Here we go. I was a matter of time before Europe was going to bitch loud enough to provoke the Russians in to turning off the spigot. Someone needs to drop a set and tell the Ruskies to drink their fucking oil. Who thought Russia was a good bet for a continuous oil and gas supply? They should be fired or at least drug around the streets with a cow bell around their neck and a sign that says "dumbass" in German.
What the hell did you expect?
I didn't figure out that it was Aug 31 until a couple minutes ago. I
thought it was Sept. 1. At least this means there will be no Friday the
thirteenth this month. Got to keep an eye on those.
Nat stayed up most if not all of the night to get Elle first thing
this morning from her sleep over. It sounds like Elle had fun. I had a
headache all day. The three naps I took to get rid of it all basically
made me feel lethargic. I did manage to write up all the bills. Nat
will mail them Tuesday hurricane permitting
Elle is officially my giggling elbow-mole. As I watch stuff on my
computer, she stands at my right elbow and watches what's on my screen.
I have to distracted when I come across stressful videos to make sure
she has been sufficiently distracted so I can put them up on my blog.
I saw some videos
of people in New Orleans. Some were leaving and some were hanging out
and acting like idiots. The democrats are on video laughing about the
timing. Michael More was thanking God about the timing because it
screwed the Republicans out of ratings. What a fat prick. I have no
love for Louisiana to be honest. It still pisses me off that with all
the bitching about how Katrina was handled, the Democrats are fucking
chipper about the timing of a similar disaster because it happens to be
in their favor. Shallow Bastards.
Gustav looks bad. It is Saturday evening. There has not been a cloud
in the sky most of the day. It has been hot and humid. No wind to
speak of. It looks like this hurricane, based on the most likely
computer simulations, is it will hit the Louisiana coast and stall,
being held up by high pressure areas to the north and west. This will
cause storm to weaken, as far as winds are concerned. However, the rain
is just as strong as ever. So, the three days the storm is over western
Louisiana and easter Texas it will be pounding us with buckets of rain.
The storm is expected to make land fall late Monday. This will most
likely be in Louisiana. I will end up going to work Tuesday and getting
stuck there because of all the flooded streets with no power and no
food. I bet the water won't even work for some reason. People will
freak and I will have to take charge and save everyone from imploding
or reverting to mob mentality and taking over the neighboring Target.
Everyone else is blogging about what's her name. The Republican vice
presidential nominee. She sounds cool. I suppose I could stand her. She
lives in Alaska. She shoots guns. She eats Moose burgers. She has five
kids, one with Downs syndrome. I'm worried about the hurricane and
paying the bills. I have a stack of bills on my desk that need
attention. I can't mail any of them out until Tuesday anyway. That is
if the hurricane does not interfere. I have nothing else to say about
politics. Screw all of them. They are rich and I am not. People running
for office should be forced to make the median income of their
constituency for the duration.
Elle is off to an over night party at her dance school. It sounds
like no one from her class was there, but Nat last saw her getting a
piggy-back ride from an older student. Elle was crying earlier because
she thought she was going to have to dance all night in those shoes
that hurt her feet. We had to explain that A) That is not what an over
night party means. B) she needs to ware the shoes for an hour or so
every day until they stretch. C) Something else. You will have to ask
Nat about that last one. I need a second scotch of the day.
There is something wrong with the cat. The old one, Tiger, is
walking around and meowing. He acts like he is lost in the middle of
the living room. Nat speculates that he may have lost some vision. I
think he senses impending doom of apocalyptic rain and a blind man
leading an invasion of a department store.
Fuck him and his Corvette. I wish this video had ended in a bang and a mushroom cloud.
People need to control their weapons. They didn't grow up having to control a certain something that guys know all about.
I complained about the speed, or lack of speed, when using regular
expressions for string compares under Python. Of course, it turns out I
was not utilizing the resource properly. I looked at what was going on
and decided to try doing the same work in one large regex apposed to
several small ones. It only took a few minutes to add the code that
stitched the 167 strings together in such a way that they will act as
one huge regex.
|
# Stitch a list together as one long regular expression string. def MakeReg(sourceList): stringTotal="" for string in sourceList: stringTotal = stringTotal + "|" + str(string) # Return the list with the first or bar '|' return stringTotal[1:] |
That code simply takes the existing list of strings and stitches
them together with an or bar '|' (capital back slash). This makes one
regex perform hundreds of searches in one fell swoop. What this means
is, now, the whole search takes two minutes less on 69000 files than it
did with standard string searches. That is an hour and twenty minutes
down to less than ten minutes with the same result at the end. The time
savings come in because the number of regex encounters went from
sixteen million to three hundred thousand.
In stead of 167x69000x3x80 or whatever it was, it is now more like
69000x4x2-(a bunch of removed redundancy)+(some checking for duplicate
files). It turns out running fewer huge regex are far less stressful
than many small checks that accomplish nearly the same thing. I'm sure
there is more tweaking that can be done. I'm not exactly an expert.
