Morning ants

Nat gave me a ride this morning. She needed to get some groceries at whole foods so it is on her way. This gave me a chance to talk to Elle in front of the garage while we waited for Nat to get ready. Elle is in summer school until Thursday.

At some point I walked across the front yard to pick up one of those damn flier that keep getting blown all over the place. It is one of those doorknob fliers. It is no wander HOAs ban these things when they can.

While I was occupied with this, Elle stepped in to the side of the yard closer to the field next to our house. She managed to get ants all over her feet. She squirmed and freaked out over the ants. She stomped her foot and refused to brush off the ants with her hand or a rag. It took me a couple tries to get her to calm down and start knocking off the ants. "Elle, you are going to have to deal with ants for the rest of your life."

It didn't look like she got bit very much. I told Nat about it. I can't wait to get a note from the school.

We need to get some more granular poison. It has been raining every evening when I get home so the granular stuff won't work well. I will spray the house inside and out tonight regardless of rain. Excuses excuses. Time to get on the stick. They are hurting my little girl.

Notes:

Noticed someone talking about tape backup at work. I forget the context. Just the mention of a tape backup made me pause. I always imagine a refrigerator with a reel to reel on the front.

WEP encryption is a bit like having one of those locks on a door where you can see through the keyhole. How many people know what that analogy means? Who has seen one of these locks? My Aunt had a house with some of those locks on internal doors. This is the kind of lock I'm talking about.

A guy sold a 10% share in Apple in the mid seventies for $800. How many days has this guy kicked his own ass over this?

Some researchers are saying a pill form of marijuana would be better for medicinal purposes rather than allowing people to smoke it. It requires higher doses. It also stems (no pun intended) the negative of inhaling smoke. Pill forms have been available, but not popular because the high is long and low vs up in a spike like smoking.

Man breaks spine. Insurance says he had a spine before the break, and didn't express the possession on his pre existing condition list at the point of purchase. Disallowed. Yes, I'm exaggerating a bit. You almost bought it though.

Rainy ride home

Just another day. I know I'm old because my biggest complaint is about not being able to mow the grass for the rain. Thanks Sweety for the ride. I know you were not feeling well.

Brought back some memories

One of my earliest memories is riding on the tank of my dad's motorcycle around some trails. I remember veguely a blue bike and a red one. I laso remember some trike like three wheelers. We road around some parking lot. One was light green and the other was black. Hey folks! Remind me what I'm remembering will ya? Did I dream this stuff. Then there is the VW pickup. That was black as well.

Convert text files to CSV

#!/bin/env python
#############################################################################
# Parameters:     None
# Note:           2010-06-28
# This script helped with the software key (Microsoft) audit. It converts
# the multiple text files from "keyfinder.exe" to one cvs format file that
# is imported in to a spreadsheet and edited manually for clarity. I still
# had to hand remove a couple lines after running this script. This script
# was aimed at 98% success.
#############################################################################

import os
import sys
import glob

fileExt="*.txt"
fileList=""
outputName="output.csv"
fileList=glob.glob(str(fileExt))
if (len(fileList) == 0):
    print("Error - Could not obtain "+str(fileExt)+" files.")
    sys.exit(0)
if (os.path.exists(str(outputName))):
    os.remove(str(outputName))
outputPointer=open(str(outputName),"w")
for fileName in fileList:
    computerName=fileName.rstrip(str(fileExt))
    filePointer=open(str(fileName),"r")
    fileContents=filePointer.readlines()
    filePointer.close()
    outputString=""
    for contentLine in fileContents:
        contentLine=contentLine.strip("\n")
        if (str(contentLine) == "Professional"):
            outputString+=" Professional"
            continue
        if (str(contentLine) == "Home Edition"):
            outputString+=" Home Edition"
            continue
        if (len(str(contentLine)) == 0):
            outputString+=("\n"+str(computerName))
        elif (str(contentLine).find("Magical") == -1 and str(contentLine).find("magical") == -1):
            outputString+=","+str(contentLine)
    outputString=outputString.rstrip("\n"+str(computerName))
    outputString=outputString.strip("\n\n")
    outputPointer.write(str(outputString)+"\n")
outputPointer.close()

I know, I know. It is a lame script. It works for the most part. It converts a bunch of multiple line text files in to a single CVS (comma delimited) file for import in to a spreadsheet.

Book of Tired

In the beginning, it was dark, and noisy. I hit the alarm and got up. I switched on the TV to the local morning news to find out if Israel has been nuked yet. No. One more day perhaps. The only thing I get out of the local news is the weather and reminders what parts of town to stay away from.

While in the shower I thought of something interesting to blog about and then forgot it while shaving. I need one of those write in the rain notebooks and a space pen for the shower. That or a waterproof voice recorder. I have a water resistent case for my video camera, but I would be afraid those videos would get out and blind the masses.

The morning ritual has become something that I do not even remember. As far as I can tell the only thing that happened out of the ordinary this morning was that I didn't catch Merlin trying to sneak in to Nat's room as I kissed her goodby.

This is a testament to my life. I've found a rut and seem to enjoy it. That is usually when something jumps up and bites you in the ass. Just knowing I'm nine years from fifty is bad enough. My ex-girlfriend's kids are nearly old enough to have kids on at least one case.

The real trouble came at work today. I had time to breath. A couple things I've been working feverishly on lately have completed, or at least come to a stopping point for a minute. It was difficult to motivate myself to start new projects. I've been told unofficially that I'm taking on some different hat at the office. This makes me want to stop doing what I've been doing in the past and start the new thing. I don't know if it is going to work out or if it is going to burn down before I get there. That is the way things go I suppose. This is a stress unto itself. This is a down side to having room to breath.

Oh, I got work done. I researched wireless encryption, looked up bison, Touched up some scripts, updated my notes, helped people find driv4ers for a couple pieces of equipment, retired some old dead equipment, cleaned up the cubby (an impromptu lab) a bit and a bunch of other stuff that is important, but hard to document. This little stuff is important. Some of it gets done between the important stuff. Enough of it piles up that it needs to have some time devoted to it. That was today.

Mostly I'm tired. I've been sleeping well, but I'm worn out. I'm frazzled. What are some other adjectives I can come up with? Tore up from the floor up. Dragging ass. Well, dragging ass implies I'm not doing my job. I've been working hard. I'm weary, worn out, old. Wait a minute. Is that what really has me down? Am I hitting the middle aged crazy? Is that what this is about?

I cannot eat fast food like I used to. Yesterday some very young vlogers, in their twenties, had the fast food challenge where they ate one of everything off the dollar (now dollar fifty) menu at Wendy's. That would kill me. I would die on the twenty third bite. I wouldn't drop, I would just seize up in place, like a statue with a half eaten burger half way to my gaping maw.

Ah, the good old days. I could eat anything. I could sleep like a rock. I could mow the whole yard in the middle of summer without passing out. Well, I haven't past out, but I've felt like it was an option.

APHC Podcast

A Prairie Home Companion was in rare form this most recent podcast.

s“It's easier for young people to be pagans than older people.”

Joke:

A preacher was going for a walk in the woods and got chaised by a bear. Just as the bear caught him and pinned him on the ground the preacher said “Lord please save your servent and make the bear a Christian!”

