Doing nothing...and writing about it.

2003-01-22T03:54:00.000-05:00

Wer andern in die Moese beisst, ist boese meist.

how goes it everyone? I have been having a pretty good day for once:)
as I am sure you know, verizon is being forced to
shaft one of their customers who supossedly downloaded a bunch of mp3's.

Do you think their would be any money in selling anonymous broadband?
DHCP, no logs, block port 80 & 25 at the DSLAM.

I would really like to have mobile TAZ (Temporary Autonomous Zones) ...a cross between what GIbson and Doctorow envisioned for the net would be nice. I can't see anyone having enough cash for a sattellite though.

Would you pay more for anonymous broadband?
If it came down to anonymous broadband vs. verizon (both equally priced) who would you go for?

Do you think there is even a market for it, or is it only me, the UFO people, and political refugees who are interested in it?

BTW, I spent two days collecting sweet wallpapers..anyone interested give me a holler...
B, you have to find me...i got two of them specifically for you :P

2003-01-15T03:49:00.000-05:00

Not much going on..still trying to get my computer smoothed out. The software is all out there, but its like a needle in a haystack finding it.

Switched to KDE, and got it all tweaked out and nice looking. Got Wifi working for all networks and not just mine. Got DSL working without a router (only if need be). Got all the standard office suite programs working for all users, got encryption set up. My ultimate triumph though was managing to find a driver that would help me turn off the god for saken touchpad...On a laptop touch pad, you can click the regular mouse buttons or you can click on the actual navigation portion of the touchpad...I HATE THAT...I can't tell you how many Go games I have lost, and how many websites I have inadvertently travelled to because of it.

I also encountered a couple of new problems like power management, but oh so slowly the problems are beginning to dwindle.

In other news..I have a family member who knows a big wig who might be able to get me my job. I sent him my resume last week. No bounce back, and not a word out of him all week. My family member checks in with me to see if I got a response. So I explain that no I hadn't gotten a response, and that yes, the mail did make it there. I also bet $100 that he would claim "he never got it" as if the internet gnomes magically intercepted the email. Low and behold, I get a call from the family member this evening saying "he didn't get the email". Riiiiiighhht. So I sent it again...another $100 says he magically gets it this time.

there are such crap jobs out now..all the full time jobs are starting to dwindle. Its all project based 6 to 12 month contract jobs. blech.
I wrote up my likes and dislikes in an effort to see if i could draw some sort of conclusions about what I should be doing instead of taking it up the ass by an assortment of CTO's.

I didn't limit my likes or dislikes to "job related items" I sort of wanted to see where things would carry me...

Likes:
Go
Linux/Open Source
Innovation
Puzzles
Philosophy
Thinking
Solving Problems
Computers
Hacking
Spying
Espionage
Privacy
Self Employment
reading
efficiency
working hard
gargoyle slippers :)

Dislikes:
corporations
employee abuse
history
lack of privacy
repetitive/brainless tasks
retail
navigation
driving
cash registers
calling customers for collections/sales
suits
cube farms
mornings

--
The only conclusion I can come to is that I like doing what I want, When I want, how I want, and for a good price....It sounds like B....I am so doomed:P Everything I like makes nearly no money or has drastic consequences. I think we should all give up on the powerball idea and just kidnap UC and give him electro shock treatments until he gives us enough good ideas to patent that we can all become rich.
then we can all move to our own country and not have to put up with Jr.

I dunno..any ideas on jobs I could do that would make me happier ?:P Unfortunately, no one has returned my call at the male review clubs I sent my resume to, so don't even bother mentioning it.

2003-01-10T04:53:00.000-05:00

Well, good news, bad news...
Good news I got linux up and running with most of my software back, and all my hardware working fine.
Bad news...WinXP was partitioned and installed on my machine in such a way to make dual booting with another OS nearly impossible. Luckily, I hate windows enough to format my entire computer :)
Even though things are technically working, there are alot of things which are still kludgy...like a graphical calculator, open office in its entirety, and media programs. I also hate how red hat handles software packages (RPMs). The RPM determines where it gets installed in the system, but nothing ever TELLS you where it gets installed, so you end up having no clue where it went.
Linux has come a long, long, LONG way since i last used it as a primary operating system, but I think it has a long way to go until its actually convenient to use as a desktop system.
Also, blogger doesn't like mozilla browsers very much. I saw a reference that the squished edit box and one time scrolling areas I am experiencing was fixed on blogger pro, but I tried it with mozilla and phoenix with no luck..Maybe they didn't fix it for blogspot? I dunno...Either way I am probably going to switch blog sites to something abit more mozilla friendly.
When I do, I will drop a link here.

I have a feeling that learning to get along with this setup is going to be like learning to love that "special" child. You take the good with the bad, and hope they mature quickly.

2003-01-09T02:25:00.000-05:00

I just finished burning the third iso of linux so i will be installing that shortly. You guys know what happened if you don't see me :P
My router was giving me trouble, so i connected directly to the modem to pick up the third iso. When I finished, I disconnected and closed down all my programs so that I could burn the last disc. While I was burning my computer was completely freaking out as what looked like every program on my computer was trying to report to some server or another...a bunch from the big players on my machine like sony and MS, and a couple which were just IPs...i fucking love this little ball of spyware I am using. Just one more step left till I am in linux heaven again:)

I also stopped home and picked up my new network card. An Orinoco Gold and a pig tail to go with it. The card worked fantastic first shot..this was actually the first piece of hardware that I have gotten which was literally plug and play. My machine told me it was a lucent card, looked a little harder and found it was more specifically an orinoco gold card, installed the appropriate drivers, and with the driver software's help auto detected my network and logged me in without me having to do a damn thing.
So, after linux is up, I am probably gonna have to fiddle to get it to play nice with the laptop and the orinoco...after that, I gotta grab my browser, and most importantly my Go software for linux. After that, some more software and then I am pulling out that 5 ft 15.4 dbi of goodness, and its time for some fun :)

I wish it were that simple, but you know something is bound to mess up.

2003-01-07T04:19:00.000-05:00

ok..not much to blog on recently.
I just wanted to let you know, William Gibson has started to blog..he is going to try to make it a daily thing. He can get pretty heavy sometimes so it helps to have a dictionary and a philosopher on your desk when you read:) Here is where his blog resides.

I also have a new project...I am going to build a fox hole radio..Fox hole radios were built by soldiers or POW's with SCRAPS that were readily available.
they typically used wire, a safety pin, a razor, a couple of tacks or nails, and a pencil....man, McGuyver would cry if he knew he had been this outdone. Because what you built depended on the supplies, there aren't really a "standard" set of plans. The plans I did find are abit vague and sketchy, but i think i have a nice prototype set of instructions for my own flavor of fox hole radio. It will even include head phone jacks, a tuner, and capacitors...(boggle again..these guys built capacitors out of scraps...)
If I do it well enough I might give it to my grandfather who was a marine around that period in time. I would really like to find a set of radio head phones from a tank to make it more authentic. If you guys have any idea where to hunt down a pair, let me know:)

2003-01-02T17:24:00.000-05:00

man..I just tried playing go on yahoo...what a horrible experience.
the first guy i played, got the ass whooping of his life but refused to resign until it was obvious to people who don't even play that he was losing.
The next guy jumped in the chair immediately after the first one left...he and I were pretty much even. I think I was winning but I am not sure.
I had set it to a 20 minute initial time with 10 minutes per move, and after the 20 minutes elapsed, I ended up losing..which seemed weird.
But he never said a word the whole game and left before I could even thank him.
I have more fun playing the computer :P

btw, did i tell you i think i am finally losing my mind? my reasoning is this..in the past two days I have:

good:
- translated hebrew text in my head (when I really shouldn't be to)
- finally created the perfect form of government (I did it!! woo...now i need something new to ponder at red lights:P also technically its only 95% perfect..there is still a tiny flaw, but it still beats what we have. )
bad:
- while pondering the various flavors of deposit slips at the bank, and licking one that tasted like lipto french onion soup *shudder* I signed my deposit envelope as "Charles Soup".
- I was having a smoke and I needed to write down a note. I look at the pen, and grab the lit cig out of my mouth, as if the cherry was the point (which means my fingers are on it) and proceed to try to take notes...I knew something was wrong when my pen got hot and my fingers hurt. wtf is that about?
I wonder if all that drinking is coming back to haunt me now....all the good brain cells are dying off in my old age, and it only leaves the retarded diaper wearing brain cells damaged by fighting with Mr. Daniels.

2003-01-01T04:28:00.000-05:00

ok..time to do that post like I promised.
I wasn't feeling too well so I didn't really feel like getting drunk tonight.

lets see where to start, where to start...
Before christmas that PT job dropped me.
I get a letter basically saying,
"Tine, don't do anymore work. Its being reassigned. Thanks, boss."

This caught me by suprise considering I had talked to him a couple days before the email, and he wasn't interested in completing his end of the project, and without him working on it, its not worth my time to work on it either. My end of it takes minutes, and trying to add up hunks of 5 and 10 minutes for a job paid hourly will kill me in the wallet. It doesn't bother that he dropped me, it bothers me that he:
1) sent an email, and no phone call
2) gave no reason...that quote was pretty much what he sent me.

that ranks right up there with that stupid tr*vers*ty company who called me in for like 4 interviews, and gave me the huge run around, and no call to say they found someone else. I had to find out from a friend.

I.T. is starting to remind me of a cult...on paper it looks like a good idea to work your way up through the ranks from the bottom..but in reality I don't think there is any money to be made unless you come from the outside and immediately start at the top.

I was kind of thinking it might be fun to build and sell furniture, knick knacks with those built in safes...I know crazy, but it sounds like fun:)

I a couple of interviews lined up in the next week or so, so its not too bad.

In other news, christmas blew our budget way out into left field, so we lost pretty much all of our utilities for a period of time, which is why I didn't post for awhile.

Christmas was pretty good
I got some guncon's (video game light guns) for PS2. Already, my left hand has seized up in some arthritic carpal tunnel something or other.
Waaaay too much fun.