Sample output.
| 2008-08-29_17-51 -------- Summary ------------------------------ Total files processed > .............................. Good files in playlist > .............................. Bad files out of list > .............................. Fantastic files > .............................. Number of Duplicates > .............................. -------- time ------------------------------ Process seconds > .............................. Elapsed seconds > .............................. Files/second > .............................. reg ex count > .............................. CPU time of this process > .............................. -------- Info ------------------------------ Good file > .............................. Fantastic file > .............................. Log file > ..................... kelly_log_2008-08-29_17-42.log Directory processed > .............................. Items in kill list > .............................. Items in fantastic list > .............................. Options > .............................. ['-o', '-f', 'kelly_fan', '-g', 'kelly_good', '-l', 'kelly_log'] ------------------------------ |
My handwriting is a nightmare. I might as well not write stuff down. That is the print. The cursive is nonexistent. I found a note pad in one of the labs this morning with some perfect print hand writing. It made me think that I need to work on my printing. There are times I need to keep notes.
When I tried to write nicely in a meeting today, it was still atrocious. I miss using my PDA for meetings. I need a laptop, just for taking notes in my fifteen minute daily stand up.
I've always had frightening handwriting. It is a matter of not
learning in the first place and having poor eyesight. Poor eyesight
leads to poor eye hand coordination in general. It is also lack of
practice. When I do not need to write on paper, I don't I far
prefer
typing. I can read what I write. It is many times faster. I feel more
creative with typing apposed to writing. I do not have to think about
typing to get it done.
My father has typewriter quality printing. I did not inherit that
trait..
How important is it to have pretty or proper handwriting? I say as long as someone knows what I was trying to say, that is good enough. It is not like I'm trying to make a living handwriting crap. I write code for a living and that is bad enough. No handwriting there. Trouble is, no one can read my writing.
Kind of hard to tell what they are shooting. Lasers have the cool factor, but just how effective are they in combat?
| 2008-08-27_19-18 -------- Summary ------------------------------ Total files processed > .............................. Good files in play list > .............................. Bad files out of list > .............................. Fantastic files > .............................. Number of Duplicates > .............................. -------- time ------------------------------ Process seconds > .............................. Elapsed seconds > .............................. Files/second > .............................. reg ex count > .............................. CPU time of this process > .............................. -------- Info ------------------------------ Options > ............... ['-o', '-l', 'kelly_log', '-f', 'kelly_fan', '-g', 'kelly_good'] Good file > .............................. Fantastic file > .............................. Log file > .............................. Directory processed > .............................. Items in kill list > .............................. Items in fantastic list > .............................. ------------------------------ |
A friend of mine actually said "Isn't it refreshing to have a big
nation just blatantly invade another smaller nation. I mean Russia just
rolled over Georgia for the money." That is not entirely the case.
Russia had a
bunch of Russian passport holders being oppressed in that section of
Georgia. That section of Georgia was part of Russia proper before the
Soviet Union. This dispute has been a long time in the making.
Don't get me wrong. Russia is flexing its might. This Russo-Georgian
conflict is about the money.Russia is run by Mob bosses and they are
showing their colors.
Russia is the enemy of our fathers. My grandfather fought in WWII.
My father was rebuilding Korea during the Vietnam war. I have friends
fighting in the Middle East right now. Something about having Russia
piss us off feels comfortable. It feels familiar. My generation was the
last to read articles in history class about how Russia stole Eastern
Europe after WWII. I did a report on the East Berlin Air Lift.
We had a kid in our history class who was born in West Berlin. I
wish now that I had asked him what he thought about that time
period. I was in high school. I did not realize the opportunity I was
missing.
We have had to fight new fights for so long now that we are
weary of learning new ways to fight. This leads to the next
bullet.
The reason Briton and France went in to the Middle East in the first
place was for the money. Europe wanted to trade for everything from
spices, goods, raw materials and trade routs to places East.. Europe
noticed how fragmented the entire area was and made the decision to
keep the area that way to prevent the entire Middle East from getting
organized and charging more.
People think of these countries as over grown tribes and hardly
worth worrying about. That will all change when Iran gets nukes. I
digress.
Germany made several moves that all but match what Russia is doing
right now, just before WWII. Half the conservative bloggers out there
start their entries with something like "1938 alert" to bring one's
attention to this fact. Many people feel we may be witnessing the
beginnings of WW (either III if you believe none of the other wars
since WWII were real wars or IV if you count the dozen or so wars we
are fighting right now count as WWIII).
There is a grumbling under current that says it s OK to hate Russia because it is full of white people. There are plenty of reasons to be pissed at Russia besides this. Russia is ethnically divers, to a point. I dismiss this argument for now. Maybe a later debate.
I cannot condone deliberate violence against people exorcising their constitutional rights. However, Code Pink can bite my ass.
I was all ready to complain about the poor quality of videos coming down the pike. The first video turns out to be a winner. Not too deadly, but just enough injuries to be funny as hell.
This will be wonderful if it pans out. Making bio-fuel from algae just sounds right. I vaguely remember someone saying you could make diesel from algae. I'll believe it when I fill up the tank. This guy better not get Tuckered like all those other folks with magic energy cures.
Russia is slipping off the side of the pool in to the deep end with that drunken self absorbed slow motion too low to be human cackle reminiscent of a bully clown. I picture the chubby older stupid held back a couple times kid in mid air, half way to a cannonball in to water too deep for someone that drunk. Here is hoping they hit their head on a rock and drown.
How dare Russia act in it's own interest regardless of cost. I
thought this was a global globe. I thought the whole world was out
to get the U. S. in this fight for survival together, as one,
with liberty and justice for everyone who qualifies as a registered
minority.
