Songs
From
http://www.kexp.org/playlist/playlist.asp
Camera Obscura, Suspended From Class, Underachievers Please Try Harder, Merge
Carina Round, Motel 74, The Disconnection, Weapons of Mass Entertainment/Interscope

NASA
NASA has a story about a new experimental plane called X-43A. So, they are finally using scramjet engines. I have been hearing about scramjet engines since I was a kid. They made their way into Science Fiction a millennia ago.

Camera
I got a new camera. It is a five megapixl so the pictures will be huge from now on. Just kidding. I'll shrink them for the web a bit. That size of picture gives you more room to play on the computer.
The camera is a Canon S50 (black). It is not only a capable camera, but looks snazzy too. It is made from aluminum and feels like it is tough to boot.

Music, Money and my two cents
I hear a bunch of hype about Time Warner Music being sold off because of digital piracy. Yet, music album sales are up. Singles are in the toilet. Online piracy does a much better job of telling people which bands they like and don't like. I know a couple of people who are either in, or dream of being in the music business. I've known several people over my life who have had the dream of start-um. The one thing they all have in common is money. Kid Rock is in it for the money. The Grateful Dead were in it for the tour. One of the Sex Pistols, I think, said "I can't do anything else worth a damn." How about open source music.
I sure do complain about this allot.

Gunslinger Girl
This was a creepy Anime series It is a bunch of little girls who are trained to kill without remorse. It did, however, have the best intro music I've ever heard on any Anime. The music has what sounds to me like a German woman singing in English. It is a good song. I wish I could figure out who the group is.
So, Alexis, any other good series I should grab?

ReadPlease continued
This software has changed the way I surf. I never used to read the whole story on news sites. People have complained all over the place at the incomplete stories offered by the press both online and in other media. TV and Radio always seemed to fall short except for NPR really. I don't have cable, so I only have the inept broadcast news to watch on TV. I never really noticed the shortness in online news, that is, until now. Now that I read all the stories and all the content of the stories, the establishment really is leaving stuff out. It isn't due to some conspiracy. They just want to keep the story under three minutes. I'm sure every one is doing the same thing I am and reading news all day, waiting with itchy mouse finger breaking news. I love those big red boxes CNN puts on their site for breaking news. Now, I follow the links on slashdot and read the articles. I go to sites like GeekNews and Portal of Evil just for the articles haven't brought myself to the Onion yet.

More on ReadPlease
I have been reading news non stop. My goodness, I think I am newsed-out. I am a news junky. That is saying allot. I am, however, well informed.
I also figured out a way around ReadPlease reading stuff twice. That drove me nuts. If you drag and drop text into the ReadPlease window, it will not read it twice, at least so far.

http://www.radioparadise.com/modules.php?name=songinfo&song_id=35132
Artist:Louis Jorda
Song:Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby
Album:Louis Jordan & His Tympani Five

Black Market
Question
As much as people and governments are worried about dependencies on oil and the health of the country, why doesn't the government hike the taxes on gas and tobacco products to make the public find other alternatives? Because, the public will find other alternatives.
Economics 101
First of all, there are high taxes on gas and tobacco. More than half the cost of tobacco and nearly half the cost of gas at the pump is tax. The government has a hard time telling people to stop smoking because the government depend heavily on the tax revenue the addiction brings to the coffers. The same is true with gasoline. Alternative fuels will not take over the market until they are economically superior to gasoline. Until governments can receive the same amount of revenue by replacing gas, we will use gas. That is it. There just is not any more to it.
Now, think about increasing the taxes on tobacco. If the government doubles their revenue on Tobacco, it will take twice as much effort to get government to get rid of tobacco.
Again, the same goes for gas. Europeans keep saying "jack up the taxes on gas and people will find alternative fuels." Well, that is not entirely accurate. Economics professors will tell you that people will find alternative means of obtain gasoline, not alternatives to gasoline itself. That means a black market.
To be honest, I bet if OPEC jacked up the price of crude oil for a long period, with no end in sight, the motivation for alternative fuels would finally com about.
Music Industry
A totally new example is what is happening to the music industry in the western world right now. They are watching their means of existence crumble from under them. For the last sixty or eighty years, the entertainment industry put most of their time and resources in charging for recordings instead of live acting. Live acting has been around since before written language. People have charged to entertain ever since we have stood up on two legs.
Well, this is a new example,except perhaps for what the automobile industry did to hors drawn carriages, or maybe what the steam ship did to the sailing vessel. Now, that is a clean alternative fuel.

Random Gripe about taxes
Consider when you go to the pump the next time that nearly .60 cents of the cost is tax. Add that cost to your income tax and sales tax. Oh, and don't forget property tax. Then there are the eight taxes on your phone line. It just makes me ill. Now they want to add hidden VAT (Value Added Taxes) to everything you buy including food. VAT taxes are particularly nasty, because they are in the cost (to the consumer), not listed separately on the ticket at time of purchase.

Lunch after
My friend and I went to Chili's instead of the Alamo Draft House. We ate good food and had a good time. I kind of missed going to the movies and having a beer. It is St. Patrick's day. I did have a Guniess at Chili's. That counts.

Songs
http://www.radioparadise.com/modules.php?name=songinfo&song_id=2134
Artist:Ray Wylie Hubbard
Song:Conversation with the Devil
Album:Crusades of the Restless Knights

http://www.radioparadise.com/modules.php?name=songinfo&song_id=31053
Artist:Richard Thompson
Song:Beeswing 
Album:Action Packed

Potential Constitutional Amendments I like
Entertainment Content
People get the content free until the industry can agree on a method and provide that method to get said content to consumers.
No Lawyers need apply
Lawyers and those who have attended law school may not participate in public office except to cast their vote as a citizen. (they know too much.)
Overall tax limit
No citizen has to pay more than 50 percent of their annual gross income in taxes, regardless of governmental entity requiring the taxes, or when the taxes are due. The citizen chooses who does and does not get the taxes they pay should there be an over charge.

ReadPlease
I've started using a new software called ReadPlease. I've used it once before, but it sucked then. I think they have a nice product now. There are still a few foibles.
Old vs. new
The old version used an engine from Microsoft that insisted on displaying this stupid character at the top of the screen that read to you. I remember thinking this was childish and an unnecessary resource hog.  The new version doesn't force you to use the little character. Everything else seems to be the same. I did notice the company is owned, or partnered with AT&T in some way.
My impression
I need software like this. It has been a while since I used any reading software. The difference in my surfing habits occurs instantly. I catch myself actually reading long emails. The last several days I have read more news stories all the way through than in the last six months. I've read short stories online. I'm reading instructions for stuff. I may even, if I can stand myself after, read the DND books. Don't hold your breath.
Problems
Sometimes it reads things twice for no apparent reason. The copy feature (copy into the clipboard and the software automatically reads the text out-loud) gives an error that says “cannot read from clipboard”, but the silly thing seems to work just fine. The delay between sentences (when the software hits a period) is different from the auto-read feature and the play button. I don't get that last one at all. You would think the software would just read based on the same settings regardless of how it is initiated. Every single one of these problems existed in the previous version.

DND
Not playing DND is killing me. I miss my friends. They plaid weekend before last. I sat here and couldn't get anything done all day. I miss it terribly. It is just so much work. If I can find the online text copies of the books it might help greatly. I can have the above software read it to me. I may have to rethink my abandonment. Adam, our DM, said he will let me come back.