The bear clasped his paws and said “Lord, thank you for that which I am about to receive.”

Notes:

I hate it when I try out a new podcast and my first impressions are formed by the intro music. So, I'm playing this tech podcast for the first time and I roll my eyes when the intro music is some saxophone jazz medley kind of thing. It took a lot to make it in to the first three minutes.

54% of companies say they are going to cut IT in the next several years. Doing more with less people. Expect problems and the excuse “computer error” to come up more than normal from 54% of companies over the next several years.

My phone does wi-fi. I hooked it up for the first time to the work network. I also figured out that I'm using the wrong encryption at home. WEP is 2003. I need to try to get WPA working at the house. Not sure my old shitty router supports anything recent. It is ancient. Maybe I can get Nat's iPod running as well.

Notes:

Trying to think of a way to convince my boss that hitting www.dilbert.com and wallpapering my office in tacky prints of same is part of my job as an IT professional.

I've heard about all the cuts in the British system. It cracks me up that the first place they mention is “More efficient use of IT.” Meaning making do with half the people. That is a bit like saying you can save money on a dam by skimping on the cement in the middle.

One of the BBC podcasts I listen to mentioned that one of the casters had a Facebook fan page that was created by someone else. I'm thinking he might want to look in to that sort of thing. Imagine having your name on the side of a building that you have no control over.

Corporations are squeezing their employees for more hours to cover layoffs. It isn't like they are loosing money. Last quarter reported huge prophets in many sectors of the economy. This is a cycle that cannot continue. People will start finding other employment and having heart attacks. I had to look up how to spell 'heart' to make sure I wasn't screwing it up.

The Times of London put up a registration only wall in front of their content. They are not charging yet, just making people register. Their traffic cut in half. The competing papers in the same area who have not yet taken this step noticed only a 0.6% increase in traffic. People may be headed for free foreign news. The New York Times wants to repeat this experiment it sounds like. Heaven forbid they learn from other's experience.

From CNN email “Supreme Court strikes down Chicago handgun ban; case may have far-reaching impact for states, local governments.” YES!!!!!!! Law abiding citizens rejoice. When I sent this to Twitter and Facebook, I misspelled rejoice.

It strikes me as ridiculous when someone uses the term “Kalashnikov” when describing AK-47 rifles. The percentage of AK-47 weapons made in Russia and distributed throughout the world is probably low. Not sure what the official right to distribute the weapons people may have throughout the world.

The Iraqis bitched that security was better under Saddam when the U. S. first showed up. Now they are bitching that the American soldiers at least asked what was going on. The Iraqi security forces just ignore them and go on about their business of taking charge of everything that makes money in the country.

So, The most annoying thing about using a fresh installation of an office suite has got to be the re-add-to-dictionary of all your custom words. That or the loss of your favorite templates and settings. Won't someone please think of the custom dictionary and settings?

Economy concept flaw

I'm starting to run though what an economy is. In my head I imagine the millions of vendibles that lead to an economy. Societies all working together, apart and to win. Each striving to be better, obtain an advantage, keep an advantage. The only way to win is to help someone else loose.

One person decides they want corn and someone else has corn for sale, the two come together and decide how the transaction will happen. The government takes a slice for services they have provided like roads, water, sewage, police and every other goddamn thing. If the corn is bad, the buyer is unhappy. If enough buyers become unhappy, people stop buying corn. If too many people grow corn, there is an over supply and prices drop. When prices drop, the government does not get as much in taxes. Thus, the government has a hand in the quality control over corn.

As old people die off, their assets get redistributed. As new people are born they come in to new assets. Everyone who can works to some extent. That is people are out for their own survival. This is a predictable thing. If given the opportunity to not work they will not work for what they need. Ask any one who lived in Soviet Russia. If there is no motivation to do a good job, everyone does the minimum.

Some people want power and some people want to relax and drink beer. Others want to play video games. Most designs of ways to separate people from their money, also known as an economy, will cover as many possibilities as can be done. Still no flying cars, but they are working on it. Basically, if enough people are willing to spend money one it, it will be made.

Is economy a zero sum game?

The planet has a GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Goodness knows how you would measure it. No matter what numbers show up, they are meaningless because the people on the earth either have enough to get along or they do not. There is not much point in keeping track of the planetary GDP until there is another planet to compete with.

There is the rub. All these numbers exist just to tell winners from loosers in order to place the next round of bets. Some may say to make better informed investments, but they are indeed bets.

Any entity that can survive on its own without dependence on the rest of the world is not contributing to the world economy or detracting from it. There are people who think this sort of thing should not be aloud. Everyone must be made to be part of the economy. How else do you control them? If they are not worried about the things in the news, why will they get upset enough to vote.

The quickest way to guarantee everyone is part of the economy is to tax everything. I heard somewhere that online card based roll playing games cannot allow online trades of cards amongst it's members because sales tax would have to be collected.

I thought this post had a point there for a minute.

Deep Jeep

I like the stuff floating in the back of the jeep and it just keeps going. It just drags the quad behind.

Notes:

I need a robot that edges. I hate edging. I am terrible at it. The robot needs to be autonomous and run on humidity and mosquitoes. Oh, and grass clippings. ya.

I listen to a podcast all about the new Doctor Who series. They are a month ahead or so of the U. S.. It honestly makes the experience better watching Doctor Who having already experienced a spoiler. I can follow the little hidden story lines that are thick in the franchise.

The strangest thing happened this morning. I had a backwards headache. No, my head didn't feel great. The more busy I got, the more consent ration I did, the more the headache went away. If I stopped and had a minute to catch my breath the headache came back in buckets. The headache lasted most of the day. I thought it was because I didn't have any caffeine yesterday. Just plane forgot. Woke up with the pain early this morning.

I'm sick of people saying kids used to be better at school. I constantly hear things like kids used to have beautiful handwriting, be well spoken, read tons of books. Well, back in the day, only kids who showed promise were allowed to go to school. Dumb asses were put to work. This has two fold effects. The school does not have to slow down teaching to keep the slow kids up to speed. As kids reach their limit, they are simply left behind. And, there is a hell of a motivation not to be a dumb ass or you would be put to work. Mystery solved.

The financial news from the UK sounds like a teacher scolding a child. "Every one is going to get some pain." while speaking about the tax hikes and loss of public services. It has been nuts how far out of whack the UK has been when talking about income of the country vs services. How long has this correction been coming? Paying attention to the financial news is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Slow enough to take years. It is painful. They haven't started doing anything yet. They are still in the bitching stage.

No fiction in a long time. No thoughts beyond that which is real. how ... weak of me. It takes strength to imagine. It takes will to be that person who creates. I weary of reality. Desire for freedom will draw me away from this world for a bit. Shall the monster live or die? What is next?

The dark side of coffee

I listen to a coffee related podcast. I'm not a foody or a coffee fanatic. I just like the podcast for no particular reason.

From the podcast, from memory "Starbucks is over roasted. I consider it on the dark side of coffee."

This instantly kicked me off on a tangent of Darth Vader at Starbucks ordering a coffee. What kind of coffee would he order? How long would it take him to distance-choke the teen behind the bar? The possibilities are endless. If I had the gumption, I would rent a costume and make up a skit.