One of the World View interviews last week was all about the Russian
Mob. I've heard that the leadership of much of what is now Russian
government came up through one or another Mob organizations. The U. S.
pulls leaders from the military. Russia pulls them from the Mob. Some
might ask what is the difference?
I've already gone too far in this post. I better stop now.
I completely missed this when it came out. It is a sign that I have lost touch with common knowledge of TV. I don't watch TV any mo re so I'm behind the times. It used to be that I was at least in touch with the shows that were not on cable. I cannot even say tha t any more. Still, it is a very cool intro. 14
Looks like a blast. Is Ford still making the Crown Victoria Pursuit vehicle? Link
Found this information in about four places on the net.
It all look like it all comes from some original somewhere, but I
cannot tell which is the original. None of this is my code. It is all
cut and paste.
My /etc/vimrc
| "
Activate spell checker. setlocal spell spelllang=en_us highlight clear SpellBad highlight SpellBad term=standout ctermfg=1 term=underline cterm=underline highlight clear SpellCap highlight SpellCap term=underline cterm=underline highlight clear SpellRare highlight SpellRare term=underline cterm=underline highlight clear SpellLocal highlight SpellLocal term=underline cterm=underline set spellfile=~/.vim/spellfile.{encoding}.add |
I pasted this to the bottom of the /etc/rc file and spelling started
to work. At work, I have so many different needs that I have two
/etc/vimrc files. vim -u <file name> will let you switch to a
different vimrc file. That is convenient because the underlined
words and different colors would get in the way at work .I
primarily keep VIM working on my home box because I'm one yum updated
from a broken NEdit. NEdit is the 'normal' text editor. NEdit is more
like the editors in Windows. Lets face it, I'm more used to this kind
of editor. I use NEdit at work ,but it just plane doesn't work on half
the servers so I keep VIM working.
VI comes in handy when I cannot get X working over the network. Some prefer nano, or pico, but those suck. I go with vi. Any modern machine works with it I've heard some people use EMacs exclusively because vi is too feature rich. I would have said you are nuts if you had told me that a couple years ago. However, recently, I've noticed all the crap out there for vi. I bet there is a book titled "All the VIM crap you didn't know about" If not, there needs to be one. Funny thing, the last place you can find good information about VI or VIM (same thing I think) is the official web site. The Wikipedia is interesting if not very technical.
VIM is one of the first programs I found when starting out on Linux.
Someone pointed me towards the program when I couldn't get anything
else to work. If you ask me VIM is easier to learn
that EMacs. That is saying a lot because VIM is a pain in the ass
to learn. I tell you, VIM and other command line programs nearly turned
me off Linux all together. I thought that if that is a sample of how to
get something done,to hell with this worthless OS. I got over it. VIM
seems much easier than many alternatives. The truth is, I know it
already so anything else is something new to learn. Sad, but true.
It has gotten to the point that I do not bother keeping information
like this locally. I used to keep documents on my local machine and
backed up somewhere so I could go look the information up the next time
I needed it. Now, I rely completely on the internet to hang on to the
information for me. This is really, really bad because I do not trust
the internet to be what it is today in a couple years. I really do
believe that something is going to give out in the name of cyber
security. That is, we are not going to have a an internet anymore in a
couple years. We are going to have a web of interlinked commercial s
for government approved products. Oh, and porn. Porn makes too much
money and generates far too high tax revenue to just let it fall by the
way-side.
Got up. Fixed something to eat. Did a bit of dishes. Pulled the bag
out of the trash can and felt a twinge that said "Go weed-eat the
yard." So, I went and weed-whacked the yard. I've learned that I need
to jump on the whim when it calls, or I'll miss my opportunity.
When I got back in the house, covered in grass, it turns out I had
left some food sitting out - left the tied bag of trash in the middle
of the kitchen and no bag in the trash can - and something else I don't
remember. Nat was in the middle of the kitchen giving me crap about
attempting to mow in the middle of the day. I tried to explain the
whole "strike while the iron is hot" thing, but it was getting me
nowhere. I jumped in the shower and then collapsed on the couch. After
sitting there for a bout ten minutes, I realized I should just go lay
down. I laid down and listened to one of the stories on my tapes for
the blind. I didn't even feel like falling asleep. I just needed to let
my body relax.
Nat is in her room talking with someone on the phone about how much
she feels like she did back when she was homeless because we are broke.
The bills are paid. We just can't afford to eat out every night and buy
a bunch of loose crap. Some of which we don't really need. So far, we
are not missing any essentials. I have to pay a $1,000 bill for dance
lessons before we can do much of anything. We are not homeless, and
will not become homeless if I have anything to say about it.
No, off to look up some instructions for doing the same thing to my
phone Nat did to hers. Well, remove unwanted files and free up some
space anyway.
10 11
1213 The firefighter opens the same old bag of tricks to prevent someone from jumping long enough to get the air bag under the window. L ooks like accomplished that much. The jumper escaped with minor injuries the caption read. 14
So, Yesterday I'm at work and it has been raining all day. It rained
harder than it did during that hurricane again. Second day in a row.