I got a crapload of gift certificates, and a bunch of books.
The books were by Clifford A. Pickover is pretty much a jack (doctor?) of all trades. I love al his books, and he very kindly gave me a free book for solving the puzzle in his book "The Lobotomy Club". Clifford and I also happened to discuss means of promoting his news portal Reality Carnival. Do me a favor and check it out some time:)

I also got a bunch of clothes that fit and looked pretty good. Clothes are always badly needed:)

but the best present was from my father, who pretty much hooked me up with the ultimate war driving setup...A 15.4 dbi antenna (jesus!) an orinoco gold card, and a pigtail for connecting the whole damn thing. This would also make a sweet sweet setup for working from the beach.The setup is more then powerful enough to allow me to make a sandcastle broadcasting station and code from the beach:P The only problem now is trying to figure out how to deal with the salty air which eats through computers faster then a lion at a fat camp. Actually, now that I think about it, mounting the antenna is going to be a bitch too.
I think it started out as a marine antenna, and both of us having plastic cars makes it kind of difficult to hook it to anything. I was kind of thinking of installing faux trailer hitches to hold the antennas. If anyone of you can think of a better idea, let me know. The antenna basically has these V shaped bars that allow the antenna to be placed against a mast or any other pole and bolted securely against it. The connection cable comes out the bottom, so making a base for it would be kind of difficult. Since my car is a P.O.S. anyway, I was toying with the idea of cutting a antenna port out of my trunk (for when i finally get to drive it again)...*cackle*

I know my neighbor got a treadmill for christmas. Its kind of funny listening to it. Judging from the noises of them lugging it in and out of its storage area, I would judge the thing ways 200 lbs. They use it for 5 minutes a night at a relatively slow speed. I think they get more exercise putting it away then they do using it. When they do use it you get this "WHOOM WHOOM WHOOM" noise of the mother ship landing, and the walls start vibrating. You also get what sounds like a 500 pound person walking on the damn thing at an insanely slow pace. Tonight they decided to do their five minute walk at 1:42a....thats a wild new years for you:P The other funny thing is that they would be better off just getting out of their house and walking. They are both pretty thin...I think both of them together probably weigh less then I do. Man, at least they should walk a mile..I mean geez:P

I think thats pretty much it. Before I go though, I wanna bitch about two things:
1) Link sys wifi router
My P.O.S. router is starting to crap out again...It just randomly starts working on and off...Given that LinkSys has the worst customer support I think I have ever encountered, I might take my gift certificates and see how a netgear setup works out. I don't know if i told you guys or not, but my support experience went something like this:
Me, the ex-boss and UC all had link sys routers. I was having trouble connecting with work so I wanted to upgrade the firmware on my router to match theirs so that we can narrow where the problem was occuring. Well, I tried upgrading the firmware via my router and via the program you get with the firmware download, and neither method worked. On top of that, there were no error messages other then the fact the upgrade didn't work. I don't even think it got close to working, because if it did, a mangled firmware would have put the damn thing out of business. Anyway, I talk to linksys and they tell me that upgrading firmware is only to be done to fix errors. What idiots.....isn't the fact that the firmware won't upgrade an error? Isn't there a legit business reason for wanting all your hardware and software synched? How about the fact that my router keeps randomly crapping out? Is that reason enough to upgrade my firmware?

It just boggles the mind...their shitty attitude isn't even something abnormal anymore. I wonder why people even bother considering your just left to hang.

2) Item #2 for the bitch list is the political christmas gift.
I know some of you are saying that I should be thankful that someone gave me a gift, but there are times where people go out of their way to insult you and let you know they were forced into giving you a gift.

my GF got a bunch of cheap ass lotions and other smelly junk from bed, bath and beyond for christmas from her cousin. We aren't high on this persons list. She doesn't particularly likes us, but because of family politics we are sort of obligated to exchange gifts. Anyway, what do I get? A set of aroma therapy tea lights (the same kind that kill mousquitos) and a small massage hand brush....I would rather receive no gift at all, then one that the giver knows I will hate.
I mean come on...she knows I teased my GF because I don't like B,B,&B. She knows I don't own a single candle, aroma-anything, or masage device. She also knows damn well that she can't think of a single guy who DOES shop there and enjoy it.
That is just plain bitchy. She bought me a fucking for like $2.50 at the register of wherever she happened to be. In this case, the smelly store. Thank god she didn't shop for my GF at victoria's secret. I might have ended up with a frilly thong for christmas. The last time I got one of those I had to re-gift it to UC...that seemed to make him pretty happy though. I got alot of good *cough* modeling out of it too.

2002-12-29T03:29:00.000-05:00

hello all:)
Just a quick note..Christmas fudged our budget so we lost net access for a week :P
I am back for awhile. Alot has happened this week so I should have some good blog stuff when I get some time sunday or monday to sit down and write it :)
I just wanted to let you guys know to keep your eyes open.

2002-12-17T02:46:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to warn you guys...its getting close to time to tinker with my computer.
Whenever something goes remotely wrong I feel the need to play with the whole damn thing, regardless of its related to the problem or not.
I also usually break things for a significant period of time. So if you don't see me for awhile you know why.

Lemme give you a break down..:

Step 1) Transfer my file archives to CD
Step 2) Transfer work files to CD
Step 3) Pray.
Step 4) Download linux images
Step 5) Pray.
Step 6) Copy images to CD
Step 7) Pray.
Step 8) Partition HD
Step 9) Pray.
Step 10) Install Linux
Step 11) Pray

I think I can get #1 through #4 done in a day....I am abit worried about work related junk so i might try to get ahead of that before I download a current copy of software, and install it.

2002-12-15T04:01:00.000-05:00

well, verizon changed the ftp servers on me...i can log into the server and put stuff in but i will be damned if the link works anymore.
I tried logging into to see where verizon is pointing my web space, but they have some new doodads which require more personal information to create a profile, and the damn thing doesn't even work. So now I can't even figure out where the hell it goes. when I do, that demo link should snap into place.
For now, take my word for it :P

2002-12-15T03:46:00.000-05:00

found another privacy snippit which makes me want to hurl. its OLD but i figured most people don't know about it.

I think most of you know that Windows Media Player (WMP) stores the DVD's you play on your machine and reports them back to Microshaft so they can log the info....what I bet you didn't know was that there is also a little microshaft trick dubbed the super cookie.

the super cookie is a unique ID stored in your registery that can uniquely identify your computer even if you have privacy settings on full and cookie/pop up blockers installed. WMP puts this unique ID in your registery. If you change the ID in the registery, over time it could lead to WMP breaking itself.

This works unconditionally in IE, and it will work in netscape if you have the WMP plugin installed.
Lets all take a moment and let the OsX users laugh at us:)

Here is a sample page I put up to show you your unique ID (or lack of ID).
You will notice it doesn't change when you refresh.

MS hid the disabling of this in some obscure WMP option. to remove that option
1) open up WMP
2) open up tools and then options.
3) click on "Allow Internet sites to uniquely identify your player"

Sites which use the super cookie (including this demo) will still get fed a WMP ID but it won't be unique any longer.

Personally, i think this is the final straw...here is what I will be doing over the next couple of days:

1) finding some juicy PGP friendly programs so that we can integrate it more seamlessly into natural computer usage
2) finding an all encompassing player that isn't so snoopy.
3) working up a blog posting on data leakage.

2002-12-15T00:10:00.000-05:00

quick question for the hockessin crew...

I just had papa johns up here and I was curious about the price of papa johns in hockessin.
When I was there the price was way way overblown for such a mediocre pizza. I seem to remember playing close to 20 bucks just for a pizza.
Here, the pizza cost 13 bucks. I was wondering if they jacked the price specifically because it is in hockessin. If they did, thats another fucked up corporation that needs to be dealt with. I don't care if its a franchise who "needs to stay competitive locally", its still bullshit.
So lemme know what the word is..its bugging me :P

2002-12-14T14:48:00.000-05:00

Today marks the day that the 47 Ronin avenged the death of their Lord.
Where is this kind of character these days? If I had half their spine, I would be in good shape. You just don't see it anymore. They had the balls to do whats right, despite knowing they would die whether they were successful or not. Knowing this, they did it anyway..Just fantastic.

A couple of side notes...
UC was the first to get his public key in. Shame on the rest of the you:P Well, maybe not B

I went to the doctor, and got perscriptions right away. He is even seeing if i can get some trial samples of the medication I take, and a discount on the visits.
So the diabetes center can suck dick. I definitely owe them one. The doctor also had some new diabetic teknogolie i got to play with.
A meter for an H1AC test. an H1AC test is like a three month average of how your bloodsugar is doing. You can't hide from that. This is the first significant one I have had since I was diagnosed. I got a 5% which is like text book perfect. You want it between 4% and 6%...anything outside that is considered pretty bad.

I had a couple of other things but I will be damned if I remember any of it..maybe I will post something else if my brain decides to kick in gear.

2002-12-13T03:57:00.000-05:00

PGP 8.0 got released just recently it has graphic support for both XP and OS/X. You can pick up the freeware version (which I have)
or a personal edition for a cost. With the free version you can create some insanely huge keys. 1024 will do it though..its not getting cracked any time soon. When it does, it will take you 30 seconds to create a key that will take many more years to crack.
With PGP You can sign documents for authenticity, You can encrypt email and files, encrypt ICQ transmissions, etc, etc.
Addiotionally, they have a wipe feature for securely deleting files (which you can bind to the normal delete if you want) and they also have a wipe feature for the free space on your machine so that you don't get burned by residual data.

All of you (especially B & kronos) need to go Here and pick up PGP for your OS. This way we can swap public keys and start sending encrypted mail instead of this plain text.

If you do get it, let me know about the checksum. There was supossedly some functionality like MD5 which would tell you if a file or text had been modified. This greatly interests me but I will be damned if I can find it.