PC-Mall
I had to re-order my camera and the USB notebook drive reader from PC-Mall. The FedEx deliveries insisted on a signature. I got a call from PC-Mall today asking me to join a frequent customer group. I should have asked how much I've spent there in the past few years. I've bought all kinds of crap from them. Let's see, three wireless hubs, a couple of cables, several mice and keyboards, a laptop and a computer, more than one digital camera, about six hundred blank CDs or DVDs, and I think I bought my Sony Clie there. I would want to keep me as a customer as well.

Lunch
Tomorrow afternoon I'm going out with a friend of mine to the Alimo Drafthouse. This friend and I went out on a real date about ten years ago. We have never kissed.

Song
This song rocks. I have heard it a couple of times and it always makes me smile.
http://www.radioparadise.com/modules.php?name=songinfo&song_id=33407
Artist:Kirsty MacColl
Song:In These Shoes?
Album:Tropical Brainstorm

Yawn
Man it was hard getting out of bed this morning. I normally get up at about 4:30 to get ready for work. I don't leave the house until about 5:30. I need that time just to screw my head on straight. This morning was more difficult than normal. I had some magic meat packets at a friend of mine's house. I was tossing and turning all night. I got up at 1:00 am and downed Maalox and a glass of water. This morning when I tried to stand up out of bed, I nearly fell right back down. I was dizzy with sleepiness. I wander if the people below me hear me stumble around in the morning. I probably sound like I'm trying to dance or something.

Campy
I've always thought Campy was when you act like you are trying to seem serious, but really you are not taking anything seriously. I hear this term all the time describing movies and stories. I bet there is no agreed definition.

The Art Teacher
A buddy of mine told me an anecdote. So, my buddy has this art teacher in one of the k12 years. My buddy asks the teacher 'Tell us about the drunkest you ever got." Kids are like that. They don't take into account that just telling a story like that could get the teacher fired. Anyway. The teacher describes this episode where the teacher and a friend drank themselves silly and tried to get in the car to drive home. The only trouble was, neither of them could find the steering wheel. When the duo came to in the morning, they found they had both inadvertently gotten in the back seat of the car.
Now, this is an art teacher. I'm thinking this story was concocted to cover why two drunk guys would be found sleeping "together" in the back seat of a car in a bar parking lot. Trouble is, I'm the suspicious type.

Magic 8 ball
Some one at my day job has a Magic 8 ball on her desk. It is bright green. It is fashioned after the Muppets. When you get an answer from it they are like "morpmorp" (Swedish Chef) and "waka-waka" (Fazzy bear).
My colleague is in training this week. I snuck over and shook the ball. "Will I get laid this weekend?" I closed my eyes and waited to hear what cute, goofy response it would come up with. It said "No." Piece of shit.

Anecdote cubed
So, my buddy (a different one) tells me a story about this guy who had no idea how to tell a story. This guy would look my buddy in the eye and tell him stories like "So, man, I was in the airport and I had to go to the can and I finally made it and I'm like 'ahh'." My buddy would look at this guy like he was nuts every time he told one of the pointless stories and the guy just never got it.
This guy told a stupid story about an airport bathroom (anecdote 1). My buddy told me the story about him telling the story (anecdote 2). I'm telling you the story about the whole thing now (anecdote 3). ... a true story by the way.

Some days
Some days, I hate being me. I just had to cancel two PC-Mall orders because the Fed-Ex deliveries require signatures. PC-Mall puts a sticker on them that requires it. They want you to come pick it up. That defeats the whole purpose of Fed-Ex. I'm so pissed I can't think straight. I want to scream at the people for their lack of compassion. I called PC-Mall and they say there is nothing they can do. I call Fed-Ex and they say there is nothing they can do. If I knew a good lawyer, I know exactly what I would do.
If I were born a hundred or more years ago, I would not be expected to pass an eye test to get into society. If I couldn't see as well as every one else, I would just get a job where it wasn't important. If I were born a hundred years from now, I bet they would have something to fix my eyes. Thanks God. You picked a fine time to make Kelly.

Texas Memory Systems
A buddy of mine made it on SlashDot. His company, Texas memory Systems made a huge RAM disk for the US government. I've known my buddy for ever. It is cool catching his company in print. They have had write-ups before in trade rags, but this is SlashDot, the big time.

Other stuff
I had a bunch of depressing stuff about women using me and something goofy about a school in Europe teaching Elvish as a credit. None of that makes any difference when something real happens like the story above. It is nice to have something real happen that puts things into perspective.

Tired
It is difficult to come to grips with the fact that you are just going to be alone for the rest of your life. I have had opportunities. I have squandered, or simply let them go. A bunch of names come to mind of women who seemed to like me. There have always been problems. I just didn't learn the proper skills somewhere along the way.
There are allot of things I can't say here. I've typed about ten lines and had to remove them all. They might hurt others or cause some one to try and help me. I don't want help. I am tired.
God answers all prayers. Sometimes the answer is no. There are two things God has not granted me. The first is love, and the other I cannot say here. I am tired of hearing myself complain.
I slept all day today. I will sleep all day tomorrow if I can. At least my dreams are a distraction.

Audio book
I'm listening to the old testament on my computer. Man, those guys knew hoy to party. This book is all wine, sheep, sleep with my daughter, make the slaves do the work ... Everything is seven this and seven that, bags of silver and so on.

Chameleon Card
Slash Dot has an article on this little device called a Chameleon Card that mimics all your cards. It can remember your credit cards (all magnetic cards), bar codes and RFID devices. I want to focus on the RFID functionality for a moment. We use RFID of some kind at my day job to get in the building and access security stuff. This Chameleon Card, as far as I can tell, has the ability to copy the RFID in the security cards just by holding the handheld device close to the RFID and hitting record. That means I can catch some one at lunch, or talking in the hall and hit the record button from inside my pocket and record the CEO's magic code to let me in to high security arias. Now, there are other security measures to prevent this kind of shenanigans. The Chameleon Card just seems to make it easy to bypass one of the most basic and first line defenses.

Portable Documents
Ever since computers came into being people have been trying to agree on a universal document format. Something that all computers and all people of all languages could agree with. This is a utopian idea. Adobe came up with PDF (Portable Document Format) a million years ago. This was supposed to answer the call in the eighties. Adobe intended the PDF format to be how the Internet communicated. I've worked with PDF and I can tell you, it is far too complicated and prone to failure for such long distance linking of information. Then came GRML. HTML and XML are subsets of GRML. This language was intended to cover all written human language. It falls a bit short, but it tries very hard. HTML is a very small part of the whole GRML concept. PDF has little to do with it. GRML is not maintained by a company. Adobe and Microsoft have nothing that supports GRML, or HTML in true compatible form for that matter.
Microsoft insists it has a generic document format called “.DOC”. This is also known as a Microsoft Word document. Microsoft loves it when companies include Word documents on their software distributions and CDs. Well, Microsoft Word has a few tricks that have bitten companies in the butt. There is this thing called “Track Changes” that keeps you modifications around even after the changes are accepted. Someone can go back in many cases and view the progression of information. There have been incidences where purchasing departments have let it slip who else is being considered for the contract, and how much each vendor is asking. There have been incidents where people received how much other people were getting in a bonus, or who was getting disciplined, or fired. Well, here is a story about how SCO has been bitten by what Microsoft insists is “not a problem”.
The moral of the story is multi-fold. (1) Screw Microsoft and their tyrannical obsession with tacking over the world. (2) Use a file format that you know only contains the information you want when you release it to anyone. (3) Do not be a SCO. (4) Do not assume things are innocent just because “everyone” uses them.