Nat gave me rides, but today she needed to take care of some business
and asked me if I could find a ride. I said I could find the bus, but
she didn't want me tracking mud all over the house like I have the past
couple of nights. I'm not sure how to help that. I have to walk through
a couple fields, one active and one old construction site on the way to
and from the bus stop. I don't want to drag mud all over the place. It
just sort of happens. My boss said something to me about it at work a
while back. Ever since then, I keep a pare of shoes at work for muddy
days. I take the boots off at home at the front door and leave them in
the front hall. I have to use boots with big lugs on the bottom so I
can get traction even in the slippery bits. Thus, there is plenty of
mud left on the boots. Cleaning is not really an option at home or
work. A hose at high pressure is the only way to really get the boots
mud free. They are then wet for some time. There is no hose that I'm
aware of at work. I wouldn't feel comfortable hosing them off at work
regardless. As it is, my pants are damp from walking through tall grass
on my commute.
What does the above paragraph have to do with a couch you might ask
yourself? I'm getting there.
It is around :16:50 when I spoke to Nat about getting a ride or not.
I was prepared to take the bus when I over hear Adam talking about
needing help lifting a couch to the second floor for some relatives
coming to witness a baptism. I negotiated a ride home and Adam
even
offered to buy some dinner folks who showed up. Jake offered to come
over and help. Adam ended up calling Josh. He turned up. It is a
sleeper couch so I tied up the frame to prevent mid-stair
destination.
We made a few measurements. Looked at the couch. Looked at the stairs.
Looked at the doorway. Bitched about the Olympics for a moment. Then
each grabbed a corner and started the climb.
Adam and Jake were on the high side. Josh and I were on the low
side. The couch was heavy, but not with four guys on it. I'm glad we
had four because it afforded us a lot of control to avoid hitting the
light fixtures or walls. The trip up the stairs was not as difficult as
it looked. Getting the damn thing through the doorway was a bit
hazardous. The couch is 86 inches long and on it's end, taller
than
the door jam. Just opposite the doorway is the banister overlooking the
first floor living room. Lorie kept CC at bay while we were performing
this feat of manliness. Good thing too, because that kept her from
being able to film it.
It turns out the door way was not that big a deal. We parked the
couch in front of the doorway vertically. Adam, in the room, pulled the
bottom of the couch in to the room as the rest of us held the couch at
an increasing angle and kept it from falling over the banister.
At
this point it was simply a matter of following Lorie's instructions on
positioning and putting the feet and cushions back on. Job done.
The food showed up. We watched three hours of left over Olympics
including ping-pong and some soccer. I was falling asleep at around
22:00 when Adam gave me that ride home.
Elle was already in bed. I went in and noisily gave her a good night
kiss. I was selfishly hoping she would stir and say good night, but she
was crashed. She is off to her grandfather's place this weekend so that
was the last chance I had to spend any time with her until Sunday
night. Bummer.
I didn't even turn on the computer. I hung out with Nat for a moment then went to bed. It felt good to do something physical like move furniture. I think one couch was just the right amount to scratch that itch. My back is just a little bit sore today. That never happened when I was younger. Yes Virginia, there is an old guy in the mirror.
Written 2008-08-21
Nat had some phone trouble. She finally downloaded the software to edit her phone. She deleted a bunch of crap and messed up the alarm sounds and ring tones. This is typical of first time editing of the phone's settings. I probably did something similar. The lady at the T-Mobile store was very helpful. Nat also found out her phone had some water damage at some point.
What prompted this effort is all the junk on our phones that you cannot delete. There are a bunch of screen savers and pictures, not to mention sounds, that you cannot delete. They eat up a bunch of space. If they are useless, you should be aloud to get rid of the damn things. Let's face it, if you have more room on your phone, you will buy more shit from the music and movie companies.
As a result, Nat's alarm did not go off this morning. She was able
to set the phone to vibrate, but none of the sounds were working. She
was worried about having to get a new phone.
Our contract does not end until May I believe. We are stuck
with
these phones for a long time yet. When we do decide to re-up or swap, I
intend to look very hard at new plans and new companies. I want
unlimited text/media messages. I also want more minutes. I want a lower
bill and more features. I know, good luck, right?
I do not want anything like an iPhone. I would like something that
handles media. I'm sure Nat would like something similar. My parents
got new phones recently that to texting pretty well. One of the phones
I looked at the other day took unlimited video and had a 5mp camera
built in. That is pretty cool. The camera in our Razer phones kind of
sucks. I knew that when I got them though. The camera isn't much good
for snapshots really if it has no flash. Some phones do.
I would still like to sync my phone. I insist on using Linux. Linux has gotten much better over the years, but I may have a bunch of research cut out for me if I really want that functionality. I read somewhere that there are a couple phones that sync directly to either Google or Yahoo. If that includes the calendar, that is fantastic because that removes the entire hook-it-to-the-computer bullshit involved. I have no idea what that costs. I bet you need the high end service that includes internet and whatnot. But I want it. That makes it OK. <nerves smile>
This is so good. You are here to fight, not be a bouncy fucker. This is what I would have liked to do to that guy I posted yesterday.
Poland says yes to U. S. missile defense system. Russia is pissed.
Poland has been resisting all this time because they didn't want to piss Russia off too much. I'm sure there is an incentive offered by the U. S. to Poland to have the U. S. system in place in addition to some sense of self defense. Now that Russia invaded Georgia, the disincentive for the placement is pretty much moot. Russia will invade whenever the hell they feel like it so, why not take the U. S. taxpayer money and missile defense system?