I also don't quite get what happens when someone boosts your public key to pretend to be you.
Would the questioning party encrypt something and send it to the fake person? Only the true person could decrypt the message to prove who they are.
Anyway, we all need it. You know we do. If I don't see at least a couple public keys flying my way, I am going to have pull out my news and stories that will make you so paranoid, you will start bringing your own silverware and drinks to dining establishments.

2002-12-11T17:16:00.000-05:00

Well, talked to my father today and he will help pay for the doctors stuff. I am pretty sure he can afford. It turns out I was right about the doctor only being interested in a buck though. My mother set up the appointment because I told her if I got that nurse on the phone I would rip her face off. After scheduling an appointment (which is a week away) my mother asked if I could have enough medication to make it to the apoointment. They said they could only do it if I sent in a week's worth of blood test info (which they didn't think I could get). After she asked where to send the info, they immediately changed their minds and said I needed to see the primary health care provider. When she spelled out that I hadn't been there in a year either, and that he wouldn't perscribe anything either, the nurses basically said tough shit and left me to hang. So I am probably dropping that place, and try to psuedo self medicate by telling a my other doctor what he wants to hear.

In other news, got a couple of bits for you:

B's favorite politician is at it again.
Could you imagine the postal system being Privatized? I can't either.
Mail is very nearly a right and not a privellege. Until billing and notification can be completely electronic, this is a ridiculous idea. Could you imagine some asshat corporation "holding" your credit car bills and mortage payment until you remember to pay your monthly postal service bill?
Man, this on top of our security pact with canada. This country is getting to be a plague. I can't wait for the presidential elections.

Also, Here is an interesting new auction site. I think this might be right up UC's alley. I could be wrong but I could certainly see him doing something like this.
This is an online barter system. You barter a CD, you get a CD credit. You barter a book, you get a book credit. These credits allow you to request items from other users. Each item is a one for one credit, which is why you can only trade in like items.
It looks sort of tiny now, but I am looking forward to maybe finding some tasty books on there.

2002-12-11T04:55:00.000-05:00

*scream*
life is really starting to fucking piss me off.

problem #1 : christmas

fuck it. I am dirt poor, and my life is a delicate balance. Nobody seems to understand this. When someone admits to being poor they most likely don't fall into "Well, we are on a tight budget, better not buy that table saw I was looking at". When you admit your poor, you usually fall into the "Sorry, If we buy that twinkie, we won't have enough for rent." Everything is tolerable as long as the balance is maintained. Christmas is trying its damnedest to rip my balance a new asshole. Now on a good year, christmas is an awkward experience that I could live without. This year, its awful. If you know me, chances are I am probably in your debt one way or the other for any multitude of reasons. Now half of these people I am in debt with keep asking me what I want for christmas. I tried the subtle hints suggesting Christmas was probably innapropriate....Of course this goes over like a fart in church because everyone is so gung ho about exchanging "stuff". I usually resort to saying something along the lines of "Christmas?? Are you fucking crazy?? You have already settled up for the next 5 christmas seasons. I have trouble enough sleeping without adding to my debt to you. But for arguments sake we'll ignore that critical fact and just look at the point that buying anything means skipping bills which are already late". They still refuse....I don't admit to discomfort of that sort very often, and it doesn't even click. So my choices are fuck myself and my GF in the ass, or upset the people who have bent over backwards to help me. Even if it wouldn't upset them, it would sure as hell upset me. Either way, nothing this season works out. I have finally resolved to asking for stuff that other people want, but I am not sure if thats gonna go as smoothly as I envisioned.

Problem #2: Medication
I have no health insurance, and I have been skating by getting medication paid for by my parents and occasionally getting a couple under the table contributions from other people who are diabetic or know diabetics. Well, I called the doctor the other day to get refills and the conversation went something like this:

"Hi, I need to get some refills on my medication."
"Uh, You haven't been here in almost a year."
"Thats because I have been too poor to come in for almost a year"
"Well, We can't give you anything. That would be illegal."
" I don't have a choice. What are my alternatives?"
"Uh, You should go see your primary health care provider."
At this point I snickered and hung up on her.
Once again people failing to pick up on the obvious...This is getting to be a recurring theme with poverty. You can tell someone your poor, but in their head you can afford whatever they can.
Stupid bitch didn't realize that if I can't fucking afford to make the visits to the diabetes place, that I sure as shit can't afford to see my primary health care provider. What a stupid shithead. She is assuming that at this point, I even have one.

These people are fucking with my survival and that really pisses me off. Without all my medication, It gets real ugly physically and mentally.
My mother offered to pay for the visits and the tests I would need before the visits, but I know she can't afford it. She was lying.
Aghh..I am so pissed, there are so many people I want to fuck over.

I would like to just steal a couple cases of all the shit I need from the pharmacy, but they are locked up like fort knox and alarmed well past anything I could ever hope to handle.
I thought of going to the stupid diabetes center and just sitting there. But I would get thrown out, and I would be the "crazy" and they would be the "victim" which is not what I want to achieve.

Why the hell can't I fucking self medicate? What do they expect me to sell it for recreational purposes? Where the hell do you find an underground supply of medication? fuckers.

Stupid people. The more people fucking piss me off, the more determined I get to stick around just so that I can heap them all together, and burn them.

on a lighter note:

William Gibson is due to have a new book out in Feb. of 2003. It is a book set in present day and sticks totally with the protaganist. I believe its called "Pattern Recognition". I dunno how good it will be given his current track record, but we can all hope.

Are any of you interested in pondering new forms of government? I have been reviewing the traidtional forms of government and trying to improve upon them.
I think I have the foundation of a good system going, but it has several large kinks. If you like this sort of thing, lemme know and maybe we can toss some ideas around.

2002-12-09T03:46:00.000-05:00

I had a breakdown the other day over the inefficiency of diabetic products. I wrote this giant recommendation to the makers of the medication I take asking for a pen injection system and some better designed storage equipment. I got a CALL from them in like two days about my ideas. They said that their pen system was on trial in Germany and scheduled to be released in the U.S. at an unknown time in 2003. They also said they would take my storage ideas under advisement. Hell, even if they don't, I still get a completely pen driven for injections. Two pens take up like an fourth of the space that all the normal crap does. Also, the waste generated (which you have to haul around also unless you are home with your biohazard container) is completely negligible compared to the normal amount of waste. WOoo HOOO!
Man, the things I could do if they set me loose designing diabetic products....*cackle*

I also need to clean up my book list. I have been lazy with it. I read a few good things and some real stinkers too :P

I have a whole long line of classics coming that I need to reread or have not yet read.
Sometime in the future I am going to reread Sun Tzu's "The art of War" and "Go RIn No Sho: A Book of Five Rings" by Miamoto Musashi.

Right now I am reading "The Prince" by Nicolo Machiavelli. Have any of you beaten me to this yet?

"Upon this, one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge."

This seems to naturally blend well with the the Art of War. You take the battle right off the field and into the realm of politics and governing.
I am sort of hoping that some of you are familiar with this guy. The prince has been a guide to claiming and maintaining power for countless generations. Machiavelli personally witnessed more take overs then I could even remember to tell you. What bugs me is that you would think he is some sort of genius with strategy and leadership, but he wasn't. Machiavelli was just some guy who lost his title to hostile governments a bunch of times, and decided to proceed literature as a peasant instead of staying in that hostile arena. He was by no means a leader. So in the best case scenario, you can compare him to a scientist of sorts. An excellent observer who can analysis situations effectively.The worst case is this guy is a total hack with a couple of ideas who can write rather eloquently. I don't know which...It would take too long to put any of these things into some sort of experiment before I could make my own conclusion. I can think of a bunch of leaders who have read this book, but I will be damned if I can think of any who had any sucess that could be attributed to it :P

2002-12-06T00:02:00.000-05:00

*sigh*

Why do people pervert technology so badly with stupid pointless rules.
I don't know if you've noticed but RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds have been popping up all over the place. RSS feeds are XML documents that conform to a certain standard. They used so that other applications can pick up the website in a format more friendly to computers. This spawned "News readers" (or maybe the concept of news readers spawned RSS? I dunno...). News Readers follow a bunch of RSS feeds so that you can get all the info YOU select direct from the websites at interval that YOU control.

The first problem I noticed had to do with XML. Now correct if me i am wrong, (and I mean that..leave a comment) but wasn't the point of XML to work with the web so that a single document could be formatted one way for humans to view, and formatted another way to allow for applications to use the same documents? Doesn't this make sense? So why is it that everyone puts their XML on a seperate page?
Furthermore, a good bunch of the popular websites I want all have their feeds hosted by newsisfree.com
now newsisfree.com is basically a giant news reader where you pick the sites you want it to pick over, and it formulates a page that is tailored to your design. newsisfree.com will also let you access those feeds directly so that you can run them through a news reader on your own computer. When I hooked a newsfeed from newsisfree.com to my newsreader I found that they had options for the feed and certain conditions of use. The conditions of use were that you can't access the feed more then 5 times an hour, and that if you did you would be cut off. The other condition of use was that you only get the 5 newest items from that website.
So far this sounds like BS? right? Well, I checked and most of these sites have feeds of their own too which don't follow these idiotic rules. Unfortunately their feeds are also not -completely- standard. They aren't far off from each other, but they aren't the same.
So whats does this whole thing revolve around? Laziness. But this is some new mutant form of laziness...super concentrated laziness.
I mean for god's sake, it would take an extra 2 minutes for you to standardize your god @(#*@# feed. The other shitty thing is some website is trying to take advantage of a DOUBLE HEAPING of super concentrated laziness. They are gambling that the websites don't want to spend 120 seconds standardizing their information, and they are betting you are too lazy to write/download/request a program that can handle non standardized feeds. Its not too hard, and everyone can at least do one of those options.
The whole thing boggles the mind...these people (the offending websites) are contributing to a construct built for laziness (aka the internet) an application (the news reader) which is meant to be used when you can't be bothered to take 30 seconds to open up all the pages you want to read at once (for when average laziness just won't cut it).Thankfully you only have to write an application correctly once, and it will remain correct forever, and you will never have to write it again (that is, unless you choose to be super concentrated lazy and just not bother with doing it right...just crap out whatever you can and see if anyone eats it.)

ok, thank you for letting me bitch:)
I think step 1 is to get visual studio or something.
step 2 is to start coding some of this stuff i complain about. A news reader would be easy..
step 3 is praying to god I can remember this idea long enough to accomplish step 1.