There have to be specific lines. I'm thinking "I just want coffee." ... "Large, do I have to explain 'large'?!?" Followed shorty by the choking sounds from behind the counter and a pot of coffee floating though the air and filling a cup.

Someone get right on that.

Me and sports

I don't watch sports much. I couldn't participate as a kid much so it never stuck to watch sports. One exception is soccer. I was talking to my new office mate Larry about the World Cup this afternoon. We went over why Soccer will or will not catch on i the U. S.. People are talking about this because it was brought up at lunch yesterday as well.

We went over things like the recent contrives and the U. S. team doing pretty well this time around. We also covered things like people in the U. S. wanting instant gratification and drop dead times in the game. As it is, soccer ends when the referee says it ends. People in the U. S. seem to want a stop watch displayed on the screen at all times. The soccer method is more gentlemanly in my opinion.

We also went over things like running the score up a bit to attract the U. S. audience. This was tried in the seventies to massive failure. Good athletes in the U. S. do not go in to soccer. Good soccer players in the U. S. do not play here.

I've known many people, including Larry, who played soccer growing up. They can't compete against the Mexican kids because they do not live and breath the game.

The lack of English commentary is an issue, though I swearer I heard about an online audio simulcast in English for several games that are in Spanish otherwise. Surely, this could be solved with some relaxation of telecast rights for a given amount of time until interest here catches up with some goal.

There is a podcast that I listen to about the World Cup from the BBC. However, I find myself ignoring it quickly because it is geared toward people who are obsessed with the event already. Still, it is worth a listen if you can stand names of athleats and even some countries dropping you have never heard of.

Freedom!

FFFFf RRRR  EEEEE EEEEE DDDD   OOO   M   M !!
F     R   R E     E     D   D O   O  MM MM !!
FFF   RRR   EEEE  EEEE  D   D O   O  M M M !!
F     R  R  E     E     D   D O   O  M   M
F     R   R EEEEE EEEEE DDDD   OOO   M   M !!

How does a goat cross the road?

That's how.

Lunch conversation

I went to lunch today with 12 other people. The conversation was nuts to follow. I was worried a bit about rain and we all nearly expired from sun exposure on the way back.

• Man gets eaten by a bear and his girlfriend.
• Games
• Too many super moves in some game
• The new 3d capture from Microsoft looks cool, but what are they going to do with it?
• Friend's trips to Alaska
• One mountain being much higher than another when looking at it.
• Her husband is driving back and has several 500 mile days between himself and home. Did I mention he has the two kids with him?
• Someone hit reply-all instead of reply on one of the company emails recently. Imagine doing that at a company with 40,000 nodes on the network. Someone else said they would have discussions at his old company sent to everyone like "Stop hitting reply-all" ... "OK."

New drive

I had to replace one of the hard drives in my main computer. It is making a click noise occasionally. This is a death rattle. it is an old IDE drive. yes, my computer is that old. I bought a second rive that is SATA a couple years ago. It seems to be running just fine. Both drives are about 120G drives. The new one is a 1.5 terabyte drive. It does run hot. What is the deal with that? Everything has gotten hotter over the last several years it seems. When did drives start running hot?

I tried to mirror the boot drive over to the new drive, but it wouldn't boot properly. It seemed to have something to do with the name of the drive or something. Still, I really didn't feel like messing with it so I just installed Ubuntu on the new drive. It may take longer than fixing the existing install, but it is less stressful. Now I need to install all the software I use and configure everything.

The system boots in like twenty seconds. It shuts down in no time flat. Ubuntu has made huge strides in this area. Nice. Even my old HP laptop boots much faster under Ubuntu than it did under XP. That is not nearly as impressive because XP was a disaster. Still. Nice.

Home Sales

From CNN "New home sales plunged almost 33 percent in May, the federal government says." Yawzza!!! That is a spicy meatball! What happened? I have no details. This is nuts. Fell by a third?!? I'm going to have to look in to that one.

How much is up to how many homes are in foreclosure? Or, coming out of foreclosure and now sitting on the market depreciating?

How much is bubble price drops and builders not wanting to build for pennies on the dollar? People just can't afford as much home as they once could because they can't get ridiculous loans to cover it any longer.

How much is over building of both homes and apartments? It has been like a race to build apartments here in Houston over the last decade.

I bet none of this has anything to do with "green" building issues. Building codes and lack of supplies for green building is most likely running full steam ahead. I bet it is any way. It takes extra resources to meet these needs, but I just don't think it is the key issues here for slowing things down.

Glad I'm not trying to sell or buy a house. If anything, I wish I could drop a couple bucks off my loan. They never reward honest hard working people for making their payments. Only the people who didn't pay any attention or who deliberately tried to get more house then they can afford are being helped out of debt. Sad. If only I were more devious in my finances. Curs this honest heart of mine.

Goals

Goals were so important at work that I had the following sign in my to do list to keep me focused. I turned them in this afternoon and HR accepted them. We had to do this sort of thing at my old employer all the time. For some reason, this one caused me some stress because I ware so many hats at this job.

#############################
#  GG   OO   AA  L    SS  ! #
# G    O  O A  A L   S    ! #
# G GG O  O AAAA L    SS  ! #
# G  G O  O A  A L      S   #
#  GG   OO  A  A LLLL SS  ! #
#############################

Some issues

• First time round so the rules are a moving target.
• Moved offices in the middle of this task.
• Out sick one day.
• They sent us MS office documents and we had to convert them to Open Office documents to fill them in.
• It took time to type up that sign!

Notes:

The news is full of BP hate. It is more than just "their fault." The press wants blood. People are angry and looking for someone to hang. The U. S. government is all about blaming BP. The fingers are pointing in just about every direction. Good luck with avoiding it. Some people want to know if anything can just be an accident any more. The last time that BP did not have a dividend was WWII.

Get ready for $10 to $20 a month for a checking account if you do not have a credit card with your bank. Hey, they have to make up for all those lost fees somehow.

USA won. Sweet. On to round 2 or whatever they call it in that other football type sport. I sent the notice around the office to some random people and got yelled at because more than one of them was waiting to watch the game this evening on their DVR. oops.

From CNN "Gen. David Petraeus to replace Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of forces in Afghanistan, source tells CNN." It is a day for big news on the CNN emails. I've been reading about this all weekend. Apparently Stan shot his mouth off to Rolling Stone magazine about how fucked our leadership is. "Your fired for speaking the truth." Not the first time, won't be the last. This administration is threads to show strain at the seems. I hope he writes a book. That'll show'em

I cannot get Thunderbird 3 running on my system at work. It has something to do with the Firefox browser and the messed up install of Java on my system. It seems to work fine on other people's systems. I hate dealing with this junk. Why can't email just work. How many deckades have we had email? Still, it takes a frigging day to get someone set up in many cases. This is why I use Gmail at home.

The one child policy in China was scheduled to end or be scaled back right about now. Some estimate that 400,000,000 births have been prevented by this policy. Most think the current regime will keep the policy as is.

Kudzu saves lives

Well, some anyway.