The Russians have come right out and said that the missile defense
system breaks their nuclear deterrent status. That is, if you nuke us,
we will nuke you deterrent. The U. S. says the placement is to protect
against Iran, not Russia. The defense system can shoot down either
apparently. I have no idea. I've read nothing on the potential of the
missile defense system the news reports are talking about. I assume it
is the same system they tested off the coast of California a couple
years ago.
The MSM keeps calling Georgia 'The Former Soviet Republic of Georgia'.
What the hell is that? Georgia is not part of Russia. The Soviet Union
is long dead. Georgia is a country. A nut-ball up-start country, but
then many small countries have to be a bit crazy just to survive. I
mean, Georgia has to grow up right next door to the biggest bully on
the block.
So really, Russia has lost some street cred with the invasion of
Georgia. I bet Russia thought the move would make them look tough.
Instead, Russia looks unstable on an international level. Russia used
an excuse of defending passport holders. The fact that Russia was
giving Russian passports to people who are citizens of another country
is not lost on the world stage. That is a red flag when it comes
to
international relations. It is bait on a hook for the target country to
bite. Georgia bit, and got caught. Georgia has been upgraded with NATO.
Whatever that means, Georgia is still not a member of NATO. I'm sure
the Russians are not happy about it.
Russia will leave troops in Georgia with the intent of controlling
just how far Georgia can push Russia's buttons. There will be a bit of
back peddling on Russia's part, but not much. Nothing obvious. Back
door political channels are probably lit up with vague non-apologies
and half-assed statements of standing down. Perhaps a couple "Fuck
you"s thrown in for good measure. The public will not be let in on the
jokes. Russia will still be Russia. The Middle East will still be in
turmoil. The West will still be clueless how to survive and Joe
six-pack will worry far more about getting laid than anything to do
with politics.
All is well. Well, if not well, all just is.
I remember hearing a quote from a writer "I hate writing. I love
having written." That is so true. I listen to podcasts talking about
authors. Some of the books suck. Most of the books reviewed, of course,
don't suck because the sucky ones don't make it to being interviewed.
That is in the eye of the beholder.
If I could throw a switch and suddenly have already written a
mediocre book, I would throw it. I'm not sure I would throw that switch
if it meant I could never attempt to write something better. I would
not sell my sole or anything. Still, I think about it.
I'm not even sure what my ultimate goal is. Do I want the public
recognition of being an author? Do I want to leave a mark? Do I want to
reach people on some level of consciousness? Do I want the residuals?
Do I want adoration of fans or peers?
Yes. Well, no. ... maybe. I like the idea of having written. I like
the idea of the freedom of living where I want at a comfortable
standard and writing about what is in my head and heart. Who doesn't
want something along that line?
Since I know so little about any given subject, I'm thinking
fiction. I like the Star Wars universe, but I would hate to be tied
down to any established universe. Every fan has a preconceived notion
of what is and is not available. I would never get the rules straight.
I would make some fundamental cock-up and receive a never ending stream
of belligerent geeks telling me how I've made a catastrophic mistake
because I had a door open the wrong way compared to something that was
in a movie.
The Star Wars tax might be a bit steep. In order to use the same
universe, I assume you have to hand a percentage over to Lucas. I don't
really have a problem with that in theory. Practice would piss me off
however. I've read some pretty lame books based on Star Wars characters
and themes. It can't be that hard to get the nod from any powers that
be.
The Wheel of Time series and Ring World series are kick ass fiction
that made up their own universes. That's great. It takes a lot of work
for sure. It is nothing that someone can't do with a few thousand hours
of free time. I'm sure there are hundreds of good fiction books that do
create their own worlds without a tremendous layout of effort. I can't
think of any off hand.
The secret seems to be inspiration. One must be driven to put the
information down and follow through with the work. It takes a long time
to write something worth while. Few things roll off the end of a pen
worth a dime without spending sweat and toil in the process. There are
bound to be exceptions. People who sit down and the words poor from
them are most likely writing about something they have experience with
first hand, or they have had the subject on their mind for while.
I think I know how this will fall in to place for me. I will have to
sit down and start writing anecdotes with my characters in a very short
story form. Once I learn who these characters are and their
motivations, I need to put together an outline and lengthen the stories
possibly to chapters. Then I need to scrap the whole thing and
concentrate on a degree in something useful.
That last little tern is what kills me every time. That is why I'll
never write anything. In order to do it, I will have to go out on a
limb a bit. I just don't know if I can keep that up for any length of
time. Straight-Lace-Kelly derails the effort before it gets off the
ground.
The blog is going well because it has no structure. Notice that there is no theme here. This blog is just whatever I feel like throwing against the wall at any given time.I like it like that. This is why I've stuck with it for so long.
Did I already publish this? It is so cute, it is worth two posts any way. This was like a year or so ago.
It was raining last night when I took the trash can to the curb. I
took the can down and left it in the normal place. I get wet in the
process. No big deal. As I turned and headed back to the garage, a
small sports car pulled up and parked in front of my neighbor's house.
This is not abnormal. I did not recognize the little white rag top. The
car just sat there for a long time. I made an effort to be noticed
standing in the mouth of my garage and keeping an eye on the street.