2002-12-03T17:15:00.000-05:00

Woo hoo...finally got the heat on :) I learned that "pilot light" is such an innocent sounding and innapropriate term for a device on your heater.
I was thinking more "Primary Flame thrower" or "Finger toaster" would be more appropriate.
The cat is in a state of shock that we have heat. I think it was more then he could cope with and he passed out:P He has always been sort of goofy when it came to warm temperatures, but this time he fell asleep -fast- on the corner of the couch above where I sit. Abit after he fell asleep he fell off the couch and onto my shoulder and didn't even wake up. I think he just turned abit and stuck a foot in my ear.
I also got sick:( I have spent a week not tasting or smelling a damn thing, and working on my loogie collection. Its just about over though...I think I am just flushing the last of the junk out of my system.

I also have a couple of links for you today.

This is a link about spyware and adware on your computer.
In a nutshell, this software is installed on your computer when you run "free" or shareware software you pick up off the internet. Not all free and shareware software has this crap, but a good amount does. A popular example that hosed my machine is "bearshare", a gnutella client. Most people don't differentiate between spyware and adware but there is a subtle difference. Spyware is software that monitors your computer or internet usage and reports it back to a third party. Based on the information they gather from people, they will then target you or some other group of people for ads. Adware is software that spams you with popups, or replaces ads you encounter naturally on the internet with ads from the software you downloaded. Sometimes it will monitor what you are trying to do in an effort to target ads more carefully. So if you are looking to buy a book online, it might pop up an ad telling you to go somewhere else because its cheaper.
The article I linked to is a little lame. Its trying to convince you that securing your home PC is helping national security, and "the terrorist have won if you don't protect your computer". The same sort of BS you have heard a million times over the past year. What is valuable in that article are some of the links. I highly recommend installing Ad-Aware. It detects and deletes spyware that it encounters on your machine. Just because you don't see weird shit happening on your computer, doesn't meant that you aren't being monitored. I hate the fact that people try to sneak shit on my machine, and that my ignorance helps them profit. When I ran adaware, it found a couple PIECES of things. I have been able to delete most of the adware and spyware the I find on my machine, but the software had some registery keys and other junk I hadn't gotten rid of. The software also axed a bunch of cookies that it deemed were for ad purposes.

These are a couple links that I think B and Kronos will especially appreciate.
This link goes to an article about the new secret legal SYSTEM that our fearless leader wants to put in to compliment the already present secret courts. This would allow individuals to be detained and processed completely in secret pretty much. My favorite part is how this secret legal system is supossed to "compliment" our existing legal system. So there is no qualification that determines whether you go through the regular legal system or the secret one. When you translate all their wank into english, it basically means if you piss off the right people, your fucked.
They stated the shoe-bomber and John Walker aren't going to be processed through this legal system. I find this just hilarious. They are developing a secret court to prosecute terrorists, but they aren't actually going to prosecute the terrorist? Can you say, secret Rich People's legal hit squad?

Here is the best for last.
My personal favorite, the "Total Information Awareness" project which is supossed to allow the government to have access to pretty much all databases with knowledge you would rather be kept private. Well, Pointdexter is fucked. People have posted his personal info to the web and to other media outlets in an attempt to "simulate" his "total information awareness" and show him what the world he is creating will be like. If you want a good laugh, have a read. I am also betting my nickel now that we are about to see a couple scenes from Fight Club enacted :P

2002-11-27T04:22:00.000-05:00

ok, for those who wonder why my ass isn't glued to the laptop as usual, I will be doing Turkey Day in DE and then heading up to CT on friday.

I found a post on MetaFilter which seems to pertain to what our little group discusses and mulls over in the wee hours of the night.

In a nut shell, some guy kills a police officer to protest the state of society. He felt that basically coporations and "the 4%" were leading to the rapid and terminal decline of humanity. He points out that basically coporations are designed to remove responsibility and accountability from individuals, and to give those with corporate access the loopholes needed to shrug off their responsibility and accountability.

After he killed the officer, he then proceeded to post a confession/manifesto on San Francisco Indy Media.
You can read his post and some reader comments here.
You can also read the article about his stand off and eventual arrest in NH here.

Personally, I think his assessment of society is dead on, his facts are in order, but his execution is borderline retarded.
I am guessing he felt the only way to be heard was to murder someone, which in itself is a sad example of where our society is headed.
In an age where I can just about reach any given person, at any given time, anywhere on the planet, this guy needs to shoot someone in order to be listened to.
Unfortunately because of the whole disgust factor that people have with his actions, his message is lost anyway. People will reject what he has to say without reading it because of the action it is associated with.
If he did it as a statement in itself, thinking his dummy corporation would protect him as true corporations protect their masters, then he is a whole hell of alot dumber then I thought. He should know better....Killing an innocent individual is just another part of the problem, it doesn't help show the solution. Furthermore, its not corporate law itself which saves these people. Its the fact they have more money and power then you do. His logic sort of reminds of how children go against their parents using adult logic.
i.e...The teen points out that they should be able to stay up till 11, because the parent does. When the parent points out they have to be up at 7 for school, the child then instantly snaps back that the parent has to be up at 7 for work. Does the Adult EVER say , "You know Johnny, thats a good point. Lets stay up and catch that george foreman grilling machine special on QVC." ? NOPE. The kid ends up in bed at 9, and as an added bonus gets a belt mark for being "flippant".
I have a little reminded for you. Most Everyone hates hearing this, and I know a handful of you will hate hearing it again, but its something you need to think about, and finally come to accept. It doesn't mean its right morally or ethically, but so far it has been a fact of life since humanity has began.
MIGHT MAKES RIGHT.
I repeat, MIGHT MAKES RIGHT.
Take a look at the history books..ever notice how the victors always seem to be the protagonist?
Those with power determine what is acceptible. You don't have to like it, and hell, you don't even have to believe it. Either way, you live by it.
So for this jerk wad murderer to think that he can use the logic of the rich and powerful to protect him the way it protects them is just absurd.

I think my solution for trying to help society from hanging itself is a little bit more elegant then murder, but I think most of you seem to disagree.
I wanted to build a think tank which takes specific problems in society and works on solving them, and applying or distributing their solutions to the masses.
The think tank would tackle stuff like the traffic system, Microsoft vs. Apple & opensource, government funding for education, etc. These are all solvable problems, but they are also too big for an individual to tackle on their own.
Unfortunately, it takes a whole shitload of people to make a think tank, and the few people I know (you), seemed to think it would fly like a lead balloon.
If I could figure out how to strike that chord in people, it would help more then just this think tank idea. I think its because of this inability to communicate and find like minded people that I have a strong desire to live in an Atlas style silo in a very neutral country:)

2002-11-24T21:03:00.000-05:00

Another weekend flew by and who knows where the hell it went.
The only thing accomplished (and as usual, I didn't even accomplish it) was I got a whole crapload of new clothes. Ordinarily, I don't give two shits, but I am so god damned tired of running around in the cold in shorts that its sort of a big deal :P Also, I got the perfect present for my father. Every year we compete to see who can find
the most hideous clothing for the other. This year I won....Oh yes, I won....They practically paid me to take it out of the store. My favorite part was the cashier trying to keep a straight face so as not to piss me off. She said, "Oh my! It's......electric!". I nearly lost it. This thing is hideous...They practically paid me to take it out of the store.
The thing that bothered me the most was the price. How much of what we spend on clothes is pure profit for the manufacturer or the point of sale? This P.O.S. that I bought was "originally" $32...over time it worked its way down to $6. I am assuming they would let it rot on the rack until A) rackspace value was greater then the current value of the clothing, or B) The shirt couldn't even sell at cost. So are they really making that much? Jesus.. I mean, its crap..who the hell could charge $32 for crap with a straight face. Sorry for not mentioning what I got, but my father might stumble on here and foil my victory. Tee hee...I will see if i can get a picture...I can't lose this year.

As for my last bitch of the evening, I was flipping through the channels on tv (I know, nobody here watches T.V. anymore..sue me) and the Sci Fi channel was showing Braveheart. Braveheart? Come on now..there is no way you could remotely classify Braveheart as sci-fi...You would have an easier time classifying Driving Miss Daisy as "Action Adventure". I wonder if this is the end for the Sci Fi channel? They can't find anything that meets their format guidelines that has any sort of ratings potential?
hehe..out with the old, in with the new.

2002-11-21T04:05:00.000-05:00

Oddly engouh, I think this post is going to end up pretty close to Kronos's.
Skip it if you feel the need :)

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile...I have been pretty sick. After I was done getting better, I had an unbearable urge to play kingdom hearts. I have put far too much time into this game then I would care to admit.
Work blows...its little scrap work, here today, gone tommorow. I have a couple of FT prospects which I am supossed to be looking at.
This is supossed to coincide with this new plan my parents have to help me get back on track. That and hopefully some clothes because i am @(*@# tired of wearing shorts in November. Don't get me wrong though, I am not knocking them in any way..I am so fucked on so many levels (all of them except the GF i think) that any help from them is more then appreciated.

These days its good to see people reaching my levels of paranoia and social disgust...
Here is one of each for you:
Paranoia
Social Disgust

Now after that lovely McDonalds article, lets talk about food. If you know you me, you know I can -barely- cook anything...
hotdogs, pasta, and frozen foods are about it for me. Personally, I am starting to think its just pure laziness that makes me ADHD out whenever I see a recipe.
You will also notice, that when I eat out somewhere, I almost always have the exact same thing. I find it sort of comforting in a freak way. The only problem is, when all you ever eat is shit, and you eat it every time, you get pretty sick of it.