Who cares what ten year olds think?
Five Live (BBC) had a show on this morning, their afternoon, that went into what ten year olds worry about and do for fun. They had interviews with a bunch of kids and they all said they worry about world peace and the environment and crap like that. People wrote in, via email and phone text message, how great these kids sound and that they have hope for the future. What about the zit they obsessed over for a week a couple of months ago? What about what their friend heard a rival say last Tuesday? The teachers wouldn't bring along a delinquent to the radio. If you want to know what what ten year olds are worried about, ten year olds are the last ones you ask. Find out what they spend time doing. Listen to what they complain about. Pay attention to their spending habits.

Information Protection
In the UK a guy named Ian Huntley (BBC story) killed two ten year old girls and tried to dispose of their bodies at a school. He worked at the school as some sort of janitor. It turns out he had several run-ins with the law of a sexual nature and the police had not kept his information (BBC story) because they thought they were supposed to get rid of information after a period of time due to information protection acts.
Let me tell you, the British people are re-considering the protection of people's information after this. It turns out no one had told the police how to comply with the law properly. They should have kept some of the information along the way even with the laws in place. The trouble is, police were afraid of infringing on some one's rights. When the school attempted to run a background check, there was nothing in the record that would prevent Ian from working so close to children. Every one I've heard from has said this could have been prevented.
I'm quite torn about my information. I want companies to lay off selling my information to each other. I want the government to be careful and make sure there are checks and balances in place to protect me from misuse of my information. I want my rights protected. I want people like this guy caught and put away.

Pessimism
I am a pessimist and I am tired of people giving me shit about it. I have been a cynical pessimist all my life and I don't feel like changing now. Telling me that things are going to be all right or to see the bright side of things is like looking a leopard in the eye, pointing at a lion and saying “Lions don't have spots and they seem to do well.” Fuck lions.

Twitch
I have a twitch in my lip. It has been hitting me off and on for a couple of days. I've had this kind of thing before in my fingers or legs. I know it is because I'm not eating right or something. I am so paranoid. The thought that it is Multiple Sclerosis or something will not leave my head. Can you imagine assuming the worst all the time. It is no wander I can't find a mate. No wander I can't make it through a university. No wander I am mad all the time. Pessimists should get disabled rights.

Spring
It sprinkled on my commute in this morning. It was a pleasant rain. The drops were so small they felt like snowflakes and disappeared the instant they touched anything. It was before dawn and yet the roads were thick with people in their cars. It's funny, I'm the only one on foot most of the time. Some people jog through the neighborhood I pass on my way to work. There are others on the bus, but not like the cars. There must be a hundred cars just on my short commute.

Something I learned today
Working two jobs is like trying to juggle oiled epileptic octopi.

Guest author
This is from my buddy Adam in response to a post yesterday called LOTR.
<Adam>
Some bits of info: Tolkien hated allegories (he states as much in his introduction to The Lord of the Rings). No one in his stories is supposed to be someone from real life. That said, certain philosophies do make its way into the story. Clearly the ending of the books shows that the "everyman" in the novels was not Frodo, but instead, Samwise the gardener; after all Sam is the one that ends the story going home to his wife and kids. I think that Tolkien wanted to demonstrate that greatness is not something that you are born with or destined to do, it just happens. People of character respond well in times of duress. Another theme that runs rampant is industrialization versus nature. Tolkien grew up in a time where it appeared that industrialized society would destroy his British homeland. His books reflect that. Lastly, the fact that all the Middle-earth nations desperately attempted not to go to war parallels both WWI and WWII where Europe and others were slow to rouse when threatened.

Man, can I go on about that story. I am such a nerd.
</Adam>

I am a rarity
There is a story on CNN griping about the small number of bloggers and those bloggers who blog not blogging on a regular basis. I try to virtually put pen to paper every couple of days or so. Unfortunately I'm not very interesting. I had a paper log I kept many years ago. The last line in the couple of binders says something like "I've written about life for a while. It is time to live it." I stopped writing in that log since then. These days, I believe I can accomplish both. You let me know how I'm doing.

Harry Potter
I finished the audio book for Harry Potter book five. It is the best one so far by my measure. I'm looking forward to the war between wizards. Harry is fourteen now and will have to take responsibility for his actions. There are love interests showing up. It has been interesting watching Harry and his pals grow up. I can't wait for the next book. I hope the audio book shows up quickly. The audio books are twenty hours a peace. I covered three of them in about two weeks.
I read the first two books, as appeared to listening to the audio book. They took months each. I borrowed one from a friend (Robin). She dropped me off and as I walked back to my apartment from the front entrance, this ten year old kid does this check slide to block the sidewalk and says "That's a good book." I had to tell him twice that I hadn't yet read the book because he wanted to talk about it so much.

LOTR
I filled out a survey on slashdot a couple of weeks ago on "what is your biggest limitation as a geek" or something like that. The only entry I failed was "you haven't seen the LOTR series yet". Well, Now, I have no excuses. I am 100% complete geek. Some of the other questions included "Have a significant other", "Don't run Linux" ... My goodness.
Anyway, I loved the movie of course. I did like the last little bit of the movie. The part back in the shire shows that Frodo did not win anything. Even though the war was won, Frodo suffers from shell shock and cannot return to his old life. Sam is able to make it work. Frodo leaves with the Elves. One must remember that J. R. R. Tolken went through World War I. He had to come back to a world at peace. I don't know what Tolken planned on doing before or after the war. I wander if he saw himself as a Sam or a Frodo. Perhaps a bit of both.

Songs
http://www.radioparadise.com/modules.php?name=songinfo&song_id=35014
Artist: Jem
Song: Come On Closer
Album: It All Starts Here...

http://www.radioparadise.com/modules.php?name=songinfo&song_id=2008

Artist: Lucinda Williams
Song: Can't Let Go
Album: Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Game Over
It isn't often I look forward to a new TV show. There is a new one coming out called Game Over. It looks like quite a romp. It kind of frightens me how crappy their web page looks. I saw a clip on one of the networks a couple of days ago and the on screen stuff looks good. The jokes seemed funny. They actually take advantage of the fact that the show is animated. I've noticed so many animated shows never take advantage of being animated. Daffy Duck falls off a cliff and forgets he is a duck and can fly. For God's sake. I've seen a duck trip over a pebble and fly to catch itself. I remember Bugs Bunny making a comment as Daffy plummeted from a bridge “I wander if Daffy will remember he can fly? ... <thud> Nope.” Now, that's funny.