McDowell County, North Carolina . According To The Source , A helicopter lost power and crashed while a videographer was shooting images of kudzu, an invasive plant species. The thick vines slowed the chopper's descent and allowed the crew to walk away from the accident without serious injury.
While filming aerials of invasive species in the North Carolina forests the helicopter lost power and crashed into the side of the mountain. Kudzu is one of many invasive species and it was the Kudzu that broke and slowed our decent and allowed us to walk away with only minor scratches. Pilot Chris Dupree did an exceptional job of saving our lives while the aircraft lost power. It was like sinking into water, that is how it felt to me as the power was lost.

Live Leak

No idea where that text comes from. It was in the video description.

I have to say that this is the calmest helicopter crash that I've ever watched the video of from the comfort of my living room. The pilot seems to have done an amazing job of controlling the craft as it lost power in my opinion. Great job folks.

Cross between Chinese handcuffs and a wood chipper

They need one of these for men.

South African Dr. Sonnet Ehlers was on call one night four decades ago when a devastated rape victim walked in. Her eyes were lifeless; she was like a breathing corpse.
"She looked at me and said, 'If only I had teeth down there,'" recalled Ehlers, who was a 20-year-old medical researcher at the time. "I promised her I'd do something to help people like her one day." Forty years later, Rape-aXe was born.
...
The woman inserts the latex condom like a tampon. Jagged rows of teeth-like hooks line its inside and attach on a man's penis during penetration, Ehlers said.
Once it lodges, only a doctor can remove it -- a procedure Ehlers hopes will be done with authorities on standby to make an arrest. "It hurts, he cannot pee and walk when it's on," she said. "If he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter... however, it doesn't break the skin, and there's no danger of fluid exposure."

CNN

I support anything that hurts rapists, but this just has bad idea written all over it. Besides, it only works on the first guy as far as I can tell. So, it isn't perfect. Nice idea though.

Bill Hicks

Someone brought up a bunch of Bill Hicks to work. I've been listening for days. The man was insane. He genuinely believed he was abducted by aliens. I have far less of a problem with that than his politics. I do laugh like a fool when listening to his work. He died way too young. You know, he had a miserable life. There is a documentary about him that I want to find.

Reginald Denny. Remember him? He was the truck driver who got his ass kicked kicked during the LA riots. bill was in Briton at the time. This kind of thing dates him a bit. It still makes me laugh. Oh, and Rodney King too. He covers the Kennedy assassination as well.

Bill got his start in Houston in the late seventies or early eighties I believe. This is why I want to find that documentary. They cover his growing up.

He is honest about his hate for all things conservative. I'll give him that. He uses no politically correct language in telling his opinion. He uses the word "hate". Bill even makes the comparison between what he wants and what Saddam wanted. "Me and Husane are like this. Who knew?" There are people taking the comparison of jihadists and liberals and how they share many goals and ideas. Old Bill was on to something.

Some Quotes

"Lets lighten things up and talk about abortion."

"The people who hate people party." Trouble organizing the meetings, but I could get on board with that one. Well, until someone pisses me off.

"Pro-Lifers murdering people. ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!"

"Anyone DUMB enough to want to be in the military should be aloud to join."

Lunch Conversation

• Baseball.
• New highers.
• Bad calls in soccer.
• Bad calls in baseball.
• Baseball and the affects of performance handling drugs.
• Baseball and what people are trying to do to make the scores higher.
• Me attending Shawn's birthday party and why I can't publish the videos.
• How our daughter's treated us on Father's day.

Adam came along and seemed to mold the direction of the conversation well. It isn't like he tries to do it. It is just that baseball is one of those things that he can be sidetracked indefinitely.

Happy Town

I hate this show. It had Abraham Benrubi in it for goodness sake. They just killed him off on the most recent episode I watched. Now there is nothing I can do but stop watching.

Something I just learned, so many people have ripped off IMDB's descriptions that you have to get "IMDB Pro" to get to any real content. That is some creepy stuff. It is far more interesting than the show.

It is a show trying to be one of those shows that keeps piling mystery on top of the killing of characters and introduction of new characters until you can't understand a damn thing about what is going on. They then fail to explain anything before being canceled because the entire planet has lost interest or seen the show for what it is before they got sucked in. It has Amy Acker as well, but she is not nearly enough to do it for me.

I'm really trying to find some new shows to watch. The industry keeps cranking out garbage. I'm tired of this. There are some online cyclical shows coming up. Maybe they will save the day. They are our only hope.

Shawn's birthday

Here is the Shawn birthday party footage. This is the tame version. I may not be able to put the bouncy castle footage up. It is a bit much. I mean it is all in fun and everything, but it might look bad to the prudish.

I'm going to go ahead and cut the video and try to get approval from some of the participants and responsible parties. It will most likely never see the light of the internet.

Buis nearly kills 3, pardan me while I crack up

I need to start watching Russian news. News with a sense of humor and "You frigging deserved it!"

Awesome mouth harp skils

Who needs a DG when you have this guy around

Editing The video

I hate it when I can't publish fun stuff I catch on video because I have to pay attention to who is doing what. It isn't enough to let people know you are videoing. They still do stupid stuff. Then they regret it later.

No one did anything really stupid in front of the camera this time. The worse thing that happened was getting a little too close when people were collapsing the bouncy castle, but that is why you do it. Still, people will be very upset if I show their teenage daughters enjoying themselves playing in the water in a bouncy castle, regardless of how innocent it may have been.

This is very much one I'm going to have to confer with Natalie about. I have no idea if good or boring videos will be up soon. Wish me luck.

SGU

I'm really fed up with SGU It is a well made show and has a bunch of good actors. It is the politics and the list of problems they have that piss me off. It is about the only science fiction show out there that involves spaceships and space travel. Thus, I'm stuck watching it.

What do I mean by wrong problems. The constant buzz of anger between the civilians and military simply rings true. I hate that. I wish one would succeed and the other would fail.. Then both sides would accept that status and get on with survival and exploration.

Then comes the double chase. First aliens want the ship and when this didn't do it for the ratings, there is a faction of human element who are ruthless and want the ship. They make it aboard and start killing people. Killing all the wrong people. They then take the ship. I haven't gotten any ferther than this. yet.

I want to stop watching the show. Like I said, it is the only science fiction show on at the moment. Yet, I hate it. Yay me.

Arizona, Doing the job the eds won't do

I must show ID when: 1.  When pulled over by the Police. 2.  When making purchases on my credit card. 3.  When I verify medical insurance for a doctor's appointment. 4.  When filling out a credit card or loan application. 5.  When applying for or renewing a driver's license. 6.  When applying for any kind of insurance. 7.  When filling out college applications. 8.  When donating blood. 9.  When obtaining controlled prescription drugs. 10. When making some debit purchases, especially if I'm out of state. 11. When collecting a boarding pass for airline or train travel. 12. When proving I am of legal age to buy booze and cigarettes. 13. When voting at the polls. 14. When applying for Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid benefits. 15. When enlisting in the military. 16. When entering a military base. 17. When applying for food stamps. 18. When applying for disability or economic assistance. 19. When cashing a check. 20. When entering my place of work. 21. When applying for or renewing a passport I'm sure there are more instances, but the point is that we citizens of the USA are required to prove who we are nearly every day. Why should people in this country illegally be exempt? GO ARIZONA !!!