A minute or so after the car pulled up, a man, that I believe was
someone I have noticed at my neighbor's house before, walked up towards
my driveway from Westheimer's direction in the rain. He seemed upset.
He shouted something like "... Going to fuck-up my shit!" and ran from
my road, beside my house, along the fence line. I do not know where he
went from there. He sounded stressed.
Now I was determined to be noticed paying attention to the antics
unfolding in front of me. A couple minutes went by and someone got out
of the little white coop and got something out of the trunk I believe.
Maybe it was the other seat. He was standing there in the rain like he
was wondering what to do next.
I went inside.
I have suspected that there is a body buried in our backyard ever
since meeting the past owner. I think she buried her husband out there.
Now, I wonder if our neighbor has followed suite. Remember the movie
"The Burbs"? I'm feeling the weirdness. I waited to see if the guy
would throw the thing in the neighbor's trash can and smash it down
with a shovel.
I'm tempted to peak over the fence and look for fresh dug up spots.
The truth is, I don't want to know. Just like I do not want to know if
we indeed have a previous owner in the still taking up residence in the
back forty.
So, I'm listening to news podcasts at work. The last one I listened too spoke highly of Phelps. He got 8 metals which ties him with Australia. They are all over this guy saying he is young enough to try it again next time. He gets a million bucks from his sponsors. Kids are going to sign up for swim team. A new word 'Phelpsian' will be added to the lexicon describing a sweeping win. blah blah.
It was only a few minutes before quitting time and I kicked off some
music because I had no short podcast left. Out of thirty some-odd
thousand songs, the random song that comes up is "My Name is Mud" by
Primes. Not a good omen. It would so suck if The U. S. golden boy comes
home in some kind of disgrace or if even a blemish is found on his
performance.
As it stands Phelps is going out on top. That is a place to go out.
Hell, he may grow his brand and perform a similar show in four years. I
tell you Phelpsian will stand for something completely different if he
is found to have doped or fathered a litter of puppies or something.
When thing are this good, most places to go are down. I really hope he
pulls it off, but not in public. =]
Here is hoping that Michael Phelps pulls a Phelps.
Jackie Chan wannabe dork. I cuss at you because I'm envious. I can't walk a straight line without stumbling.
I was watching Thunder
Road. There is a scene where the driver is working on his car. He
crawls around the engine compartment of a 1954 Ford coop. He wiped his
hands on a rag and closed the hood. I could smell the garage. It
smelled like gas, oil, cigarettes, engine cleaner, grime, mud, sweat
and ceder. I don't need any proof. I just know it. I've been there. I
don't know when. I've been there.
Lets review what the War on Drugs (version 1.0 (Nixon) through
5.0
(Bush jr)) has done for drug distribution.
So, the War on Drugs has made the problem worse. If I didn't know
better, I would swear the Democrats had been in charge the whole
time.
So, what will fix the issue? How do I know!? I might say put a slightly radio active element in shipments of drugs and send them out to the masses. Then test for said radio active traces and start rounding people up. Put them in work camps to make things that are currently made in China. If they get sick from the radiation, fuck 'em. I might say this, but it is politically incorrect to want to bring harm to those who unwittingly (read don't give a shit) support our enemies. Hey, they are sick and can't help spending their money on drugs that they ingest without aid of a gun to the head. ... Oh, yes, politically incorrect.
During Dawn's birthday party, a police officer friend showed up
straight from work waring a vest. He didn't look like he was warring
body armor. The vest was thin enough to be concealed for the most part
under the uniform. I noticed it was uncomfortable at some points. He
didn't want to eat too much because it required a readjustment.
While watching the videos of the Georgian Russian conflict (read
war), many men fighting were not waring noticeable body armor. Perhaps
some of these men were 'irregulars', but not all. The funny thing is
the soldiers clearly warring armor were the ones ducking behind things.
Someone suggested the Russians substitute vodka for body armor.
A couple of years ago, I saw a video that was Russian soldiers
hazing new recruits. The elders were basically kick-boxing the
newbies
as they marched by and the newbies were unable to fight back. This was
to toughen the rockies up I assume. They are headed to war for goodness
sake. I have no idea how effective it is. It looked like this was all
just part of standard training. I do not know if the video was of some
special forces type group, or regular army.
Now, I firmly believe the availability of body armor is limited in
many armies around the world. I have no idea what the supply of body
armor is like in the Russian or even Georgian militaries. Perhaps this
toughness mentality sticks around to the point troops on the front line
do not want to ware body armor. I believe the U. S. army is one of the
best supplied in the world and there are still issues with body armor
supplies making it to the front line in mass and on time.
There was a threat made at the birthday party that if someone is
killed because they were not waring their armor, the person making the
threat would send a clown to the funeral with happy birthday balloons.
A gentle hint that we want this person to stick around regardless of
the danger of their job.
If I had to go into combat, I would want to hide behind the
Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man.
I've often thought my father had a pretty easy time when he bot his
hog. It could
have been worse.
They were some kind of artists. One of the comments was that all the screams were in key. I like that one.
This is clearly staged. I want to hear the story behind someone shooting someone else's RC helicopter with a shot gun and storming off in a huff.
It is good to finally have a used car lot come clean and tell it like they really feel.
You know, my very local news posts have deteriorated to bullets
commenting on news that I come across during my day. I hope this is not
a problem. As always, let me know if it pisses you off.
