Dan's party
Dan's birthday party pictures are here.
I went with Tom and Jen. We are among the older crowd at the party. We joked on the way that the “kids” at the party are just too hip for us. It worked out that we are definitely not the <insert colloquialism for the group of people who form the basis of what is cool at the moment>.
Dan and his wife have a beautiful home. That is, except for this thing, I mean antenna, on the back of the house. I am all about getting good reception, but there are limits. I remember a house down the street from my parents house that used to have a huge satellite dish on the front of the house. The home owner's association blew a gasket, but the guy who lived there was a lawyer and tide everything up for years, then moved. I hope Dan doesn't have any trouble.

Bachelor party
I have a buddy who is getting married next week. His bachelor's party is today. I called and asked what was going on, but, of course, they just might end up at a topless bar. I opted out. I don't have any conches or moral objection to topless clubs. I just can't go to one. I've been over this before.
So, at home I sit. I don't feel bad about it though. I know I would feel much worse about the whole thing if I went.

World Police
It seems the US wants to be the world's police force. I thought the UN was supposed to do that. There are so many voices in the UN, they have no voice in the world these days. The Sunni and the Shiite people in Iraqi were sworn blood enemies when one group was in control under Sodom. They were killing each other every chance. Now, a year after the US invades, they ban together to kick the US out. The groups appear to have learned from other terrorists an they use the news stories to coordinate their attacks in different cities. They wish to split the American forces, or at least spread them thin. I would site stories on news sites I read this information from, but there are just too many.

Radio sucks
I'm listening to some radio station while at work. Their selection of music is off the scale. They are all over the place. It is nice to have variety, but they are bound to play something that makes me ill about every half hour.
I heard somewhere that rap music s running out of beats. The mathematical combinations are waning. The trouble is, copyright laws use math to determine what is unique. At some point they will simply run out of the stuff that is covered by copyright. I wish I had a source for this.
You have heard many rap songs that are really based on some old song riff with some one saying how great they are over a beat. I just heard one of these using the riff from "Walk on the Wild Side". Well People who did the original song feel like it is still their material. The people who make the rap insist that it is something completely new and original. They are both full of crap. Can't we all just get along?

Writing for work and school
I've noticed a major flaw in the education system. The trouble is writing for an audience. In school all through university I wrote with my professor or TA in mind. They were a monolithic audience. There was one personality to target with every thought. The trouble came when I hit the real world. I could not target my boss, who would review the information before it goes out to the business. I had to target the people in the business, but with my boss' impression of what the people in the business would need. That is a whole separate wrinkle.
As best as I can tell, there was nothing in school that covered this conflict. Perhaps in journalism they cover this problem. I've been lucky that my current boss is a great communicator. She taught me the skills I have. What I learned in school was only half the information.

X-Prize
This is just cool. CNN has news of the first people qualified to participate. The X-Prize is ten million dollars to the first private group that puts paying passengers in space. The guy who did this ship is the same guy who designed that plane that flew around the world without stopping or refueling a couple of years ago. This is one of those things that makes you like to be alive. Some one is out there doing something this cool just because they can.

Tpro
Man, Tpro is looking good. These guys are amazing.

Liability
I've experienced one more factor in outsourcing. Not only does the company I work for have to wait for a person in India to come back from another assignment, but the code he wrote cannot be touched by any one at the US company or any other vendor due to contractual obligation and the placement of liability. That means, for a one or two line change in some code, we have to wait two weeks. Yes, that's saving the company money.

Shots
In movies, that shot where a helicopter fly over a city at night, it's been done. That shot where a helicopter fly over a building to give it that 3d affect, it's been done. That shot where the camera is moved closer to some one while changing the zoom to make it look like 3d, it's been done. Hitchcock owns that one.