Cost Center
It is funny how people take advantage of something when they don't have to pay for it directly themselves. At my day job I have a cost center for certain programming I do. There is one guy who thinks this means he can tell me he needs all these changes to vendor supplied stuff. For some reason he thinks his way is much better than the vendor's way. I have to modify some one else program to make him happy. I swear he just wants to make it his creation, by telling me to make a bunch of changes. He is supposed to retire this year. I wish he would hurry up and disappear./P>

Note to self
I gripe too much in this blog.<

DND
Well, my friends are playing DND this weekend and I'm not going to attend. It is going to kill me. You know, it isn't the DND I miss, it is the people and interaction. When I imagine playing, the characters and story don't come to mind. I find myself thinking about talking and laughing with my friends. Maybe I wasn't after the right thing in the first place. I don't have the desire to read the books. I don't feel a need to understand all the rules. I would rather write web page than a character. For the last several sessions, I have created simple characters to minimize the time and effort I had to put into DND. I never really read up on rules. I have always enjoyed playing though. I'll miss the fun at the gaming sessions. That isn't what it is all about though. If I want to spend time with friends, I need to participate in activities for that purpose.
Some one mentioned they liked my description of what was going on in the last game. That was fun actually. I have considered acting as a sort of stenographer and not participating in the game at all. I don't know if I could keep up the creativity over a whole session. Who cares, I would be there for the fun anyway. That is something to think about.

MetroLift
I had to go to renew my MetroLift card today. It is a Wednesday. I have to take an entire day off from work for a five minute interview. I sent in all the doctor's information beforehand. They already had a picture on file. I lost an entire day's pay for a five minute interview. It takes weeks to get all the information together and then get an interview. I've been at this three years. You would think they would just renew my damn MetroLift card by now. This is government process in action. The van was thirty minutes late to pick me up. You have to arrange a day to be picked up. You then must call the night before around seven PM to find out when your pickup time is. You must be outside and ready a minimum of fifteen minutes early. Then, they are thirty minutes late. There is no way to prevent missing a whole day of work. Some “disabled” people work you know. Some of us are productive members of society. Who are they to assume otherwise. BAH!

Book 5
I've had the pleasure of reading the fifth book of Harry Potter. Actually I'm listening to it as I type. Without giving anything away (I'm only half way through so that is difficult) it reminds me of the way the nazis ran their government. There was an old-boy's network that really ran everything and if you were not in the group, or on their side, you were not aloud to do anything worth while. In the book the law enforcement agency is taking over the educational system and controlling what the children learn.

Homosexuality
I'm reading about the same-sex marriage thing and noticed all the pictures the news agencies I frequent show two women with big smiles on their faces holding hands or one kissing the other's had. That wouldn't go over as well if it were men on the cover I bet. People don't seem to have the same hang-up over female homosexuality. Maybe that is just my observation. I did hear a line in "Chasing Amy" that attested the same thought. That movie was written by a guy though, so perhaps I'm suffering from gender prejudice.
I don't give a rat's ass one way or the other on the subject of gay marriage or same-sex marriage. I don't care if people have the right to marry German shepherds. I don't believe in sanctity of marriage. I think it should be very difficult to get married. When I got a divorce, it took sixty days for everything to clear. This is a cool down period. People should have to wait a year to get married.
Apple computer was going to move a plant to North of Houston in the early nineties I believe. The computer company ended up moving to Canada because Texas outlaws (or at least did then) the extension of company and insurance rights to partners, regardless of sex.
I can't stand either side of the argument. It pisses me off that there is an argument. Live and let live. Who are the zealots telling people who they can love? Who are these liberal anti-family freaks who want to flaunt their lifestyle in my face. Go away, all of you.

My Hair
Man, I have a hang-up about my hair. Amanda and Saline can attest my late teen obsession about baldness. For years I had long hair in my early twenties. It was gorgeous long red wavy hair. I was paranoid about going bald. I drove them nuts. When I started a carrier in my later twenties I cut my hair and went off to the corporate world. These last several months a couple of my friends have been growing their hair out for the first time in one of their lives. This made me want to grow my hair out. The trouble is I know I have a spot (Warning, I have a pimply back too.) just starting out. My plan was to let it grow a year and then take a picture of my bald spot and convince myself that I don't need to have long hair. It didn't take a year. I've since buzzed my head. It's Mr. Clean to you.

Testify
The lord works in mysterious ways. My parent's bought me a flashlight for Christmas. As it happens, I already had the same flashlight, and carried it in my pocket. Well, I had that light for a couple of years. It just broke. Now, I have a replacement (that I will not carry in my pocket). A coincidence? I don't think so.

Microsoft code leaked
Sometime last year we heard that a ton of Microsoft code was snatched from the secure network in Redmond via a hole created by an email virus. Now we find that some one has dumped the code on the net. I'm not sure if it is A) real B) accurate C) complete D) some SCO-esk strategy by Microsoft to prevent people from being compatible with Microsoft in the future. E) Usable. I read an example of USB driver code that sounded pretty interesting. There are already comments in forums saying “That's why I couldn't get my code to work.”

Friday the thirteenth
I wander where the Friday the thirteenth thing started. I heard some one speculate long ago it had something to do with thirteen at the last supper. If you try to look it up online, forty five ga-zillion hits come back. I suppose the world will never know.

Valentine's day
When I die, I'm going to track down old Mr. Valentine and beat him to a second death. More harm has been done by creating a day where people in relationships have a undefinable responsibility to impress each other. If there were defined tasks on this holiday, there would be no conflict when those tasks are either fulfilled, or failed. Instead, partners must apply creativity based on the opinion of the other partner to surprise in a positive manner the other party. This is an objective application of unqualified opinion. It is unqualified, because there is no definable written way to prove success of impression that can be supported universally. But, I'm not bitter.

The last episode
It's funny how much i hate watching the last episode of Anime. There are two series I have on my system that I have yet to watch the last episode. Anime have more finite seasons. They call a collection a series. They usually have 26 episodes. The different series though, typically end in the last episode. When/if the story picks up again it is a new series named something like “blawblaw 2”, or “blawblaw the school years” or something stupid like that. It isn't like “Friends” where they have gone three seasons too long. I bet there are examples of series that have gone for ever like M.AS.H. or something.
My grandfather would build an entire room on the house and not finish the trim on the inside. I speculated this is because he didn't want to be done. Maybe he and I are quite alike. There are some things I like finishing like programs. I do indeed enjoy never messing with them again once I turn them over to the user.

Bachelor party
I went to a friend's bachelor party a million years ago. I have always had something against visiting a topless bar. I definitely cannot pay for sex. It isn't some moral issue, it is an observation I've made over my life. I thought I could do it. I thought I could over come my limitation at my friend's bachelor party. We went to a room where some one said “This is where the private dances will happen.” I felt trapped. I walked out to a small area I suppose would be called an atrium to gather my thoughts. I actually climbed over the five foot wall to get out of the house rather than go back through the front room to leave. I couldn't face the woman. I waited in the car the rest of the evening.
Trust me, it would be great if I could just bring myself to pay for sex. It is cheaper than keeping a girlfriend happy. It just isn't something I can do. I remember my bachelor party. “No strippers.” If I never have sex again, I will be glad if I never paid for it.

YES!
I got something to work in Linux. I've got the Graymatter software (web page) working on my Linux box (Mandrake 9.2). It has some nifty features like you can comment on my blog. It handles history better. It is on my server, so I will still be a slave to my server reliability and South Western Bell ISP. I don't know how to get my existing blog entries on the system and dated properly. I may have to upload them as files or something. I may just start from the day I pull the trigger. Then again, I may just stick with the system I have now.
This is an important step in my education. This is the first time I've gotten something to work under Apache on Linux. I still need to get some other web applications to work. Wish me luck.

