supplies by increasing our use of domestic supplies of energy like coal and nuclear power.

This all seems elementary to almost everyone I talk to, Republicans and Democrats alike. Its blatantly obvious that the motivation for Congress to keep the status quo is solely related to the deep pockets of the oil industry. Am I the only one who remembers the rhetoric in the 2000 campaign claiming that one of Bush's "pluses" was that his cabinet had a lot of energy experience and would bring that to the table, keeping the costs of energy low? Glad that one worked out so well...

You have to love the ideas they come up with during an election year

The Republicans want to give a $100 gas rebate check out to taxpayers to "soften the blow"  of high gas prices this year.

Let me get this straight: you have, for the last five years, been giving out tax cuts to the wealthiest americans while watching the size of the middle class shrink and those under the laughably-low federal poverty lines grow, you have supported a miserable failure in the Iraq war and your President, and extended tax subsidies to oil companies who are in the middle of a record-shattering profit streak...

... and you want to give me a free goddamn tank of gas to make me feel better about it???!!!

And Republicans accuse the liberals of being out of touch...

hyperbole at its finest...

AOL-speak is destroying language's beauty

Don't be asinine.  AOL-speak, though crude and annoying, has nothing to do with the ability of young persons to communicate (or rather, their inability.)  If you want to know why they can't communicate, try looking at their english and literature classes.  What "AOLSpeak" amounts to is the typed equivalent of a linguistic phenomenon known as code-switching, and anyone who's ever conversed with their peers in a manner differently than you'd speak in a board meeting is guilty of it.  The disconnect occurs because students aren't recognizing the status of email recipients--they perceive that all receivers are part of the same cohort, in other words.  They're making the assumption that because someone uses email they're part of a particular peer group conversant in this language of abbreviations.  This, in my mind, is a failure of the educational system, not a breakdown in the english language itself.

When someone emails you, texts you, or IM's you using crap english, call them on it.  If you're an english teacher and you accept written assignments of any kind with abbreviations like "ur", you ought to be run out of school on a rail.  But for pete's sake, don't make a mountain out of a molehill. 

The Delay thing is just warming up...

I noticed this article on Newsweek's online site this morning, and I have to agree with Clift: this one is going to go somewhere.

Short version: (read towards the end of the article--the first part just covers the non-event that is the White House "shakeup")  A New Hampshire operative for the RNC, James Tobin, was convicted in December for telephone harassment in connection with a conspiracy to have an Idaho telemarketing firm make thousands of phone calls jamming up the lines to several Democratic headquarters.  One of the three $5000 checks that financed the jamming operation came from Tom Delay's PAC, the other two from Indian tribes connected to Jack Abramoff.

Its was pretty clear when Delay announced his abandoned bid for reelection that there was more to come, despite his protestations to the primary.  Reading between the lines, I think there's a strong likelihood of these events being connected out in the open in the coming months.  With any luck, Delay is only the first of many in this Administration who will be having "come to Jesus"  moments in the coming year.

powered by performancing firefox

watch how you treat your waiter...

Good article on judging a person's character by the way they treat subordinates...

Still in Dallas post-funeral... Hopefully home soon and will start posting more again.

brilliant rebuttal to the anti-immigrant argument

I don't have time for the commentary, just posting the link.

Second-rate superstitions

Tom Delay at the "War on Christians" conference last week:

Last Tuesday Mr. DeLay spoke at "The War on Christians" conference during which he agreed with the central theme - that there is, indeed, a "war on Christians" in America today. He went on to say that America treats Christianity like a "second-rate superstition."

(original link)

Christianity is indeed a superstition, as are all religions. That isn't the problem--the perceived negative connotations associated with the word "superstition" are the believer's problem, not my own. I don't think merely the fact that religions are superstitious is necessarily a reason to view those beliefs as illegitimate. However, regarding Christianity as practiced by people like Tom Delay and this guy, "second-rate" is being a bit generous, I think.

I'll say this much for the ID'ers: at least they've got the good sense not to hold up such absurdities as their idea of "evidence."

Another bait and switch

Back in '99, I was only halfheartedly interested in the pending 2000 Presidential election. The candidate succeeding Bill Clinton was kind of a douchebag, and on the right there were a number of front-runners who were mostly bland players. I honestly didn't care who won--it was six of one, half a dozen of the other. The one candidate I did like a lot was Sen. John McCain--seemingly the last of the old-school Republicans, whose campaign was derailed almost entirely through the machinations of someone I now know as one of the most despicable Americans I can think of, Karl Rove. I was still somewhat intrigued by the end of the election debacle by the prospect of having someone who campaigned as a moderate Republican as President. One might even say I was hopeful that the change from a Democrat to Republican administration would be overall beneficial--much as a gene pool needs an infusion of new blood every so often--even though I knew there would be things I disagreed with, and I was (rightly, as it turns out) concerned about the prospect of both the Presidency and Congress being controlled by a single party.

Of course, mere months later my hopes were dashed. From September 11th, 2001 onward, this administration has proven itself to be one of the most avaricious and despicable displays of greed and incompetence in the history of the US. Even Jimmy Carter, though presiding over a highly troubled administration, has redeemed himself in the years since, proving to be a formidible statesman, peacemaker, and altruist--an accomplisment that George W. Bush will match only on the coldest day in hell.

Until recently I had high hopes that McCain would make a comeback and take the White House back for the American people, forging a government based on balance and unity rather than corporatism and theocracy. Though it troubled me greatly, I brushed aside his unflinching support for Bush in the 2004 election cycle as a necessary evil if he wanted to remain relevant in the coming years. But after this, I can do so no longer. He has dropped all pretenses of remaining a moderate Republican in the next presidential election and begun pandering to the far right in earnest, even lowering himself so far as to speak at Liberty University, the last bastion of the "oppressed Christian." Frankly, I no more trust McCain now than I would trust Dick Cheney to turn Halliburton into the worlds largest non-profit dedicated to eliminating world hunger.

Whoever pushed him to this political strategy ought to be hung by their toenails. You're not going to outdo people like Bill Frist in pandering to the theocon vote, Senator. All you're doing now is alienating the 80% of the country that doesn't believe that white Christian males have a divine mandate to take over the world.

Delay drops out of race--so much for redistricting

This one's spreading like wildfire: Tom Delay is dropping out of the Texas 22nd race. Citing polling numbers far below his usual safe zone, Delay is claiming he's doing this for the good of the party--that the race has become a referendum on Tom Delay rather than on the Republican platform. While that statement may be true in and of itself, Delay is the embodiment of the Republican platform, and of all the problems of the Republican party. A referendum on Delay is a referendum on the GOP.

My personal belief: this has less to do with Republican values than it does with the investigation into his shenanigans with the redistricting battle here a few years ago. At least two of his former aides are involved in the Abramoff scandal, and while he doesn't appear to be involved in that particular debacle, the investigation into his PAC illegally funnelling corporate money into Texas House races is still going strong, and I'm betting somebody in the Austin prosecutors office knows something Delay wishes they didn't. Maybe I'm just mudslinging here, but frankly, I can't think of anyone in Texas more deserving of it, except perhaps Tom Craddick or Rick Perry..

I find no small degree of irony (and pleasure) in noting that his polling numbers are also directly linked to Delay and his cronies divving up his district to run Nick Lampson out of his former district.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this show sometimes...

... But their penchant for tongue-in-cheek humor is magnificent.

What kind of nation, indeed.

Pen put up a link to an article by Peggy Noonan the other day I wanted to comment on. Specifically, this part:

Because we do not communicate to our immigrants, legal and illegal, that they have joined something special, some of them, understandably, get the impression they've joined not a great enterprise but a big box store. A big box store on the highway where you can get anything cheap. It's a good place. But it has no legends, no meaning, and it imparts no spirit.

Who is at fault? Those of us who let the myth die, or let it change, or refused to let it be told. The politically correct nitwit teaching the seventh-grade history class who decides the impressionable young minds before him need to be informed, as their first serious history lesson, that the Founders were hypocrites, the Bill of Rights nothing new and imperfect in any case, that the Indians were victims of genocide, that Lincoln was a clinically depressed homosexual who compensated for the storms within by creating storms without . . .

You can turn any history into mud. You can turn great men and women into mud too, if you want to.

And it's not just the nitwits, wherever they are, in the schools, the academy, the media, though they're all harmful enough. It's also the people who mean to be honestly and legitimately critical, to provide a new look at the old text. They're not noticing that the old text--the legend, the myth--isn't being taught anymore. Only the commentary is. But if all the commentary is doubting and critical, how will our kids know what to love and revere? How will they know how to balance criticism if they've never heard the positive side of the argument?

We've got a word for that when you teach something that isn't actually true in order to instill some belief in an impressionable mind. Indoctrination. And if our history, and more importantly, our present actions, are such that a young mind must be indoctrinated in order to hold fast to those ideals, then we have lost what it means to be an American.

I'll echo another portion of her article:

We fought a war to free slaves. We sent millions of white men to battle and destroyed a portion of our nation to free millions of black men. What kind of nation does this?

My answer: Not us. The Civil War wasn't fought over slavery--it was fought over the right of the states to secede, the ultimate in States' Rights. Instead of looking at this part of history though, let's look at some more present-day events, keeping in mind the question, "What kind of nation does this?"

• Torture
• Spying on its own citizens
• Indefinite detention of its own citizens without trial
• Falsification of intelligence to support an invasion of a country that presented no immediate threat to the security of this nation
• Allowing the chief executive to disregard existing law and constitutional principles at will
• Singling out minorities for discrimination, going so far as to attempt to amend the constitution of the US to allow it
• do i really need to go on?

So answer me this, Ms. Noonan: exactly what kind of nation does this?

Voodoo science

Digg had a great article on detecting voodoo science that ought to be required reading for anyone in the press reporting on science or technical stories, as well as anyone dealing with the Discovery Institute.

And the Teacher of the Year award goes to... (nobody at this school)

Father John Tinnelly said his son was forced to stand in the back of
the classroom and not allowed to sit because he was wearing the yellow
star.... "He was crying," Tinnelly said. "I said, 'What are you crying about?' He said, 'Daddy, I was a Jew today.'"

Jesus, what fucking retard came up with that idea?

Hyphenated Americana

My friend Pen has an entry from the other day about which I felt obliged to remark, quoting Lou Dobbs (who, like many other pundits, is kind of a douchebag), who was in turn quoting Teddy Roosevelt:

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...

There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

and more:
"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.... There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else."

[note: the full quote was longer, but I didn't want to reproduce Pen's entire entry and the substance of the sentiment is unchanged.] Nice fiery rhetoric, isn't it? Makes you kind of get all jumbly with patriotism. Problem is that its bullshit.

First of all, the context of the quote was during a period when there was still a broad influx of Europeans immigrating to the US and in the midst of WWI. There is an understandably nationalist tilt to it. But it also makes clear one prevailing thought, which both Dobbs and Patrick argue persists today: if you don't assimilate, you're not just not an American--you're anti-American. But assimilate into what? What is this American culture which they are supposed to assimilate into?

Diversity has always been one of this country's greatest strengths. People from all walks of life can be found here, and bring to the table all kinds of experiences that make us what we are. To imply that those experiences--and wanting to preserve their significance to oneself and one's family--makes one somehow less of an American is itself one of the most unAmerican of thoughts. Even more sinister than this is the implication for those born in the US. Mexican-Americans, Chinese-Americans, African-Americans--they are none of them any less American than the born-on-the-4th-of-July, dyed-in-the-wool patriot who bleeds red, white, and blue. Should their patriotism be any less well regarded because their families didn't come to this country on the Mayflower, or because their cultural heritage is strong enough that it has survived through generations? Not just no, but hell no.

And what of those of us who are not "hyphenated Americans" but feel no less alienated by those who spout this nonsense and this "culture" they claim is America? Are we somehow less American because we refuse to subvert our individualism, because we hold dear to those things that set us apart from the blob that is this "American culture" we're all supposed to assimilate into? Again--not no, but hell no.

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. It is because we love our country that we march on our Capitols, protest in the streets, and argue in the press, Congress, and before the Supreme Court. It is because we love America that we refuse to allow the title "American" to be defined by those that say that only the assimilated and the conformist can be a good American. It is because we love America that we fight to preserve that most American of values which has always made America great: freedom--freedom to be who we want to be, to be part of both our past and our future, to continue to contribute all that we have to offer to every facet of life in this country.

America has always been a diverse mishmash of cultures both old and new. Maybe its time Lou Dobbs did some assimilating of his own.

Neglected husbands of the world, unite!

I can't say I'd handle this problem the same way, but I can definitely sympathize. A Michigan man has started a website to complain loudly to the world about the lack of attention he gets from his wife. I'm betting the effect probably isn't what he was looking for from her (her response? "He'll live.") but he certainly isn't the first guy to deal with this. From his site:

All I want my wife to do is stop spoiling our children and allowing
them to wreck our love life! Husbands have feelings too!
Husbandonstrike.com is home of the National Association of Desperate
Husbands, and I'm not only the CEO and Director, but I'm also a card
carrying member!

