Louisiana a couple years on

I have several friends from Louisiana. They might be mad when I say the stuff below. It is how I feel.

There was a story about New Orleans two years later. The only people interviewed were people living in the places that were bad neighborhoods before Katrina. Everyone they interviewed had the same mind. -Give me money.- There was one guy who got his home rebuilt by himself. When asked if any help came from the government he said no.

One of the men interviewed said something that I think is obvious. He said that the first question out of every one's mouth was "How was it before Katrina?" The answer is that this area the interviews were taking place in was a shit hole before Katrina. If you want to take the place to a pre-Katrina stat, you would have to bring in three times as many crack-heads as today.

The secret is, that every one who had a head on their shoulders left. The only thing left is the worst (and stupidest) of the bad element and victims with no where else to go. What do they expect?

If my house floods, I have no insurance for that. We are just out. I just can't afford it right now. I will get it when I can afford it. I live in Houston after all. I do not expect the US tax payer to bail me out. I will have to start over. That will suck. I will go after any assistance I can. I will not run to the international community and say "I'm ashamed to be an American." just because someone else is not talking care of the problem for me.

Yes, parts of Louisiana still look like a disaster area. Where are the people who lived there? Why aren't they coming back to fix the place. Maybe they know that it will just flood again someday. Are they waiting for someone else to fix everything for them? Do they want to return to a place rebuilt better than before? Do they want to lift a finger to help?

Bitch bitch bitch

I just listened to some guy on the BBC bitch that the U. S. is not doing enough to fix the problems in Pakistan. He was from some other middle eastern country. That seems to be a theme. People from country A bitch that the big boys on the block are not responsible enough to take action with country B. When it comes to country B, they run to the UN or the press and scream bloody murder that they are being oppressed.

The countries with the ability to do something (not country A) like the UK, US or whomever are damned if they do and damned if they don't. There is no way to win these days.

"Why aren't you doing something about those other guys?!" "Get out of our back yard!"

Then I think about my own experience. I get pissed when the home owner's association sends me a letter to mow my grass that I've kept looking about as good as it is going to get the whole time. Yet, when someone else does something as inane, I run to the HOA. It is pretty much the same thing on a smaller scale. So, is the US the home owner's association to the rest of the world? Where are the dues?

I comprehend. Not understand.

Money is tight

I'm sure Nat and I are not the first couple who has had challenges making ends meet. It is the end of the month for someone who gets paid on the first of the month. These things happen. I'm still wondering if we can handle it all. We will be fine. We must simply tighten the belt a notch.

I got my pay stub and whined for five minutes to a friend about all the crap taken out. I'm never going to get social security. They should rename that item. There is no security in it.

Four and doing math.

She can read and is doing math at four. Not bad. I was seventeen before I could do that. A friend of mine emailed me this video today.

I'm a dad

Wow, this guy hits it on the mark. I may go hug Elle, even if it does wake her up. ... Maybe not.

Link

Freedom is timeless

Give'em hell general!!

Hippo!!!!

I wanna' hippopotamus for Christmas. Only a hippopotamus will do.

This is really a bit much. I suppose once a hippo is grown it has few natural enemies. I like the dog getting it's toe stepped on. That was funny. The hippo opens the back door. They say she is only aloud in the kitchen now after breaking a bunch of fur nature. I don't want to think about house training. How do you discipline a hippo? Rolled up newspaper? They definitely left the more interesting things out of the video.

USAA sucks

I like everything about USAA except the online experience. I live in Houston and the closest branch of USAA is in San Antonio. I've never been there. They let me open up an account without ever showing up. However, I must answer a bunch of public domain questions in order to access my accounts.

Today I was asked a question I don't think I ever gave them the original information to. I couldn't answer it. Now I'm locked out of my account online. That is the only way I have to get to my money. I have to call tomorrow and get my account unlocked, but I need access to my money now.

Asking people to answer a bunch of preset questions is a bad method of verification. I'll bet I can query what city I was born in via google. I bet I can get my mother's maiden name the same way. I wouldn't be surprised if I could find SSN somewhere on the web too. I'm not a deviant so I do not actually know how to do these things. I don't know how to hot wire a car, but that is pretty easy from what I've hears.

So, you can't give the correct answers. That is just too plane easy. The whole idea behind this concept is that you don't have to write anything down in order to remember a bunch of information. If you give the correct answers, any one with the right knowledge can look up the answers. So, you have to give fake information. Which means you need to write it down somewhere. Which, defeats the whole purpose of having the questions.

Would I run in to the same problem elsewhere? Well, most places only ask me the information if I get the password wrong. Not USAA. They just randomly pop these questions up between clicks. I give BS answers everywhere else so that even I cannot steel my identity.

Everything else I've had to deal with USAA about has been great. This bit really sucks.

Funny That

Found out Friday night that Nat's mom is ill. Something told me to skip DnD this weekend. I'm not sure why I just decided to bail last Monday. It is a bit predestine.

We went to Nat's mom's place. We picked her up. We went to eat. Nat accidentally caught her mom and Elle's fingers in the car windows. We ended up in the emergency room for four hours. Nat's mom has a cut on her middle finger. She needed some stitches. Elle is fine. We got an X-ray just to be sure.

I had plans on doing all kinds of cool stuff. I wanted to put the other set of shelves together. I wanted to do some yard work. I wanted to do some blogging. I sat in the lobby of a hospital and watched the news for three or four hours.

It's funny how life makes some turns. If I hadn't gone along, I'm sure Nat's mom would have been in the front seat and I bet neither of them would have had their fingers in the window.

When i got home, I put the shelves together. I left the garage door shut and nearly passed out from the heat. I opened the door and got stormed by bugs. I ended up not able to get the shelves "stacked" like they are supposed to be. Thus, I ended up with two sets of shorter shelves in stead. No biggie. I'll get the other kind of shelves if I can next time.