A Georgian reporter, while reporting a war scene without a vest on, gets shot, only to retire to a van where she puts on a vest. It looks like she is OK. It looks like she got clipped on the arm. It looks like it hurt. It looks like it scared he hell out of the entire crew.
Lesson learned.
I really hope this is not the next big thing in cars. You know what I mean. Some lower their cars. Some put in jumping hydraulics. Some to the high-rise cars. High-risers almost make sense for Houston. Anyway, the spark thing sucks. I really hope this is a one off. IF not, be assured, I'll have video for them blowing by my house with a comet's tail behind them. Bastards.
This is far less stressful than watching a tank of Parana eat a frog with the same philosophy. That was bad news. This is inspiring.
I saw something about this a long time ago on local PBS. It was under experimentation then. Looks pretty cool. I wonder just how effective it will be long term. I also wonder if they can fit it on a smaller plane any time soon.
Georgia
used to be under Russia's thumb with the old Soviet Union.
It is a matter of pride that the Georgians are not just independent,
but making a go of being a member of the international scene and
competing with Russia on a couple fronts.
A pipeline for natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe through
Georgia. Russia wants it to go through Russia. Russia invades Georgia
to show, regardless of where the pipeline goes, Russia will have
influence over it. Remember, you can't put natural gas in a tanker and
ship it where you need it. You pretty much have to use a pipeline.
Russia wants to control the heating fuel supply to Europe so Russia
cannot be as easily intimidated by Europe. Something about 'short
hairs'.
Georgia asked a while back to become a member of NATO. NATO said no for the time being. Russia does not want a NATO country on her border. If Georgia had indeed become a member of NATO, the US and other countries in NATO would be obligated to respond militarily to an invasion. This would kill the Russian influence mentioned above.
Those two provinces in Georgia that are 90% Russian citizens have
Georgian troops running around doing bad things. The Russians have
'peace keepers' protecting the Russian citizens. Some of those peace
keepers got killed in the process. This is when the tanks started
rolling.
Georgia sent troops to Iraq. This makes them a friend of the U. S.
in a way. I heard the U. S. flew the Georgian troops home. The act of
loaning troops to the U. S. lead effort pissed Russia off because
Russia has influence in the region and doesn't want the U. S. or
Georgia for that matter tipping balances.
The Russians have insisted that they do not want to use the term
'regime change' calling it an American term, but that is pretty much
what they are after. The current democratically elected leader of
Georgia is a prick as far as the Russians are concerned and needs to go.
The message Russia wants to send with this invasion is "If you piss
us off and we do something to you, the West will not come to your aid."
So far Russia has been proven 100% correct. The West, including the U.
S., is sitting on it's hands for the moment and watching the Olympics.
Who is next for Russia? I have no idea where things will go from
here. If Romania and Ukraine fall, the old Soviet Union is pretty much
reborn.
Russia has never, and I mean never given a rat's tits what the rest
of the world thinks. Russia is out for Russia and hell with those who
get in the way. I respect that. Putin and Medvedev are
currently
considered heroic for kicking the crap out of some pipsqueak country
with a prick leader who is hurting Russian citizens and Russian peace
keepers. The Russians may elect mob bosses, but the people have the
leader's back when it comes to matters of national pride. I respect
that too.
Georgia is a puny country with a couple of natural resources. One of
their biggest resources is their positioning on the map. They cover the
entire area between a sea and Russia. If someone needs to get a pipe
from the middle east to Europe, they need to talk to Russia, or
Georgia. Remember, that pipeline can be turned off on a whim.
Georgia is getting its ass kicked by Russia. I respect that Georgia
is taking on Russia. I'm not so happy with how the West is encouraging
Georgia to be a thorn in Russia's side and then not backing Georgia
directly. Oh, I know there are advisers and some supplies turning up in
the right places. I'm talking a line drawn in the Slavic Soil.
I've already heard some podcasts where collage professors blame the
Bush administration for setting up Georgia for a fall. That didn't take
long. I must say, it has been great having one man to blame for
everything wrong in the world for the last eight years.
News casters on the scene are calling the Russian presence an "occupation". Things are looking permanent. The Georgians held a concert. Good PR move. Nothing like a celebrity to bring people to your cause. Good thing celebrities are for sale on every street corner in the West.
The Today Show podcast is devoted solely to the Olympics. I have not
watched a single game all the way through. I've watched ten minutes of
basketball actually. I hate it when there is one dominating story on
every news outlet. Thank goodness for the Georgian war to break up the
non-stop Olympic coverage. Thank you Russia. (I'm being sarcastic.
Don't send me hate mail.).
I remember as a kid that the Watergate hearings kicked cartoons off
the air for a couple of weeks during the summer. I was like six, but it
pissed me off then too. Something similar happened during Wimbledon in
the eighties. I distinctly remember two different channels playing
tennis during Wimbledon back then. We only had five channels. The rest
were playing day time TV that sucked. Again, cartoons were the first
victims.
In this modern age, there are so many outlets for information that
one would think the diversity of world events would shine through. This
is not always the case. Every blog including mine is rattling off war
coverage. The Today show and other specialty shows have taken a much
needed break from election coverage to cover the Olympics.