Married women, hear me now. I can't tell you how many times I've heard women complaining that their husbands don't want to pay any attention to them after they've had a couple of kids and put on a few pounds. If you asked me, I'd say the woman ought to consider herself lucky she got a husband that really wants her instead of some jackass who'd rather go find some college co-ed to play with. Not having kids my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt, but for what its worth, your life as a married couple shouldn't end with the birth of your children. You're still adults in an adult relationship, and if you want to make that relationship last, you have to treat it as such. Hire a babysitter for a weekend and go to a hotel for a nice getaway weekend. Have your (gulp!) mother-in-law come sit or something. Hell, send your kids packing to a friends house for a sleepover. Whatever it takes--do it. the way I see it, if it was worth getting her knocked up (or getting knocked up!) you ought to at least try to preserve it!

Of course, that's really probably not what's going on here. Most likely she's the one who isn't interested in keeping their relationship anymore. Maybe he's let himself go, or she's just without passion for him or whatever. I have, on occasion, found myself in those relationships where the sex has left the building, and without exception, those long, long, long "breaks" in your sex life herald the beginning of the end. There's not usually any blame to hand out--sometimes it just doesn't work, and that's the way life is. If you're a decent person you still care very much about your partner, even if you don't want to jump their bones every chance you get. All the same, my advice to this guy is to A) get into marriage counseling soon, and B) get a good divorce lawyer and do his best to make it an amicable split. The irony is that in doing so, he may very well save the relationship he's prepared to let go of altogether.

Equal-time for Dr. Buchanan

After my last post Amy suggested I take a look at a site on origin theory put up by Dr. David Buchanan, one of her former professors. I did, and found it to be a fairly well-rounded collection of links from all sides of the debate. I can't say I agree with all of the information found or linked to from that site, but it is a pretty good resource if you're wondering what the hell I keep ranting about. His "Answers to questions about evolution" page does a particularly good job of clearing up a lot of the misinformation and misconceptions that are out there.

I will say he gives the Discovery Institute and Michael Behe in particular a lot more credit than I do, but I'll chalk that one up to a less charitable inclination on my part, or perhaps more faith in human nature on his. At any rate, its worth a read, especially if you're a Christian trying to figure out how to reconcile your religious beliefs with science you think conflicts with them. Its unfortunate there aren't more scientists like him getting exposure in mainstream media outlets instead of jackasses like DI and Behe.

Finally--an evangelical who GETS IT

Newsweek's running an otherwise-unremarkable article on the evolution debate on college campuses in their college rag Current. It really just makes a few comments on the dilemma presented to strict creationist students when they leave the sheltered confines of a Christian high school to join the real world where we conduct research instead of consulting bronze-age mythology for the answers. (ok, not exactly a fair-and-impartial summary, i'll grant you, but its my website, so bugger off...)

One quote did jump out at me:

Buchanan himself is an evangelical Christian and believes that it is
important to discuss origin theories that contradict evolution, because
“in science, we are always looking at alternatives.” He
cautions, however, that the current incarnation of intelligent design
theory has not reached the viability necessary to be taught in a
college science class.

Yes! Finally someone who gets it! Intelligent design advocates are constantly accusing the legitimate science community of kow-towing to evolutionary theory as though its some kind of ideology and refusing to consider alternate points of view on the idea of the origins of the world--an accusation invariably followed with their own presentation of ID as an alternate scientific theory. Here we finally see someone who understands that the scientific community as a community (barring the odd geek/nerd who refuses to consider such things) does and has always entertained the notion of alternatives and/or restatements of existing theories, when they're backed by legitimate and rational discourse and presentation of evidence. The ID community, however, has done neither. Instead of pursuing science they're simply trying to attack it by waging a PR assault against it--a tactic that is unfortunately effective as most people neither have the background to challenge or evaluate their assertions nor the inclination to do so, since ID is preaching what they want to believe anyway.

To Dr. Buchanan I say "Bravo".

Things That Chap My Ass No. 106: Jealous guys with slutty girlfriends

About once or twice a month, I find myself compelled to go to Walmart for something, either by the constraints of shopping at 3am, or because their prescriptions or some other item I desperately need are the cheapest and I can't really afford to be an idealist at this point in my career as a perennial college student. Almost invariably its a stress-inducing event for me, as I'm forced to deal with a number of things I take great pains to avoid in my daily life, such as asses large enough to require a "wide-load" banner stopped in the middle of the only aisle between me and where I need to be while the owner of said ass corrals the herd of loud and ill-behaved ragamuffins which are invariably in tow and treating the shelving units like some kind of new-fangled jungle gym. Also high on my list of things to avoid are the self-checkout lines we all know and love so dearly.

Now we can add one more to the list: the infamous Jealous Guy. You know who I'm talking about. The one whose path seems to keep criss-crossing with yours as you wend your way through the grocery aisles. He's easy to spot: every time you pass by him and his girlfriend he makes a point of making eye contact to glare at you for looking at his girlfriend. He may even make it a point to get in your way so you're forced to acknowledge his dirty looks. Well, here's my message to the Jealous Guys of the world:

"Look pal, I really can't help it if your girlfriend was standing in front of the only kind of frozen pizza I like back there on the freezer aisle. Its not my fault her frosty nipples were patently obvious at the time--you were on the freezer aisle, after all. Which brings up another point: if you hate guys looking at your girlfriend so much, how about asking her not to dress like a hooker? Don't get me wrong. I love the fishnet-and-pleather look, especially when she's foregone such trappings of modern society as underwear and bras, although I think most guys would agree its much easier to pull off when her belly roll isn't popping out from under her tube-top (kudos on bringing that one back, by the way.) You might also give some thought to not dating a slut if the thought of her giving ten-dollar handjobs in the Whataburger parking lot really bothers you that much. That is what's bothering you, right? I mean, I really can't think of many other reasons to be worried about the occasional stray look when you're standing right there! Obviously you've got me mistaken for one of her regulars.

"Take it easy, buddy. She's not my type. Believe me. That one's all you."

May his noodly appendage bless you and keep you... "R-amen"

USA Today has an article on the pending release of The Gospel of the Flying Spahghetti Monster, a "holy book" for a parody "religion" (that I have claimed allegiance to on more than one occasion) that rose out of a satirical letter to the Kansas School Board during the debate that went on following their order that Kansas students be given exposure to intelligent design as an alternative to evolution. (I've blogged about this particular event before and no doubt will do so again.)

Its not really a remarkable article--very little that comes out of the USAToday is--but one quote struck me:

"It's too bad that they'll get attention for this sort of drivel when we have a robust scientific research program that the media doesn't seem to want to write much about," Discovery Institute spokesman Robert Crowther said in an e-mail interview.

Um, no, Robert, you don't. There's nothing scientific about postulating supernatural explanations for natural phenomena. Your so-called "robust scientific research program" has failed to produce a single legitimate, peer-reviewed scientific paper that does anything more than attack evolutionary theory with misinformation and misinterpretation. The fact that anyone knows anything at all about your work is almost entirely due to your constant, incessant (and might I add, annoying!) public relations campaign waged in the popular press outlets.

If you're upset that no one in the scientific community takes you seriously, then start practicing science instead of chicanery. You're nothing more than proverbial snake-oil salesmen, little yappy dogs nipping at the heels of legitimate scientists. You misrepresent evolutionary theory to the world at large, knowing full well that the majority of people outside the scientific community are unable to rationally evaluate your claims. You present the world with a strawman theory and tell them, "You can't believe in God and this at the same time!" when in fact nothing can be further from the truth, as many if not most scientists can personally attest.

You're charlatans and scam artists, the scientific equivalent of circuit-riding revival preachers, and its high time the country sees you for what you are.

What do you do when your Administration is incompetent? Arrest the compentent, of course.

The sheriff of Forrest Co. MS, which is where I grew up, is being hauled up on federal charges of interference in a federal operation for commandeering two ice trucks that were sitting idly by while FEMA officials sat around completely impotent with their thumbs up their collective asses.

[update: it has been pointed out that FEMA sat around with their thumbs up their collective ASS, not assES. Point well-taken. -ed.]

I've met Mr. McGee on several occasions. He's a friend of my father, and a good man. In the days following Katrina, the federal response was so abysmal that he really had no choice in the matter. What boggles my mind is that this adminstration, which prides itself on taking decisive action (despite the fact that their actions are rarely decisive and almost always wrong), is pursuing this matter even though Sheriff McGee's response was clearly appropriate and timely. He clearly attempted to pursue the matter through the proper channels, futile though that was, and finally had no choice but to take the action he did.

This is yet another example of the incompetence of this administration. How much of this are we as a country going to take before we say enough is enough?

Sometimes I hate being right all the time...

I knew it. Something inside myself was screaming, "This is just WRONG on so many levels" the other night when I was watching Idol. I was trying this whole "open-minded" thing out, and boy, was that a mistake!

I remember thinking to myself that Chris Daughtry sounded a lot like Ed Kowalczyk, the frontman for Live. I guess it was because he was singing a Johnny Cash cover that I was temporarily blinded. I started wondering what other covers had been done of it so I started digging through my collection and found Live's own cover of I Walk the Line, which doesn't just sound similar to Daughtry's version--it is Daughtry's version. Or rather, Daughtry's version was Live's. Man, I KNEW I'd heard that somewhere before.

Even that wouldn't have been so bad--it would have still left him at the top of the heap, or at least near it, except not as creative as he was making himself out to be. But no. He had his chance to give credit where credit was due, and he totally passed it off as his own. He can sing, all right, and he'll probably end up fronting some band that becomes one of Clearchannel's favorites. But he's totally lost my respect.

I'd give the judges more shit about it, but since I bought it myself for a day or so I guess that wouldn't really be fair. Although I will say that Simon at least should have had an inkling of where it came from. And I wish I'd done my homework before someone else beat me to the punch, although MSNBC still hasn't picked up on it.

So I reckon I'm back to watching Scrubs on Tuesdays now...

George Washington just called... He wants his beer back.

Bullshit.

Executive summary: TABC has been rounding people up for PI's in Irving, even going so far as to arrest patrons of hotel bars who were registered at the hotel. Choice quote: "Going to a bar is not an opportunity to go get drunk," TABC Capt. David Alexander said. "It's to have a good time
but not to get drunk."

Fuckadoodledoo. Going to a bar is for whatever I fucking well want it to be. Bars are not public places. They're private establishments and I can be drunk in them if I want to be. If I want to go to a bar and get completely obliterated, who the fuck is David fucking Alexander to tell me I can't? You want to curb drunk driving? Great idea--try arresting drunk drivers.

to those who don't think we're moving closer to a police state every single fucking day--take a deep breath. really really deep. You hear that little trickly sound? Smell that slightly stale uriny smell? That's Mr. David Alexander pissing on your civil rights.

My dirty little secret

I'm going to catch a lot of flak for this. I mean a lot. Not all of it is undeserved--I've handed out quite a bit of shit for this one, So I'll take my medicine like a man. Bring it on.

I'm watching American Idol. By myself.

It all started courtesy of Jason and Tedrah (thanks a lot guys! bastards...). They forced me to watch it last week, and while most of it was a painful experience it was made less so by the inordinate number of mind-altering beverages I'd had by that point.

Now I find myself watching it for four reason:
1) making fun of all the really bad performances is fun. Even if i'm only talking to the dogs.
2) Katherine McPhee. sweet jesus she's hot. I don't really care what she sounds like.
3) Paris bennett. She ain't real bright, but she can sing like its going out of style. Its rare to see talent like that at her age. My one bitch is this: Paris, you're 17. Dress like it. You may have a voice like Etta James, but Marilyn Monroe you are not.

Finally, my favorite:
4) Chris Daughtry. Seriously. Dude, what are you wasting your time on Idol for? Nothing good can come of it. People go to Idol when they can't sing but still manage to perform, or can sing but haven't got an ounce of creative talent. I'll say it again: What the fuck are you wasting your time on this show for?

I think I'm going to start doing a podcast or something along with the show. There's just too much fodder there. Take young Bucky for instance. Every time i see him on stage I'm reminded of this art history professor I had once. This guy had a fascination with several paintings (I think they were early Victorian, but don't quote me on that.) Anyway, he kept pointing out that the reason the subjects always had their legs spread out was because of the raging case of syphillis they had. Now, I can't really speak to the veracity of that statement. But every time I see Bucky up there, all i notice is that the guy never puts his legs together! So from now on I'll be referring to Bucky as Syphillis Boy. Syphillis Boy can sing ok, although its obvious he's mostly imitating other rockers. Mostly he's just Syphillis Boy though.