Readership
I had some one call my blog boring. She didn't specify anything. I suppose I can talk about her, because she will not come back. I do definitely appeal to geeky people. There is nothing right or wrong with being a geek. It is just something that is. I assume I am far too technical to appeal to “normal” people. Then, I've never been normal. I was not normal as a kid. I am not normal as an adult. That is not a bad thing. I have problems with part of it. I do not like being alone. I do not like missing the point in movies and conversation. I've aloud myself to believe that normal people live in a daze, normal people climb the ladder, normal people click next, normal people are happy.
I could never be happy with normal.

Weeding out
There is a story on the BBC radio talking about these testes they give students in their last years of "high school" in England called A-levels. There is a mandate from government that half of all students should go into higher education (collage) and the result is most people get better grades on their A-levels. The universities are getting together and saying they need to adopt new testes similar to the US ACE or SAT in order to weed out those student's who will not make it through university. All the students notice is a bunch of more tests. People have days of tests that determine where they will be able to go to school. I remember the stress over the SAT. I didn't even care what grade I made on it. I got a 980 by the way. Not bad. That is better than average. It isn't great. I worry that I would get double digits these days. I'm out of test taking practice.

Two Worlds
Microsoft is on my nerves again. There are several articles about Microsoft roaming around that tout how Microsoft is above the law. The fines are not the equivalent of a slap on the wrist. It is like making Microsoft buy a candy bar. Microsoft has control of the market and they like it that way. We were just talking at lunch trying to figure out why people just bend over for Microsoft. People say, "but we want a standard interface for our programs." Ford puts steering wheels and gearshifts in automobiles just like General Motors. There are subtle differences, but they are basically the same design. There is no reason Microsoft, or Xerox should be allowed to patent the GUI interface.
One of Microsoft's big deals is trying to say the media player is part of the operating system. What is to stop them from saying Word or Excel is part of the operating system and basically blowing all potential competitors away? Oh, wait. Microsoft already cornered the market on Office tools. They even took the name Office Tools for their own. Microsoft will only pay lip service to standard document formats. Microsoft's answer to a standard is "use Word, there." The problem is you have to use Windows to use Word. Even Macintosh will not run Microsoft Office for ever.
Now Microsoft is about to make serious moves on the internet search market. That means every time you look for something on the net, Microsoft gets dibs on what you find. In order for software companies to advertise their products, they will have to pay their competition for the privilege. Can you say monopoly?
Yet, the general public just keeps paying Microsoft for the privilege of using software that is solely controlled by one company. What is to stop Microsoft from saying "We want to charge a tax for computers sold without an operating system because we just know they are going to put an illegal copy of Windows on it anyway?" Microsoft already has that law.

I knew it
There is a CNN story about TV causing ADD. They say it isn't the content, but the fast paced "life" that happens on most TV programming. Some of the folks at my day job (women) blame mothers not paying enough attention to kids for the ADD. I don't buy it. I try to look back to caveman days to answer questions about modern troubles. What would a caveman done in this situation. It is amazing how much that helps me figure out why things happen. Most of the time it is just a bunch of bunk.
<my opinion>
Young brains develop with a thirty minute resolution cycle when kids watch TV. Life takes allot longer to find solutions to problems. When a child watches TV and finds that everything is done and every one is laughing after thirty minutes.
</my opinion>

Memory
BBC radio (five live) just had a little mention of sitting on a beach during a holiday <vacation>. They spoke of trunks with sand driven into them. That made me think of a story. I remember Melissa, my first crush, showing me a funny mark on her back. She wandered where the heck the little star shaped light spot came from. Well she figured it out pretty quickly. There were little black stars on her otherwise yellow swim suit. The shapes lined up quite nicely. It was the first time a woman showed me a part over her body. Even if it was a pretty innocent part of her back.