This is just some email a friend sent me. Kind of like it.

Notes:

Walked to the bus stop in the heat and humidity. No big deal there. No AC on the bus. That sucked. Chatty bus driver. Annoying. When I get off the bus, I have to traverse a cesspool to cross the street to the building. They have fixed it a couple times. Which means they have not fixed it at all. Thank God the Feds are not in charge of the repairs. When I get in to work my coffee cup is missing. A couple things have disappeared off people's desks here lately, but I would have gone for the USB keys or CF cards or some other bit of electronics that at least promises more use than holding one's coffee from the floor. I found the cup on a walk past my normal haunts.

I got the following in my in box from CNN “Death row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed at 12:20 a.m. (MST) by a firing squad at Utah State Prison.” Something about this pleases me. There is another guy who needs to be put in front of a firing squad. I don't want to talk too much about it because I'm so pissed at the guy who committed treason and wikileaks who think they have a right to help our enemies.

Tried HTML 5 for the first time on Ubuntu 10.04 and Chromium last night. They finally have it down to a couple simple bullets in the instructions. It looks like the only thing that is working is the video playing function. The YouTube adds do not work anywhere. If a video has ads, you still have to use Flash. Looser. Get this crap up and running! How long does it take? It has been years for God's sake. 98.6% of the effort has been bitching over whether the knobs go up to 10, 11 or 100% or some bullshit like that.

The Bad Apples podcasts learns an important lesson. This guy has been a latest and greatest distro kind of guy for years. He was the kind who would find a problem, figure out who's bug it was and go file it. A real tester kind of guy. This is very important to open and closed source alike. He recently realized how much time this was costing him. He came to the conclusion that in order to get work out, he needed something stable and thus has adjusted his choice of distribution. He also reflashed his phone back to a standard image for reliability. Our little podcaster is growing up.

A machine on our network took a nap this morning. I had three people, one of which was the CEO, call me to fix it. The thing is, I have no network privileges. I cannot sign in to the servers or check things out. I'm glad people have such confidence in me, but I'm kind of surprised at the response. It was just a matter of waiting for the appropriate person to show up and diagnose the issue. It was more an inconvenience than an issue to be honest. Still, quite a few fingers pointing at me when it happened. Makes the back of my neck itch.

The humidity has a presents. The heat is by humidity's side. They stand at my elbows, breathing down my neck. They are silent, but their mass is not to be ignored. They are like a couple thugs ready to lay a hand on my shoulder and prevent me from running up a flight of stares or walk for the fun of it. I'm not sure to whom they answer, but I would love to know what I did to piss this entity off. Is it the place where I live, or the time of year I choose to cross a piece of it?

Cat in the car

Shot this Wednesday evening on the way home.

Our Government

I have a hard time listening to the G Gordon Liddy show. This is because they are perching to the quire in my case. G brings in speakers and makes points that make sense to me. I do not agree with all of them. That is a sign that I'm listening if you ask. The trouble is that I listen to the show at work and want to stand up and yell at our government in anger. This is probably not a good thing to do at work.

I worry I'm going to have a stroke listening to the list of issues G brings up about the Obama administration. Things like Job creation, taxes, foreign relations, God, how our government is handling the oil spill, drug culture ... I could go on. It seems like the people running this country are out to destroy it. Not with nukes, with rules.

Obama and his top cronies in the legislative branch are socialists. They want to turn the U. S. in to a land of robots all fitting the same mold, regardless of how that kills individual expression and rights. You have the right to be a drone and follow the rules as the government tells you.

It is not big government that I fear. It is totalitarian government that rules every moment of my existence and tells me how to live my life and raise my kids to the n'th degree. By making every behavior illegal that some committee deems inappropriate. That committee of people hand picked based on the decisions they will make in favor of the government continuing their rule. This is always the way regardless of who is in charge or what they call their method of governing.

“I'm not worried about a clean energy bill. I'm worried about paying the bills.” From memory. Heard on NBC news last night from a citizen.

So, what am I going to do about the things I wish to change and the things I cannot change? I intend to complain. I will complain loudly and often. I will shout from the mountain top. I will do something more effective. I will blog and vlog and tweet. Will it make any difference? I doubt it. Will it make me feel better? No, not really. Does it satisfy some need to say it and mean it? Perhaps. So many things that might actually make a difference have been outlawed.

Why they hate us

They don't hate us. They think our way of doing things is wrong. Same as we feel about their way of doing things. That is pretty much where the similarities end.

The Taliban has a point to the average Joe on the street. The U. S. military and Afghan government is up against a wall. People on the ground, who must live and exist in the area for their entire lives, say that security was better when the Taliban was taking care of it. There is huge differences in approach between the different entities who wish to run Afghanistan.

The Afghan government is weak, ineffective and corrupt. I haven't found any sources who say different except those trying to excuse the U. S. bailing soon.

The U. S. will be gone soon. No amount of firepower trumps this fact. No short term strategy trumps long term presents. This is just a fact. Well, except nukes. Nukes might trump long term presents. I'll have to think about that one.

The Taliban, however, will use a set of rules that have been written in a handbook for a thousand years, find out who the problem is, kill them and their entire family, everyone who helped them and everyone who sympathized with them. Problem solved. And, they are not going anywhere. The Taliban has been targeted for death by several of the most powerful countries and yet, there they are, standing next to you, waiting.

Get the idea? There is an appeal at the level of the farmer and blacksmith.

Now, there is a lot more going on. The Taliban is an international movement that needs to be reined in if not destroyed. The idea almost works on the micro scale. It is harsh, but effective. The movement has entered the macro scale via 2001-09-11 and supporting the distraction of Jews and basically all not Muslims across the world. I cannot believe there is a place for the Taliban going forward.

My humble opinion

I left a comment on one of the Vlog Brothers videos yesterday. During the video the gentlemen said something about the world being run by totalitarian antisemitic jerks. He was talking about the Nazis, more specifically, one of the guys who invented calculation machines that helped the Allies decider Nazi secrets.

I left a comment that I'm sure no one liked. “Some say we are ruled by totalitarian antisemitic jerks.” I received no replies. This tells me the comment was not left up. That, or it was not nearly as venomous as I imagined. It was not my intention that it be venomous. It was just what I felt at the time. I haven't had a chance to go looking. Those videos have thousands of comments. I'm sure it just got lost in the shuffle.

Totalitarian as I mean it here is one who intends to do anything it takes to put the destiny of all people under the rule of a government totally. That is to put the government in charge of every decision of a person's life all the time and without exception. I believe that Obama and many democrats believe this is the correct thing to do. That is why I used the term.

Antisemitic as I mean it here is one who by action or inaction, by belief or habit inflicts or allows to happen regardless of excuse, wills the destruction or harm to Israel or Jews in general.

What the president said

I didn't watch the speech. I was watching MythBusters on YouTube. I forgot there was a speech for What do we get? Nat mentioned it on the way home or I would have completely forgotten until listening to podcasts that mentioned the event.

New clean energy policy, Clean up the oil spill, Getting tough with BP. Blah blah blah.