Starfucking, part deux

If you read Katy's blog you'll have already heard this story, but I figured I needed to brag about it on my own too, just for the sake of self-respect.

So Katy calls me up and wants me to come out and meet her and Josh and a few friends, and since I'd already reserved Friday night for being lame, I went out to meet her and her entourage at a little bar called One2One or something like that.... Kind of place nobody ever really goes when its not SXSW as far as I can tell. I've never walked by there and seen more than two or three couples in there normally.

Anyway, I got there just as one chap was finishing up a set that sounded a little like James Speer's stuff, and then this girl gets up there and after a few minutes piddling around starts
belting out some tunes while playing the keyboard. She had a really impressive voice, and the band backing her wasn't too bad either. Then she introduces some special guest by name, but I didn't catch it--just as well since out of the corner near the entrance and hidden by a wall
of friends there was this chap who looked really familiar, but nahhh, surely that's not.... Fuck me running it IS! John freakin Popper, harmonica virtuoso. Katy and I just kind of looked at each other sort of amazed and dumbfounded and with an expression I'm sure would count as "drooling" in any language.

I wasn't positive it was him until he turned around (he had his back to us for most of the set) and I got a good look at him, and damn if it wasn't! Katy went and fawned over him for a few minutes, then I started talking to this guy about another band we'd both seen, She Wants Revenge, when Popper walks up behind me and some girl stops him to take a picture right next
to me... So for 15 seconds I was standing shoulder to shoulder with greatness--awesome :)

Then, and I'm not 100% about this one because I don't know what he looks like, but I'm pretty sure Gary Jules came up and did his cover of Mad World from the Donnie Darko soundtrack. I know he was in town for SXSW so its not outside the realm of possibility.

And at the She Wants Revenge show I'm fairly certain that Napoleon Dynamite stepped on my foot.

And of course my camera batteries are dead this entire time so I couldn't even take pictures.

(Oh, and I met Kinky Friedman friday night too! All around a good weekend for us starfuckers.)

France forcing Apple Co. to make itunes compatible with all mp3 players

With all due respect to the French people that I like--ok, person--this is a completely wrong-headed law. I sympathize with the aims of the law, wholeheartedly. There's nothing that pains me more than the game of trying to make sure I can play my digital music on whatever device I happen to own in a given week, and I'm basically rolling the dice that the current format I'm using (mp3) will be forward compatible with future players. Historically this has been the case, but there's nothing to say that the RIAA Congress won't pass a law in the future that requires DRM on all copyrighted content, or requiring that players only play DRM'd content.

But as a software developer, my eyes roll anytime I start hearing about a government wanting to get involved with software. This is an area that moves so fast that legislation can't possibly keep up--in some cases, what's "state of the art" may change in the time it takes a bill to even make it out of committee, much less be amended, debated, passed, then updated. The last major debacle I can think of off the top of my head was the DMCA, a copyright protection law that essentially puts all rights in the hands of the RIAA and MPAA cartels, obliterating the concept of fair use for consumers in the process. What these companies are getting away with is unconscionable, and yet every day we get closer and closer to a world in which you are nickel-and-dimed for every piece of information you come across every day. Like going to the library? Forget about it--in 20 or 30 years, they'll be museums, a reminder of a more communist past where people not only read, but could do so FOR FREE!

France's consumers would be much better served by the initiation of an inquiry into the monopolistic practices of the media cartels.

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SXSW wrap-up

Once upon a time, I'm sure the words "spring break" actually meant taking it easy, relaxing during a well-deserved break with nary a care in the world. I'm pretty sure its safe to say those days are long gone.

I've got a lot of good stories to post in the near future, assuming I can find the time to actually sit down and write about them. I met a lot of cool people, a few fantastic musicians, got to hear some great bands, and got to enjoy the company of some friends without feeling like I had to squeeze everyone into a weekend. All of which isn't to say that relaxing isn't work! My feet have never been so beat up as they were last week--pounding the pavement trying to get into one show after another really takes it out of you. Especially when I go against everything my personality tells me and decide to wear shoes that look cool and are about as suited for walking as a podiatric Iron Maiden.

Lesson 1 for next year: pick ONE SHOW you want to see in a four hour block, get there when the first band goes on, and enjoy hearing some new music along with your favorite band. Forget about trying to use SXSW as some kind of interactive jukebox where you can see ALL of your favorite bands, even those from long ago and far away. My first couple of days I went that route, planning on catching a different band every hour at a different bar. Not only were my feet killing me, the closest I got to viewing a show was leaning over a fence at Red Eyed Fly to peer at She Wants Revenge playing in the ampitheater. Hardly what I'd call a five-star experience (although I did meet a few other cool people with the same idea!)

Lesson 2: You can get into the official shows (the ones that require a wristband and/or badge) if you follow Rule #1. The day shows however, which were the saving grace of SXSW up until this year, largely the product of underground organization and rebellion against the corporatization of SXSW, have been taken over by the corporate whores. Not all of them--there are still plenty of shows from the true Austin scene to be found, free of charge with great local and regional music. There's a few crappy ones thrown together at the last minute by bands that seem like they formed for the sole purpose of playing that show. But a lot of the great ones--those that have the headliners from the official shows that you thought you'd catch in a more intimate setting--have been taken over, turned into invite-only affairs you pretty much have to be a reporter or industry-type to get into.

I've got plenty more Rules To Live By, rants, and stories to tell later...

The new Google Desktop

Fair warning, this will probably not be of much interest to anyone who isn't planted in front of their computer all day, or more likely, in front of several different computers which never have the document you need because its on one of the OTHER computers.

Google's new version of its desktop search engine has a couple of nifty features. The first one allows you to search across all of your desktops for a document, not just the one you're sitting in front of. What takes that from a who-cares feature to a whoa! feature is that you can also download the searched document to the computer you're on through google's servers. Upshot--you'll never have to worry about whether your flash drive corrupted the file or not. Downside: MAJOR privacy issues--google keeps a copy of any recently modified file for 30 days on its servers in order to provide this service. Coupled with the fact that a federal judge is leaning towards requiring google to comply with a search order from the Justice Department, this spells trouble, especially in the midst of an administration that considers free speech to be a national security violation. Politics aside though, its a neat feature.

The thing I most like though is their sidebar interface. In a nutshell, this is just a panel that docks along the side of your screen and has a bunch of modules in it that are customizable. Some modules just provide an interface for searching, some will show you news items, and my favorite is just a scratch pad for hanging on to bits of text. In previous versions, it was an ok feature--useful, but not quite effortless. It still got in the way of me performing the tasks I wanted to perform, although less obtrusively than most competitors.

Now Google's really dressed it up. The module panels can detach from the sidebar and float wherever you want them--much more convenient for my purposes as I can stick it on some part of the screen I'm not really using. You can set them to stay on top of whatever your working on, which is great for easy access, but its kind of in the way of what you're working on, right? Well, google's got you fixed up there as well. By hitting the shift key twice, you can hide or unhide all the floating panels, giving you an almost effortless way of accessing them while still keeping them out of the way. Its not quite as pretty as Konfabulator, but its pretty damn nifty all the same, and much lighter on resources. The other killer feature here is that by double-pressing the control key, a small box pops up in the middle of your screen that you can type a query into and have it search the web or your desktop, and as you type, it both suggests phrases you might be looking for, and shows you the first several results for whatever you've typed so far.

Its little details like these that make google such a powerhouse of a company. They Just Get It.

Real heroes

In the hierarchy of heroes, there's the peons of the universe like Ralph Hinkley (aka The Greatest American Hero). Then there's your lesser-known types like Hellboy and Archangel. You've got your medium-powered badasses, usually just an average joe with some skills and a lot of heart, like Nick Fury and Captain America. Then there's your elitists--those who've been chosen, born with special powers, or born with resources far beyond the common man, like the XMen, Aquaman, and Batman. Beating them all out is of course, Superman.

Then there's this guy. I hope I'm half the man he is someday.

Wow. Just... Wow.

I can't believe this one hasn't gotten more coverage. (If you don't RTFA, be sure and stick with this until the end or you'll miss the punchline)

One of Bush's inner cadre of advisors, Claude Allen, resigned last month, citing a desire to spend more time with his family, according to the White House. This isn't just some low level staffer we're talking about--Allen was one of his chief domestic policy yes menadvisors, paid at the same level as Rove, and responsible pushing everything on Bush's social agenda from abstinence only education to blocking stem cell research. Originally nominated for a lifetime appointment on the federal bench, he's an extremely socially conservative individual we can thank our lucky stars was blocked from the bench. (Ever notice how lifetime appointments fit right in with STD's as "the gift that keeps on giving?" I kid, of course--judicial independence is an important pillar of democracy.)

He's also a good example of Bush's idea of compassionate conservatism. During his confirmation hearings he was asked about a remark he made in 1984 about a candidate's vulnerability arising from his links to "queers", which he explained by saying he meant queer in the "odd, out of the ordinary, unusual" kind of way--not the I-hate-fags kind of way. (I have to hand it to the guy's memory--i'm not sure I'd recall anything that far back, especially not the use of a term in its classical sense in the midst of a political climate that had everyone else using it to blame gays for the then-unexplained Gay Cancer we now know as AIDS.) Much later, as Virginia's Secretary of Health and Human Resources, he blocked Medicare money from going to an indigent rape victim who wanted to obtain an abortion. Most recently he was one of Bush's point men on Katrina, which makes the following story all the more interesting.

Now, he's got other priorities... like staying out of jail. Allen was arrested last week on charges of theft. Now, you're going to have to bear with me for a second here, because this part might be confusing. Step one of the alleged scam was to buy some item from the store and take it home. Step 2: go back to the store, receipt in hand, and pick up another of the same item. Step 3: take it to the return counter to receive a refund. I gotta hand it to you, pal--nice little routine you got going for you there. Except that part where you pay with credit cards. Credit cards that have your name on them. Seems like someone with all of your credentials would have thought a little further ahead than that.

On being a star fucker

I'm probably going to catch a lot of flack for this from my guy friends, but what the hell... I'm in Austin this week for spring break and to catch some SXSW free shows, and I'm starting the week of by meeting the a pair of my blogging heroes, the Blurbo-doocery.

Heather (aka dooce) has got a veritable mob of adoring fans out there, most of whom are in Halcyon right now it seems. I met her and Jon early before the crowd really got here, but i didn't get a chance to get a picture or anything yet. They're both incredibly warm and nice people, and to wait through the line of individuals wanting to just get a chance to shake their hand, they've got to be patient as hell. They seem to be kind of taken aback by the fuss, although I'm sure they knew it was coming.

Heather's blog is different from those I usually read because its not really about anything in particular, except their life and family. They've got an adorable 2-year old and dog, and its really interesting for me to read about a family that isn't dysfunctional as hell. Heather's got a really unique perspective on life and her writing style is articulate and indisputably funny. I wish I could write half as well or prolificly as she does.

Contrary to what you might expect, its not an estrogen-laden chickfest (although I'll admit, most of her fans are women). I highly recommend adding it to your daily read.

Now THIS is freakin' COOL

A new company lets you view a web page and chat with others viewing the same page through their system. Its totally in your browser--no external programs to install. This is one of the cooler things i've seen in awhile. All you need to do is add http://gabbly.com in front of the url, like this: http://gabbly.com/www.karmajunkie.com

Click that to get a look at it!


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Censure Bush?

Russ Feingold was on ABC's This Morning today to talk about his motion to censure Bush that he'll be introducing on the floor of the Senate tomorrow. While i'd love to see Bush impeached (and thrown under the jail) I think its ultimately a doomed effort that could probably be fairly described as political grandstanding.

Don't get me wrong--I think there's a more than legitimate case for censure. Bush has crossed the line of what is legal so many times as to make Nixon look positively law-abiding. But in this climate, during an election year, I think its going to have the opposite effect of what I'd like to see (i.e., further fragmenting of the republican party). yeah, I'm partisan. I don't like the Republican party. (That doesn't make me wrong, though.)

Feingold made a point of saying he hasn't thought about his run for the Presidency, which I thought was kind of disingenous. There are a lot of things you could have introduced a censure motion for before now. There's a reason this is being done during an election year. I'll be interested to see what the response in the Senate is. Maybe the world will surprise me and there will be overwhelming support for the measure.

On Being Taken for a Stroll Down the Garden Path

I was talking to a friend in the lab yesterday while we were waiting on a couple of experiments to finish and the conversation turned to politics and science, which in this climate means religion and science, since Bush is seemingly incapable of making a decision (in general but especially with respect to his education and science agenda) without referring to his trusty Magic 8 Ball, and we got to talking about the Intelligent Design debate.

