Archive for November, 2005

Random poetry.

Wednesday, November 30th, 2005

Roses are reddish,
violets are bluish,
if it weren’t for the pope,
we’d all be Jewish.

iPod

Tuesday, November 29th, 2005

So my iPod battery has been flaky lately. What, you ask, did I do to solve this issue?
Sue?
No effing way.
I went to iPodjuice.com and got a new one.
$34 later my new bigger beefier battery is charging.
The included full colour instructions are a snap, the hardest part is reconnecting the hard drive.
I’ll report my findings on battery life when it is fully charged.

Big Brother is watching you.

Sunday, November 27th, 2005

Papers please.

Murtha is the new Max Cleland?

Sunday, November 27th, 2005

If you disagree with the administration, you will be smeared.
Even if you were tortured, a la John McCain.
Lost three limbs in war, a la Max Cleland.
Or if you were a Marine and think this war is stupid, a la John Murtha.
It seems to be that the only veterans that matter are the frothing rabid warmongers.
Why should torture be a question?
Not only does it go against everything we believe in, we’re using the exact same defence that the Vietnamese used.
That we were pirates conducting an illegal war, so they could treat us however they felt.
Our national hubris is getting out of control
Kyoto, Geneva Conventions, UN Convention Against Torture.
What’s next? Gravity?

New header.

Monday, November 21st, 2005

Isn’t it pretty?
That’s a Newton’s Cradle, by the way.

Sony, DRM and you.

Saturday, November 19th, 2005

LINK
I don’t understand what makes a company think that it’s okay to have something install itself on your computer that leaves you vulnerable to all sorts of security threats, then releases an even worse program to remove that.
This show you how few rights the consumer has in this day and age.
I’m glad I use a mac and didn’t get affected by this.
I think Sony is in deep, deep shit in this one. From the Feds, M$, the music companies, artists, etc.

Stripes!

Thursday, November 17th, 2005

I got a stripe on my white belt in Brasilian Jiu Jitsu.
I’m certainly excited.
Now I’ll take a few days to let the bruises heal.

Propaganda.

Wednesday, November 16th, 2005

So I was bored the other day, driving home from work.
I cycle through the channels, and I hear Donald Rumsfeld on Hannity.
Hannity was kissing his butt so hard.
It just felt like propaganda to me.
I mean ‘freedom journalism’.

Does anyone actually read this site?

Monday, November 14th, 2005

Birdwatching.

Sunday, November 13th, 2005

I’m no ornithologist, but I’ve noticed a rather peculiar thing about the birds in my city. They tend to congregate on traffic singal wires, and perch themselves inside the light hood, standing on top of the hood below.
Every red and yellow light I’ve seen for the last few days has had a little black bird standing in it.
Are they doing this for warmth?
Respite from the wind?
It’s comedic, really.

Buggery.

Thursday, November 10th, 2005

Today over at my gallery, I was a bit hasty in activating a new user, and accidentally double-clicked the ‘activate’ button.
Holy crap was I in for a shitstorm.
I found out it’s a bug in the gallery 2 software and I reported it to them.
Long story short, when I double-clicked the user, the program went ape trying to figure out who owned a basically orphaned album, when I tried to display the page containing the first created album, it would crap the bed. Even if I went in to a shell and removed the album directory, it still did this.
I had to go in and threaten to delete an album, then check the albums I wanted to get rid of.
Here’s the thread I created on gallery’s support forums.
And no, not this buggery.

The full faith and credit clause is in the corner crying itself to sleep.

Wednesday, November 9th, 2005

There’s a case that’s troubling to me, and I’m sure others who feel the same way I do. A couple from Nebraska moved to Kansas to get married when it was learned that the female half of the relationship was pregnant. Why is this news? He was 22, she was 13. Nebraska has now filed charges against him for statutory rape, since obviously they did ‘the deed’, so to speak. If it is okay in one state to get married, why can another state not recognize that marriage without interfering? Yes, I know it’s illegal for someone that old and someone that young to “be together”, and I’m not sure if she has the emotional intelligence to know what she was doing or is getting into, but I think that’s up to the courts and shrinks to decide. With all the talk lately about the sanctity of marriage, I’d like to see some substance before style. The bride’s mother consented to the marriage. Yes, they messed up, but, they’re trying to provide a two-parent household to a child to give it a fighting chance. The father can’t much do that from behind bars.
Government, stop breaking up families, please. Put your money where your mouth is.