Once that was ... done. I decided to change the oil in the lawn mower. Hey, it's after eleven on a Saturday evening. Why not?

I dump the lawn mower upside down to let the oil drain out the spigot. I have no idea how else to do it. I only have synthetic oil and I have no idea what kind of oil is in it. Not all that much comes out of the mower. A bunch of gas comes out and gets all over the mower. I flip it back over and find out that the tube is full of oil so I can't tell just how empty it is. I need to wait thirty minutes to let the oil drain out of the spigot back into the engine proper.

Now, I'm dripping with sweat. I mean dripping. I no longer have eyebrows. The sweat is gushing from my bald head straight into my eyes. It made hanging on the second set of shelves fun. I, the hammer and the shelves all wet from perspiration. Me banging away. Every time I hit the hammer to metal, a bead of sweat would leave my head, hit my glasses and bounce into my eye. Very nice. I could hear my father haller "Why don't I sweat one more drop?!" Whatever the hell that meant.

Now, I'm sitting next to the mower, on the ground, soaked in sweat, swatting myself in circles, smelling of gasoline. All I need is a bottle of Jack and I'm in business.

I pulled the car back in the garage and went in side. Nat was already asleep and said she dreampt I was banging metal dragons in the head in the garage.

I'm watching some horrible movies that came in over the last couple of days. I don't know who paid for this crap to be made. One is about Taiwan cattle ranchers being replaced by tractors. Another is about Australian participation in WWII. There was another, but I don't remember what it was.

Now I'm writing a blog. Few, I'm caught up. I didn't get much done. The family did. We are all pretty much fine. The racers are out in force. I fear I may yet have something to say about their sport in my neck of the woods tonight.

Very Local News

• First set of shelves up in the garage.
• There is one shelf just for bug and weed killer.
  
• Learning C++ heap control at work. I have nasty headache.
  
• My head is particularly shiny and smooth today. It must be the humidity.
• Someone makes Arabic music to a dance beat. It sounds like someone is strangling cats and feeding them into an engine.
• Elle is still sick.
• My contacts behaved nicely all day at work. It must be the humidity.

Shelves and what not

Last night I went home and put a bunch of stuff on the shelves in the garage. I had to pull the car out to make room to move everything away from the wall first. I moved the shelves over to the wall and began filling them up with all the crap that was now in the middle of the floor. The result was exactly what I was looking for. That corner of the garage now has room away from the car. You can swing a cat between the shelves and the car.

I have another set of shelves to put together. I have about nine places to put them in the garage. I would like a set for the house too. I have a dresser I need to get out of the garage. There is a plastic doghouse that will be gone by next Friday. I'm not sure what to do with Elle's Jeep. I need to figure out if I can hang the bicycles like my father did in all our houses growing up.

The home owner's association will not allow any sort of building in the back yard. They are basically band. I found a thing at Sam's Club that is an "outside cabinet" with wheels. It is designed to store something outside under the fence line so it cannot be seen from the street. bet it would work. I'd put the mower and lawn stuff in that. It is my yard damn-it.

I found a one gallon unit of two-stroke oil. Nat picked some up from Wal-Mart the other day, but it is for like 3.5 gallons or something. Now I have a measuring container. When I use the oil in the one gallon worth bottle, I'm going to tape the small bottle to the larger bottle for the next time I have to mix a gallon of two-stroke oil (in a year or so). I;m a genius!!  (I crack myself up).

That huge set of shelves really only helped with one corner of the garage. I may actually need four sets of them to do it all up properly. I will just line the walls. Or, better yet, I'll stack them like a library against one wall and Nat can park on the other side. ya!! I'll bet she love that plan.

Machine gun typing method

I've had a couple of people complain recently about how hard I type. I learned to type on a manual typewriter. When you push down on one of those keys, you have to have the intention in your mind to push it clear to Australia or it won't make the correct image on the paper. I've had the people in the next office complain at my old job. It's never been a serious kind of complaint. It is usually a thing people notice.

One person at my old job mocked me once. He scooted right up on the monitor and made a machine gun noise for the typing. "gdddddd-gddddddd-gddddd!". It didn't upset me. It kind of made me proud. I bet I'm less likely to get RSD by hitting the keys harder. It just feels more natural. I do tend to type in bursts.

I hit the enter key with particular zeal. This is due to the lack of a manual carriage return. I don't know if any of you young folks out there have ever seen a truly manual typewriter, but you had to hit a leaver and push the carriage back to the front of the next line. I guess my body still wants to use that much energy now with just my right piny.

I've heard of women with long fingernails who were fast typists. You couldn't do that on a manual I bet. I saw a manual typewriter hooked to a computer as a keyboard once. It was mostly a joke. I'd still like to find a computer mock up like the ones in the movie Brazil.hat would be a cool cyberpunk kind of hack. I've always thought of Brazil as having quite a bit of cyberpunk in it.

Thank goodness my current office partner doesn't seem to mind. He types faster than I do.

And, some rollovers for the heck of it

Quote Millhouse "First it started falling over ... Then it fell over."

No more pictures

There is a reason I don't take pictures at public gatherings any more. Nat put up some videos on YouTube of woman in chainmail. All the pictures she made the videos out of were already on the internet. However, by puting them on YouTube, people were able to find them much easier. We got a bunch of frantic phone calls from two different women for her to take the videos down.

This really pisses me off. There is a backlash of people getting busted because of the pictures on Facebook and other sites. There have been stories on the BBC and U. S. media about people getting in trouble. Some student was reprimanded for pictures she put up on her  Facebook site that showed her violating some penny-anny rule about conduct. Her privacy settings were such that only other students and select friends could see the pictures. That means either the university got a current student to track her pictures down, or someone lied about their status to view her profile. Either way, she got yelled at.