There's a lot of things that bug me about this idea, but probably not the ones you think. Its not the idea that there's some omniscient designer out there twiddling the strings and ultimately guiding the process that we call evolution. I'm scientifically agnostic as there's no evidence one way or the other, but personally atheist, as I've never seen anything that would lead me to believe in a higher power. I won't usually fault someone for believing that, however, unless they make an argument based on that belief that's so idiotic I have to say something--which is what ID'ers do on a daily basis.

Here's the thing that gets me about ID: they spend all their time trying to tear down the idea of evolution, despite mountains of evidence for it, and lacking a single piece of valid evidence for their own point of view, and try to tell the world that you can't believe in God and in evolution at the same time. God and evolution are not mutually exclusive, people!!! There's nothing in the theory of evolution that denies the existence of God at all. Yeah, there's this idea called "random mutation" that is the ultimate driver of mutation and speciation, but how damn stupid do you have to be to fail to see that if there's this omniscient power out there that he could just as easily be the "random" in "random mutation"? Back when I still believed in God this was exactly what I believed. Most scientists who are religious believe this as well.

ID'ers, on the other hand, truly are creationists in disguise. They spend all their time and energy trying to create the illusion that there are "holes" in evolution, that there is some kind of long-running controversey among scientists regarding it, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Every time I hear someone say "Teach the controversy" I want to pull my hair out--there is no controversy among scientists about evolution! Nobody in the science community is arguing over whether macroevolution or microevolution occurred. Sure, we debate over the finer details--whether this family of animals evolved from one kind of ancestor or another, or whether archeabacteria are the forerunners of eukaryotes or a separate line divergent from the kingdom Bacteria, or whether introns exist in bacterial chromosomes. That's a far cry from debating over whether evolution itself is a flawed theory.

Are there gaps in the fossil record? Sure--its not like there's some big fossil library buried somewhere that has a copy of every organism that ever existed. We have to find these things. But find them we do, and this is an important point: the theory of evolution makes many predictions, some of which are testable in the lab and some that aren't. How do we know those that aren't testable in the lab are correct? Because we eventually find the fossils that prove them. Its like being a detective at a murder scene. You've got a dead body with a bullet hole right between the eyes and a big hole in the back of the head. You don't have to have been present at the crime to go ahead and make two educated guesses: there's a bullet in a wall somewhere behind where the guy was shot, and there's a gun somewhere that shot the bullet.

Hopefully among the four or five people that read this blog I'm preaching to the choir.

As goes Nashville, so goes the South...

Faith Hill and Tim McGraw may have just made it onto my list of acceptable country music.

Rights we never had: male reproductive rights

This is something I've been bitching about ever since it occurred to me that I might one day get a girl pregnant. Mostly its just something for me to bitch about when I've had too much to drink, much like the nature of sports. Apparently now someone is bitching for real.

Executive summary: geeks knocks up a girl (i'm still getting over the "geek gets girl to fuck him" part), after having been told by the girl she couldn't have kids (Fellas, how many times have we heard that one?), and doesn't want to pay child support. Leaving aside for a moment the "stupid tax" this guy ought to have to pay, and the fact that his genes really don't belong in the pool in the first place, should a guy have a right to absolve himself of the legal obligations, given that women (for now at least) have the option of terminating the pregnancy or giving the baby up for adoption?

In the article there's a quote that admits that this is mainly a symbolic suit that will likely be thrown out of court. And in all seriousness, this is a totally shitty way to handle it. But the question is still there: why do women get to hold all the cards here? The rhetoric I always got from the Church (yes, i did once go) was that "You make the choice when you have sex, not after," and the article points out the options available to men--condoms and sterilization. That still doesn't answer the question of why a woman has the right to be the sole maker of a decision that will affect not only her own life but that of the biological father. Especially in today's world in which women actually have more options than men on birth control (there are no reversible sterilization procedures like taking birth control pills or implanting an IUD for men), I have to say that the equity argument does have some validity that ought to be discussed.

Finally, however, there is a dark side to this debate: what about when the man wants the woman to keep the baby, but she doesn't want to? Cases like this have already made it through the courts with the results being largely that the fathers get no say in stopping an abortion--nor, I believe, should they. But its not really equitable that they're forced to become a parent against their will either, especially not when a woman can stop that train before it leaves the station.

I don't know how this one is ultimately going to be resolved, and for once, I'm not sure how I think it ought to be. I do know that while I generally trust someone I'm sleeping with, I don't just take their word for it that they're on the Pill. Safe sex is safe sex, gentlemen.

this is a libel suit waiting to happen...

Y'all ain't gonna believe this, fellas--the womenfolk's fightin' back! No longer content to sit back and put up with the scurrilous, womanizing ways of men, a woman named Tasha Cavelle Joseph created a site called www.DontDateHimGirl.com, an online database of adulterous and philandering men garnered from reports by women all over the country. If ever there was a niche website, this is it, though I don't doubt it will grow in popularity quickly. The site highlights a "Cheater of the Day" and lets women search for cheaters based on name, city, or keywords, as well as add a man to the database. The search facility has me wondering: searching by name I get, but why would someone need to search by city or keywords?

I have several problems with this site and sites like it, however. [Author's disclaimer: I cheated on a girl once, 11 years ago, my senior year of high school, by kissing another girl at a party. In my defense, we'd only started dating a few weeks earlier after making out at another party. And as I later found out, she'd "started dating" four other guys at that party--so much for monogamy!]

First, I have a philosophical problem with putting a person in the stocks, so to speak, when they haven't even been presented with the opportunity to tell their side of the story. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"--thankfully its not so commonplace as to be routine, but more than one person has been accused of infidelity out of jealousy, spite and malice. (and ladies, before you get indignant, I'm well aware of the fact that men are just as guilty as women of this sin.)

Secondly, this is hardly equal-opportunity; where is the site for women who cheat? According to a 1998 CNN poll, those polled were only marginally more likely to know men who cheated (69%) versus women (60%), which is not necessarily indicative of the numbers of men versus women cheating. What was interesting about the same poll, however, was that men were about equally likely to have their opinions of a cheating spouse unchanged: 43% for men cheating, and 41% for women. Women, however, were far harsher towards men than women: 70% of those polled said their opinion of a cheating man would change, versus 39% of women. There is obviously a double standard here which this site has seized upon as a business opportunity.

I don't think anyone would really condone infidelity, even if they wouldn't condemn it either. However, I think that sites like this really underscore the need for women and men alike to exercise a modicum of judgment and caution about entering any new relationship. My advice to men and women alike is to be upfront about where your relationship is going whenever you start dating someone. If two people haven't said outright, "I am not seeing anyone else," don't assume that just because you see each other more than you see your pets that both parties are being monogamous.

The next front in the war on terror? Free speech.

Still think the Patriot Act and the NSA wiretapping program isn't a big deal?

Think again.

When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross. -Sinclair Lewis

Gotta love 24...

Father Dan: Irrefutable Facts About Jack Bauer
My favorites:

2) When Kim Bauer lost her virginity, Jack Bauer found it and put it back.

and...

7) If you're holding a gun to Jack Bauer's head, don't count to three before you shoot. Count to 10. That way, you get to live 7 seconds longer.

More huffing and puffing by the Republicans

Glenn Greenwald has an excellent, thorough article on the almost mind-boggling attempts by Bill Frist to block hearings by the Senate Intelligence Committee on the NSA eavesdropping program. The executive summary: the SIC is the only committee structured deliberately to ensure non-partisan oversight of the US's intelligence gathering activities, and Bill Frist wants to change that because the Committee will not rubberstamp the Bush Administration's patently illegal wiretapping program.

Traditional media has totally dropped the ball on this. The Congressional Republicans are losing credibility faster than an ex-president at a hooker convention, and regular journalists are either oblivious to this or worse, are deliberately ignoring it. So much for the liberal media.

Use the Schwarz, Luke...

This is just too damn funny.

What's worse is that when i was about 12 years old, i would have thought it
the coolest thing since the Transformers picked up and moved back to
Cybertron and they killed off that wussy Duke on GI Joe, leaving
Scarlet free for the taking...

Man, its no wonder i didn't have many friends growing up.

ok, i'm going to go mourn my lost youth now...

For once, Mississippi isn't going to be last...

Mississippi legislature moves toward abortion ban.

It was only a matter of time. I will definitely have more to say on this issue later.

from Shining Path to Middle Path...

An interesting enough topic that I thought it was worth posting a reply as a blog entry:

Pen: "Ha...that just means conservatives figure it out a whole lot quicker. Keep chasing that utopian dream buddy. Let me know when you get hit with the reality train."

#1, I haven't been a socialist for years. I do, however, think that socialist democracies that incorporate enough of a capitalist bent will tend to have an overall higher rate of "citizen satisfaction", a totally made up word that you can think of as the number of people who don't hate life and don't have to worry about their basic needs. I think that comes at a cost that most americans aren't willing to pay, even if the cost is only theoretical to them. for example, in the hypothetical, well-organized social democracy, there are going to be very few people, if any, who are just dirt-poor. You'll be able to meet your basic needs, have access to healthcare and education. The cost is that nobody's ever going to be filthy rich either, the healthcare will probably be rationed, and in general will not be as advanced as possible, and you probably won't get to pick which school you go to. There will be some inefficiency in the economy of course, though far less than what we are taught from the earliest time we are able to recognize "Commie" as an epithet. [note: For the sake of clarity, Communism is one form of a socialist economy, but hardly the sole implementation. The two terms are absolutely not synonymous, despite widespread belief to the contrary. There have been socialist governments on both the right and left end of the political spectrum.]

For many if not most americans, this would still be a great deal; despite the wide prevalence of the American Dream, few americans will ever become filthy rich, or even just really rich, if they weren't born into it, and almost 20% of Americans have no access to healthcare aside from emergency room visits. That being said, I'm not convinced such a society is possible in the US because of its existing economy, sheer size, and relatively weak federal government (for all the bitching and moaning we do about how we hate Big Government, the US federal government has relatively few powers compared to other democracies.)

#2--the truth invariably lies between two disparate points of view. If the young socialist eventually moves right on the political spectrum, it is because the truth of the matter is in the center--not the far right. What's troubling is that it is only rarely that conservatives, and Republicans in particular, are willing to move towards the oft-vilified left.

As much as he is demonized by the right, Clinton was able to accomplish more, and to the benefit of a much larger and diverse group of constituents, than the Bush administration ever dreamed of, chiefly because he governed from the center and did not allow his presidency to become a slave to ideology.

Just the way Bush likes it...

Study: One in 1,000 Know First Amendment

where's my frikin' lazur?

Just for the HSV crowd...

When i read this article, I thought to myself... "I guess the engineering students got tired of making stills in the dorms."

Peace on earth and goodwill towards men...

I stole this from Father Dan:

In Jerusalem, a female CNN journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Western Wall to pray, twice a day, each day, for a long, long time. So she went to check it out. She went to the Western Wall and there he was! She watched him pray and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, she approached him for an interview.

"I'm Rebecca Smith from CNN. Sir, how long have you been coming to the Western Wall and praying?"

"For about 60 years."

"60 years! That's amazing! What do you pray for?"

"I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews and the Muslims.

"I pray for all the hatred to stop and I pray for all our children to grow up in safety and friendship."

"How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?"

"Like I'm talking to a fuckin' wall."

All those Olympic sports? yeah, they're not...

I thought this would be a good time to go over my argument for why the Olympics are bullshit. Why now? Because I have studying to do, of course...

First of all, what is a sport? I've got what I feel is a pretty good definition, and if you disagree with me, while I totally respect your right to be a dumbass, you're still a dumbass. But going to the books, dictionary.com has this to say about it:

sport: n. an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition.

I go further than this, but the physical exertion and competition parts are important components.

The first rule of determining whether something is a sport is whether a "judge" is involved. Stated more succinctly, there must be a clear method of determining a
winner and at least one loser by an objective set of goals. This anti-requirement for a judge is distinguished from that of a referee in that a referee is merely an interpreter of the rules, and whether they have been followed. A judge, on the other hand, is an individual charged with evaluating a performance and scoring it. You know where else they use judges? Beauty pageants. Art contests. Chili cookoffs. None of which anyone would argue are sports. There's a reason for that--because if your performance is subjective, its not a sport.

I'm not saying its not difficult. God knows I couldn't squeeze my ass into a pair of speedos and jump in the water with a bunch of synchronized swimmers (and not just because I'd be afraid of popping a boner around all the chicks) nor could I even pretend to be in the kind of shape that floor gymnasts have to be. But just because its hard, doesn't make it a sport.

The next qualification is that it has to be human-powered. You can use external apparati like a bike, but any work done must be done by humans. Guess what isn't human powered? Nascar racers. Horse races, too, for that matter. As much as it pains me to admit a Frenchman in bicycle pants is closer to being a sportsman than [insert racecar driver here], he is.