Snapshot
It is amazing the difference a second or two can make in photography. That short time can make a big difference in what is in the image. The exposure time for a picture can make or break a sports shot. Too fast and the photo is dark. Too slow and the action is blurred. Even landscapes can tell you how the shutter was set. Look at the leaves on trees, or the ripples in water. Leaves flutter in even a slight breeze. Ripples in water will smear or blur with a slow shutter speed. To catch the waves on a pond you need a faster setting. Waterfalls will turn smoky white with any more than a second or two exposure. Sometimes people will disappear except for a ghostly outline if the shutter speed is set long enough. A night shot will take on a hazy look because of humidity and bugs around lights. People and any animated thing will not survive a long exposure. The moment is only about 1/60 to 1/30 seconds long. Anything longer and time passes, the moment is lost. Photography can tell you things that a movie cannot. There is something irrevocable about that moment captured. You can't spin the wheel forward or back. You only have the one shot. That is it.
There are moments captured in that one instant that turned presidents mid-course.

Tap-a tap-a tap-a
I'm sitting at work waiting for a process to complete. I catch myself wandering if others listen to me whisper to myself as I run through news reports and work email. When I type, I pound the keyboard pretty loudly. I wander if any one notices my quiet when I'm not typing? How paranoid is that? I've noticed some people up here never stop typing. It is amazing. My boss can type 3500 words per minute. It sounds like an even hum coming from her office.
One thing I've noticed, is most of the people I respect for intelligence at my day job talk to themselves like I do. They are not as abrupt as I, but they do it. I used to catch so much crap growing up over talking to myself.

New Pictures
I have some new pictures on my home page. They are from Chris and Sarah's party this past weekend. We had a great time and a couple of big piles of mud bugs. Give the pictures a look if you dare. They are the first with the new camera. The are five megapixl off the shelf, but I've shot them down to 30% of their full size. They are significantly smaller than the original. From 1.5 megabytes down to 80 or 90 kilobytes.

TimeLine
I'm watching a movie called Timeline. It is about people going back in time. There are a bunch of references to archeology. I am as much interested in the past as the next guy. I like how archeologists take clues from thousands of years ago and piece together the daily life of some one who has been long dead and gone. There are whole civilizations gone longer than ours has been around. I wander what the archeologists will find of me in a million years. If all they had from the human race was this blog, I shutter to think the image I leave to posterity.
Well, we are a harmless bunch. Our primary concern is to eat, sleep and have sex with each other. Well, everyone has sex except me. I'm the one odd person left out. All the rest of humanity has found their match. That is the reason I have time to write this to you, the entities who find our broken ashtrays and tattered bits left thoughtlessly dropped in the mud on a rainy day. <I'm being depressing again>

Speaking of the future
There is an article about NASA's launch of a gravity detection system. What it is for is to prove Einstein's theories about gravity. According to the status quo, there should be a gravity wake behind Earth as it lumbers through space at 86,000 miles an hour (relative to the Sun). The instruments are so sensitive they can tell anomalies in gravity as the satellite travels in orbit. This gizmo has been on the docket for over forty years. Apparently, the technology just hasn't brought it to fruition until now. I like the quote “the roundest objects in the world.”
What I want to know is, what if they prove Einstein wrong? The trouble is other experiments in the last forty years have bolstered Einstein's theories, so some say the whole thing is a wash. I want a big finding somewhere. I want a finding that changes everything. I want our everyday loves to turn on a dime for the better because of some seemingly little discovery that people almost missed. What was the last small invention that just plane changed the way everything works? Indoor plumbing, electricity, telephone, automobile, airplane, penicillin ...

Insurance
Man insurance is a pain. I recently had to convert from one plan to another. My old plan doubled in price in six months. I'm single, and not too old yet. I will have to pay $80 a month for a $2000 deductible and lousy coverage. All the coverage is crappy, so you might as well get the cheap plan. Some of the guys here at work say they only work to pay their insurance.

Nice try
Wired has a story “Seeing-Eye Computer Guides Blind” that describes a new device, or collection of devices, to help blind people get around and read in real world situations. After using my computer and ReadPlease software to read the text of the article online I decided this is a nice effort. It sounds like something that will be useful when they get the bugs worked out. One thing I learned in the article that surprised me is only 10% of blind people can read braille.