You know, I'm not buying it. There is just too much to do. This president is not a doer. He is a bitch and sue kind of guy. He is so very concerned with assigning blame and making sure BP pays for stuff that he is missing the point that there is a frigging oil spill to clean up. If I were BP, I would give it a couple months and dissolve in to a billion bits, some absorbed by other companies and some just fading in to the wood work.

Independent third party Who the hell is independent? Did the independent people drive to the meeting?

This is just another crisis to be taken advantage of. What legislation can we get past in the name of slapping BP around? Put up another picture of an oily walrus, I mean seagull. That will distract the drooling masses.

They damn well better not start preempting YouTube for this kind of crap. I will not stand for that bullshit.

VAT

There will be a BAT in the U. S. within five years. Mark my words. VAT stands for Value Added Tax. This is a sales tax that is levied on products at point of consumptino. It is a consumption tax and hits people who cannot avoid it the hardest. The people who can avoid the tax are rich. The people who have a hard time avoiding the tax are poor.

The VAT will come in to existence even if it is called something else. It will be added to all other taxes. We will not eliminate the IRS or allow people to have exemptions. Any promises of these things are lies.

Some call it a fair tax because every one has to pay it. The more stuff rich people buy or import, the more consumption tax they pay. Illegal aliens residing in the U. S. still have to pay the consumption tax every time they buy a candy bar. They do not pay it on remittances. The biggest argument is that the middle class and poor people end up baring the brunt of this kind of tax because there are simply many more poor people and as a group, they buy more than the ever shrinking middle class. Why is socioeconomic discrimination OK when it it is against the rich and not the poor? Isn't it just as wrong one way as it is the other?

Remember that services and products will have the cost. It will show up on top of all existing taxes on phone, internet, pay TV, plumbers, rent, hell, even paying the Mexican guy who does your lawn will go up, b3ecause he too now has to pay VAT on lunch, gas and maintenance.

I don't have a problem with VAT or consumption taxes as long as they are fare balanced across the board. They will not be balanced because there will be a cry that the poor cannot afford the tax. Don't mind that the poor use most of the services that are paid for by the taxes, currently paid for by people who are contributing to the economy instead of bleeding it dry. I hope I can be a contributing member of society for the rest of my life. There will most likely come times where I need help. It has happened before. Still, I'm not deliberately making career out of it.

Bad joke

The joke below is from memory. I heard this on a podcast from G. Gordon Liddy today. He is a conservative. He has many important points and a point of view that is difficult to find in today's liberal bias media. This joke however just plays in to the stereotype that liberal people have about conservative people. I don't like it. I didn't laugh at it. I did not think it was applicable or even appropriate for a conservative show. I listen to NPR and hate it when they lump all conservative people in to a group that I don't fit in. This joke only serves to make that situation worse.

While interviewing for a law enforcement job an applicant who had otherwise impeccable qualifications was asked to perform the following task.

The interviewer said “There is just one more thing you have to do to get the job. Take this firearm and shoot six illegal aliens, six Muslim extremists, six hippies, six drug dealers, and one rabbit.”

The Applicant asked with “Why the rabbit.”

The interviewer answered “When can you start?”

OK, OK. I chuckled a bit.

Notes:

Is anyone using Second Life for anything besides porn? They are having layoffs. Some of the podcasters say they still pay the $14 a month because they own property. “When is the last time you logged in?”

Ruth Westheimer was trained as a sniper in the period after WWII while Jews were preparing to carve a state for themselves. Her family was killed in the Holocaust. No wonder she doesn't take shit from people.

'm noticing a loooooot of podcasts by individuals dropping off the radar. I suppose the fad has ebbed. It is funny which one's have lasted. The fiction podcasts have lasted. The geek one's have more or less hung around if they were being done by more than one person. The video game podcasts seem to have taken a huge hit. I try to figure out if the podcast still exists or if the URL has changed. This may explain some of the issues. Still, interesting layout of long term success.

Someone who has been at my work longer than I moved offices today. I noticed how little they had to move. Then I took stock of the hord I've acquired. It is inevitable that we will get shuffled at my employ. Perhaps it is time for a cull.

Risk

Betting on risk, Oh, I mean investing ...

What is the difference between betting and investing? One is only legal in a few places.

What is it worth to me to cross the street to get to the bus going the correct direction? Well, it is apparently worth me putting my life in danger to some degree. Walking out of the house is a little bit dangerous. Mowing the lawn is more likely to give me a heart attack than chew off my leg. Everything you eat will kill you these days.

94,000 families got their homes repossessed last month. They were all fed a promos of better things by owning in one way or another. How many of these folks were thinking about laying $100,000 or more on a bet that they would be able to keep up the payments. Betting that they would not owe more on the place than it was worth. Maybe double. Maybe more.

Life is all about risk vs payoff. Opportunity cost.

Notes:

OK, I admit it. I write down a bunch of notes at work for the blog. I've forgotten them several days in a row now. Thus, my blog is a day behind on many fronts. This sucks.

The American Consumers say they are confident, but they are feeling better about their job and gas prices, but they do not believe that the long term economy will get better. I believe that people are waking up that whom you elect as president and to congress actually matter. They have screwed up and things are going to have to change.

If you were just starting LOST, knowing how it ends, would you watch it?

Mexican Drug Rehab Centers

Why are people being gunned down at drug rehab centers in Mexico?

People who are in cartels may be in rehab and there for be targeted as knowing too much to be aloud to live. Sounds plausible.

People who are trying to go straight are no long er customers and will convince others to follow the same path. They may also bring social change that leads to not wanting the drug cartels running the place. Not a bad hypothesis.

Drug cartels are recruiting people at rehab centers. From what I've heard about these centers, I doubt it, but maybe.

I have an opinion.

The drug dealers don't want people to get better. People are terrified to be in or work for a rehab center The cartels don't want things to start getting better because that might make the rest of the world stop viewing the regon as an area of victims that must be supported by the rest of the world. Once the area is no longer associated with victims, the conditions brought on by the cartels will not be tolerated by the rest of the world.

The drug cartel will attack anything that appears to be governmental authority. Any time the local people want or need help, they will have to go to the drug cartel people in order do do normal things like fix the streets or build a building or attend drug rehab. This will separate people from the government and make it difficult for the government to rely on local people for support when going after the drug cartels.

Notes:

More workers quit their job than were laid off last month. People apparently are giving up the shit job they took when they had to and are now switching to the job they want. Some little ray of hope is out there. Not that it is real. ... That or the survivors at places of employment are getting over worked and getting the hell out of there.

Adsorption: This is a new word I have learned since this whole oil spill thing. It has something to do with a hair dresser. I can't wrap my head around it.

Several offshore drilling platforms normally stationed in the Gulf of Mexico are on their way to South America somewhere. Remember that moratorium on offshore drilling They will all be paying taxes and levies to one of the South American governments soon. Way to bring jobs and revenue to the U. S. Obama.

Notes:

I sent out text messages to more than 15 people yesterday. Two got back with me. The age of texting is dead in my generation. That, or no one wants to talk to me. No, It must be the other one.