Freudian
Why do I ware work boots or hiking boots all the time? I think I may have figured it out. My mom tells this story ever once in a while. When I was very young we lived in Kansas. We had one of the notorious floor vents for our central heat. The mettle grating was hot the whole winter. I remember being told to avoid the grate. At some point I was heading for the kitchen and just as I past the grate some one called my name. Being three or so I stopped and turned to look at them and burned my foot on the grate. I remember standing on top of the grate and laughing later in a pair of cowboy boots. I've always warn boots (or at least some kind of closed shoes) since.

Ancient health care
I've been thinking that in ancient times people may have not had health care, but these days we as species are spiraling to an unhealthy abyss. In the old days it sucked for the individual. People died at a young age, but when some one had a genetic defect, they died before they had a chance to breed. Now, people can nearly clone their messed up genetics and make copies of their diseased selves running around with the same problem. As we get to a point where nearly anything can be fixed after the fact we will become a society of genetic disasters..

Israeli barrier
The Israeli people at this moment build a wall between two parts of their country. Some fight it in the courts. I saw a movie called Persona Non Grata that spoke of the Israeli conflict. In the film, some one compares the barrier to the Berlin Wall of the cold war era. I say it is exactly the same with one minor exception. In Israel, they are not trying to prevent people from leaving the country. They are trying to stop terrorists from murdering their citizens. Just that one difference.
What do you think?

<before I left work>
Mom strikes again
Sunday (the 8th) is my birthday. I've been trying to avoid the whole birthday thing. I've tried to lay low at the office and not let too many people know what was going on. Leave it to my mother to show up with a birthday cake just before lunch. Thanks mom. Some of the guys want to take me out and get drunk or something to the effect. No, I don't need that to feel better about getting a year older. They did corner me into a lunch today. I can survive that. I'm turning 35, and not very gracefully I might add. Ah, well I will wake up Monday the same person. That may be the trouble. I believe birthdays are a time of reassessment. A friend of mine says they are a time you are most likely to break up with a significant other. That makes sense to me. I know I'll wake up Monday with the same aching back and the same poor attitude and just as lazy as I went to bed with Friday. Maybe I want everything to change on a dime.

Something I learned today
China requires other countries to prove who some one is and that they are from China before said person can be deported back to China. It is not good enough to prove they are simply Chinese. You need paperwork and a proper identification. The UK has trouble with illegal laborers and people who are exploited getting them back to China. Most other countries require only the identification of nationality. I wander if some one can sneak into the US by pretending to be some one else and get themselves deported from a third country.

Foreshadow
It didn't hit me at the time but I noticed a coworker hanging up on his wife in the middle of a conversation.

<after I left work at 11:00>
Lunch, until six PM
We stopped at a sports place for lunch. I got wings. I've been trying to eat better the last couple of weeks. I enjoyed the lunch. We talked shop and learned a few things about some products and people we work with. It was loud. We went to a pub called The Fox and Hound on Westhimer. They are kind of yuppie, but it's a nice place. We plaid pool and darts. My right arm is stiff this morning because I didn't follow through with my through. Trip was pretty cool. He would screw up the scoring in my favor. After all, it was my birthday.
One of the guys and I left The Fox and Hound at about six PM or so. Not bad for seven hours. He and I bar hopped a bit. We ended up at the Rice University bar called Valhalla. Talk about a hole in the wall. You drive around Rice and follow the hazard lights.
After that, we went to a coworker's birthday party. My buddy had to take off. He had just hung up on his wife in the middle of a conversation. it didn't sound serious. I hope he isn't mad about my mentioning it here.
Cynthia's party was fun. Not many <my day job company> people showed up, but I'm glad one did. Ramone, a buddy of mine from work ended up giving me a ride home. His friend from San Antonio hung up on his girlfriend in the middle of a conversation.
I kept trying to flirt with a girl named April, but I'm quite bad at it.

Frigging Microsoft
Get with the program Microsoft. You think you are on top. So did Hitler. So did Stolen and a few others who's names escape me. I hope when I grow up that I will look back on the day when people were slaves to one company.
The vast majority of customers need no more than a word processor, email client and a web browser. I don't remember the last time I printed a letter. (oh, I do. It was to complain about my noisy neighbor a year ago.)  I have considered throwing out my printer. Microsoft needs to reassess their direction. Microsoft has been telling the customers what they want instead of listening to customer's needs for a long time - for ever.
In my case, last night I had a text editor cost me at least one day's work. I edited a file on a Windows machine and saved it to a Windows partition. Then I moved the file to a SMB share to use on Linux (Mandrake 9.2) as a script. The first line of a script in Linux is very important. It tells the operating system which script language you are using. The line was correct. The path was correct. It was as if the line wasn't even there. It took me for ever to figure out that if I created the script file on the Linux box and then copied the entire contents of the original script into that new file, he script worked correctly. There was some kind of control character in the original script that was throwing off the interpreter definition. I blame Microsoft for not playing nice with the rest of the world. This is one example. It cost me time.

Cynicism
There is a debate on the BBC this morning involving how much cynicism there is in the U.S. and Briton involving political figures. People in the U.S. seem to assume their politicians are lying to them. It is considered normal here. Brits still get upset about it.
Bush is initiating an inquiry on the intelligence behind the Iraq war. Many state the intent of the Bush White House was to invade Iraq and they made laws to make that possible.
An interesting point is George Bush 1 was booted out of office based on the perception that he lied about stuff that lead up to the first war in Iraq and the fact that he said "No new taxes" and the first thing that happened was new taxes. Now George Bush 2 is about to run into the same trouble on the war and some new trouble in the economy. That is a second generation lire. Now, Hillary Clinton, the wife of a former president (and perceived lyre), may run for the Democratic party nomination for 2008. The U.S. may find itself in a situation much like Europe where wealthy families appear over and over in the political landscape running things for the rest of us.
I wander where all this cynicism originates.

Mom
Today is my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday mom. She is 26. She had me nine years before she was born. =]

Human Shield
I'm listening to the BBC five live. This guy went to Iraq to be a human shield. He became disillusioned when the Iraq government insisted he be a human shield in front of a power station instead of a hospital or orphanage like he wanted. Go figure. He then goes to Israel where he is shot to death by an Israeli solder while doing something in front of a building full of children. Others were shot in the same area that day. This guy lived for weeks and his family ad to pull the plug. All in all it sounds like a horrible situation.
Part of me wants to say "Those are war zones. What did you expect?" That is unfair.

A friend of mine
A friend of mine named Saline ran with me for a little while in the eighties. We never found ourselves. She went into the army and for many years lived in Germany working as a diesel mechanic for the U.S. there. She blew out her knees and the army wouldn't let her do anything. She couldn't even do jumping jacks. They would not give her a medical discharge and when her time was nearly up, they asked her to re-up. Our tax dollars at work.
After the military, she moved to Ireland. There she met a guy and they ended up moving to New Zealand. They have two beautiful children. She was told at an early age she would not be able to have children. She has an old soul. I wish she would write.

Blog
My blog will move soon. I intend to move it to my server at some point. I'll leave a link here and I'll send out an email. Meanwhile, you have the correct link.