There was another story about a real criminal putting up video of breaking in to someone's house. Some kid also put up a video of him beating a dog. Some group of teens here in Houston got in trouble over having a toddler in a van without a car seat or seat belt and joking that the little girl was on the drug ecstasy. There are real criminals to worry about for goodness sake. Get off people who show their ass after fifteen beers.

I hope the women who got hold of us today about Nat's videos have learned a lesson. I may just type up a disclaimer for people to sign that says they cannot bitch about future events that bite them in the ass over pictures on my site. That may hold up in court, but I already don't get invited to people's parties. That wouldn't help.

As much as I love photography, It has become the bane of existence. It is too easy to capture an image of people doing stupid shit and it ending up on their boss's screen. People just need to get over it. people are going to do things they are not proud of. They always have. We can't all live lie Mother Teressa. I wonder how many really saintly people from history would loose their luster if we had pictures of the weekend they spent getting sloshed, stripped, painted purple by their buddies and tied to a donkey until they said uncle the next morning? Not too many I imagine.

It won't be that long from now before all activities on the street are available on the internet to any one. London, New York and any number of other cities have cameras all over the place. Right now they are in the name of law enforcement, but who is to say what they will be used for tomorrow.

If I put cameras on my house and aim them at public areas, I'm not sure my neighbors can do much about it. I would want to catch drug deals across the street. The racers blowing by at 150 mph would look nice to the cops. I wonder if there is a market for interesting web-cams any more. The only ones that made any money in the past were pornographic I bet.

Refugee Status

The UN is big on Refugees. You can't listen to a story about the UN without hearing something about people kicked off their land because someone else wants it or says it was their's first. It kind of makes me think of imminent domain and Wal-Mart. It is a bad thing to get kicked out of your place and suddenly need to go somewhere else and make a living.

I listened to a woman ball on the BBC for ten minutes about all the things she lost because of a war. One was her daughter. Nothing is going to bring her daughter back. Everything else is about money and having to move and educate her children. All I could think about is how I'm close to a similar situation. If I miss one house payment I'm on the street. I don't have any savings. I don't have much backup besides family and friends. The guy who came on after was some official that suggested she register as a refugee and ask for help. This was in some middle eastern country.

Where is my refugee status? Ask a homeless person down town if they have registered. If I find myself in another country and broke, can I call the UN and get a sandwich?

Wednesday Evening Races

It is Wednesday night and the racers are out already. It is barely past ten. I'm all waiting to call the cops. I like being the old coot at the end of the block who calls the cops when the whipper-snappers get out of line. I can be that guy.

When I got on the four wheeler several weeks ago, I admit, I goosed it a couple of times. Speed can be quite tasty. I do not care about the double standard. Sleeping through the night is more important to me than some one else getting their jollies buzzing by at 140 mph. Screw them.

I wonder where I can rent a radar gun. I bet I could convince one of my cop friends to come out here in plain cloths just to video how fast some of these psychos must be going. I would love to post something like that on YouTube.

Interview

I never expect to be interviewed for any reason besides looking for a job. I'm listening to a guy (Colin Murray) who was raised in foster homes because both his parents died. He is famous. He wrote a book about the crap he had to go thew. he doesn't sound bitter. He sounds like the book made it easier to let go of the bad things that happened.

For just a moment I saw some nicely dressed reporter sitting down in my living room with an iPod recorder thing and asking me a bunch of silly questions about what I had for breakfast every morning. I can only imagine bad reasons that someone might be interested in my information. Maybe I'll make a book out of this blog. That would be something. Maybe I'll win the Nobel prize for lucky breaks. Maybe I'll come up with a Nobel prize for lucky breaks. You get the prize for blundering your way in to happiness. The first winner would have to be Homer Simpson. Maybe I'll come up with a Kelly Prize. Yes, I like that.

Well then, the first nominee for the first Kelly Prize of 2007 for blundering one's way to happiness is Homer Simpson. Any other ideas?

Very local news

• Recently shaved my eyebrows, no one noticed. However, I've noticed people read more emotion (that they want to read) off my face. I think it is a bit more of a blank slate.
  
• Elle sneezed her head off all night. Poor thing.
• Noticed Dell notebooks are plummeting in price. There are a couple you can get that have never had the taint of Microsoft on them. They come with Ubuntu stock. Nice. When I buy, I buy one of those.
  
• Phones are about to hit the point where you do not need a computer. When you can do your banking, pay your bills and do your taxes on a phone you do not need a computer any more.
• Still don't have Harry Potter #7. I keep hearing that it is 730 pages of witch war. No childhood themes. I like it. Someone said the ending is "satisfying". Whatever that means. It also sums everything up nicely. I'm chomping at the bit.
• By my recomended book selection, Amazon thinks I'm 10.
  
• Nat has had fits with T-Mobile getting her caller tones thing to work. I think she finally got it licked. Now I'm on the juke-box setting and I like it. Random song every time I call her.
  
• I heard a quick note that some folks in Briton tried to adopt some kids from India only to hear the kids say the had been stolen from their parents.
• I nearly walked out the door from work today today at 16:21. I don't leave until 18:00. I haven't done that in years.
  
• I thought it was Wednesday most of the morning.
  

Monday

Spent the evening talking to my family. We had hot-dogs and watched CSI something or other. It was fun. I should do it more often.

Sunday

There are some new pictures up. Nat and Elle went to the Circus. It looks like they had some fun. They wanted $10 for cotton candy. Where the hell did that come from? It cost like $30 just for a bite and a drink. I'm disappointed. We are hurting for money and they won't let you have fun without charging you an arm and a leg. That kills me. I'm glad they went. It is a good memory for Elle. It's beans and rice for the rest of the month.

Pictures. Nat caught some images with her phone.

The real shit

Live from Iraq it's a firefight.