Thankfully, I think the solution is pretty obvious on this one. I am going to teach myself to cook.
Lets all take a moment and wait for Kronos to climb back into his chair and UC to stop laughing. Yes, they are laughing AT me, and not WITH me.
Anyway, I think I am tired of meat and beef. I eat waaay too much red meat. I put lions to shame. That, and with the way I feel I am starting to believe these millions of articles on the problems with traditional western diets. I was thinking of trying to change my diet from like a 90% meat, 10% vegetable (if that even) to more like an 80% vegetable, 20% meat. I also want to try and start sloowwwlly introducing myself to more then just red meat. By slowly I mean, lets start with small portions where your not eating huge chunks of it...Like my stir fry with chicken or shrimp or something.
I tried to hunt down some good Thai food recipes thinking this would be a relatively good place to start, but unfortunately nearly all the recipes I could find suck pretty badly.
There were a bunch of chinese food places and recipe sites who also had "thai" recipes but they were a load of bull. You can pretty much tell when they are trying to pull one over on you because their recipes go like something like throw meat, basil leaves , and "thai" spices into a wok with shredded vegetables and *poof* you have a thai meal. Riiiighht. Sounds like the shredded beef I buy at the chinese food restaurant to me. I found another set of recipes which were: substitute this for that, and that for this until its not even recognizable any more. The last set were TOO hardcore thai...Thai food is big on fish sauce, and people always say to substitute it with soy..I am not sure that would taste right though...What I do know is that fish sauce tastes like bottled ass. Its just oily essence of fish, mixed with another oily hot pepper sauce.
I had it once with my GF's father while we were all out at a restaurant. I thought it would be a *hint* of fish, with mainly peppers in it. Man, I was so wrong. It tasted Like I just ate a damned raw fish with a pepper in its butt. So with that in mind, I don't want anything with fish sauce for another decade or twelve.

What would you guys recommend for vegetarian or near vegetarian dishes? Do you have any favorites that you make?

2002-11-11T01:01:00.000-05:00

Someone has to help me out with this article.
This article deals with extinction (or near extinction) level events and the best way of handling survival measures and whether or not an early warning system would be appropriate. The article pretty much states that a supernova or a Gamma Ray burst (GRB) remotely in the general vicinity of Earth would pretty much wipe the slate clean in terms of life. The article states that extinction level events work in two phases. The first phase is the actual event itself which results in immediate fatalities. The second phase is a series of "local disasters" which include economic downfall, lack of supplies, rioting, dissent, communication and government distruption, etc, etc. The local disasters are consequences indirectly related to the event itself. Their solution was to put split up the earth so that humanity would not have all their eggs in one basket. In this article they listed two ideas. Sub orbital stations, and underground self sufficient compounds. They leaned a little away from sub orbital stations because the underground compounds had a slightly larger chance of surviving energy and radiation bursts associated with supernovas and GRBs. Why this is the case, I have no idea. I am pretty sure the obliteration of planet life (assuming radiation couldn't reach the compounds to begin with) would just mean a slower death for the survivors. As far as comets and asteroids impacting earth. The article suggested that compounds could be built that would withstand alot of different impacts (save the direct variety :D ). They also stated the compounds they had in mind would need to be able to withstand the nuclear winter type environment of the post impact earth. This is where I think I need your help. A nuclear winter in the man made sense blots out the sun, and the radiation "salts" the earth, which kills off vegetation and as an effect of that, kills off the animal population. A nuclear winter in the asteroid sense would also blot out the sun, and it would strip the local (if not the entire) environment of plants and animals. My understanding was that blotting out the sun for a significant period of time would not only kill off the plants and animals, but it would drop the temperature significantly as well. Wouldn't that temperature drop be more severe underground? I was assuming they would be growing food underground using plant lights and what not to feed their crops. If the temperature drop didn't kill the people directly, wouldn't it kill the plants? They have a lower threshold for the temperature fluctuations. Also, the longer the sun was blotted out, the colder things would get.
So what do they have in mind? Heating the compounds? Don't you think it would get too cold to heat? Without the sun, you have the cold of space combatting with the heat of the earth's core to define the temperature. The last problem I had with these ideas is that we haven't demonstrated that humanity can even develop a self sustaining environment. The biosphere projects were all a sham, the space stations and orbital ships we have now all have regular supplies coming from earth. I dunno, it just seems like society as whole will most likely not be ready for these events in time. If anyone were to survive, I think it would be only the most hardcore of paranoids. The ones who are even out of my league. Any thoughts or opinions?

2002-11-10T03:09:00.000-05:00

Its been awhile since I have blogged, so i figured I am past due. Crabby, our Sugarglider seemed to have caught a cold on monday or tuesday from the lack of heat in the apartment. Well, cold is sort of an understatement. When Sugargliders have anything go wrong, be it in environment, diet or disposition, they tend to get pneumonia. She had stopped eating when she got sick, so my GF got the Sugarglider a bunch of her favorite nutricious foods like baby food, and juice. She also got her a space heater to keep her nice and toasty. We booked her an appointment at the vet Friday at 7pm. Firday evening tara had called to say that Crabby looked to be feeling much better. She was up and eating on her own, she grabbed my GF's finger and chatted with her for awhile too. I said that I thought it was a good idea to have her checked out anyway.
So the GF threw her in a pouch and took her down to Delaware for the appointment. Crabby had a fun time and chatted to my GF the whole way. Unfortunately, somewhere between Rt. 48 and the house Crabby died:( Its weird because she had so much energy and looked so healthy right before she died. We used b's mailbox as a crypt. I don't think they will know until the mail comes on monday. I don't think they'll mind either..all the mailbox is ever good for is bills.

We also went to New Hope , NJ today. Let me just say...that place is pretty weird.
there are four types of people there...homosexuals, people with dogs, bikers, and "other". Each group was weirder then the next. I can't figure out why it was such a hot spot for gay activity. When I tried to ask, and we got to talking, they were suprised to find out why I knew Kronos and why he wasn't there this weekend. I never did figure out why this little bumblefuck town had so many homosexuals, but Kronos, they miss you and hope you come back soon:)
The dog people were also a sort of mystery. The automobile traffic in New Hope is crazy, the side walks are so small that its tough for opposing flows of pedestrian traffic to walk past each other. 80% of the dogs were golden retrievers. The dogs were so obsessed with staying out of the way that they would go around their masters and into oncoming traffic to stay out of their way. Why people would take their dogs somewhere to get them run over I don't know. On top of that, there were absolutely no dog friendly areas or stores, and not even patches of grass for the dogs to pee or poop on. The bikers were a different story. I think they were actually going to or from some place other then New Hope, and just decided to stop in for a quick bite to eat. Most of the bikers were travelling in packs through New Hope. I would really like to know where they would headed. I bet thats an interesting place too. The other category was the minority. They seemed to be filled with yuppies, goth's, and wankers. I think we fell into the wankers category.I managed to resist purchasing much of anything. I avoided two shops filled with swords and knives. I totally overloaded and couldn't decide what I wanted. My GF, myself, and one of the store owners shared a moment as we all looked at each other, and then at some dickweed customer who was about to kill himself. He picked up a display sword, and asked if he could fight with it. The store owner very carefully explained it was for display only. Jerkweed asked if he could sharpen it. The store owner then explains the properties of the metal, and that if he did attempt to use it, that it would shatter. Meanwhile as he is asking all these questions, he is swinging and poking, claymores and broadswords through the store. He was trying to appear intelligent and suave about this stuff so he would the blade up side ways close to his face to "inspect" and in the process he would leave the point two inches from someone elses face. In my own little bubble, stupid people like that guy would get a nice Henna tattoo (on their neck..a dottle line:D) down the street and five minutes to run while I made my purchase. I also saw a little girl who had a fondness for night sticks and bullwhips. At the time, I didn't see the humor in that, because I was more worried about having my eye snapped into my frontal lobe.In the end, we stopped in a cat store and got Darwin a bowl saying "Fuzz Butt" because thats what we tend to call him. We also got a Cat-Gargoyle incense burner, and some candy. I bought a green, 3 hose Hookah, and some Shisha (wet tobbaco). We got two flavors to start. We got some grape and some strawberry. We tried to the strawberry not too long ago, and let me just say...totally fantastic. If you have ever smoked a pipe, and wished it tasted a little more like it smelled...Try a Hookah. It was super smooth, and very tasty. I think part of the smoothness is due to the lack of nicotine, tar and preservatives. Its very different from smoking anything else. I think a pipe is probably as close as you can get. A pipe meant for inhaling. Smoking was also unusually calming. I can't figure out if it was Shisha, or the ritualism of smoking but it just mellowed us both out. We had brought a pad of paper to the Hookah so that we could discuss the upcoming holiday season, and what to get people. We managed to get our parents off the list before we stopped caring and just sat there smoking. We think it lasted an hour, because we started towards the end of Cowboy Bebop, and finished after Gundam Mobile Suits had finished. Time just flew by :) I have heard a rumor that a cola flavored Shisha exists, but whether that is true or not remains to be seen. I will have to make it a project to research its existence.

I have alot of work to do next week, but none of it really needs to be at work. If I am lucky, I will be able to spend most of the week at home instead of in DE.

2002-11-04T15:54:00.000-05:00

A new Gang Wars round has started up. We are the PendeHoes located in Mexico.
All of you need to send a request to the join gang :) Especially if your name starts with a K and ends with a ronos.

2002-11-04T08:45:00.000-05:00

How much of this is true?
Makes me queasy just thinking about it.