Next rule: all participants involved have to be able to compete in another competition (tragic ends and freak accidents notwithstanding). Everybody. Including deer, quail, squirrels, bass, catfish, and whatever the fuck else people hunt. Again, it may take skill and cunning, but that alone doesn't make a sport. [note: i'm willing to make an exception for those hot chicks Bobo says catch catfish with their bare hands from stumps, assuming the fish are released after being caught.]

Last requirement: it has to be ACTIVE, requiring physical exertion. My offhand way of stating this one is that if you can compete professionally while drunk, its not a sport. Bowling, as much as i enjoy it, is not a sport.

So who's disqualified here? A short list:

• NASCAR
• synchronized swimming
• most gymnastics
• the luge, ski jumping, and most downhill ski events (powered by gravity, not humans)
  
• hunting
• bowling
• paper football
• skateboarding
  
• chess
• darts and pool

"Real" sports, on the other hand, include:

• baseball (its a stupid fucking sport, but a sport nonetheless)
• football
• soccer
• cycling
• cross-country racing
• orienteering
• anything else that fits into my rules.

I hope this clears up all the confusion over why the Olympics suck.

Quote for the day

"The man who is not a socialist at 20 has no heart, but
if he is still a socialist at 40 he has no head."
- Aristide
Briand

Interesting thought. Guess that just confirms everything I ever believed about the College Republicans....

18 fallacious arguments for god

Interesting article about an atheist addressing a theological class. His spiel boils down to 18 stupid reasons to believe in god; i don't agree with all of them the way he states it, but its still food for thought.

The onslaught begins...

The Republicans certainly haven't wasted any time--not even a month after being sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice, Samuel Alito is now sitting on a Supreme Court that has agreed to hear a case involving the federal ban on late-term abortions. In another story,
South Dakota's lege just passed a sweeping ban on abortions
within the state, essentially outlawing any abortion not immediately required to save the mother's life--note the terminology there. "Save a mother's life"--not just her health. In other words, if the pregnancy won't kill you, you're having a baby--it doesn't even matter if you were raped or molested by a relative.

The magnitude of these cases is enormous. In the first case, I fully expect the court to overturn the federal law--but not for the reasons you would expect, i.e., a respect for a woman's right to privacy and to make her own medical conditions. No, this one will be overturned because Roberts and Alito are both federalists, and a federal ban on abortion procedures is a violation of states' rights. In a way, I agree with the emphasis on states' rights, but I believe that would be a bad decision because this is a question of the civil rights of an individual and their right to privacy, and how far into that the state should be allowed to intrude.

This decision merely sets the stage for the battle that is about to ensue over the South Dakota law. This law is pretty blatantly in violation of constitutional case law and, i believe, in violation of the Constitution proper. The only reason for a state legislature to pass something like this is because of the conservative bent of the newly appointed justices. Roberts seems to have a certain grudging respect for precedent, regardless of his disagreement with the original decision, but Alito will almost certainly vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, should this law come across his desk.

What's interesting to me is the wording of this law:

"The Legislature accepts and concurs with the conclusion of the South Dakota 6 Task Force to Study Abortion, based upon written materials, scientific studies, and testimony of witnesses presented to the task force, that life begins at the time of conception, a conclusion confirmed by scientific advances since the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, including the fact that each human being is totally unique immediately at fertilization. Moreover, the Legislature finds, based upon the conclusions of the South Dakota Task Force to Study Abortion, and in recognition of the technological advances and medical experience and body of knowledge about abortions produced and made available since the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, that to fully protect the rights, interests, and health of the pregnant mother, the rights, interest, and life of her unborn child, and the mother's fundamental natural intrinsic right to a relationship with her child, abortions in South Dakota should be prohibited." [emphasis added]

Firstly, it makes the bold statement that "life begins at conception"--a belief I'm sure many in the anti-abortion crowd espouse, but ultimately unsupportable without resorting to religious rhetoric. Then there's the brilliant observation that each human being is totally unique at conception. If genetic uniqueness is the only requirement here for "life" beginning at conception, then every sexually reproducing organism on the planet is also a "life" that should be protected. And I'd love to know exactly what "scientific evidence" they have that life starts at conception.

Then there's the lines dealing with the mother's relationship to her child--if ever there was a clear indication that the South Dakota legislature is interested less in protecting the rights of their constituents and more in forcing the so-called American Dream on everyone, that's it. What gives them the right to protect ANY relationship?

The question isn't "when does life begin?" but "when does human life begin?" And there's nothing "human" about a developing embryo until at least the second trimester, and even that's arguable. The strategy here is clear, however. The goal of this law is not just to ban abortions but to assign the full status of a citizen to a collection of developing cells.

There's an important biological question to consider: is the life even viable? As many as 80% of micarriages are due to genetic abnormalities that are incompatible with life, so we're talking about assigning rights to entities which not only aren't clearly human, they're not even clearly ever GOING to be human life.

The next interesting portion of the law is this gem:

"Nothing in this Act may be construed to subject the pregnant mother upon whom any abortion is performed or attempted to any criminal conviction and penalty."

So now its all the fault of the Big Bad Gyno. I don't really have strong feelings about this particular portion, since i'm fundamentally opposed to the bill in its entirety, but I did think it was interesting logic, since these laws usually do as much to penalize the mother as the doctor.

This is one of the few campaign promises Bush has actually made good on--appointing USSC justices that will support his and his cronies' outright assault on women's rights in this country. What kills me here is that in poll after poll, well over 60% of Americans support legal, available abortion in some form or under most circumstances. The lawmakers involved in these laws are clearly not acting in the interests of the public desires here, despite their rhetoric to the contrary.

Berkeley lectures as podcasts

One has to wonder how many more years traditional brick-and-mortar universities are going to be the rule rather than the exception. I've never been a fan of for-profit universities like the University of Phoenix or DeVry. The pursuit of knowledge is the chief purpose of a university; if you taint that with the necessity of running a profitable business, the priorities get muddled, and administrators start making compromises--first with the number of instructors, then with the quality of instructors, resources, numbers of students, et cetera ad infinitum.

But the latest trend seems to be a move towards highly competitive, quality schools like Berkeley, MIT, and Stanford making recorded lectures and other materials available for free--an altruistic gesture, to be sure, and certainly one appreciated by myself and many others, but also one that portends greater trends in the coming years.

Right now these materials are free, and in the cases linked above, likely to remain so. I'm betting that over the next few years, we'll see many other universities following suit, but restricting access to the materials. Some will probably be made publicly available, especially from public universities, but I imagine most will be accessible through the kind of portal most schools already have for their students. In combination with existing online courses, this may well change the nature (and please god, the COST) of attending higher education. Making it through an entire semester while attending a minimum of classes is already something of a rite of passage for many freshmen; if lectures were made available online, it could easily become the rule.

Keep in mind of course that many schools already offer online courses that never require a student to see the inside of a classroom--professors offer office hours and answer questions via email. Students beginning school today are almost guaranteed to take at least one or two classes this way. The greatest advantage of these classes is also its greatest weakness. By taking students out of the classroom, they often flounder while trying to grasp the course material without benefit of a guide, and while their professors may make themselves available, students often cannot come to a professor's office because of work or other obligations. Recorded lectures may well bridge that divide, giving students the guided tour of course material, but on their own time.

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Best blonde joke ever

It took me a little while to get it, but its pretty funny. here's the link.

Seriously, George...

Hundreds of billions of dollars in wasted money on an unwinnable war. Laws that take away the civil rights of millions of Americans. Tax cuts that, among other things, subsidize the cost of a new Hummer to the tune of 25k. Dramatic cuts in funding for higher education loans. A brand new entitlement and blatant giveaway to pharmaceutical companies under the guise of a Medicare prescription drug benefit. A major expansion of government through the creation of the Homeland Security Department. Major no-bid contracts awarded to political cronies to rebuild Iraq and New Orleans. Cuts in research grants in renewable energy, and elimination of funding for wetlands restoration. Law that made it nearly impossible for a family to declare bankruptcy while not requiring any sort of reform of lending practices. Cancelled a 2004 deadline for automakers to develop high mileage cars.

All those laws to choose from, and you pick this to be your first veto?

Truth is stranger than fiction...

Or is it life imitating art?

Noah's publisher...

(courtesey Pharyngula)

Thank you, Captain Obvious...

Bin Ladin vows "Nyahhh, You'll never take me alive, coppers!"



Did somebody forget to tell him that taking him alive was never really part of the plan?

Things That Chap My Ass #42: Self-checkout lines

Today what’s chapping my ass is those asinine self-checkout lines popping up left and right in stores all over the place. What these stores are doing are replacing several checkers with these checkouts and a “supervisor”, in what can only be a concerted effort to ruin my day.

It never fails: someone will take a look at the seemingly interminable lines formed up behind the traditional checkouts and compare it to the line of zero people at the self-checkout and quickly run to that one before someone else gets there first. Keep in mind, these fuckers are the same cretins who were never able to program their VCR’s, and yet they still feel completely capable of handling a grocery-store scanner, touchscreen, coupons, ATM, and screaming brat in their buggy all at once. Meanwhile, because of my zero-tolerance policy towards things that piss me off, I get into the normal checkout line behind the grandmother with two buggies of groceries for her fourteen grandchildren (who are all present and engaged in what can only be called an all-out assault against the candy aisle), a herd of water buffalo talking on their cell phones and counting their food stamps, and the hot chick in a business suit who I’m certain is a complete Amazon in the bedroom. 20 minutes later, I’m walking out the door with my groceries and a fake phone number while the Jetson family in the checkout next door is still trying to get the machine to scan their coupons.

At this point, whoever I bitch to about the idiocy of those machines will respond with some variation of the following “[laugh] Yeah, i know, I hate people that don’t know how to use those! I always zip right through but…” I cut them off there because they’ve already made the mistake of letting me know that they’re not only an idiot, but also an idiot in denial. No, you don’t zip right through those checkouts. You want to TELL me that so I think you’re cool. You may even believe it, but that’s just because you had the sort of mother who always patted you on the head when you brought home that D- in Underwater Basketweaving (which also turned out to be your first choice for a career) and told you how proud she was of you for trying.

No, you’re not any better at those checkouts than the next guy. There’s a lot of scientific reasons for that, but most of them revolve around the user being an idiot so I’m not going to hash them all out. Suffice it to say that the next person who claims they actually can go through those lines and doesn’t have 10 years of being a cashier at Walmart under their belt had better be prepared for a brilliant tongue lashing.

File this under "Huh?"

Remember that rule from Scream, the one where virgins live to the end of the movie and sluts die a horrible death?

Apparently the Italians see it as a matter of law.

I can't even begin to count the ways this is fucked up. Since when does "No" mean "No, as long as you're my first"? Is the psychological damage from being raped or assaulted any less if you've been with someone before? I think a few million victims of rape and sexual assault might have a problem with that reasoning.

So much for European enlightenment...

Alec Baldwin just doesn't get it...

Baldwin's latest diatribe just underscores the obvious to me: neither he nor Huffington's gets it.

When a rich, arrogant, douchebag like Baldwin stands up and points the finger at everyone else, your average joe will sit up and take notice, alright. What he notices is this douchebag hollywood psuedointellectual who he wasted $8 bucks on at the movie theater is telling him what to think again. What would you do if a douchebag like Cheney or Baldwin on either side of the very wide chasm separating those two from the rest of us started telling you what to do and think? You'd probably do what everyone else does and change the channel.

Alec, if you really want to help change the country, shut the hell up. You're screwing the rest of us.

Cheney's Big Deal

maybe its just me. I can definitely see it just being me. But in the last three days I've lost count of how many pundits I've heard commenting from one side or another on the whole Cheney hunting incident, and I honestly have to wonder...

What's the big deal?

Two old rich white guys go into the woods, only one walks out--what exactly is the downside to this?

Virtual economies and real economies intersect

[another post for my microeconomics class--kind of geeky but i figured i'd put it here anyway.]

I think it was about 15 years ago that I first read Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash, a sci-fi novel about a once-fictional future in which there were two worlds: meatspace, or the real world we all live in, and the Metaverse, which was a virtual reality hooked into virtually every facet of life in the novel. Individuals existed as avatars in the Metaverse, virtual surrogates for their flesh-and-bone bodies, and using these avatars, people interacted on many levels ranging from entertainment to business. Businesses and entrepreneurs even opened virtual storefronts with which to interact with their customers' avatars. In many ways, Snow Crash was the single most influential book in the lives of many future software developers, and it played a huge role in transforming the internet from the Department of Defense project of its inception to the more consumer-oriented version we all use today.