# Shooting
# Cussing
# People eating watermelon
# More cussing

Ya, this doesn't look dangerous.

Every time I see a helicopter crash on one of these sites, I think how flimsy they are. Then something like this comes along and they look like great red-neck fun. Oh, and quite resilient.

The good old days

ROYAL Air Force fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian bombers heading for British airspace, The Times said yesterday, prompting fierce denials of brinkmanship from Moscow. The newspaper said two RAF Tornadoes from its rapid reaction force took off from RAF base Leeming in northern England to confront the two Tu95 "Bear" bombers after they were shadowed by F-16s from the Royal Norwegian Air Force. News.com.au

I was all excited about this story for a bit. I found it on Defense Tech. The more I read the more my enthusiasm just tapered off to nothing. I just don't have the energy for the conspiracy theories and international intrigue this weekend. I need to fix the garage and write up a d20 modern character.

Sleepy Saturday

There is nothing going on. I got up this morning and surfed the web for a bit. I then crashed for a couple of hours. Then I got up and am back on the web. Now Nat is in her Saturday crash cycle. Elle is off enjoying the day with her grandpa. It is just a light Saturday. I Need to organize the garage. I need to throw some crap away. I was able to get rid of an old busted TV and a chair that just didn't accept that it needed to hold people off the floor.

I have an 'alternate ending' to the new Harry Potter book in my ear. It does completely does not sound like JKR's style.I cannot copy other writer's styles. I can tell when it is off by miles.

It may have something to do with the lack of colas in the house. I'm drinking a powder tea and wish I had some kind of caffeine drink to kick me in the ass so I would go tackle the garage. It is hot, loaded with bugs, and most of the stuff just needs to disappear anyway. Nat wants to have a garage sale. That's great, but we are running out of places to put the stuff until then.

There is a channel on digital TV that is mostly music videos. They have some Animal Planet kind of shows two it turns out. Nat is passed out on the couch (thanks Dad). If I so much as try to hit mute or turn the TV off to let her sleep she jumps up and takes a swing at me. I'll let hr sleep.

Maybe I'll just sit here and blog for a while.

Blackel

Someone wined about how Google could save energy across the planet by changing the background of their web page to black instead of white. A bunch of people did experiments and found that CRTs did save a bit of energy when a black background is used. LED monitors showed no discernible change.

I find the gray on black screen much easier on the eyes. It is just an experiment. Sounds all green and liberal to me. Something I wonder about though, are the revenues from the google adds going to some green charity? I didn't bother with the research. The about blackel doesn't mention it. I just pose the question and move on.

Dial-a-Fatwa

I googled that title and of course someone (everyone) beat me to it.

Apparently, not all fatwa are death sentences. A fatwa is just a ruling on a religious question by an official in the Muslim religion. Some folks are handing them out like candy. Some are granted over the phone. There was one rule mentioned on BBC that (somewhere) a Muslim woman should not work with a Muslim man unless she had breast fed him. The act of breast feeding someone causes a family tie between the two people. Not sure I can buy that. I can't find the NPR link.

My two cents

I'm a life long republican. Bush pisses me off left and right. I like some of the things he does. I hate some of the things he does. I cannot bring myself to like a Democrat. I am highly disappointed in the Republican party in their abandonment of their current president. I'm ashamed of politicians who bail at the first opportunity. It disgusts me. I may have to call myself an independent for a while. I bet the Republican party will suffer greatly in the next election. It won't be W's fault. He stuck to his guns (literally) even when the going got tough. I for one respect that.

Not only do I approve of the U. S. actions in Iraq, I approve of Bush's will to make it happen.

Homeland vs Fatherland

When someone in the media or on a blog says "Homeland" in reference to the U. S. It drums up memories of old WW II films where the Nazis called Germany the "Fatherland". It creeps me out. This morning on NPR I heard one of the emails that someone sent in said the same thing. It is no wonder people think the current administration is fascist. It is not. Fascism is far worse.

It comes from the Department of Homeland Security. (in a bad German accent) ze H. S.!! This is one time I wish someone had heired a PR firm before they settled on a name.

As I'm surfing the net I notice people use the term Fatherland Security to describe Homeland Security. I should have known that would happen. I'm not alone in thinking the names are that similar.

Modern War Civilians

What is it going to be like for civilians when there is a major war between two major players in modern times? At any moment, I could hop on the internet and find 10 blogs of the enemy population and find out what they think. They can read my blog. They can get my YouTube videos. They will know how I vote (on mass) and how far I'm willing to go.

This is already happening with the al Quida vs Western Civilization war. Al Quida is winning the PR front.

If someone from the other side leaves a comment on my blog, do I have to take it down before I am charged with colaberation?  Honestly, I'm not that worried about it.

DnD - sort of

Well, Modern D20 anyway. Most of the banter back and forth has been through email so far. Adam wanted a tactical nuke. When Sarah balked he said he would settle for a submarine. Brian wants a pet hand grenade. I asked for a blimp RV conversion for camping. I think we are all. I wonder if we could have blimp/sub races. I'll have to remember to add on some countermeasures because Adam also mentioned sub to air missiles along with torpids.

I haven't even started my character yet. I'm going to be a scientist or biologist. or something like that.

All this talk of equipment brought up the discussion of Wal-Mart in the game. I wonder how we are going to handle the fact that modern U. S. society can have just about anything on the spot with the swipe of a corporate credit card. I can hear the arguments. "What do you mean I have to make a skil check to drive through the pick-up window? I do it five times a week."

Budgeting at $0

Being broke makes for easy budgeting. You have one answer to all the financial questions. "No." The bills are up to date so far. There is just zero cash on hand. Well, I have $60 in my pocket that has to last the rest of the month. That includes food, gas, everything. I have a feeling there are several pasta dishes in my immediate future. Not a big deal. This too shall pass. Besides, it's only like a week and a day or two.