Headed over to my parents' place for a bit of good old grilling. Came back with an arm load of shirts. Some of them are brand new. My father is a close horse. Who knew?

Videos

Win!

Enough said. I'm glad to find someone on the internet who is not just falling on their ass.

Fully auto pistol

Not sure why people are impressed. Mac-10/11 machine pistols have been around for decades. They simply have an internal bolt leave the it open. To be honest, something like this hits me as a waist of ammo.

Meeting:

2010-06-11

We had a meeting today that was called at the last minute. Here is what I was thinking was going on before the meeting.

• Someone coming
• Someone going
• New coding rules

• Changes in personnel placement or moving people around.

It turned out to be paperwork. Just small/medium company turning in to a medium company stuff.

Kiddies and bubbles

What the adults do when after the kids go to bed.

Foggy Glasses

It is freezing on the bus. In the morning, when the dew point is low, I have to scrape the moisture off my glasses every morning.

Tick?

I felt a little tap on the top of my head as I past under a tree this morning. This just might have been a tick trying to land on me. I brushed myself off while walking. You can't be too careful. I've had a tick before. I imagine using one of those cranes to shave the sides of all the trees along the walk way. That would just remove what little shade they provide.

The scary thing is what was going through my head. I pictured a tiny blue buy sitting in a tree. He sees my huge pink noggin coming and starts to salivate. He plummets, cackling the whole way, smacks in to my scull and instead of being able to grab hair to steady himself, he slides, grasping at slippery sweaty leather and cursing under his breath. Then he falls from such a height shouting a tiny high pitched “Spooooooooon!!” on the way to the ground.

SciFi story

I just listened to a science fiction story about a society that started a war and ended up underground. They used robots to fight the war above. The enemy did the same. The people, of course, discover that the robots have been lying to them for some time. The war stopped very soon after all the people went underground.

When a group of people go above ground to inspect the scene, they are prevented from going back and telling every one else The robots, of course, bring both sides together on the surface to start a new. No need for diplomacy or politics because no one needs those things when they are worried about growing crops and getting enough rain.

This is the worse kind of happy ending. It is a lie. All of life exists to change the environment to fit their needs. This means all resources become precious at some point. This means not every one has everything they want and need all at once and forever. This story simply shows the robots hitting the reset button on humanity's condition. Changing from one form of distribution of wealth to another is not going to change the fact that want and need will eventually dictate action and distribution.

Weather report

2010-06-09

On the way in this morning I noticed something funny about the clouds. The high clouds were those choppy feathered clouds. I heard somewhere that this means there are high speed winds at high altitudes. They looked like they were headed East more or less.

As I road on the bus I noticed the low layer of clouds appeared to be moving north West. This means they were headed in nearly opposite directions. This cannot be good. That sort of thing cannot ever be a good sigh for the day's weather.

Sure enough, my mother texts me that Houston was under a tornado watch until 16:00. The weather was coming from San Antonio. That sounds about right. The high level winds would dictate the direction of the weather system's travel. The lower level flow would be directed to the storm if it is building.

Just before lunch, I looked up the weather map on my phone. “Here it comes.”

By lunch time, the skies looked a bit funny with choppy clouds and the wind blowing gently in many directions at once. The radar showed the mass heading right for us. No idea how much longer it would take for the bad stuff to land at our door step.

Notes:

Nuke the Leak! You have tried everything else. Next time, use redundant flow controllers.

You are not on trial in this life. Everything you do matters, but this is your life. Live it.

Watch what happens in Israel over the next couple weeks. Get ready for this to happen to the U. S. in the following few years.

A buddy of mine is miraculous at learning musical instruments. Well, he learned the banjo in like a week. He has been playing guitar for years. I told him I wanted to have a split screen that was him playing dueling banjos. it might take me a year to learn how to do split screen. Sad really.

There was a story about all the crap available through Iraqi markets. Everything from bolts to generators. Everything must go. Rock bottom prices. People are finding things that should not have been sold available as well. It turns out Iraqi police and military are taking the bases over and selling everything that is not nailed down. The stuff that is nailed down takes a day or two.

Sir Patrick Stewart. It just doesn't ring. they are just handing those titles out like candy.

Lunch Conversation: I can't repeat most of the lunch conversation from today. It was complaining about work and inappropriate jokes.

There is no new Trek TV series on at the moment. Drag. Not sure why I care.

Guns in the U. K.

The taxi driver who went nuts and shot a bunch of people in the U. K. recently used a shotgun. They keep talking to victims, but I've heard nothing about why. He had a license for the guns. There are stories about arguments the day before and that morning. He started with people he knew and appears to have just gone nuts after that. Once he decided to kill himself, this removes the value of human life. He tended to go for older people..

“Is it too easy to get a license for a gun in the U. K.?” This is the first thing asked. People have to go through a ringer to get a license already. The next question is “Do they need to be more restrictive?” The answer is that the U. K has the most restrictive gun ownership rules in Europe and possible the western world. Japan may have more restrictive rules.

Remember, handguns are completely banned in the U. K.. The people being interviewed say that farmers and ranchers in the U. K. have reason to have shotguns. Hunting is a legitimate reason to own a gun. It is an Olympic sport.

Derick Bird enjoined scuba diving, a pint and was anything but a loner. He killed his twin brother, a former boss, his lawyer, then went on a spree. He was a normal guy pushed by something past some limit. No one says they saw it coming. No one says he was on some list to be watched.

What would they do if he used a board with a nail in it? They can't ban building materials can they? Notice no one shot back. Where were the cops? I imagine they were huddling behind something stout with the citizenry because they don't have guns to hand. This is of course will lead to the cops having more guns and the citizenry having less. Not sure I have an issue with the coos carrying more guns. The latter however worries me greatly.

Notes:

Chinese workers building the iPad will get an iPad and a raise on top of it. this is to answer a rash of suicides at the factory in China. I wander how many of them will sell the iPad for a little bonus.

Every person in the U. K. owes 22,000 pounds in national debt. If someone pays you the amount in cash, can they pay lower taxes over the next twenty years? Somehow I doubt it.

The writing is on the wall. All the major ISPs are going to per-byte charges eventually. All in the name of the almighty dollar. the current regime will give them whatever they want just as long as the contributions keep coming in.

DnD game session, sans DnD

We had a DnD session last night at Adam's place. I turned up for the first time in a long time. I planned on it being boring because I wasn't going to play. I don't have a character rolled up. They are playing first edition just for the fun of it. It was not boring and there was no DnD plaid.

• We got the table huge white board set up.

• Got all the chairs and dice out.

• Made cocktails, passed out some beers. (hmm, this may be a pivot point) Adam was calling this grapefruit and jinn drink a 'fuzzy star'. I'm sure he made it up.

• We ordered food.

• John didn't want pizza so he started ordering online from Jason's Deli. Thirty minutes of ordering go by and every one takes their turn picking a sandwich or whatever. The web page crashes and we loos it. Well, John nearly lost it. We ended up ordering, over ordering pizza. I only got one slice of the jalapeno pizza.

• We discussed LOST

• What happened.

• We compared the final episode of LOST to the final episode of The X-Files.

• We discussed the animated GIF that shows an alternate ending to LOST.

• Adam described a room.