Horror movies
I find myself viewing horror movies. I like them even though they rarely scare me any more. They have gotten offal formula and predictable. watched documentaries describing people's love of getting scared. I believe it is because of our politically correct lives we are forced to live every day. That is probably where our like of violence in movies and video games comes from too. Many moons ago, people lived in a society that understood violence. Between hunting and no local police force people had to rely in their own strength and wits. I think I will put up with the PC world for a bit longer. I know I have lost those wits. I never had the strength.

Star Office
Star Office is starting to get on my nerves. When you type it will just change font or size without reason. When you apply styles, the fonts and sizes don't always change. Why have styles if they don't change the font or size? The spellchecker grays out the choices when you start typing to correct the misspelled word. I use Star Office to make my blog entries. It does a decent job of creating HTML. I've never found a WISIWIG editor for HTML that did what it said on the box. Every single one of them, ever, screws up some of the formatting.

Crawfish Boil
I have a Crawfish Boil at a buddie's place tomorrow. A bunch of people I know are going to be there. I hate people. I almost wish I could show up and there wouldn't be any one else there. There is an old movie called The Omega Man where one guy is left alone in the world. It turns out there are a bunch of zombies running around, but until then, the place is a nice neighborhood. Every one has a girl friend but me. What is wrong with me? I'm going to go to the event tomorrow and I'm going to take a bunch of pictures to compensate for talking to people. Every one else has a significant other to talk to or about, I have pictures to take. I am so goddamn sick of being me.

Insurance
Man insurance is a pain. I recently had to convert from one plan to another. My old plan doubled in price in six months. I'm single, and not too old yet. I will have to pay $80 a month for a $2000 deductible and lousy coverage. All the coverage is crappy, so you might as well get the cheap plan. Some of the guys here at work say they only work to pay their insurance.

Nice try
Wired has a story “Seeing-Eye Computer Guides Blind” that describes a new device, or collection of devices, to help blind people get around and read in real world situations. After using my computer and ReadPlease software to read the text of the article online I decided this is a nice effort. It sounds like something that will be useful when they get the bugs worked out. One thing I learned in the article that surprised me is only 10% of blind people can read braille.

Horror movies
I find myself viewing horror movies. I like them even though they rarely scare me any more. They have gotten offal formula and predictable. watched documentaries describing people's love of getting scared. I believe it is because of our politically correct lives we are forced to live every day. That is probably where our like of violence in movies and video games comes from too. Many moons ago, people lived in a society that understood violence. Between hunting and no local police force people had to rely in their own strength and wits. I think I will put up with the PC world for a bit longer. I know I have lost those wits. I never had the strength.

Star Office
Star Office is starting to get on my nerves. When you type it will just change font or size without reason. When you apply styles, the fonts and sizes don't always change. Why have styles if they don't change the font or size? The spellchecker grays out the choices when you start typing to correct the misspelled word. I use Star Office to make my blog entries. It does a decent job of creating HTML. I've never found a WISIWIG editor for HTML that did what it said on the box. Every single one of them, ever, screws up some of the formatting.

Crawfish Boil
I have a Crawfish Boil at a buddie's place tomorrow. A bunch of people I know are going to be there. I hate people. I almost wish I could show up and there wouldn't be any one else there. There is an old movie called The Omega Man where one guy is left alone in the world. It turns out there are a bunch of zombies running around, but until then, the place is a nice neighborhood. Every one has a girl friend but me. What is wrong with me? I'm going to go to the event tomorrow and I'm going to take a bunch of pictures to compensate for talking to people. Every one else has a significant other to talk to or about, I have pictures to take. I am so goddamn sick of being me.

Talk Radio
I like talk radio, but I hate it when they talk to regular people. I like the interviews. I like the commentary. I like the news. I can't stand Joe Six-pack bitching about some political nuance that he heard about on Sesame Street. I listen to talk radio for the information and the opinions of professional radio people and experts in whatever field those being interviewed represent. They always let some hillbilly ask a question that makes every one look at each other. I just feel sorry for the fool they make of themselves.
In contrast, I like the BBCs approach of taking text messages and email on the air. At least you know the people writing in are semi-literate.