Made in China

NPR had a story this morning about a family that didn't buy anything that said "made in China" on it for a year. They set the bar pretty low as far as checking if something was made in China. They still had a pretty hard time finding things. She said that they ended up not buying a bunch of things that they just couldn't find.

I've heard people threaten to do this. But, everything is made in China. That is how it seems pretty often. Another story on NPR spoke of people trying to sue the companies in the U. S. that were involved in the pet food poisoning a couple of months ago. They were all suing Wal-Mart and other distributors. A couple of lawyers were going through the motions of suing the Chinese company, but the guy they interviewed said he found no evidence of any one in the U. S. ever getting a dime from a Chinese company that had no presence in this country.

I remember reading somewhere that the only difference between one day contacts and three week contacts was the amount of insurance the companies bought to protect themselves from liability. The contacts roll off the same assembly line. I can't prove this, that is just more hearsay.

If Chinese companies are more or less immune from U. S. lawsuits, Is this a big part of why the products are so cheap? Should we in the U. S. take note of the cost of companies forced to protect themselves from lawsuits and, naturally, passing the cost on to their consumers? Perhaps the U. S. government should impose import tariffs on Chinese products to cover losses incurred by U. S. citizens. I may have to write my representative on that one.

The only thing I might think twice about is the fact that if such a tariff happened heads would quite literally roll. In fact, they already have. One official was put to death after a couple of infractions including the pet food scandal and taking bribes to look the other way many years ago. I wonder what the guy who took his place thinks about that. I would not like to be in that position. That's not what I think of when I complain a bout dead end jobs.

They Mowed

Well, it takes calling the highway department to get the side of FM 1093 (Westheimer outside the Houston city limits. My sweetie called around last week and finally got through to the correct people. Thank goodness it wasn't the county. Harris County is notoriously slow and generally a pain in the ass to deal with. That is hearsay, but I believe it.

I walked in this morning and it was almost tolerable.

Dark Matter (again, I know ...)

I am really upset by the whole concept of dark matter. The numbers don't match up so a really smart nerd said something like "Well, a bunch of extra matter floating around would do the trick." So the dark matter theory was born.

In other words, someone pulled the theory out of their ass and it stuck.

If any constant factor is not actually a constant, the balance of the universe would suddenly snap back to zero. If time, space, the speed of light, or the ratio of energy to matter (e=mc²) is not a constant then the numbers could be massaged back to 0 (balance). The trouble with science is that it depends on proven things to prove other things. It is a bit like jinga. Except, you are stacking the blocks on top while people like me are pulling the lower blocks out from under you. Well, I'm just complain. I wish someone who was smart would prove it and let me be smug for a while.

I'm watching a show called "Dark Storm". It is about a military group of scientists who use pressurized dark matter to destroy things on the surface of the Earth. Their satellite leaks. The head scientist guy gets supper dark matter powers. You get the idea.

The scary thing is, the producers are about as close as any real science is to coming across dark matter.

Well, It seems the real scientists got the idea and now they are talking dark energy. Same song different verse. This is apparently to make up for the fact that you cannot see any dark matter floating around.

Then there are the multiple universe theories. Just keep adding dimensions until you obfuscate any of those pesky numerical anomalies.

OK, ok, I'm done. Carry on.

First you say it, then you do it.

Oh Shit! that is.

Shameless lifted from Hunt, Fish and Fly. by Otter.

I can buy that

And the leading Republican presidential candidate is ... none of the above. ... "I'm looking for a strong honest person. Do you know of any?" she joked. She had an easy time detailing why she was queasy about each of the most serious contenders. "Isn't that sad?" Then she reached a conclusion: "I just don't know." CNN

I'm smack in the middle of I don't give a damn myself.

I love how the press leas off putting down the republicans and has buckets of praise for democrats. Bastards.

Work

(geek speak warning)

Well, I got wxWidgets working in C. It took more effort than it should have. My biggest problem was linking information from one name space in C++ to another. That is something every one has problems with at one point or another. My boss asked me if I thought an interface would work better Python or C++. I didn't miss a beat and said "Python, if you want anything to get done." That is not entirely true. Once you get the ball rolling, it isn't half bad. I was able to get bits added here and there and even update existing objects dynamically today. That is a big step to getting a usable interface.

Now, I have to package wxWidgets and wxPython up. Considering I never did get the packages to build in the first place, that should be a whole new can of worms. I used RPMs. I don't think that will fly for the packaging.  I man, can't anything be easy? I've also looked in to using a program tat compiles python code in  to an executable that doesn't need the python interpreter installed at all.

I have no idea if this actually works or not. It claims to follow the hierarchical imports and suck in the code you need as long as you put the dependencies, including .so, in the folder with the python script before you fire off the compile. That just sounds too good to be true. It looks like a fly by night project so I may not spend much time researching it. Python has some cool building abilities too. Those look more reliable.

Pain in the Arm

I put one of the sets of shelves together yesterday evening. I banged and piled. I didn't get mad. That is because i was hammering. I was putting metal to metal with resounding clank. That does wonders for the attitude. My forearmed are killing me. it was hot and sticky and noisy and I loved it. The way those shelves were designed, you only needed a hammer to put them together. I may buy a dozen.

MASH Wisdom

Last night Nat and I were watching MASH on our new TV. One of the characters said he had "feeto of clay". Nat and I could not put our finger on what it meant exactly. Well, I googled it today and found a great site. It has all kinds of research on sayings and other things.

Digital TV

Did you know the powers that be are going to cut off normal analog TV all together on or about February 17, 2009? Well, I've been watching TV prices over the last couple of months. I noticed TVs without a digital tuner are plummeting  in price and have a warning that specifically says they do not do DTV.