• Someone started complaining about work and before you know it two hours had gone by.

• Adam described the same room.

• Someone said something else about work and we all laughed.

• Adam folded up the DM screen and we continued to complain about work.

• Then it was 23:30 and we started watching funny stuff on TV and then some Japanese Animation..

Long story short, we had a three or four hour session of DnD that got about three solid minutes of play time. We all enjoyed ourselves immensely. Sometimes you just have to vent about work. There is plenty to vent about these days. Well, every day. I cannot say that right now is any different than it has ever been, except there is more of it. That doesn't make sense unless you work at our company.

I would like it noted for the record that I could have had a viral video last night if it weren't for those pesky employment and friendship requirements. Details, details.

The next day I was fine. I had two stiff drinks. You would think I could take that without a headache. I was very tired, but happy for the experience. Work was still work. We complained about so many things that it is difficult keeping track of what is accurate and what is bullshit. It is nearly all accurate. Funny how that works. I do feel better for the letting off of steam and to be honest, I feel a bit better for the team building experience. Those really are important.

Notes:

They are counting the days in the Gulf Disaster. “It is day 49 of the Gulf oil spill!” with the echo turned on. It is hard to listen to.

Digg started enforcing the bot problem they had. They lost 33% (13 million unique views) in a month earlier this year. Does that mean a third of their traffic was bots trying to drive up people's hits? That is frightening. I know I hate getting Digg links. I always thought it was a pyramid scheme for views. Guess I wasn't far off.

Israeli blockade

I'm so sick of hearing about this. Every blog on earth is bitching on one side or the other. Here is what I believe.

Israel forces told the ships to stop. The ships did not stop. The Israelis boarded the ship. The videos I saw showed a scene of soldiers dropping from a helicopter and being mobbed by people armed with melee weapons and their faces covered. After some of the Israeli troops had been shot by the crowd, after the crowd had taken fire arms from some of the downed soldiers. The remaining soldiers, being surrounded on deck and taking fire, returned fire.

I believe this is what happened.

I also believe that there are enough people in the world who hate Jews to guarantee the vilification of Israel and Jews, regardless of evidence and the truth. There are many people still in this world who hate Jews. They want Jews to go away. Where? Anywhere but in their lives. It this means they all die, I suppose that is OK with some.

She let the mask slip. This is not the first time a member of the Obama White House has come right out and said something antisemitic.

Why do members of the left hate Israel? I believe that it is because Israel is not a nation of victims who must be take care of by western liberals. Liberals seem to hate every one who is not sufficiently a victim. The more victims there are in the world for Liberals to take care of, the more power Liberals have. Any one who is not a victim is evil. Any one who says people should be held accountable for their own actions and should be provided the skills and tools to take care of themselves is labeled a right wing nut job.

As long as the Palestinians play the victim, every western liberal on the planet will shout from the roof tops that something must be done about Israeli aggression. Why do Palestinians destroy green houses and infrastructure when they get it? Because they know they must be the victim. They cannot in any way succeed or be perceived as take care of themselves because they will loose the support of those folks all over the world who want the money and power too keep flowing with a fresh supply of victims to grease the cogs.

I remember someone saying long ago that every one loves an underdog. No. I say that many people love victims. For every victim there is a need. For every need there is a cause. For every cause there is a group and flow of money. Every time you have a group and a flow of money, you have power. That is what people want. They need victims to get power.

I call this victim warship. I don't know what else to call it. Noting is going to chance until people stop believing that everyone deserves everything. I don't have everything. I don't need everything. There are people who have more than I. There are people who have less. Things just are. No one should exploit another, but that is exactly what victim warship is.

Videos

Drunk

He was drunk enough to ware ice skates. That isn't the funny thing to me. They make this guy ride to the police station in the back of his own car. When he pukes on the way to the station, he has to clean it up in the morning. I love it.

Hole

Surely you have seen this in static pictures. The caption would read something like "Not Photoshopped!"

Bus vs car

Just makes you want to cross town on a local doesn't it?

Upset Starfish

This video is missing a caption that says "Asshole divers!"

Looping a chopper

... and making it look easy. I like the the fact that "... helfire misiles ... " is about the only word I understood from the announcer.

Plane almost crashes

Watch to the end.

Helicopter crash

The captions say no one was injured, but Jesus! they came close. Not sure the Twilight Zone music fits, but who am I to talk about music?

MilkyWay

This is the Milky Way galaxy as viewed from Death Vally. I bet it is amazing to view first hand, but I would not want to be caught out there ill prepared.

DnD last Thursday video

I'll write a better post about this later. Check out the video.

Enjoy.

Notes:

2010-06-03

BP keeps apologizing. People keep getting sick while cleaning up. The dispersant is as bad as the oil some say. The CEO of BP want's his life back same as the people on the ground.

All currency is risk management. The reason currency exists is to level the playing field for trades of goods and services. People say the stock market has taken on too much high risk. The trouble is people forgot that there are no guarantees. Sometimes people and companies have to fail. It keeps those who succeed honest. This is risk.

Today at lunch, I went for a walk in the parking garage. It just didn't feel as satisfying as I have in the past. The pidgins were on holiday. The ground was wet from a fresh rain. That just made everything humid and steamy. That might have been it. Not sure.

There is a potential law coming down the pike that says customers have to be told what country and city they are being transferred to before they are transferred to an offshore call center. I'm not sure what to think of that idea. Part of me wants to have this in plan, the other part of me asks what difference it makes if they get the same job done.

There are whispers out there that a study is going to say that couples who have many children together are unhealthy on a genetic diversity front. I'm getting tired of scientists telling me how to run my life. The study has not even shown it's head and I'm trying to think of ways to counter the argument. This has got to be bullshit. I wonder if the person who told me has been misinformed.

Notes:

Saw another ambulance this morning on the way to work this morning. It was not running with lights and sirens. Still, that is quite a few for a 24 hour period.

I spend the majority of the day as acting software Nazi. I go around to computers and pull all the keys. We count how many are in use and we count how many we pay for and make the numbers line up. it is fun in a causing other's pain kind of way.

We had a Dell tech come by work today to fix a computer. There was no power. Everything was plugged in properly. The tech swapped the power supply in like a minute flat. You could tell he has been doing this every day for some time. Box works. Nice.

Elle doesn't want her cherry pie because the cherries don't taste right. I think it is because they are those canned mashed up pie cherries.

Commute

Just another commute in the life of Kelly. This one had double ambulances and a nice bike at the end.

Sound

I've been looking at audio recorders. They have gotten cheap. They seem to work pretty well. I want one that does stereo for recording live gigs. Nothing fancy, just stereo that doesn't suck. Maybe an external mic hookup. A file format that that is not proprietary. OK, I want one that will cost me about $100. No thanks. I'll use my phone, even with about a thimble's space to store audio.

These things are great for podcasts. There are not really places to post sound. I don't know how to set up an RSS feed. No one wants to listen to me complain. I don't have time or will to promote myself. I don't really want to be famous.

I have too many gadgets that I never use already.

Notes:

Had two more people ask me if I know I look like the Mythbusters guy today.

I get to be a software Nazi at at work "No Office for you!!!" Yes! Finally some real power.