2002-11-02T23:05:00.000-05:00

note to UC: Phoenix is great, but it craps a brick with blogger;P

I feel like a waste of skin. Have you ever just wanted to off yourself to make room for people who could actually do something more productive with the oxygen your wasting?
I was playing Go and wandering around the various websites of the players looking for anything interesting and I come across the guy we are about to discuss.
This guy is a relatively high level go player. I look at his website and find that since a young age he has also been a relatively strong chess player as well. Further more,
He has a had a successful band for a couple of years which has just released A CD. He has worked at various major software companies including the predecessor to the first . He has written an article for The Perl Journal. I almost forgot to mention he got two undergraduate degrees at MIT. One for music composition and one for Comp Sci.
This seems to tie in nicely with yesterday's article on societies perceptions on status.
If you catch me on a day where I have retreated to my own little bubble, I would tell that I honestly believe, that one day i would be would wealthy, and able to do the things in life that I can not (be it for a lack of time or money). As you read yesterday, and in countless other studies, most people think this way. Everyone believes its their god given right to have the most money, status, happiness, longevity, etc. If it was this easy the bar for power and status would be raised. The whole principle of power and wealth is that not everyone has it. So needless to say, the vast majority of people who think that life is going to work out in their favor are sadly mistaken.
This guy we have been discussing beats himself up severely on his site. He believes he is lazy and a procrastinator. Good god, I would hate to see this guy on a good day when he is feeling productive. I don't know whether to cry, or vomit. Unfortunately, I know quite a few people like this...If you went to my high school, you would know many people like this too. Ellie is a good example. Ellie is a girl in my class whom I have known since I was in 2nd grade. I used to pity Ellie. Ellie was so geeky, and gangly, and alien that I felt bad for her. Now that we have grown up, Ironically, She probably thinks of me from time to time and pities me. The difference being, I remember her name and I highly doubt she would have reason or cause to remember mine. Ellie has accomplished more now then most of us will accomplish in a life time. I spend a good amount of time thinking about these people. I think about what traits of theirs I can apply to my own life. I think about the "missing ingredient" when my attempts fail time and time again. I know a good many people here (myself included) have had some great ideas which would make a good deal of money. Of course these never work due to a lack of resources, or the proper circumstances or market. Most people attribute success to a matter of hard work and luck. If this is true, a lack of success could be due to not enough hardwork or not enough luck. The more people I meet like Ellie, or like the guy I mentioned above, the more I think that this "hardwork and luck" business is a load of bullshit. I think these people could prosper with or without luck. Also, probability wise, over the long term, luck should pretty much even out. If there are people in this world who are overall "lucky" or "unlucky" then its not really luck is it? It borders on divine destiny. And if that is the case, when I die I guarantee you whether I have "good luck" or "bad luck" I will do everything in my power to find the source of this "luck" and beat the fuck out of it. Of course, not a damn single person would ever be able to tell you WHY they are successful, they just are. Its the right combination of an infinite amount of variables.
The whole thing is depressing to think about it. I can remember as far back as third grade thinking "In fourth grade things will be different. I will look good, I will be a good student, I will have friends, and I will make my family proud". When I entered fourth grade I found that this wasn't the case in any way. I then proceeded to look around, and saw how happy the eigth graders looked. I said, "Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I need to be abit older. Look at how happy and cool the eigth graders are. I'll be like that when I'm in eigth grade". I found out the hard way I was wrong again. I did the same thing in ninth grade. I thought that as soon as I got of college, I could move on to really living, and finally be able to be successful and happy. I was so obsessed with this idea, I conned myself into thinking I could do it with or without college. All I needed was some wits and some elbow grease. Wrong again. Are we seeing a pattern here? Now a days, I fool myself by thinking "I just need to get a solid job so I can pay the bills and finish up college. After that, I can get a good job, which will give me the time and money to pursue success". By now though, I have become quite accustomed to recognizing the sweet stench of bullshit. I know better, and it just sucks the life right out of me. I also know I have lead a pretty comfortable and privelleged life. I have squandered more potential and opportunity then most people have received in the duration of their lives. So I do understand that things could always be worse. This is another one of my sources for migraines. Knowing life sucks, knowing I suck, and at the same time knowing things could be worse, and people far worse off then I have made something out of nothing. The duality of these facts crushes my skull.
From pretty much 3rd grade until last year, each day was the worst day of my life. Every day outdoing the next. The combined weight of so much shit making the next event that much harder to tolerate. These days, I just seem to tread water in a purgatory of my own making. Too weak to succeed, and too many friends and family who won't let me fail, I rot in mediocrity trying to tip myself one way or the other.
I did alot better when I hated everything. I hated everyone and I hated being told I couldn't do something. It gave me a purity of vision and purpose. These days I have nothing to hate but myself.

This is the second source of my migraines. I sit here and think about how I whine and moan about everything I don't have or haven't done, and then I think about our ancestors, and those less privelleged in this world, who live with a whole shitload less. Sometimes I think that I would have done well in the past. I could see where having to fight for basic rights such as freedom, life, and land would have lead me to live with that purity of vision (stubbornness?) that I no longer have. Maybe then I would have been something more then a leech. Successful people have tunnel vision. They can only see their goals, and the steps needed to attain them. Sometimes this isn't a good thing, but it sure beats the hell out of having a good solid understanding of how unsuccessful you and the rest of the masses are.

2002-11-02T01:50:00.000-05:00

hello everyone:)
Not much to report on..Just cold, and tired:) I plan on sleeping in tommorow:)
Hopefully the Lady and I can get some cleaning done so we can go have fun tommorow. We might go see The Ring, because word of mouth seems to be generally positive.

just two links for you today.
mandatory reading - "Superiority Complex" from The Atlantic
I like this article I think it really touches on how society operates these days.

funny reading - Diary of a G.I. Joe

2002-10-30T02:57:00.000-05:00

I want one. Someone find it!!! Waaaaant *stomp*

Here we have the makings of a really entertaining evening...

and oh...amusing ..but I could do better...so much better...

come on guys..help me find a fire proof suit :P
I like fire...fire likes me...You know the relationship we have..you know I could do something really creative with it:)
Don't you see it in the stars? Dad is learning how to MIG and TIG weld....which requires an acetylene torch.....a fireproof suit coming to my attention...acetylene...suit...acetylene...suit. Coincidence? I think not....Septa auctions off their old busses for roughly $300...
Come on...is this getting more appealing? Bus..acetylene, fire proof suit...Isn't that worth the effort of helping me find a good one :P
If this guy can get one off a personal credit card, it can't be that bad...hell, even if that thing is fake, stunt men don't do too badly.
Ok, off to bed for me...its gonna be good dreams tonight :P

2002-10-30T00:47:00.000-05:00

Can I spare a couple moments of your time to whine like a little bitch?:P
It is literally in the 30's in my apartment. The asshat landlord hasn't turned on the heat yet. HOW FUCKING HARD IS THAT TO DO?
Open the damn utility closets and TURN THE FUCKING KNOB. I bet you can sue for mega dollars for getting severe frost bite in your own home.
Tommorow I am going to call and find out why it hasn't been turned on yet. If they aren't turning it on in under 48 hours, I am going over to the apartment office. If they turned the heat on there..I don't quite know what I will do, but it won't be pretty. I can *cough* get into the utility closets if i want to, but i am sort of fearful of blowing up half of new jersey. Contrary to what most of you believe, that would be a Bad Thing.

I have a couple days off, so I should post something more interesting tommorow.

For now..I leave you with two awesome links:
Magnificent Obsessions - this is an *awesome* site devoted to listing MO's. An MO is a hobby that has gotten out of hand...An MO is the fine line between psychologicaly damaged, and a hobbyist.

engrish.com - the domain name says it all...if you don't understand it before clicking it, you probably won't find it funny.
There are *so* many examples, that I ask you guys to link some of your favorites in the comments section. It will take waaaay too long to go through them all.

2002-10-24T10:30:00.000-04:00

well, that was creepy. UC is sick, and the data I need from a client got blown off until NEXT thursday,
so at the earliest, I come in monday, and do some internally related grunt work. wooo:)
BTW has anyone noticed that B is sick too? If those two weren't so "friendly" then maybe they both wouldn't be sick :P

2002-10-24T02:18:00.000-04:00

ok..UC definitely deserves some road head. Not only has he been helping me out with the whole job situation,
but more importantly he slipped me some advice on my router which has proved invaluable. For background info, I have a wireless router that I use so i can use my laptop from pretty much anywhere. It also gives me an exscuse to stow our computer desk which pretty much doesn't fit in the apartment anyway. Well I also have a nifty phone.
My phone has talking caller ID, which recognizes all the numbers I plug into it's address book, a digital answering machine, and various other geeky stuff. The problem is , it runs on the 2.4 ghz range, which is what the router runs on.
My GF's computer has no problem with this...she has an ok network card, so she can handle the phone interference when it is in use. My card on the other hand, came out of a rice krispie's box and will stutter if the cat fart's between me and the router. I thought the only solution was to increase the packet rate, and the various method's the router uses for verifying packet composition. Well, it turns out that "channels" are related some how to the strength of the frequency. Don't ask me how though..I just like the pretty colors on the innntoornet. I finally reset my router so i could get back in (I made a password even I couldn't remember) and jacked up the channel for the wifi network. It overpowered the phone's frequency with no problem at all...wooo hoo...

on a related note, the GF and I are going to spend all our time driving for the next couple of days..we should just pick a place and stay there :P
Thursday I go down to DE to goto work friday morning.
Friday morning I go to work which is past my house in NJ
Friday evening back down to DE.
Friday night head home to NJ.
Saturday morning down to DE to find some pumpkins.
Saturday night, back up to NJ to harass the animals.
Sunday afternoon back down to DE to get ready for monday.
I am thinking maybe we should hunt down a farm up here to find a good pumpkin, and at least cut out one run from NJ to DE.

I hope I find a place to live in DE eventually...I miss no taxes, and I really want to keep my license.
Everytime I head in the jersey DMV I have to head back out again. So many bitchy people who smell bad all crammed together.
*shudder*

2002-10-23T00:30:00.000-04:00

Woo hoo..I ended up working fast enough that I finally got a couple days off where I didn't have to be in the office.
This week and a portion of last week can be pretty much be summed up like this:

Boss: Do you have a status update for me?
T: I did everything you asked for, put some armor-all on your car, and traced the lineage of your family back to the 14th century...I don't think there is much more I can do until you get me the rest of the data to complete my job.