Superbowl
The Superbowl is in Houston this year. Today is Superbowl Sunday and I was sick of it Tuesday morning. I respectfully decline to participate in the media frenzy and other commercialism swarming the event this year. I may blunder past the show on television and not instantly turn the channel, but I don't have cable. There just isn't anything else on the tube.

New Year's resolution
So far so good. I almost had a slip, but I was strong and held out.

Today (Friday the 30th)
It's cold outside. It's rainy. Dumbass me didn't bring a jacket. It is going to be a fun walk home. I like the cold. I hope it doesn't rain on me. I have a poncho, but that just isn't adequate for a cold windy rain. The trees drip on you from the misty dark. Puddles catch you unaware from the shadows. I fall victim to the uneven sidewalk on the way home. The path I tread each day can be traitorous. The sidewalk sinks from its own weight into the soggy soil over time. In places the sidewalk hides slick mud troweled smooth over the hard surface by rain. It's like walking on oiled glass.
Tpro had a meeting last night. On the way to the meeting place we road through a tree lined lane. The power had been cut by the storm. The trees seemed to gather themselves from the gloom as we passed. The other cars sharing the road felt out of place among natural things.

Notes
I keep a Word document at work that contains a bunch of notes. In the last six or seven years I have gathered sixty five pages of typed notes. I only write important things down that apply only to me. This file is very important to me. I keep backups of it all over the place. I have some notes from years ago that don't seem to apply anymore. I keep them anyway. Every once in a long while, they come in handy.
One of the entries is titled “Read_Only (Reporting) Database Schedule”. Another is “Necessary Evils of the office”. The latter contains charge numbers for vacation and how to get MS Outlook to list names in emails by last name first.

Last Exile
I'm watching a Anime series called Last Exile. They have these cool air ships called Vendship that look like a 1930's car and sound like an old prop airplane. There are huge air ships like battle ships that never land. They have some kind of mana that allows them to fly called Claudia. Claudia is made of these crystals dissolved in water. Water is precious to all but the highest elite. I'm on the fifteenth of twenty five episodes and I haven't figured out if this is a love story or what. The two kids in it grew up together and view each other as brother and sister. There is also the effeminate guy from the “enemy” side who seems to have a crush on the male in the story.
I swear I'm starting to understand some of the Japanese words. I love watching Anime on the computer because I can pause the show to read all the subtitles. I've had some bad experiences with dubbed Anime. The people who do the dubbing are not always into the show. I would have loved to watch this stuff as a kid, but I never would have gotten past the subtitles.
The worse thing about Anime is the music (sorry Alexis). There have been like three songs in all of my Anime experience that didn't suck. The worse is when they sing in English. It is poorly rhymed and badly pronounced.

My evening
I stopped off at the store on the way home this afternoon. I hate stopping at the store, but I had this craving for those wafer-cream cookies that are sooooo bad for you. Anyway. I buy the cookies, hot-dogs, crackers, some canned soup, and cereal. In the checkout line I notice I'm in the slowest moving line. I swipe my credit card and my phone rings. It is Visa telling me some unusual charges just came across my card and since it wasn't porn, liquor or computer parts they want me to approve it. As I'm walking out the store I notice every person in the store who is not working is a single guy or a fat housekeeper. I can't cut a break. When I get home I eat half the cookies and a bowl of chilly with tons of cheese. I'm watching some goofy romantic comedy that I downloaded. I'm also watching the Simpsons. It is a multitasking thing. I may play a video game and then work a little bit on some paperwork for Tpro. I plan on turning in early. Tomorrow is a long day.

Another Victim
I can claim a victim. A friend of mine at the day office now reads Slashdot daily. She complains she is a news junky. That is hardly the case. When she cannot concentrate on programming for more than a couple of hours without her nerd news fix, then she will know the addiction. It isn't a bad thing. Sometimes being informed is a pain.
James did most of the work. He I believe is the one who got me hooked on Slashdot. Ah, to bring another into the fold. We send each other clips in email even though we know the other has read the article.

Evil
There are people on the net who make fun of the word evil. They don't like to think of the real thing. I'm watching a movie called “Hitler, The Rise of Evil”. Wow. Hitler was a serious evil. I think he truly believed in the things he wrought upon humanity. That just makes him more evil. He was a great public speaker. He was a commanding leader. This movie takes his life as a list of events. it is scary watching him grow up, watching him growing into the man who killed so many people. It is easy to hate him.
I notice Hitler rose to early pour on an employment platform. Many Germans were out of work and he got them jobs ... building a war machine.

I want a knighthood
The Queen is handing out another knighthood. This time to Bill Gates. Some complain the number of celebrities and business people getting these things has made it meaningless. They complain about it on the BBC. Perhaps soon there will be a straight up price on them. Falling, falling, falling price.

Rover “Spirit”
Unless you've been under a rock the last couple of days, the rover on Mars has been quiet. It just yesterday let loose 73 megabytes of data relayed through the other rover on the lander. Then they found out what the trouble was. It turns out it was flash RAM. You know, that thumb USB drive you wanted for Christmas. Same stuff. That is great news. I still wander if a little green guy with a “bleenball” bat had something to do with the silence.

Drunken elephants electrocted
It isn't often a news junkie like myself can say “That is a new one.”

Currency blocking in software
There have been articles about blocking the image of currency from software like Photoshop for years. It is a reality. Photoshop will not open a file that is of US currency. I believe it acts the same way with the Euro. Some speculate scanners and CD burners are next. I say, why stop there. Cyber space could be scanned on the fly (thank you TMS) for images of currency. Of course, there is a down side to all of this. If digital cameras are high enough resolution to make nice copies of currency, then they too must be able to pull the images from the ether and quash them. This means, if I want to rob a bank in a couple of years, I should tape a dollar bill to my forehead and the cameras will fail to capture my features.
That may sound a bit outlandish, It is just plane censorship. As the article linked above discuses, fair use is also stopped by the modified software. How long will it be before television and movies cannot show money changing hands.

Badger
Badger badger badger
Badger badger badger
Badger badger badger

source

=]

Warning
“If you've bothered reading this warning, you probably shouldn't edit the settings below.”
This was the gist of a warning in one of the conf files I ran across this weekend. I like open source software.

Notebook
When I say "notebook" now I think portable computer. I have an old diary kept in a bunch of notebooks (the paper kind). I should put it on the net sometime. It will show a more disturbed Kelly. I've gotten better emotionally in the last several years. Anyway, Notebook. I'm a bit disappointed with my laptop in some ways. I like it in others. I know I will choose a different notebook next time. I will pick a more powerful, but bigger laptop. This one is very light and capable, but not powerful. This one is a Dell. I've come to the conclusion that Dell is not that much better in quality than any other manufacturer. My CD is still not burning properly I have to deal with that.

Wily Wanka
Tim Berton and Johnny Depp are looking at remaking Wily Wanka. I bet they can do a good job. "umpa-umpa umpati-do. We will make a movie for you. ..."