Religion and politics.

Wednesday, November 9th, 2005

So apparently, you’re only allowed to have religion if you’re a homophobic warmonger.
Long story short, a church in California is in danger of losing its tax-exempt status for having an antiwar sermon. Isn’t there some sort of rule about killing people? I don’t see where they endorsed a candidate or a party. Why do these agencies target liberals so much? You knew it was only a matter of time until the dissenters became a target. I’m surprised they weren’t the target of a NSL.
This always happens, some outlaws will do something bad, which leads to more laws being enacted that are a huge pain in law abiding citizen’s collective asses. Guess what, they were breaking laws in the first place, what makes you think more laws will stop it in the future?

Thank you Virginia.

Tuesday, November 8th, 2005

Thank you for not electing Mr. Garrison, Virginia.
Thank you.
Election results here.
We finally got 1 new electronic voting machine at my precinct. It is one of those famous Diebold election stealer 6000 models.
I used it, but I’m not so sure how the usual voting crowd will take to it, since I’m a huge nerd and deal with computers all day, so it took me roughly 6 seconds to vote.

The only races I actually cared about were Governor, which Tim Kaine aka “I’m against the death penalty but I would carry out sentences handed down be the court” won by about 6%. That makes me happy. I’m pretty sure the Hitler ads contributed to Kilgore losing, as well as Warner’s huge surplus and bringing us from the brink of bankruptcy.

The other race I care about is Attorney General which, as of this writing, has no winner declared. Bob McDonnell just rubs me the wrong way.
He proposed ridiculous sentences for “possessing methamphetamine making materials with the intent to produce”. Ladies and gentlemen, you’re all potential felons.
All your toilet duck are belong to us.

Politricks

Sunday, November 6th, 2005

Due to the current tone in Virginia politics, I will feel just fine walking in to the voting booth and casting my vote for anyone with a D or an I by their name. I think the “Kaine wouldn’t fry Hitler” ads put that final nail in that coffin for me. Let me get this straight, Kaine’s religion is a liability, and we weren’t supposed to ask about John Roberts’ faith, and Harriet Miers faith is a plus?
Makes no sense to me.
Plus, Jerry Kilgore sounds like Mr(s). Garrison from South Park.

Unoriginality.

Friday, November 4th, 2005

I don’t what the problem is, but it seems to me like the entertainment industry keeps going back to the well when it comes to new fare. Every new game or movie seems to be a remake or a sequel. Then only industry putting out something semi-original is the music industry, mostly the independent houses. Is it a fear of risk? Risk is what drives our economy, no risk, no reward. How long can you take the safe bet? Where are the pioneers? Everything seems to be about the corporate bottom line. Look at EA. Their Madden football franchis has been great for years, then last year, they bought the exclusive rights to make games based on the NFL license, how much innovation do you think you’re really going to see out of them until that deal runs out? Zero.
The NFL took the easy money, rather than letting the games compete and increasing the overall quality of all the games. Competition drives innovation. You see it in even such industries as sports entertainment, after the WWE (nee WWF) purchased rival promotion WCW, the overall quality of the product has declined, as have salaries for the talent. A monoculture is bad. Look at operating systems, 90% of people run some form of Microsoft Windows, how much pressure is there for them to go above and beyond expectations? It’s up the Apples of the world to give users what they want.

Two things I like….

Thursday, November 3rd, 2005

Nerdy stuff, and political humour.
Here they are, together.

Croneyism makes baby Jesus cry.

Thursday, November 3rd, 2005

Lovely.

Saw 2

Tuesday, November 1st, 2005

It sucks, don’t go see it.

Supreme Court.

Tuesday, November 1st, 2005

What does the far right know that we don’t?
Why are they so happy about Mr. Alito being nominated to the Supreme Court?
Certainly intriguing, to say the least.