What a day
We went out for lunch this afternoon. It is a beautiful day. The humidity is low and the spirits are high. All we talked about was the rift between direct employees and contractors.

TV
I was just thinking how I'm watching a lot less TV than I used to. The thing is, the tube is on in the background and I'm not paying attention to it. It freaks me out when look over and it is half way through an infomercial. The only thing I sit down and watch now is The Simpsons. It seems like all my favorite TV shows are off the air. Buffy, soon Angle follows, Family Guy, SG1 (is only on cable now), Futurama, Gosh, there are a dozen others. I would like to see a Starship Troupers series. I'd like a dark Sci-Fi series.

Attitude
I work for a company that is a gigantic corporation. At least, it is big to me. This company works with other companies all the time. It seems like this company doesn't do anything except pay other companies to do work. It is difficult to get other people to do things they are supposed to do. they spend more energy and time avoiding work than just getting the job done. Their objective is to get this company to pay for everything without doing any of the work themselves. The golden rule of business is make it more work for some one to avoid what you want them to do, and make sure they know it.

By the way
Definition
The term "By the way" refers to last minute or after the fact changes made by people on a project. They come after design is frozen, sometimes after the product is delivered.
Signs of pending By the way
When people give vague or incomplete instructions or specifications, it means they don't know what they want. They have every intention of waiting until you give them what they asked for and then bitching. This is a constant problem at my day job.
Solution
The first thing you can do is get everything in writing. This doesn't help, if you don't have recourse. I have no recourse at my day job to tell people "That is exactly what you asked for." I can only add more time to the project. I've caught myself adding days to projects when people ask for stupid crap. It isn't like they are being charged any different. I'm still doing work. it is just their stuff that gets bumped. I would rather work on some one's project who knows what they need and asked for it. I figure they deserve better service.

Low intensity conflict
The BBC has a story on bird sized drone planes. They are touted for "flying through windows" and snapping pictures. I remember a Sci-Fi flick many moons ago that had a fly on the wall that buzzed around and followed people from room to room. How far off can those days be?

Online Gambling
Internet gambling is a fuzzy industry in the US. The World Trade Organization wants the US to open up the market to allow foreign casinos to compete in the US market. The trouble is, that would allow any one any where in the US to gamble. There are many "dry" states (like Texas) where there is basically no gambling. Texas has a horse track, but that is about it. I know a couple of people who have made wagers online.

X-43A
I just caught this article on CNN about the X-43A. NASA will have a real test flight soon. This is the one that uses scramjets. This is cool because they are an old idea that's time has finally come. NASA has pictures on their site. This thing might make it possible to travel from New York to Tokyo in an hour or so.

Crazy fiction
I wrote a little set of fictional rules of gravity. Some of the rules conflict with each other. I also drew up a chart (with many misspelled words) diagramming why the jump to warp is bumpy one, two and three. I hope those links work, they are tiff files. I was very tired when I wrote this, so take it with a grain of salt.

Crazy reality
The funny thing is there are some news stories popping up about gravity and experiments to use gravity to move things around. It is an interesting time. The last time things were so poised to jump forward in the recent history of humans was just after World War II. I've always thought that war speeds innovation. It forces the sacrifice to move forward. People die when corners are cut, but the survivors learn. Of course, the Right brothers flew for the first time well in between wars. We just celebrated the hundredth anniversary of their flight. It would be appropriate to go from props to jets, to anti-gravity in such a timely manor. The atlatl comes to mind. I remember reading that the atlatl rushed South from the Baring Straight to the tip of South America in a couple thousand years or so. That was miraculous for the expansion. It was the spread of a better idea. The atlatl was such a great improvement over the spear that the old ways all but died out. The bow and arrow come to mind as well. The canoe turned into the sailing ship. Which, turned into the battleship. From the first ape that caved in the head of a rival with a rock to nuklear weapons we have come a long way. I say we have a long way to go.

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.