I called my dad last night and asked if he would run Nat and I over to Sam's Club to get some shelves for the garage. He said yes. We really need the shelves. The garage is straight out of Sanford and Son. So, we got the shelves. Then we got some kitty litter. We were wheeling around the cart with three hundred pounds of merchandise.

My dad says "Lets go look at TVs." he has been talking about buying a TV. He wants something about 45 inches or so. I like the TVs on the middle isle. They are Vizio brand. I've heard of them. I think they are one of the rebranded TV, but I don't really care. I'm sure it is not the top of the line. I'm sure it has all the bells and whistles I'll need. It has a million plugs including the one for a computer monitor. It will do more than we need.

My father decides it for us. What a guy. I mean couches, a bed and now this. All in the same year. It is the exact TV I planned on getting when we had the money. It may not have been the same TV because you can't always catch the sales at Sam's Club.

So, we now have the x.1 channels. Nat just said she has never seen TV as clear as on that new TV. We don't even have cable and there are like 40 channels to flip through. We went from eight to forty. How cool is that?
We have Jurassic Park II playing on Fox at the moment.

Observations

• I have noticed that the disparity between the sound of the show and the sound of the commercial is even worse on DTV. I mean by like double. It only encourages us to mute the commercials more than ever.
  
• I cant even tell if we are receive any HD channels, but the digital ones sure look good.
• Even the Simpsons looks better.
• The TV is lighter than our old tube TV.
• The menu system is not half bad. It took me three minutes to program all the channels.
  
• We need a better antenna. Big time.
• There was a beautiful sunset tonight. Not on the TV.
• There was a beautiful rainbow the other way from the sunset. Also not on the TV.

Well, I'm off to surf all my new channels. Wish me luck.

Update: forgot the couches.

Random Coolness

This is just some random cool thing I found while roaming the net. I think it is much better than all the crazy door designs used by some super car designers. I would try to figure out a better way to get the window to work. That's just me.

Theme of the weekend

Rape ... kill ... pillage and burn. Rape-kill-pillage-'n-burn. Eat the babies!

Rape ... kill ... pillage and burn. Rape-kill-pillage-'n-burn. Eat the babies!

Rape ... kill ... pillage and burn. Rape-kill-pillage-'n-burn. Eat the babies!

Befitting bumper stickers

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

Therapy is expensive. Popping bubble wrap is cheap Your choice.

The Witch of the West was framed.

Things haven't been the same since that house fell on my sister.

Isis - Isis - Ra! Ra! Ra!

Get a taste of Religion, lick a witch.

Remember ... Pillage first, then burn.

Why do psychics have to ask for your name?

Ahhh... I see the Screwup Fairy has visited us again.

Your village called.. The Idiot is missing.

I think we met in a past life and I was a witch then too.

xnczbvjxhasd

I typed that in from frustration and it didn't come back to anything. Now, maybe someone will find something when they get frustrated and at least know they are not alone.

Thought

The only reason I have not achieved ultimate good or evil is because it hasn't dropped in my lap. I picture myself in the back yard on any Saturday or Wednesday night. I hold up my hand and a parade of flattened cars floats past. Their drivers rendered slow for all time. They will know only the passing of time and slow evenings by the window watching other people get on with their lives. I do not have the power. I would use it if I did.

Friday the Thirteenth continued

Did I say Friday the thirteenth had gone well?

So, I get off work early. Nat and I hop in the car and head out to Tony and Chrystol's place for a party that we have been looking forward to for weeks. They are way up 45 some place. We get to the last gas station about two or three miles as the crow flies from their place. I give Chrystol a call to find out if we should grab anything.

The party was canceled days ago. No one told us. W turned around and came home. I think the round trip is two hours and a hundred miles.  I did the google map thing once.

If that is the worse of Friday the thirteenth, we are getting off easy.

Test Intro

Just after the moment, I was stunned having flipped on the way down. I was on the ground, hitting hard. When my eyes opened, before the pain, I had that moment we call eye contact with something in front of me. it was someone's eye lying on the ground. As the pain entered my life, I realized the only person who was near me had died in the explosion. She was the only thing that made me whole. She was the only person who was worth living for. She was the only woman worth being a good man.

I writhed in agony on the ground and spat a curs. Those who killed us, those who made the pain of a broken body and the loss of life's love come, would pay. In this instant my life pivoted on an axis. No moment mattered before or after. I had become the man who would rend nations. I had become the man who would commit religions to history. I had become the man who would change the design and purpose of the species. Not for good. Not just because I can. But, all in the name of vengeance and despair.

Friday the Thirteenth

Nothing special to report so far.

Parking Garage

I walk around the parking garage at lunch and mumble to myself. I also take some pictures now and then. I caught these today.

There is some company up on 12 that draws rich business folks. I think most of them are Argentinian. Click the images for a larger shot.

If I were King

No, I think not.

• You do not want me to have my finger on the button. I would drop the hammer on America's enemies. I would go on TV and laugh at their pain and make them admit they have lost before helping the ragged survivors. Be they hiding behind the skirts of our friends, then those are not our friends.
• You don't want me making the rules for immigration. I would throw people out of this country who do not deserver to be here. I would round people up and put them in work camps until their back taxes are paid off. Then deport them. They would not be aloud to leave until they had ratted on their employers.
• You don't want me to make the rules for employment. No one, and I mean no one would have an excuse to not work. If you are not qualified to do anything useful, then your job would be to help take care of someone who is truly unable to work. You would help them to work. If you are not in a coma, you can do something. If you are not in a coma, you can help take care of someone who is.

I would be the worse King the U. S. ever had. But damn it! I wish I could do something about the problems we have. The world is growing and maturing all around us. No one needs the mighty U. S. economy to guide the financial well being of the planet any more. People in South Korea enjoy the highest percentage of internet connectivity in the world. OPEC wants to stop using U. S. dollars as the basis for pricing oil. Every Tom, Dick and Harry has their own stock exchange.