Boss: Well, We need your help with tommorow.

So, I go in the next day, spend 15 minutes working really hard on what he needs help with, and then the rest of the day spread equally between
1. praying for death
2. Finding new ways to call my self a moron for dropping out of college
3. realizing this is the most boring thing i have ever done, and that if i had to work in retail or on a phone, i would kill myself....twice.
4. going to the bathroom to count tiles and contemplate the lone piece of stall graffiti
5. going to the "bathroom" *cough*smoke*cough*

Despite my bitching, its a cool job during a bad time, and I am greatful to have it and be out of the house :P
Oh...Nov 2nd is some sort of day where the home brew association is having free classes/discussion/dinner.
Anyone interested in going? MMmmm beer...MMmmm..
I can tell you, I had some india pale ale which was home brew...my absolute favorite beer :P
The only catch is that, I will be damned if there is one anywhere remotely where I travel. I am kind of hoping one will pop up soon...
as long as its not someones house....I am not going to some freaky persons house I will be lured into nasty middle age partner swapping under the guise of free and plentiful beer. I want to goto a brewery or a supply store where I can feel secure in the fact that the only thing they want is my wallet :P
locations of beer goodness

2002-10-21T06:16:00.000-04:00

hi all!
Sorry..I keep saying I will blog and I don't. That shouldn't be much of a suprise to anyone..that seems to be my M.O. in more then just blogging.
I have been addicted to this new puzzle site called Time Hunt. It gathers up some of the worlds finest in
literature, math, crypto, music, philosophy and art, and squeezes their brains for puzzles. The theme of this site is Michael Poverus and his works with the Machina Universalis. A very Da Vinci looking which was designed to make predicitions? maybe...thats part of the mystery. This puzzle site is supossed to take a year or more to complete, but the last time i checked, the leader had made it through 83 screens in the site with 27 to go. Who knows if the time is going to jump up exponentially now.
If you complete the website or grand puzzle or whatever it is, you get what is evindentally a very expensive and beautiful reproduction of Machina Universalis built with (whats left) of Poverus' notes. If any of you take a fancy to this game, let me know. Perhaps we can pool our resources :)
Other then that, not much going on. Still working, still boring. I got a pay check, but that doesn't mean much...its like bailing a sinking boat. The situation hasn't changed, the boat is still sinking, but you are at least slowing the final outcome.

before I forget, We are going to try and get a pumpkin next week. The farm we goto always has this giant (as in hundreds of pounds) pumpkin which is the subject of a "guess the weight" contest. This year I want to bring along a tape measure to see if I can determine the volume of the pumpkin. My question for you:
Is there a standard amount of pumpkin gorp based on size? The GF pointed out that smaller pumpkins have more seeds but she was unsure about how much gorp super-pumpkins have. Does anyone have a good way to guesstimate pumpkin gorp?:P I know at least a few of you have green thumbs..someone has to know :P

Have a good week, everyone.

2002-10-15T11:51:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. I got that part time job I mentioned earlier. The problem is, what was supossed to be 80/20 telecommuting now turned out to be 10/90...in favor of working at the office...The job is fair, and the boss is fair but the work is so utterly boring that I have to stop myself from clawing my eyes out. I carpool in with UC and on more then one occassion I have been tempted to grab the wheel and run us both into a guard rail :P
Because I don't have enough $$$ I have to carpool with UC...this means that I have to be at my parents house to do it. The whole thing seems to have thrown me into a rut.
I don't really blog or play stones, I just play a little bit of Gang-Wars and goto bed. I miss my GF and my cat too :( My cat is an ass and I still miss him. hehe...We picked up some furniture from pier 1 on the weekend. We received a kitchen set as an engagement present. The chairs came in these four and a half foot high boxes with two chairs to a box. Darwin could barely contain himself. He found he could jump alot higher then he thought. He made it on top of those boxes with no effort at all. From the height of the boxes he realized that the top of the TV is about the same height too. He tried to jump up there, but there are so many knick knacks up there, that he can't find a good place to land. Its also slippery plastic so he tends to face plant. I think thats it for now...if your really lucky I might do a life sucks whiny blog tonight :P For now life is still good, and I am still expecting to win PowerBall.

2002-10-06T16:53:00.000-04:00

*cackle*

2002-10-05T15:24:00.000-04:00

B, This one is for you...Check out this flash movie about Dubya & social security. I hunted it down after seeing a news broadcast about it. I don't expect it to be around long considering its "officialy sponsored".

2002-10-05T00:28:00.000-04:00

ok..beat hazel's score...258,300 as an archivist :P
i am done until someone beats it...too much of my life has gone down the tubes :P

2002-10-03T03:33:00.000-04:00

ok..bookworm is the new thing. Everyone I know seems to be playing it, so i submit my best. My best score so far is 171,540 which is "Master Librarian". I don't think I intend on playing until someone beats it (and tells me the level they made it to)
Also shortly I will be adding Robert Sawyer's "Calculating God" to my list (I read it once, but I am rereading it). It is a good book, and there is a blog post in there somewhere about god, math and fiction which I will have to put up when I am done. I also need to remove the current book I am reading and rate it.
Btw, much thanks to UC for trying to help me stay out of a fridge box and the mcdonald's drive-thru :)
maybe I will have enough $$$ to get some of those books off the recommended area and into the reading area :P
woo:)
gonna read abit and then off to bed :)

2002-09-30T12:01:00.000-04:00

well, quick post and then I am going to bed.

I found a new geeky hobby called Robocode. In this you program tanks to fight each other using Java as the programming language. If any of you guys try this out, let me know :)
I would imagine UC, and Hazel have already glanced at it.
Kronos SHOULD play it, because he likes programming as a hobby :P

In other news, I just wanted to warn you guys I might have to stop blogging for a time. Whether for a short time, or a long time, who knows?
I can't really afford anything anymore, so this month its going to be a race as to whether my DSL gets cut off, before the landord cuts me off..from my mortal coil.
After that its just me and the cat...Me, the cat, lots of markers, and a microwave...home. Alone. All of us together. :P
I am tired. If it weren't for me hurting the GF with all this crap, I would say I don't care either way.

Take it from me, purgatory is far worse then heaven or hell.

2002-09-27T23:24:00.000-04:00

Well, I wandered out into society again tonight. Stopped at the restaurant for some drinks and some food. I find people so funny. I try to hold the door for people as much as possible, and as usual, I am reminded how people don't do that anymore. I held the door for one large group and one of the ladies in the group asked "If pickup was available". Of course I said, "Exscuse me?". She rolls her eyes at having to repeat herself and says "Do ya guys do pickup here!". After I told her that I didn't work there, she realized she wouldn't need dinner, she was about to have a big helping of foot-in-mouth. On her behalf though, when she came back outside while we were smoking and waiting to be seated, she did thank me again for holding the door. The other funny thing I noticed was the sheer volume of minors outside all sharings plots and plans on how to get in and get some booze. It was sort of staggering. We knew our waitress so we asked her if that was a problem for her. She almost fell over sideways. Evidentally before we got there they had spent a good portion of time getting rid of literally 65 minors who had taken up a whole wing of the restaurant. Ordinally this wouldn't be a problem, but all 65 were using the "we'll have water and a basket of fries" to commandere a whole wing of the restaurant to hangout.
Well, all in all a very good night. I had a tall Labatt's, a praerie fire, and a hurricane, and the GF had a hurrixane and a strawberry daquiri (which tasted gooood).
Much thanks to her for a wonderful evening :) Now I think I might go hunt down a game of intoxicated Go.

2002-09-26T15:42:00.000-04:00

I still don't have much to say recently. I did manage to pick up some more interesting links for you.
Here is a conspiracy style quiz. It might be interesting to research some of these questions independently and see if the quiz bears any truth.
Also, I found this McDonald's article.
It turns out that on average, a new mcdonalds opens up every 8 hours across the globe. This scares the poo out of me...Fortunately, the article does go on to say that McDonald's is having a tough time. They are so huge though, that actually getting rid of them is a pipe dream. I think the best that could be accomplished is forcing them to reinvent themselves to something more palatable (both literally and figuratively).
I also learned McDonald's owns Boston Market and Donato's....I knew I hated BM for a reason...and all those people who liked that stinky dumpster known as Boston Market...McDonald's Lovers!!! Nyah Nyah!

2002-09-26T04:52:00.000-04:00

ok..I have next to nothing to blog about..just a couple of links..

I found a little news blurb about the Ryoanji temple Zen garden in Kyoto, Japan. I dunno..I am probably the only one who finds this interesting:) I would love to have something like this in my backyard if I ever got a home.
I would choose raking over lawn mowing, weed pulling, and mulching any day :)

What else..oh..A paranoia link...this reminds me..After talking with B I decided to tone down some of the damn the man, and the conspiracy stuff I occasionally post about. I am getting abit of some unwanted attention, and while its probably nothing (isn't that what conspiracies and paranoia are all about? mountains out of mole hills?) I am going to be trying to avoid those topics...but the link I have for you now..this one is pretty harmless.
It turns out they found Spy Cameras in a Mariott hotel bathroom.
They weren't releasing many details but they did say the camera was rigged to turn on when the lights in the bathroom went on. They also said the camera had a nice coating of dust (which suggests it has been there awhile) and a room number taped to the side. This leads to some interesting questions...
If it was planted by an employee, why not use a wireless camera so you would never have to enter the room again? Maybe video quality is a problem on those wireless cameras? It is possible that a guest planted it...but think of how costly that would be...a room number implies more then one room. Imagine having to book 4 or 5 rooms to change out the cameras...too costly for something this sleazy. The other thing I wonder is why the hell would you even need to bother designating the room on the camera?
What? The guy doesn't want to mix up the "A" quality toilet shots of room 252 with the obviously second rate shots in room 250?
I dunno..I am not too worried..I am probably one of four people in the world who CHECK my room for those sort of things :P When I am in a motel or a hotel, I am prepared for anything short of a grenade being lobbed in the window :P When I shower, I always make sure to take my wallet into the bathroom with me so no one barges in and helps themselves. What I would love to get my hands on is one of those businessman's deadbolts..the kind that you put on in addition to the hotel's lock so that people with duplicate keys can't get in. Believe it or not, that is a common thing. Hotels are supossed to mix up their door locks every so often but they never do...so alot of times thieves will book a room, and "lose" the key. Instead of changing the locks, most of the time the hotel just makes a duplicate. This gives the thief free reign on anyone who goes in that room.