As is so often the case with science fiction, tomorrow is now today, and we are rapidly approaching a world in which the Metaverse is not merely a figment in the imaginations of sci-fi fans, but a functioning world in its own right. This real-life Metaverse is rooted in many online games known as MMORPG's, a tongue-twister of an acronym that stands for "Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game"s. These MMORPG's pioneered the use of 3-D graphics and computers to allow online interactions between geographically separated players. As they grew in popularity, so too did the value of time spent in-game grow. Many, if not all, MMORPG's share a common trait in that game-time is spent collecting loot of various kinds: armor that gives a character an edge in a fight, a special weapon that might endow the possessor with additional powers, and many other kinds of trinkets. The rarity of some of these items made them valuable not just in the virtual world, but in meatspace as well. Many players began auctioning off their loot on sites like Ebay, allowing other players with enough money to bypass the many hours spent building up a character in-game by purchasing the fruit of another's labor.

The evolution of these virtual economies has led to the creation of virtual worlds whose raison d'etre lies not in gameplay but in building true economies, complete with virtual money, exchange rates, goods, services, and most importantly, interactions between "players". Second Life, the virtual world featured in the article linked above, is one such world created entirely by players using avatars, just as in Snow Crash. Participants, through their avatars, provide services ranging from virtual real estate rental to training for meatspace emergency workers. The potential uses for such virtual worlds is endless. Imagine a day when we attend class not in brick-and-mortar universities, but in just such a virtual environment. Instead of hurrying to beat rush-hour traffic for that 8AM class, students will be able to simply log in from their desktop at home, while enjoying a hot cup of coffee and breakfast. Office meetings too could be easily conducted for offices with many employees spread over a wide geographic range--a commonplace situation in today's world of global services and outsourcing.

on becoming liberal...

Glenn Greenwald has a great article on the usurpation of the labels "liberal" and "conservative" by the far right; my favorite quote (stolen from Andrew Sullivan's blog:

"It used to be the case that in order to be considered a "liberal" or someone "of the Left," one had to actually ascribe to liberal views on the important policy issues of the day – social spending, abortion, the death penalty, affirmative action, immigration, "judicial activism," hate speech laws, gay rights, utopian foreign policies, etc. etc. These days, to be a "liberal," such views are no longer necessary.

Now, in order to be considered a "liberal," only one thing is required – a failure to pledge blind loyalty to George W. Bush.

Greenwald goes on to talk about how Sullivan has gone from golden-boy status to pariah of the right, simply because he no longer supports the fiasco that is the Bush Administration.

Definitely worth a read, if only for a lesson in what lies ahead for those who don't drink the kool-aid.

Dear Mom...

Dear Mom,
I'm writing you to let you know that your prayers have been answered: your little boy has returned to the flock. I am officially renouncing my apostatic and blasphemous opinions on the existence of God and JesusChristOurLordAndSavior.

You see, I had a revelation, all because of this guy, and now, all those questions I never had ever since I was a child have been answered. This guy had this book that had some hebrew name that sounded like Bubble, or Babble maybe. Anyway, this book told me everything I needed to know, especially about evolution.

I really kind of hate to give up that particular belief, because it seemed to make so much sense! Apparently though, I must have misunderstood things about it, because there's all these holes in it! Do you know what this guy says? He says that evolution says that GRANDPA WAS A MONKEY!!!! I don't remember reading that in any of my textbooks in evolutionary biology or genetics or microbiology or geology or any of my other science courses (and as long as i've been in school, you and I both know how many of THOSE i've had!) but this guy was in a NEWSPAPER so it MUST be true!

Remember that bedtime story you used to read to me about that guy with the big boat that he put all the aminals in, and I always would ask if he put ALL the aminals in, and how they all fit? Well, this guy has the answer: he used babies. I don't know why that didn't occur to my five year old little brain, but i'm sure glad he figured it out, because its been keeping me awake for years!

He even let me in on another little secret: its this silly evolution thing that's at the root of all our problems in this country--everything from racism to gay marriage (I guess i'm going to have to stop working for that one too--my gay friends will be so disappointed. :( ) I don't know exactly what the connection is, but again, NEWSPAPER GUY! It must be true!

I'm not sure exactly what he has to say about all the stuff in my biology books about evolution. Probably it's all just lies. I mean, I was in the lab the other day playing with some genes, but I couldn't SEE them, so for all I know I was really just playing with colored water. I think I'll drink it next time just to make my point. Anyway, like I was saying, I don't know what he has to say about things like conservation of genes across species, and developmental homology, and stuff like carbon dating, but he says the fossil record is all a bunch of bones laid down by water so the whole flood story HAS TO BE TRUE!!! I dunno though; there's a lot of bones in places there wasn't any water back then. Doh! There I go again--I keep getting sucked in by the "evidence" and forgetting that I WASN'T THERE and only GOD was there. And he wrote it all down in this Bubble Bobble book, so we have that to go on--its like an eyewitness account!

I can't tell you how relieved I am to be able to stop thinking for myself! That was all so much WORK all the time!


Your Dutiful and Loving Son,
Keith

2001-?

This blogger just picked up on a story about Bush being honored with a bronzed bust of him wearing a flightsuit, engraved with the dates of his presidency: 2001-?

At first, I just thought he was overreacting--bloggers on huffington's have a way of doing that--but look towards the bottom of the page at this little gem: Joint Resolution 24

I dont' see anything indicating the resolution's died in committee or anything, although I can't really believe such a bill made it out of committee.

enough is enough...

I've been reading Andrew Sullivan for awhile, and I generally agree with his point of view. He's had several pretty decent posts on the Mohammed cartoon debacle today, and this one in particular had my blood boiling.

so here's my message to those threatening violence against those who publish this cartoon:

fuck you you limpdick asshat motherfuckers. fuck you and your 7th century attitudes. fuck you and your misogynistic, homophobic, intolerant, repressive, BULLYING attitudes. fuck you and your suicide bombs, fuck you and your fatwas, fuck you, fuck you, and fuck you.

in the words of one of your fellow limpdick asshat motherfuckers with similarly misogynistic, homophobic, intolerant attitudes,

"BRING IT ON." Bitch.

(thanks to
my very good (if politically misguided ;) ) friend The Pen, who saved me the trouble of tracking the pic down :) )

more timewasters...

Is anyone else old and geeky enough to remember Lemmings?

(and if you need another timewaster, sudoku has taken over my free time.)

color me surprised...

hamas is calling for a little peace and quiet

didn't think I'd see that day... if they don't watch it they may actually resolve some issues in palestine. can't have that!

Open letter to Islamic moderates: Get. Your. House. in. Order.

To the moderate Muslim community at-large:

I know you're out there. I have friends in your community. I have tried to study your history and your religion to understand what it means to be a Muslim. I, and many others like me, have spent the last four and a half years attempting to be the voice of reason in the debate over foreign policy in the US. And frankly, you're making us look bad.

I'm sure you're aware that in parts of the world Americans are hated with a passion usually reserved for pederasts and tax collectors. What you may not be aware of is that in other parts of the world, its the Muslim community that is regarded with such a vitrolic hate. Neither of us is fully deserving of our reputation; George Bush may dictate American policy, but he certainly doesn't speak, act, or think for me. Nor does Osama bin Ladin speak, act, or think for the entire Muslim world. Those of us attempting to observe some degree of rationality not only acknowledge this, but we've spent a lot of time pointing it out, in the hopes that by doing so, we'd remind those around us that the vast majority of the Muslim world wasn't made of the same intolerant fundamentalist stock as al'Qaeda and Hamas.

I haven't tried to stick up for you because I respect your religion. To be perfectly honest, I think your religion is as stupid as I think every other religion is--Christianity included. I do, however, respect and will fight for your right to practice it. Even though I think its stupid. You're probably wondering why I'd do so. The answer is: because its a basic human right to be stupid. Its a basic human right to believe something, and to profess that belief. I believe dearly in that freedom.

I think that freedom also applies to many other things. Speech, for instance. I think everyone has the right to say pretty much whatever they want. In fact, I love this freedom so much I'm exercising it right now. Somebody else recently did the same. A Danish newspaper dared to print an editorial cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammed (and yes, I intentionally left the capital P off) as a terrorist. Its the response from the Muslim world I'm writing to you about now.

From London to Jakarta, some of your brothers and sisters are calling for blood, while others swear by Allah to shed it. The exercising of the basic human right to free expression--tasteless though this particular incarnation might be--is as fundamental to a functional democracy as voting. To have these fanatics--especially those associated with groups that have already displayed a propensity for indiscriminate violence against civilians and innocent parties--do their dead-level best to intimidate and silence any whom do not share their fundamentalist views should be an affront to all Muslims who truly see Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance.

Its not like this is the first time. Ask Salman Rushdie. You've had plenty of opportunity to lead your brothers and sisters in Islam into the 21st century. Its ironic to me that as many Muslims as live in the West, the ONLY voice I've read condemning the intolerance displayed by these mobs is from the leader of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai: "As much as we condemn this, we must have, as Muslims, the courage to
forgive and to not make an issue of dispute between religions or
cultures."

I and the rest of my cohorts that make up the Liberal Agenda have done our best to keep in mind that you, the moderates of the Islamic world, are not the enemy. Let me be perfectly clear: we are the ones sticking up for you when you're not around to do it yourselves. We are the ones that take shit on your behalf from every uneducated hick redneck within a hundred mile radius every time a car bomb goes off in Gaza. We're the ones pointing out that the Palestineans have a side to their story that should be heard. Were Joesph McCarthy still around, we'd be the ones getting hauled up in front of the Committee for unAmerican Activities. And you know what else?

We're getting fucking tired of it.

Get. Your. House. In. Order. These fanatics that infest your countries? They're not your friends. If they didn't have us to rail against, who do you think they'd be decapitating? Whose women would they be abusing and subjugating? Here's a hint: go look in a mirror.

You have an opportunity now, an opportunity to stand up and define Islam for the rest of the world. Take a stand--take a look around your communities and denounce those who would seek to impose their interpretation of a religion on the rest of the world, by any means necessary. Teach your children about Allah, but do not let them become infected with the hatred and intolerance Allah so clearly abhors. And failing that, learn to police your own, to keep your problems at home.

Because those of us on the other side of the Dark Ages are getting damn tired of doing it for you.

Its only extortion when a little guy does it...

[this is a post I made to my class blog in microeconomics]
I'm not sure if this is really "economics" news or just "AT is a bunch of extortionists" news, but the CEO of AT (presumably the AT that resulted from the recent acquisition of AT by SBC) wants to charge websites for access to consumers . The gist of the matter is that ATT wants websites, especially those with high-bandwidth items like digital movies, to pay them for the use of their network. Sounds like a reasonable proposition, right?

Wrong.

They want content providers to pay for access to a network which consumers have already paid for! In ATT's ideal world, they're charging the consumer a nice sum for internet access, and if you're a business, they add in a hefty surcharge for "guaranteed bandwidth" which is anything but. In this Financial Times article Ed Whitacre, CEO for AT is quoted as follows:

"I think the content providers should be paying for the use of the network – obviously not the piece from the customer to the network, which has already been paid for by the customer in Internet access fees – but for accessing the so-called Internet cloud."

and later:

“Now they might pass it on to their customers who are looking at a movie, for example. But that ought to be a cost of doing business for them. They shouldn’t get on [the network] and expect a free ride.”

In the past and up to present, the way the model works is that both content providers and consumers pay for a connection to the Internet, with some measure of reliability theoretically present in this connection. In other words, if you pay for dialup, you don't expect to download the entirety of the iTunes Music Store overnight. Conversely, if you pay for a T3 line (a kind of high-speed internet connection used by businesses--UTSA probably uses a few of them for our outbound connection), you expect to have a guaranteed bandwidth of 45Mbps. For comparisons sake, your DSL line at home maxes out around 768kbps, less than 2% of the throughput of a T3. Key point: nobody gets a "free ride"--you pay for these connections, and you usually pay a LOT.

In practice, these rates don't mean much to the average consumer, because up until now, files downloaded (including web pages) have typically been considerably smaller than the connection's speed limit. In other words, if you're downloading a page that's 100K, and your bandwidth allows you to download 768kbps, you'll get that page in its entirety in a little over a second. We are on the verge of a new broadband economy, however; as digital media becomes more and more commonplace, more consumers will start using their internet connections for everything from digital phones that use the internet to make calls to downloading high-definition movies for playing on a Tivo or other set-top box.

What Ed Whitacre is talking about doing is using this shift in the usage patterns to basically extort money from content providers. If Blockbuster pays them X gazillion dollars to give their traffic priority, and Netflix decides not to, then what this means to the consumer is that you can rent Blockbuster movies over the internet and watch them that day, but if you like netflix (as I do) you'll have to wait a week or so while that movie downloads to your computer/Tivo.

AT problem is that they've built out this huge fiber network, starting during the dot-com years, that isn't paying for itself, largely because they went whole-hog into the proposition instead of building it out in stages in conjunction with demand. So now they want to extract more money from some subset of their customers, and content providers are the easiest target (largely because they've already screwed the consumer as much as they possibly can.) Essentially, this is laziness and ineptitude on the part of AT management. There are many much better ways of dealing with this problem, such as decentralized distribution (aka peer-to-peer networks such as bittorrent).