Buttons
I had this old gene-jacket. I was originally black. It got washed in hot water by mistake and turned gray. I decided to finish the job and bleached the jacket white. A friend of mine (Saline) silk-screened a Metallica snake on the back which I colored in by hand. That was ages ago. The bleach took a toll on the fabric and eventually the second from the bottom button hole wore through. It was time to buy a new gene-jacket. I go to Academy and pick up a new $20 jeans-jacket (I paid $17 for the first one). It is great, except when I get home, I notice it is missing the same button as the old one, the second from the bottom. It is just gone. I found the button broken in the bag. It was actually on the jacket when I bought it. It fell off into the bag at some point. My Mother, God bless her, is going to take the jacket back and exchange it for me. The next morning I get up and grab a shirt from the closet to start my day, and notice - wait for it - it is missing a button. It wasn't the same button. This time it was second from the top. If it had been the same button, I think I would have staid home from work and curled up under the covers with a crucifix and a rabbit's foot. My Mom is going to sew the button on too. What a gal!

Working on the weekend
I find it nearly impossible to work on the weekend. Between my noisy neighbors and just plain laziness, I get little done.
Having a life is tough today. I'll bet it was easier in the fifties or so. Between wars people knew their place and had the ability to fight it too. There were struggles and people died to make their freedom work. That has always been the way. Nothing happens in America without a pile of bodies to raise eyebrows. Banks won't put in bulletproof windows at the teller windows because it looks bad to the customers. They lobby against it. If every bank had the bulletproof glass then they wouldn't look out of place.
Lately my day job has been kicking my butt. Nothing works. There is no real problem. All the software that I'm trying to make work is going through changes. Some of it is so old, it just works funny on the new machines. I have to go round and round with the vendor's tech support for answers. I should remember the fifty packages that worked over the last year. Every single one has something special about it. I can't think of a single one that just worked.
The work I'm doing on the weekend is for Tpro. I need to get a support software up and running. I need to learn it for myself, not Tpro or the customers. I must focus through the noisy neighbors. I must propel myself for myself. I must drink another Mt. Dew.
I'm on step two. This time I made a backup of the conf file first. That is one lesson learned. One thing Gforge does is make you change your document root to Gforge's folder. That is annoying because I need this server to support my web page too. I made a symlink to the real http folder and changed the links in my index.html to match. The rest of the links should be relative. That is one of the things that has been weighing on me. Hopefully this is now fixed. That counts as one more step. Now if my neighbor would just shut up. I'm going to ask to move apartments before I sign a new lease.
Mandrake has a different httpd.conf setup than Red Hat did. There are three different files that need to be modified instead of the one. There is a warning in on of the files to “Don't use this setting use one of the other files”. Give me a break. This looks amateur.
It only took me two hours to find the trouble and get my page back up.

Pole
This is a Slashdot pole from 2004-01-15. I fit all but one of these. (LOTR).
Your Biggest Failure as a Nerd?
Haven't seen LOTR. (I haven't seen the last movie, because I hate going to theaters these days. Until they ban mobiles and twits I'm a DVD watcher.)
Didn't build my own computer. (depends on which computer your talking about.)
Don't run Linux. (half my home network machines run Linux.)
Have a significant other. (nnnnnnnnope)
Don't use caffeine. (I both breath and consume caffeine, but not necessarily in that order.)
Exercise regularly. (bwaaaa aaaa aaaaaaa!!)
Only have one email address. (Six active at last count. (Company 1, company 2, four home emails (ISP 1 (can't delete), ISP 2 (use to talk to people) hotmail (for purchase), yahoo (for people backup))))
Less than excellent karma.  (My karma, though used, is shiny and still has that new karma smell.

Web server
Now that I have had the opportunity to run a web server for a little while, I sympathies with the hoards of crappy web page responses out there. It's funny. I understand what is wrong on some of the errors I get across the net. There was one the other day that gave a PHP error and I'm like "You need to reset the privileges on the file for the Apache group."  Of course, I don't tell any one except the screen. Then I giggle at myself for being a geek.

Blog
There may be a new place (web address) for my blog. Blogger and BlogSpot suck. I'm going to figure out a way to put it on my server. I mean, come on. I have a web server sitting in my apartment. It probably won't be any more reliable than the one supported by BlogSpot. I mess with my server quite a bit so I'm doomed to unreliable service.

Cable <rant>
I don't have cable. Some people have an odd reaction to that statement. The reason I don't have cable is the money. I'm just too cheap. I have five channels and I watch too much TV now. A couple months ago I was in a class for some software. The people teaching the class were from the North East. They tried to make small talk with the crowd in the the audience. The trouble is they started talking about some cable TV show. There were nine of us in the class and not one of us had ever heard of the show. Those of us who had cable at the time never watched TV. Some said they only had it to appease their kids.
Even with the TV on all the time at my apartment I'm usually in front of the computer and use the noise from the TV to drown out my neighbors. The Cable company in my area doesn't offer cable modems. The guy has come by like three times to give me some offer. It is the same offer or so it seems. I like things the way they are. I don't want four hundred channels. There will come a day when broadcast TV goes the way of the CB radio. I'll find a substitute then. Right now, I'm far more worried about having a computer that works.

xzoom fallout (boring stuff)
I've had to restage my Linux box. It turns out xzoom damaged some fonts to the point X (X-Windows) would not load. I tried briefly to fix the trouble, but it was dead. I wanted to move to another distribution anyway. I've gone to Mandrake 9.2.
It took me the better part of an evening to get Mandrake installed and reconfigured for my Samba server (Windows file server) and Apache web server. My page should be back up now. I'm still working on Gforge. It takes over the web server, so the site may be iffy while I'm testing. Please bare with me. I need to get Gforge up and running. Actually, running isn't the trouble. Configuring Gforge is what drives you nuts.

xzoom
I was trying to get this program to work on Linux called xzoom. It is a bit like the magn9fyer in Windows. It comes in compressed file that only contains the code and some notes. The code is old and has dozens of dependancies (other programs that need to be there first). I mess with it. And mess with it. And mess with it. I ask some one else who has more experience to mess with it. Always with the errors. It never works. That is bad enough, but now I have a problem on the machine I was using to try it out. The fonts aren't working correctly in X-windows. X-windows is the user interface part of Linux. It is the programs that you see running in the graphical user interface. Anyway. A lousy font will not load correctly and the whole X-windows environment takes a massive dump every time I try to load. Sometimes Linux sucks. One cool thing is the Linux system will still let me telnet in and grab my files before I re-stage. Sometimes Linux doesn't suck.
What does suck is I am trying to get G-Forge up and running. I am out a web server for the time being. I'm out a test machine. I need another box for testing. I'm not paying for MS Windows if I'm not going to use it. Try to go to CompUSA and buy a made machine without an operating system on it. Something told me this weekend was going to be a disaster as far as productivity. Computers are still too expensive to just say “send me one”.

Good Times
I was walking past the refrigerator the other day. That is not remarkable. There are two pictures on the front of the refrigerator. One is Adam Ethan and I after we got back from the Gwar (link has violence and "nudity")concert in like 1990 or something. My goodness, that was a long time ago. Adam looks thin. I look young. Ethan just looks like a skinny kid. Our shirts are covered with the crap that Gwar spews all over the audience. There are all kinds of rumors about what is in the stuff, but the news hinted that it is unsweetened cool-aid. My ex-wife stuck the stupid stickers on the pictures. I could have screamed when I saw them. She just didn't understand photography.
I took that picture with my rusty-trusty Canon AE-1. I bought an old rebel a couple of years ago, but is the oooold rebel before they came with the flash built in. I want a new camera. Unfortunately, the one I want is $1800 or so. That is way down from $10,000 a couple of years ago.