Things like wars, plane crashes, sex scandals, Olympics and the like
take the reins of global news for great swaths of time. Every outlet
pores out the same tired facts and figures. They plagiarize each
other's scoops. Steel each other's informants.
I suppose MSM outlets feel they would be derelict in duty if they
didn't at least hit the highlights. That is where blogs come in handy.
Each entry can focus on a specific need, so you can make one detailed
entry. Maybe even keep it up to date and then move on with other topics
in additional entries. I have to say, it has been nice this election
Olympic war Britney-running-for-president news cycle, having many so
many places which to tern to get information about whatever you are
interesting in at the moment. I mean, the Mayor of Detroit is in all
kinds of trouble. Heard that on a podcast during most of this.
Takes a lickin' and keeps on flippin'.
On a side note, one of the videos recommended for viewing after this one was Jaqui firing the .50. Too cool. She really has become an icon.
All businesses are in the business of making money or being lucky.
Anything else they make is a side effect of that goal. Any business no
in the business of making money, or being lucky, will soon be out of
business.
All this talk of punishing oil companies with windfall taxes is
bullshit. They don't care how much you tax oil, as long as they have a
level playing field with their competition. Every nickel of any tax on
oil will be passed straight to the pump and end consumers. I guarantee
it. The minute oil becomes unprofitable, oil companies will pursue
other means of making money.
Oil company executives are right when they say they are held, by
law, responsible to make the best investments for the stock holders of
the companies they represent. Congress would love to aim a howitzer
full of lawyers at an evil company and fix the problem. That is not the
problem.
No one is going to make a silver bullet that fixes the energy
crisis. It is going to take a huge investment and a long time. For some
reason, four dollar a gallon at the gas pump lit a fire under the
average citizen to do something about their situation. You have heard
of the industrial revolution. You have heard of the information
revolution. Well, we need an energy revolution.
Taxing the existing system is not going to work. Telling people they
need to conserver is not going to work. The very balance of all things
in commerce need to point to the new way of getting things done. That
is, we have to change not just the way things are done, but the what
has to be done, why, if.
The industrial and information revolutions came about because they
made sense at the time. The technology came first in both cases. The
change made sense because technology made it cheaper to do it the new
way. The same thing must happen with energy and carbon or whatever evil
elements pop up next. The change has to make sense at the time.
Tree huggers need to stop trying to punish someone for making money
at what they do or build and put some serious effort in to making what
they want the most profitable way of getting everything else done.
Ultimately, no one cars if their car runs on electricity or petroleum.
They want a way to get around. They want an exciting drive, they want
something that carries what and whom they need. They want safety
(really). They want something reliable, dependable. They want
something they can drive across America on that whim between
opportunities. Or, at least, they want the option. They want something
that looks cool, is cool, feels good.
With the exception of changing materials around, are we not still at
about 1925 technology when it comes to batteries? Where is the money? I
suppose Fuel Cells are really a kind of battery. Maybe not. Haven't
Fuel Cells been around since like 1925?
| UNITED
NATIONS (AFP) — The UN Security Council failed yet again to agree on a
call for an immediate truce in the worsening fighting in Georgia's
breakaway South Ossetia enclave but agreed to make another attempt
Saturday. |
The UN is worse than useless.The UN sounds like a place to go to
when the chips are down. It is not that place.
The article above means that the UN cannot agree to tell both sides
to stop it. For fuck sake! The bile rises to the back of my throat
every time I hear the term UN these days. I hope this story is old and
the situation has been rectified.
OK, I got the facts a bit backwards. Georgia invaded a break-away province and Russia retaliated. Yadda Yadda. I'm sure the actors are all to blame at some level. That is always the way it goes. You know, it sounds like all parties have a legitemate clame to the area including the people who live there. I still say America will sit this one out for the most part.
I may have gotten the order wrong in the videos. There is a bunch of repeated clips. MSNBC finally works under Firefox. They also promote embedding. I like the player. I can't say the MSM didn't say anything about this one.
I didn't think the U. S. was still making F-15 fighters. There have been threats from Israel to Russia that if Russia selling anti-aircraft system, that Israel will defeat the system (perhaps offer that method of defeat for sale themselves) and make their future sale world wide redundant. This would also be a blow to Russia's own defense because Russia uses the AA they want to sell to Iran.
I have some friends going to Gen Con 2008 next week. They are taking
a couple of days of vacation to go play games for four days. Sounds
like fun to me. I could not take it myself. I get my fix in my biweekly
DnD gaming sessions. I do miss playing first person shooters. I run
Linux and cannot get most games to run. The games I can get to run I'm
not aloud to play.
For an event involving so many nerds, their web site sucks. Wikipedia has more information. One
of these days, I might throw my hat in the ring just to go. Well, I
hate to loose at games, and as bad as I am at them, it just wouldn't be
fun. I have a hard time competing with my friends. Even when it is just
a game, I have a hard time both loosing to them and winning against
them. It just doesn't feel right either way. So, I do not play. That is
why I like DnD because you cannot win. When you die, you roll up a
better character. In our group, having an interesting character is more
fun than an over powered character.
There is every kind of game in the world at Gen Con. Adam says you
can find people playing a sort of 3D Star Trek space ship battle on
clear tables with multiple levels. The next room has huge landscapes
with armies running an invasion. The next has dragons and another has
dozens of tables with people playing card tournaments.
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