This reeks of big business and anti-trust violations. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that implementation of this business model will result in a DoJ antitrust investigation (assuming Bush is out of office when its implemented.)

(if anyone is interested in the tech side of this debate, email me and I'll be glad to clarify any of the geekspeak)

Helpful and thoroughly offtopic tutorial on RSS

I thought there might be some people who weren't really clued into the latest trends on the web, so this post is an attempt to point you towards some resources that will make the blogging assignments, and crawling the web in general, easier. (If you're the kind of person who needs to know up front why you should read this, i'm trying to save you the trouble of visiting each and every website you like to visit to see if they've updated.)

One of newer trends on the web is to make it easier to automate tasks, an effort generally referred to in the media (somewhat incorrectly) as Web 2.0, or less commonly (and more correctly) the Semantic Web. Towards that end, many websites publish something called RSS or Atom feeds, which are specially formatted text files that typically list the latest updates to the site. Some sites, such as the Huffington Post, publish multiple feeds that serve different purposes (e.g. a feed for news, and a feed for new blog posts.)

Using these feeds, software can collect and organize the updates in a way that helps keep you from suffering information overload. Think of it as news clippings. Its like the software is some little guy living in a box next to your desk going through all your favorite magazines and newspapers, clipping out the articles you'll want to read, then placing them neatly in little folders on your desk for you to read at your leisure. Its a great way to skim through a lot of information quickly to find what's relevant to you, and many software packages allow you to specify criteria that filter articles, so you only see articles that include the word "economics".

There's literally dozens of programs and websites you can use for this; it seems the "in" thing to do in the geek crowd these days is write what you think will become the world's greatest RSS newsreader. I personally haven't succumbed to that impulse--I'm kind of lazy so i'll let someone else do the heavy lifting. So far my favorite software to use is something called GreatNews thats pretty easy to use, and is a really small piece of software that you can just unzip into a directory and run from there, which means you can easily stick it on a USB keydrive that you always have with you. (Just unzip it straight to the USB drive) Alternatively, there are several websites that you can use for the same function, such as NewsGator, which is accessible from any web browser with a live connection.

Once you've selected a piece of software, the next tricky part is populating it with the feeds, which is usually a somewhat time-consuming task of going to your favorite sites, finding the link for their RSS feeds, copying that to the clipboard, pasting it into the software... this is the part where having geeky classmates comes in handy. You can download an OPML file from my website that has 20+ feeds for our class, at http://www.karmajunkie.com/microfeeds.opml. In GreatNews you can import it directly using the url by going to Tools, Import OPML/XML file (hint: copy the url to your clipboard first, and GN will realize what's going on and automatically select the right options for you.) You can use the same OPML file with NewsGator and most other RSS readers.

Once you've got it installed/running, you can check it every so often to see which of your sites have updated. Tip for those of you who spend way too much time on myspace: myspace blogs have RSS feeds; copy the link up at the top of your friends main blog page (the one with all their entries) then Add a feed in GN using that url, and voila, GN will tell you when they've updated their blog.

Freedom...

... is never having to say "Fuck you."

I'm sure most people are aware the cell phone companies are crooked as hell. they sell phones with features like full bluetooth connectivity disabled so you have to use their network to get anything like a ringtone or picture on or off your phone. they use something called a simlock to make your phone work ONLY on their network, although there's absolutely no reason why a GSM phone wouldn't work on Cingular, old AT towers, or TMobile all at the same time. I'm not even going to get into the crap they pull with false advertising and contracts...

anyway, I found a piece of software online today that will unlock a phone so that you can take it to any network you want... most people probably don't care, but if you have a nicer phone like a RAZR or my personal favorite the Audiovox SMT5600, switching to a new network can be an expensive proposition if you want to keep using the same kind of phone--in my case, i bought my phone locked to the AT network, and cingular expects me to buy a brand new one (of the exact same phone i already own) for $200 to roll my billing plan over to their system so i can get on a cheaper rate plan.

BULLSHIT. Homey don' play dat.

So i unlocked my phone, and now i'm going to cingular tomorrow to get off my $100/mo plan and onto something a little more sane that doesn't cost me an arm and a leg for minutes i've not used in a couple of years. (When i got on the rate plan i'm on now, i was working and talking on the phone for work a lot more, which is why i got on it...)

Anyway, if anyone's got an SMT5600 they want unlocked, shoot me an email and i'll help you out...

Frost building. Downtown austin.

Going with a faux-hawk for the wedding. I think.

Erika might have other ideas though

Roadtrip: Mexico

Two guys, two cases of bottled water, and a couple of bad maps of Mexico--what could possibly go wrong here???

In the words of Jason's mechanic who gave his 3000GT an inspection before we left: "You're taking that car to Mexico? Man, you got some BALLS! I wouldn't drive that car in Mexico and I'm Mexican!"

Yeah, this is gonna be good....

The pictures only tell the smallest part of the story...

geek zone

this is seriously the coolest. thing. ever.

You talkin' to me? 

I'm watching CNN shortly after midnight here, and on the tube is coverage of iraqi elections going on as i'm watching. There's a reporter trying to report on the status of one polling station and I'm having trouble understanding her because the voters lined up in the background are so exuberant, singing some kind of arabic song and clapping their hands, smiling broadly in what i have to believe is at least partly showing off for the camera. :) While I didn't support the war, and I still disapprove of the way its being conducted (especially the torture which is *still* going on), it is heartwarming to see these people so intent and determined to exercise their right to vote.

and yet, that report was followed by one about the steady sounds of mortar fire going off around the city. it is tragic and reprehensible that the goal of the insurgents in the area is to keep voters from voting at all. its becoming more and more clear to me that there is a fundamental problem in that region of the world, and a problem which is rapidly spreading to this country: fundamentalist, intolerant religious forces are at play, intent on quelling any sort of dissenting views. Just as it is vital for the future stability of the middle east--indeed, the world at large-- that the battle against the insurgents is won in iraq, we must also win the battle against the fundamentalists currently staging a constitutional coup here at home. And yes, when I speak of them, I am very definitely including these people.

i've always kind of liked CSS, but now i'm starting to really love it. I mean a lot. Like, i'm going to buy it a valentine's day card.

I've always stayed away from a strictly semantic html+css for presentation mostly because of the difficulty of getting it to render approximately the same in most browsers. at this point i'm willing to say "screw old shit" mostly because its been 5 years since IE 6 was introduced, and firefox is starting to gain enough traction that I can reasonably expect most users will have one of them (preferably firefox) installed, and thusly be able to make some sense of my documents. I expect things will only get better as they go on.

some of the other things i'm happy about using css:

• i can switch stylesheets and instantly have a mobile friendly version that runs on a small screen
• easy 508-compatibility with screen readers
• no more table-magic for layout
• i can sleep better at night
• women instantly find me more attractive
  

ok, the last two are wishful thinking.

I logged into friendster today and saw this:

Popular searches in my network

1. height and weight calculator
2. hipster quiz
3. what's my phone number spell?
4. william hung death
5. boners in speedos
6. new hair styles
7. miss india USA 2004
8. short hair styles
9. online tarrot card reading
10. vampire name generator

There's something terrifically amusing about that...

Man, creating a good generic Content Management System is hard work... I'm in the tail end of the process of doing some major renovations to a CMS I wrote for Juilliard a year and a half ago--changes which might be more accurately termed "total reconstructive surgery"--adding things like user authentication (kind of an important oversight for the first go-round, but somethign which just got spec'ed out as password protection using .htaccess), plugin system, better UI, logging, etc.

When I'm finished its going to be a very competitive product in terms of extensibility, and I hope over time becomes world-class. I'm going to open-source the core of it, and allow myself the possibility of writing closed plugins and modules I can sell, like a web-services plugin, for instance. Right now its written in PHP (alas, i decided I had to stick with 4.x for the sake of all the bloggers I hope use it and their free/cheap web hosting accounts which don't support PHP 5 yet), but I might migrate it to java with freemarker/velocity templates over time. If nothign else its been an interesting case study in object oriented design in PHP. Everything is object oriented here--i think i might have one or two functions which are just utility functions, but that's it. everythign else is a member function of something.

The old version is currently available in CVS at Sourceforge--no real website yet though. I warn you though, don't put too much effort into understanding the code--its ALL changed.

I got a new phone today... managed to make it a whole nine months before upgrading this time!

The Audiovox SMT 5600 smartphone has got to be the mother of all smartphones. I don't have time for a full review right now, but I will say i have finally found a phone which provides me almost all of the convergence I've ever wanted in a phone: mp3/ogg player, expandable memory, networking, bluetooth, modem, calendar/PIM functions, and programmable so i can fill in the spots that don't work as i'd like. So far the only thing i've found about windows mobile 2003-based smartphones is that nobody seems to support syncing to anything other than outlook. I'm going to see if i can't find a way to set up calendar sync to an ical file so i can use it with sunbird/calendar from the mozilla people. That doesn't take care of contact syncing, but one thing at the time, right?

blogger's pissing me off today

I've got a whole post ready to go that's trapped in a POST request that blogger is choking on, and I can't back up and save it because the stupid editor is JS based and doesn't reload the way it should.

(mental note: remember that when you're integrating wysiwyg into sitescribe.)

blogger test post

This is a test to see what blogger is going to do with various and sundry postings.

paragraph separation
new line
strikeout
bold
iltalic bold yellow

And the other shoe drops....

I was starting to wonder when the poor and middle classes would start to reap the benefits of the election disaster 2004--looks like we didn't have long to wait.

In a time in which college tuition rate increases outpace the rate of inflation by more than three four times , our illustrious administration is about to pass legislation that clears the way for the government to dramatically reduce grants and subsidized loans to college students. As many as 100,000 students may be affected, especially in states with high state taxes as part of the revision of the formula from the Department of Education (who is already a Permanent Charter Member of my Shitlist for maintaining that someone isn't an independent until they're 24 years old) reduces by as much as half the amount of state taxes that may be deducted from one's income, making it appear as though hundreds or thousands of dollars have magically been added to one's income by the wee StudentLoan Leprachauns.

Bullshit. My congressional delegation is going to hear about this one, at length and with great gusto.

An interesting article on prescription drugs. I don't know that its the final word on it--and its a more economically conservative bent than you usually see out of the New Yorker--but it certainly gives food for thought.

Living without health insurance for well over a year now has given me perspective from both sides of the coin. Certainly there's a case to be made that the costs of medical care are at least in part derived from people with no economic stake making decisions which they are most likely not scientifically qualified to make; for example, (and I'm stealing this example from the article) the patient who insists on a COX2 inhibitor, which probably isn't going to be any more effective than your typical aspirin/ibuprofen/acetominophen regimen at relieving arthritis pain, but costs hundreds more per month. But its also ridiculous that we live in a country with a per-capita income that dwarfs the LIFETIME income of a citizen in half the world and we haven't got any kind of national healthcare system.

There's got to be some middle ground, and by middle ground I'm not referring to a bogus scheme involving a savings account.

Ok, I've been saying this for years now. Government-provided healthcare is BETTER than privatized. (caveat: if you're in the richer segment of society, you can pay for private healthcare which will provide you with a higher standard of care than the other 98% of Americans. That shouldn't surprise anyone--these are the same people who can afford an extra 30k to spend on a luxury car that SURPRISE!!! gives you a nicer ride than other cars.)

I'm going to be writing on this subject a lot in the coming weeks, especially given that I've made the Major Life Decision™ to go to medical school after finishing my bachelor's degree. Since that essentially means the next ten or twelve years of my life are GONE, i'll have plenty of time to immerse myself in the questions surrounding healthcare policy, which is what I want to end up doing anyway.

well, coming down to the wire now... tomorrow I graduate from "unemployed" to "student." As a matter of pride I'll point out that unemployed means mostly unpredictable freelance contracting mixed with a lot of hanging out at coffeeshops and catching up on all the books I always wanted to read but never had the time to.

I'm actually kind of excited about it. The last few days have been kind of enlightening--I'd forgotten about all the necessary details that come with going to school. You know what i mean... all those bothersome little things like, oh i don't know, buying your textbooks. I was all proud of myself friday for remembering to buy a fresh notebook and a three-colored pack of pens when i remembered that not only had I not gone to pick up the texts, I didn't even know where the campus bookstore was for ACC.

So my schedule fucking sucks for the first month. Not only am I taking my first 8am class, it meets every. single. day. and two days a week I've got a noon-4 class as well, so i'm in class for 8 hours straight with a 10 minute break every two hours and 20 minutes at noon. I'm going to be hating life until after june. I think i may have to take up guitar again to deal with the stress.

back from my two week jaunt across america. ok, not really american so much as madison and new york. and not really back so much as waiting for my brother to quit flirting with his insurance agent and pick me up from this fucking coffeeshop so i can make the three hour drive back to austin and pick up my dog.