The U. S. is not in decline. The rest of the world is catching up.

Podcasts

I need to list out some of the better podcasts I have found. I like news. I go for the BBC news feeds. I have some NPR feeds, but I have a hard time listening to NPR for long periods of time because they are liberal pansies. I do like the Writer's Almanac, and The something of our Ingenuity. I still miss just listening to Five Live live feed. They have a bunch of back and forth that I miss. I may try to figure out how to record the live feed and bring it in the next day.

Worrying

I have a bunch of friends who either are now or will soon be cops. This kind of thing worries me. I know it happens all the time. Never become complacent.

Python, wxWidgets, C, and C++

So, I finally get the wxPython crap working. I write a little demo program in it and start learning. Just in time to.get told by my boss "Oh, we don't need anything in Python, it all needs to be in C." I know dick about C. I took a class a long time ago. I can do a bit in a pinch. I will be slow on the up take in the beginning. I've got my two C++ books that I'm taking to work tomorrow. I have the basic hello world for wxWidgets working in C. I just need to wrap my head around things again.

I like Python. I hate how frigging hard it is to do the simplest things in C. Move a piece of data, no no. You need to point to the piece of data in memory and move the pinter around. Sort some data, no no. You point to the pointers that point to the data and then sort those in stead. It all makes about that much sense.

Communication sometimes bad

I'm listening to the BBC interview the guy who "toughened up" the report that Blare went to parliament that justified the war effort for Iraq. It taught me something. When you have separate investigative bodies that do not always get along and do not always cooperate with each other, you can bet that the information they come up with will not always agree. You can then compare the information and the degree and depth of difference will speak volumes. The different possibly competing motivations and resources will produce different results and prevent any one entity (Homeland Security for example) from obtaining too much control of the ears and eyes of the president or congress.

So, the whole idea of getting better communication between police forces may have a fundamental flaw. Our government has a balance of branches. Executive may have to be split giving us four branches. It should be split in to Enforcement and Surveillance. We should not PC the new names. They should be called something scary so people keep an eye on them.

Executive Decision

I'm starting to understand how colossal cluster SNAFUs happen in big business. When I was at my old job in the huge corporation, I never felt part of what actually ended up on the ground at a plant. I was many layers removed from everything. At my current job, I have found myself making decisions based purely on my own experience and not bothering any one else with the details.  it is really annoying when other people do this and end up screwing up something I put so magnificently put together. It is bad for others to have to fix your code. There is a point though where it becomes a direction change and not a fix. I'm not there yet.

It is a constant battle trying to decide what to do with things. How should an error message look? At what point do you abort something? What should the name of a file that everyone including customers will see? Just How much information should go in the name of an RPM file? How much testing is really necessary for an in-house program? There are a million of them. There is no comity to present to. I ask people's opinion and get "Whatever!" more often than not.

I wrote this last Friday. I'm only now putting it up due to extreme laziness

Security Terms

It creeps me out that so many officials are now referring to the U. S. as "The Homeland". It just reminds me of "The Fatherland" from pre-WWII Germany. This comes from the office of homeland security. Someone should have come up with a better name for that governmental over-lord-sight group.

Podcasting

Well, It kind of works. I had to use gpodder. It was the only thing available on yum and I was completely out of gas when I trid to get things working. There is a reason for being out of gas. I have a thing going on at work that is killing me. It is trying to get wxWidgets working on RHEL4. Someone else at the office got it to work with ease. Of course, he is a genius. I'm about to just say forget it and install a whole different operating system on the computer just to get wxWidgets working.

I'm so happy I got the podcasting stuff even kind of working. I missed my BBC terribly. I have felt out of touch for the last year. I wish five live would just record several hours of the live show and simply make it available as best as possible. I wish normal internet radio stations did the same thing. Music would end up being much larger, but USB drives are cheap these days.

One problem I'm running in to is that a bunch of the podcasting community has gone to video and didn't inform me. I'm not sure I can get MP4 files to work on Linux. I'm sure there is something via hook or crook that I can find.

Rough couple of computer days

I jotted down some notes about how bad my computer related day had been going. I shouldn't bother listing them, but it has kept me from blogging because I want to wine about my problems. You don't have to read it.

I bought a bunch of DVD-R disks. The last time I bought a bunch of DVD+R disks I found out that my drive doesn't support DVD+R disks at full speed. So, I bought DVD-R disks this time. I can't get them to work. I now have a spindle of coasters.

At work, I have an assignment that requires wxPython. ... I can't get it to work. Anywhere. Let me check my home computer. ... No. Similar problems.

I give up. I'm going to spend the rest of the day watching what Top-Gear episodes I have left. I'm going to wine and cry for help tomorrow at work.

Islamic Supremacist

was listening to a BBC interview today (actually a podcast from earlier this week) where a couple of people meant very different things by the word Islamist. One meant any one who studied the religion of Islam and the other meant those who believe the whole world should be ruled by the Mullahs and Sharia law. They were speaking to each other on different levels. The ironic thing is the mayor of London sounded like he was talking about Islamic students and the guy who was from some Muslim group said Islamist like it was a curs word.

It's getting to the point I don't know what to call the people I hate any more. How about Islamic Supremacists. I like the ring of that. I don't mind people trying to further their religious ends, but leave me and my family, and my culture out of it, thank you.

Just who is trying to kill me and my family anyway? It is not the folks who are living in squaller in some third world desert. It is not the guy up the street worried how to make ends meet this month, like myself. It is someone who believes in their heart and with all their soul that their way of thinking and believing is better than any one who does not agree.