Shame on me
My mother comes over to clean my apartment every now and then. I feel nine years old when she does it. I do appreciate it. She is retired and has a bunch of church functions and the like to keep her busy. She keeps threatening to get a part time job so she can meet people. Really, she wants a new bumper and big wheels and tires for her Jeep YJ.
She asked what I wanted for Christmas and I said "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. Only a hippopotamus will do." It's an old song from the 50s. She found a toy hippo and stuck it in my stocking.

Salmon
The BBC has a story about the contamination of salmon around the world. It turns out farmed salmon is almost always higher than natural fish. The trouble with salmon is they are at the top of the food chain and the fish they eat are the culprit. The industry is throwing a fit. Scotland has the most contamination.
It just freaks me out that the farm raised stuff is worse (contamination wise) than the natural stuff. With all the nuclear dumping and chemical runoff from industry and farming. There is a huge case here in Huston of a company dumping chemicals in a river for decades. It has only just caught up with them.

Walking in the rain
I walk about a mile from the bus stop to my work door. This morning it was cold and wet. I should have brought my laptop for a meeting this afternoon, but I don't have enough rain gear to fit over the bag. I'm stretching the coat to get my backpack covered. Everything usually just fits. I ware a hat (a ball cap) because the rain will still hit my glasses and face under the hood of the rain gear jacket if I don't have something with a bill to block it. I don't bather with the flashlight. The pants of the rain suit have come apart in a couple of places and I have staples holding it together. Digging through my pockets can cause grievous bodily harm if I'm not careful. I'm lucky if I remember to pull out the bus pass before I seal myself in. The suit is bright canary-ass yellow. If any one doesn't see me they need not be on the road.
People from my work stop to ask if I want a ride on clear days. No one stops on the rainy days. I would just soak their car seat anyway.

Atkins Diet
Some people ask why the Atkins diet causes weight loss. There are calories in meat and fat. I think of it in caveman terms. If all you get is meat, you must have to catch your food. Thus, you need to stay lean and/or mean. That sounds good to me anyway.

More on cars
At some point in high school I decided to become a gear-head, at least in the talk if not the walk. I sat there in study hall and listened to the guys who knew what was going on talk about their cars. It is amazing how far this has gotten me. I went to Florida in a 73 T-A ram-air with a Pontiac 400 with a 850 CFM carburetor. It had a Turbo 400 tranny. The engine came from an old pickup that was not the original owner. We had to swap another tranny for the one we ended up using. The front shocks were shot, but that kind of works in a 70's muscle car. It makes the front end rise when you hit it. We foolishly cut a hole in the hood to make room for the high-rise air-filter. It turns out we could have sold that stock hood for more than we paid for the car. DOH!
The guy who put together the T-A also had a 71 Chivvy pickup. It was a straight six with a granny gear four on the floor. It was fun because you had to kill the engine with the clutch. If you just tried to turn off the ignition, the crank turned and the pistons fired without spark. This caused the timing chain to pop back and forth. It would eventually break that way. So, you planted your foot on the break with the truck in gear and let out the clutch as you were turning off the key. I drove that truck a couple of times. I've gone over that before.
I still don't know what is what under a hood. Oh, I can point to stuff and guess what it is, but I stopped taking stuff apart long ago. I program now. That satisfies my need to create and learn.
What this has done for me is allow me to communicate with specific people. Not every one in the USA has a car, but you would think so when you speak to people. In Europe, they actually take the train and other forms of mass transit just to get from place to place. The need for individuality and the coming of age that the automobile has evolved into in the USA don't seem to have the same draw in Europe. Some people take pride in how efficient their cars are. A BBC study found that cars have become fashion statements in the USA. People have different cars for different occasions here. That is just nuts.
I live in a city that has designed itself around the automobile. Any one spotted walking is assumed to have something wrong with them. There are whole sections of the city you just can't get to if you try to walk. Freeways cut off buildings and apartment complexes.to pedestrian traffic. It seems people like it that way. My apartment building has seven entrances/exits for automobiles and one for pedestrians. There are over six hundred units, and one entrance if you are on foot. People are expected to walk through the automobile gates. Where I work has three automobile entrances/exits and no pedestrian access from outside. The only pedestrian access is from the parking lots, that are inside the outer-most fence. Most people who work here have no idea this is the case. It has just never crossed their minds. The EPA gets on the company's case to clean up the environment and get people to drive less vehicles to work. This building is one mile from the closest bus stop. There is no way to enter the complex without walking between moving vehicles at their entrance to do so.
Blaw blaw blaw. I will stop griping.

Hell

Indifference
A bunch of shallow party people talk about the wallpaper pattern. They truly enjoy themselves and eat cucumber sandwiches while you live the life of a land mine victim in South East Asia.

Labor
Toile on a symbol to a man who thinks he is a god. Born in bondage, die in bondage, live the lives of an entire people enslaved to build a monument to their conquer.

Time
Learn the preciousness of one second as you live the last moment of a drowning man's life. Reach the air with your had, and know that you cannot breath, trapped inches below the surface with no help. Oh, you never actually drown, you just sit there in the last conscience moment of terror before the end.

Consumption
Picture swimming in a clear blue ocean. When you look down there is only gray. Then a shape begins to form below you. It is just a blob of light, that seems to rise silently toward you. Just as you realize the helpless crumb you have made yourself without knowing, alone, no screams, no help, no struggling will change what you see below, a huge shark takes shape from the gloom you with it's mouth opening.

Despair
You, the rightful king of a glorious nation, having won the war to save your people, now find a knife between your ribs. Your child has murdered you and betrayed the people who cheer your name to the enemy. The war you fought was for nothing. As the last breath passes your lips the child frames you and smites your legacy. Your people will remember you as a traitor. Life fades, floating through peaceful splendor, angles find you. As they approach their faces contort and their light laughter turns to loud cackles. They are daemons. Your riches life was fraud. You are in hell. There was never nation of people who loved you, who would die to protect the world you created. You were a petty sinner, damned long ago.

Maturity
Dear God! I just spelled the word "banjoes" correctly without looking it up. What is happening to me?

One Muslim traveler
I'm listening to the BBC about traveling to America. The funny thing is, the British are far more interested in the American travel rules than Americans seem to be. A Muslim man said he may change the names of his children to Christine sounding names because of the profiling going on. He and his wife ask for Muslim meals. They have Arabic sounding names. His wife wares Muslim head dress when in public. The man has a beard. Those are all the signs the authorities look for apparently.

Things I've learned today
Computers are on Earth to piss me off.
I can bite my lip so hard that it sends a pain down my neck and it doesn't even bleed. Actually, I believe my teeth clapped together just as I bit my lip. I don't know if other people feel that kind of shock wave when you teeth grind wrong. I bet it was the combination of a little bit of pain from the biting my lip with the shock wave of my teeth rubbing together that made me stumble in agony.
I am not suffering from manic depression. I read up on the symptoms and I aint there. At worst, I've got a case of the lonely blues. I should write a song or sky-dive or something.
Allot of people who use IM (Instant Messaging) have separate user IDs for every single person they talk too on a daily basis. This is to avoid people they don't want to talk to without blocking them. There are programs out there that allow you to have ump-teen user IDs up at once.
The CD burner on my laptop is messed up. The CDs won't read correctly. I'm pricing notebook DVD burners.