So I had the big interview in Madison this weekend. Well, on Friday, anyway--this weekend was pretty much a bonus, getting to hang out with my friend who lives there and works for the company I interviewed with. I'm probably not going to end up taking the job, which is kind of sad in a way because I think the company is probably great to work for, and I'd love to be working with my friend again, but I just don't think its the right direction for me right now. I don't think I'd really enjoy living in Madison all that much, and once winter hits I'd probably slip back into a major depression thanks to seasonal affective disorder. Coupled with this strong desire I have now to go into healthcare and ultimately into politics (years on down the road, and behind the scenes, not as a candidate) I think Austin is the best place for me right now. Ok, it doesn't hurt that I love living here; I've worked hard to build a life here over the last year since the Ex left, with more than a modicum of success, and I don't feel like resetting that effort.

Thought for myself if and when I start sliding again: there's a lot of sunshine left in the world. Take off the Life-tinted sunglasses and take a look sometime.

Toni and I went to see Eternal Sunlight of the Spotless Mind tonight. It took me a while to get my bearings once it was over with. Charlie Kaufman's movies are usually like that. You don't really know whether you like them or hate them until much later, but you know they affected you.

Short synopsis of this one: I'm not telling. Its really an interesting plot, one that grabs you at various times and leaves you hanging in others. The reason I know I liked it was because i found myself caring in the last ten minutes about the outcome.

Ok, I'll tell a little. Its about a couple who breaks up after a fight, and the girl goes to a doctor to have her memory of the guy erased. The guy does the same after he finds out what she did, almost as a vindictive shot at her. Anybody feeling sympathetic yet? During the course of erasure of course the guy starts feeling regret for what's being done to him, and fights like mad to stop it, but trapped within his mind he can't.

I should stop here and point out that the movie kind of starts at the end, then jumps back to the beginning (of sorts, anyway) and leads back up to the starting point and beyond.

At times I found it incredibly painful to watch. I've lost count of how many times last year I longed for a way to erase a certain someone from my life completely, to excise her from every day of my life from August 24 1996 onward. If there had been a way to do it, I probably would have jumped on it. I might have regretted it, although if the procedure had worked there wouldn't have been anything to regret. Unlike the movie though, the individual in question isn't anyone who belongs in my life. That piece of insight came to me in a bit of a flash towards the end.

Austin is a town in which you can be almost assured that if you have anything in common with someone that you will run into them sooner or later. I realized then something about the Ex: I've only run into her once in the year since we broke up. And that was because of her boyfriend (now husband), not her. Talk about an awakening--I have absolutely nothing in common with someone I spent that much time practically killing myself over.

I wish I'd realized that a long time ago. There's been a lot of lost time in the last year. Isn't that always the way though? Experience: something you gain long after you needed it.

I had a totally weird dream last night. I have these neighbors down the sidewalk (I think their names are chad and amy, but i really don't know.) Anyway, we've never talked at length, but they seem to be pretty nice kids and we always say hello or wave at each other when we're both outside smoking. Anyway, in my dream Amy (except her name wasn't amy in the dream) invites me up for a drink for some reason, while chad isn't home.... you see where this is going, don't you? so we're just hanging out having a drink, and somehow hanging out involves being in their bedroom in my boxers. So then chad comes home and I start frantically looking for my pants, which have naturally disappeared, but he comes back to the bedroom before i can find them. I'm trying to think really hard of a legitimate reason why i would possibly be back in their bedroom, in my boxers, with his wife (or girlfriend, i've never ascertained the extent of their relationship but they just had a kid together so one might assume they're fairly committed. in real life that is, the baby was nowhere to be found in this dream.) but as it happens, it doesn't matter, as chad doesn't find anything unusual about the fact that I'm back there, alone, with his wife, in my underwear.

I could expect to have a dream like that about somebody i'm seeing, or even just want to see, but i don't know that i've ever had one like that about a perfect stranger. well, semi-perfect stranger, anyway.... i didn't get much past chad not kicking my ass--i woke up right around that point. I think maybe it might have something to do with a conversation i had earlier that night with a friend who has committment issues.

Last year aside, I've never been the kind of person for whom anger was something that kept me going. Its an emotion I feel from time to time, certainly, but never one I tried to hold onto. I had a bit of an epiphany today though--sometimes its just what you need. And on reflection there are plenty of times it was exactly that--something that gets me going, tells me something about the world is not right. Just the way pain is your body's way of telling you something is wrong, anger ought to be a way of discerning an imbalance in the world around you, and more importantly a clue that you ought to do something about it. Once when I was living in Birmingham I was driving home from work for lunch and passed by a Kenny Roger's Roasters on Hwy 31 where they had a couple of guys standing out in the median passing out coupon flyers to the motorists stopped at the intersection of 31 and IH 65. I remember thinking, "God they must hate their job... its like 105 degrees outside and they're standing in the sun in the median of one of the worst intersections in the area doing the shit work... wonder who they pissed off?" When I got up close I saw that they both had some form of mental retardation--one of them clearly had Down's Syndrome, and the other had some other kind of non-specific disability. I was just flabbergasted. I wasn't sure exactly what to do right that second, I was so floored by the audacity of whoever stuck them on that detail. By the time I got home though I was so mad about it I called DHS right then and reported them, just before I drove back to it, asked to speak to the manager on duty (some greasy haired 20-something who weaseled his way up to shift leader--apparently the store manager was at a different store or a meeting that day or something) and crawled his ass in the middle of the restaurant. I'm sure getting chewed out by a 19 year old kid was probably one of the more emasculating experiences during his illustrious tenure, but it was also one of the last. The manager called me at work the next day to tell me the guy had been fired. And offer me a bunch of coupons for free food. Give me a break.

so anyway, now i'm just angry enough about the state of affairs in my life that I'm tired of making the "smart" choices--which more often than not are not smart nor do they bring me any sense of fulfillment to my life. I've had it with chasing jobs that pay good money for a miserable self-serving career--time to start doing something worthwhile. So... anybody know of a good non-profit that's hiring?

I'm not going to go into the whole story behind this entry. There's really no point; I'm the only one who reads this blog and I already know it. But suffice it to remind myself in days long hence, that when something seems too good to be true, it almost certainly is. And fortune cookies almost never mean what you first take them to mean.

Jiminy christmas. i haven't slept in about 30 hours and while i'm tired there's no way i could sleep right now. I'm actually so far gone as to resurrect this blog, long since aborted. I'm going to give another shot at regular blogging, something i haven't done in a few years--you tend to get skittish when your ex busts you on it.

so yeah, if it wasn't obvious from that last entry before this attempt died, last year sucked ass. (that entry was before it even got to the REALLY crappy parts.) I'm bound and determined that this year isn't going to go down the same road. Its been a rocky start so far but I think I'm getting the hang of it. Part of that is going to be writing a lot more--i always had a clearer head when i blogged before. you know the drill, self-analysis and what-not. chicks dig a guy who's literate too. that doesn't hurt.

so now i'm waiting on a doctor to call me back and tell me whether to come in or go to the ER... I had surgery last week and it looks like the stitches are coming out prematurely, and the incision reopening. It would be nice if he would hurry up and call--i'd like to know whether I can lay down and try to slow the brain down long enough to sleep a few hours. doubtful, but worth a shot all the same. someone more motivated would be writing one of the dozen or so functions I need to write for my CMS today, but i'm an invalid this week--i'm entitled. that's what i keep telling myself, anyway. I gotta get sleep sometime today--I'm hopefully meeting up tonight with my friend Tonyia who i haven't seen in several months. She joined my friendster group earlier today, which was way cool because I didn't know if she was even still in Austin. i knew joining friendster would pay off one day. So far i've logged on all of three times; today (last night?) I invited a bunch of people, a couple of whom joined up. then i started the oh-so-addictive surfing of the profiles--found a couple of geniunely cool looking folks, though like most of those sites it tends to be testosterone-heavy. maybe if i stay in austin i'll be a friendster nut. or maybe i will anyway, if i go to madison.

great. now of course when i really need to be functional i get tired. what the hell. you only live once. good morning and good night.

Have you ever had the dream where you're falling from such a great height that you're not scared of dying when you land, if only because you can't see the bottom?

That's where I am now.

Forget your life flashing before your eyes. That passed in the first five seconds. You've moved on to the lives that have crossed yours. Not just where they crossed your path though; you can see far beyond that, to the places they went after you, to the lives they touched after you.

You can see the kid down the street who you used to torture by putting rotten eggs in his mailbox staring at himself in the mirror, trying to talk himself out of his own fall.

You see the kid you saved from drowning in the pool at the rich kid's birthday party. He's driving a school bus now, one hundred pounds overweight, wondering why he gets up in the morning. Two years from now though, he'll be seventy-five pounds lighter and married to a beautiful woman who saw him with her heart instead of her eyes.

You see the young woman who isn't much more than a girl in the park you stopped to talk to because you caught the hint of despair in her eye. Her child is dying from an extraordinarily rare and incurable stomach disorder; he hasn't eaten in three months, and only the intravenous fluids he receives every day are keeping him alive. The doctors have told the mother that soon she will have to decide whether and when to stop feeding him. The meager insurance will only cover another three weeks of private hospital care, and in a charity hospital her son's prognosis is bleak at best. When you leave her she thanks you for listening, and you hate yourself for being as helpless as she feels.

Faster than the human mind can register you see the web of your life interwoven with the lives of all those around you, and of all those around those persons, and on and on into an infinite reach of time, space, and spirit. Even threads that at first seem fragile and wispy, as though they would break at the merest breath of wind, prove to be tightly connected to other wispy threads so that together they form a braid here, a knot there, all of it part of this web of humanity.

You realize that the bottom is approaching. Indistinct and blurry, it is nevertheless approaching, and you feel a great sense of trepidation and remorse as it nears. As you brace yourself for the impact, you realize that your descent is slowing dramatically, and you open your eyes to find the web of life spun all around you, catching you in your fall. Completely arrested now, your fall has begun to turn into an ascent as the elasticity of these ethereal strands begins to haul you back to the lofty perch from whence your dream began. The web, you realize, will not take you all the way back there; for some effort must be left to the little spider. But neither do you have to make the climb alone.

I've been using computers since I was about 10 years old. My first was a Tandy CoCo 3 TRS-80 with a whopping 128k of RAM. It cost a few hundred back then, roughly on a par with the much more popular Commodore 64, but I was a kid so I wasn't really sure how much it cost. The Atari Jaguar I asked for was $200, i think. Anyway, in the fifteen-odd years I've been using computers, NEVER ONCE have I spilled a drink on my keyboard. Sure, there might have been a few near misses, but generally speaking the clumsiness that plagues me around women, kitchens, and furniture seems not to be an issue with computers.

At least, it wasn't until the other day. I bought a Memorex wireless keyboard and mouse at Fry's, sort of on a whim. The mouse came without a battery cover on it, but i'm too lazy to take it back. tape will work just fine for now. the whole setup works fine, even post-mishap. A couple days later I'm reaching for the last bit of my apple juice (an artifact of my new health kick, courtesy of Gold's Gym my trademark clumsiness strikes again and the juice goes all over the keyboard. Somehow i managed to get it all out of the keyboard, after a lot of inverted shaking and paper towels carefully shoved between keys. I started to try rubbing alcohol to see if i could get the juice to evaporate better, but i figured i'd wait until the keyboard stopped working before i tried anything that was probably going to void my warranty more than it already was.

So the moral of the story is forget the health kicks and stick to coffee in non-spillable cups.

In the last 8 or so years i've been using a cell phone, i have yet to really find one that was useful for much more than being a cell phone. Prior to now the best phone I've used was a Samsung N105, but it has crappy reception from its small profile and consequently small antenna. Mainly the reason I liked it was its small size and relatively good microphone. Like most other phones these days, it had a "personal organizer" of sorts which wasn't good for much more than storing phone numbers.

All that has changed now.

I got a Nokia 3650 the other day. I truly believe this phone to be at the forefront of a revolution. I think people will actually love me more for having this phone. *I* love me more for having this phone. It does Everything. And it does it well. The planner works the way it should. It has bluetooth built in so you can talk to your computer--meaning you can put your contact list from outlook or whatever onto this phone. It runs java apps (j2me, that is) meaning that its almost infinitely extensible. Its got a friggin video camera for gods sake. yes I know that picture quality pales in comparison to what's available now--but its also at the same level of quality as consumer-level cameras of a mere 3-4 years ago. Speakerphone, bluetooth headsets available, IR connectivity, full-color screen... I can't think of a single feature I've wanted on a phone in the last four iterations of cell providers that is NOT on this phone in an easy-to-access spot.

buy one. you won't regret it.