People in pre-WWII Germany were just living their lives and trying to make things work. They were only one generation away from having lost a war. Then comes a bunch of war heroes who insist things could be better if every one just looked and acted the same. I've always wondered why people would agree to kill off their neighbors. I think I'm closer to comprehending the Nazi appeal. Notice I didn't say 'understand'. The word 'understand' implies some kind of sympathy. I have none for what happened back then. It wasn't that people wanted to kill their neighbors. It was that they wanted things to get better and needed a reason to make drastic changes all at once. Having an ethnic group to blame everything on was just convenient.

I'm not excusing it. This realization makes me fear things that people say and do today. it won't be that long before a major country in what we call Western Europe today will vote in a government that leans heavily toward laws that sound like Sharia. People will quietly move away who do not want that kind of rule. Then, when the majority is firm, the democracy will fall to the Mullahs without a shot being fired. I bet this will happen in my life time.

I don't have any solution. I just think people should read the news and keep up to date on who hates whom and who is actually doing something about it. Who says "stop" and who says nothing at all.

Headline Effect

Some headlines make you cringe. This one gave me a shutter. A whole group of people died from methane.

5 die in dairy farm manure pit ... Authorities said Showalter entered a manure pit to unclog a pipe Monday evening and was quickly overcome by the methane. Stoltzfus, apparently believing Showalter had a heart attack, went in after him and also passed out. Another farm worker alerted Showalter's wife, who rushed to the pit followed by Shayla and Christina. "They all climbed into the pit to help," Sheriff Donald Farley said. The victims had no warning of the deadly gas that had built up in the pit. "You cannot smell it, you cannot see it, but it's an instant kill," said Dan Brubaker, a family friend who oversaw the construction of the pit decades earlier. CNN

From yesterday

Trivia

Answer is: 300,000 kilometers per second.

What's the question?

I will not bother to tell what the question is if no one besides my mother hazards a guess.

One bump, One lesson

So I call home today and Nat says "Elle just came in here and said 'Mommy, I bumped my head!'" Nat doesn't sound happy about it and continues "So I asked her - What were you doing when you bumped your head?" Apparently, Elle had not thought this far ahead because she ran away as the phone rang in stead of giving Nat an answer. I still don't know.

The lesson here is that even a mother's love may come with difficult questions. That's a good thing really. It might keep Elle from doing some stupid shit later in life. We shall see.

Podcast

So, I tried a program called gpodder yesterday. It didn't work. First, it downloaded MP3s OK, but it put them in this cryptic name format so you couldn't tell what had downloaded. Then, it refused to "synchronize"  it kept bitching that I needed to set up my drive. I set up my frigging drive, copy the damn files ... and give them the right frigging name while you are at it. Nope. Just a never ending circle of errors. I looked up the version and it turns out the gpodder on the Fedora yum repository is out dated. I ended up uninstlling it. I'll try something else today or tomorrow.

I miss my five-live. I used to listen to the BBC at work. That was one thing that was cool about my old job. BBC and internet radio.  They just seem to know how to present to people better in the UK. Radio in the States has gone to shit in a bad way. It's gotten to the point I can't listen to the radio. They have go to be doing it on purpose. The government wants those frequencies for other stuff. They are running listeners off to satellite or the internet. I just know it.

I bet I can get podcasts of all kinds of cool stuff. I know other news places have them available in both audio and video. I'm only interested in the audio stuff right now. I don't have internet at work, but I think I can get the podcast stuff to work. There isn't that much to it. As long as the software saves the files in a sane manor I'll figure things out. I've met some people who do podcasting stuff. It can't be that hard. Even on Linux.

...

Well, I'm trying Liferea tonight and I'm getting nowhere. It won't download anything. They have complex way of downloading frigging files. Just wget the files and stick them somewhere I can lay my mouse on them. That is apparently too much to ask.

ATV

I forgot to mention that this past weekend was the first time I ever road an ATV. I did ride a three wheeler when I was a kid, but I don't think I ever soloed. It was fun. It is amazing how quickly you make it around the property on one of those thins. The ranch seems small when a flick of the thumb takes you to 40 mph. All I did was putt around the driveway for ten minutes or so. It was still memorable to me. Now I'm trying to think of a way to mount a video camera one of those things to get some cool footage.

Phil had a great time riding the Yamaha two stroke around. You can barely get that thing out of second before you run out of pasture. Someone mentioned it will do ninety, but left off the details. They also have a two stroke dirt bike. The dirt bike is far more nimble than the ATVs. The Polaris I road has racks and a trailer hook up. You can get some work done with it. I know now that an ATV is really useful on a big plot of land and not just a toy. Well, it's both.

Camera stuff

I need to figure out a way to mount my video camera securely to my head or upper torso. When I walk around or ride a bike, I would love to have the camera going. It would have been great during the ATV ride this weekend. I suppose I could just use duct tape, but that might mix with sweat and turning me into a super villein.

I've been in a mood lately where I don't want to mess with pictures. It has been building for a while. I'm not sure if I have anything against the pictures, or if I'm just being lazy. It's gotten to where I don't want to mess with putting them on the net, so I don't take them. I need to get over it. I miss not having pictures or video of this weekend. Hopefully I can force myself to take the equipment next time.

Fourth celebration

We have plans to celebrate the Fourth this year with some coworkers of mine. They are more than coworkers. They are friends. It is in towns and should be a ball.

Last night we went over to Tony and Diz's place. I have to say it was a ball and a half. I drove a four wheeler around for a minute. It was a Polaris automatic. I set off a bunch of bottle rockets and hit someone in the face. Apparently one is to let go when the rockets fires. Who knew? We had a bonfire of brush and limbs.

I didn't take my camera because I thought it might be raining. I should have. The one picture I regret not getting was a tripod shot of the moon beams coming through the trees. The driveways out there have the coolest effect of moonlight as you walk down them. I bet I could have taken some pretty cool shots.

I had a ball.

Note: I could only find videos of people doing 100 mph on ATVs or jumping things.