I dunno..there is your dose of the heebie jeebies for the day :P

2002-09-25T03:17:00.000-04:00

Ok..Everyone knows I missed out on the critical life skills and common sense that everyone else has. I can program an ecommerce site in record time,
or pop open anything with a lock in minutes, but certain things still escape me...Here is a Haiku explaining my day :

Man who is starving
should never eat too much rice
Oh, the pain...the pain.

remind me to add this to the list of THINGS MY PARENTS COULD HAVE TOLD ME YEARS AGO...

on another note...lookie, lookie, loookie...
MIT will be releasing a program called "Open Course Ware" on the 30th of this month. It puts all the course material for various classes onto the internet for free! Call me geeky, but I find this totally awesome. I would love to be able to brush up on weak topics as well as studying things I would normally consider outlandish or excessive. I am not sure I see the value of this project though. Society says that you are what your papers and credentials say you are regardless of if you are a drooling idiot, or the next Stephen Hawking. So, offering free education does nothing to better their community or society in general because it offers no credentials. It is just information. The stated intent from their FAQ is that this information is not the actual courses but the materials used to create and operate the course. They recommended it for individual study and for teachers from other schools to help them put together courses or enrich existing courses.
hrmm...what I said about free education not benefiting society, let me be a little more clear. If a teacher can use this to better their class, then it definitely benefits that teacher and their students. What I fail to see is how it benefits MIT. Nothing is free. Nothing is ever free. I have learned that the hard way so many times...
So my question is, what is MIT expecting to get out of this?

The second link is a new magazine called 21C Magazine. Its a bit tough to explain...a little techie, a little geeky, a little artsy fartsy...I am going to give it a whirl..I am starting to become really interested in people who are "futurist"...What a great job...Its like philosophy with a twist..I can just imagine all the philosophy professors congregating in the teacher's lounge with their Jameson, Stoli, and Captain, slurring out the words, "Futurist? Futurist? What a wank job...Next thing you know it will be basket weaving.."
The other reason I am going to keep my eye on this magazine is because they promised William Gibson and Bruce Sterling would be regular contributing writers. Bruce gets a little weird when he writes articles instead of stories...but I am sort of anxious to see what William would have to write about... woo :)

take care;)

2002-09-24T04:30:00.000-04:00

ok...I have a rant, but I am not going to be doing any linking to protect the guilty.
Tonight I accidentally found where the ghetto lives on the web...err at least I think thats what they want you to think.
The site was a blog/webcam/flash/java/what ever else is hot at the moment site. The site also had my favorite system requirement, an open mind *hurl*.
So, from this site I know they own a computer, a web cam, and a digital camera. I also know they live in a quite nice home.
So with this in mind, we will make an assumption that they have had a nice education, to be able to spend time toying around on the internet.
So why is it that they choose to type in a slang ghetto dialect? Man, even people who SPEAK that way , don't write that way. So you know damned well, they probably don't speak that way. I really, really, find it confusing and annoying. They had a tag board and a guest book, and I will be damned if I could understand more then 2 of their guests on either of them. Is this a means of identification?
I dunno...we see it everywhere...people are always modifying their writing or their words to give readers impressions that the author would want them to have.
I can't tell you how many times I have seen sites where the author is 1/48th italian, or indian, or, anything else you can imagine, and suddenly they are dropping foreign words into their writing without reason, so that you get the impression that they are more then 1/48th of whatever they are.
Now it gets even worse when you look at the people who don't even have that 1/48th as an exscuse...My sister is a good example. She has worked damned hard to label herself as "punk". She knows as much on the roots of punk as I know about basket weaving. She literally has no idea...so she makes shit up, throws in a bit of punk british slang, and bingo..all set. So she is using a dialect based on a culture she has never known in a location she has never been to. Her little group is the same way,
so it ends up that they create their own culture-soup out of things they have picked and pulled from elsewhere.
Now here is the thing...with my sister, how would you label it? Evolution? the natural process of humanity and language, or is just stupidity? Just a retard mixing and mashing because she can't do anything else. What about the people who do know what they are talking about who put effort, time, and research into their little deceptions? That couldn't be evolution..they have enough sense to be able to speak normally or dumb down their vocabulary, as needed.
So, what the hell is going on? Especially with the website I used as an example, I know damned well that they are about as tough and street wise as an ice cream man rolling through the rich kid's neighborhood. My sister too..Her life has been so cushy, that its actually come full circle on her and become tough.
Ironically enough I was about say "I dunno"...now did I just do it too? I have found I tend to use "dunno", "see ya", and probably a couple other pieces of slang because thats how I talk...I don't say "I don't know", I say "I dunno". but if that is the case, I should be typing "rum" instead of "room" because I mispronounce room all the time :P
So, its selective...but I wonder why I chose it. Laziness most likely...7 characters in "I dunno" and 12 characters in "I don't know". Even still, that can't be quite it either...otherwise I would be speaking in some psuedo-text-messaging language. using all sorts of characters to repesent words, and abbreviatings even the smallest words. for example, "Cn I go w/ u 2?". I really wish I knew why people type the way they type (including myself).
My only reasons would be ignorance, laziness, and not wanting everything to be "proper". Its one of the reasons I don't worry about the slew of spelling and grammatical errors in each post. Think of them like the marshmallows in your cereal :)
Well, sorry. I am starting to ramble..I hope you all have a good tuesday.

2002-09-23T03:56:00.000-04:00

thanks to everyone who commented on the compass thing..I agree with UC though..I think we might need to hunt down a better compass.
It almost feels like everyone was too closely grouped together.
Anyway, I have some neat links I have been hording recently, but I am too tired to do anything with them yet :P
CT was pretty cool...got some beers and some Mel's Hellish Relish at a craft fair.
I ended up getting some hot and some extra hot sauce. The funny thing is, this guy wouldn't give me the extra hot without sampling the normal hot one first.
He didn't know I am a pepper addict, which made it kind of funny. I eat things hotter then this stuff on my wheaties. It is still super tasty....It is good on just about everything...burgers, nacho dip..the works..woo:) Unfortunately for the GF, the two bottles weren't labeled...So either she is about to play a little round of fire breathing roulette (because i don't think I could detect a difference with something so light) or I got two regular hot ones.

what else, what else...
I watched resident evil about a hundred million times in an effort to apply a shock treatment for my dislike of zombies :P I think it might have worked :P
Maybe now I will associate the living dead with cheesy box office flops :P

what else...I know I did tons of crap, but I will be damned if I can remember any of it.
Sorry, Kronos brought this sick movie to my attention, and I am stuck between puking, laughing, and changing the channel...

2002-09-19T16:40:00.000-04:00

ok...trying to credit this link is going to be like a bad joke : Jahva linked to Lisa's blog, where I found this Political Compass.
Take the test and leave your results in the comments. I am curious to see how everyone turns out.

BTW, tonight I am dropping off Crabby at my parents house. I am headed to CT this weekend....I am telling this to you now so that when i forget to tell you tommorow, you won't be upset :P

2002-09-19T14:07:00.000-04:00

this article on living costs is for Kronos
From what I can tell about the states I know, its pretty accurate.

2002-09-19T13:45:00.000-04:00

if you you hate microsoft, take a quick look at this before it gets removed.
Can you say rigged? hehe..and of course there is no cache for it either.

UPDATE: Sorry, I'm a nimrod and I left the double quotes unescaped in there...*whistles innocently*

2002-09-18T14:39:00.000-04:00

Most...retarded...thing...EVER
Do Geese count as "poultry"? And even if they do...when is the word "poultry" used when talking about a bird who is not going to end up on someones plate.

2002-09-17T17:03:00.000-04:00

I found this on Keauxgeigh's blog: A Penguin CAM!!!!!!

Woo hoo...I love penguins :P My favorite was at the New England (Boston) aquarium. Thet had a giant indoor penguin enclosure with little interactive stuff to do with them.
It turns out one of the primary ways penguin hunt fish in the ocean is by tracking the reflection of the fish off the ocean bottom. In the enclosure, they had a light which projected a little fish image onto the bottom of the enclosure. The penguins would swim in giant groups to go after them. I still like to call it "remote control penguins", because they would follow wherever you pointed the fish to. I have to admit, I also tried to make the penguins crash into each other, by using the flish to split the group apart, and then teasing both groups to swim head on at each other. You have to give the penguins credit though, they would put fighter pilots to shame. Their reaction time and their ability to swim in formation is like nothing I have ever seen.

with that, Here is a couple of cams and 360 views of various things at the Boston Aquarium. The penguin enclosures are able to be viewed, but I couldn't see the "penguin remote control". Oh well, maybe if they change up the picture it will be more visible.

Also, Here is the GOT Cam (Giant Ocean Tank).
Unfortunately, I think the cam is positioned kind of badly. You miss out on the fact that the tank is named "Giant" for a reason. Its really tall and you can spiral up the side and see the various fish who live at various levels. I wish I knew where the cam was and whether it was inside the tank or outside the tank. The reason why I ask is because once or twice while i was watching the camera got buzzed by some fish. It almost looked too close to be outside the tank.

Don't forget to be patient with the GOT Cam..you might get to see a big shark :)

UPDATE: Whoops..I left out the Boston Penguin Cam. This cam is live, whereas the other penguin links are just 360 degree viewings.

Also, these cams are on 24/7 but the lights go out when the aquarium shuts down so you might not see much. Come back during business hours

2002-09-16T18:59:00.000-04:00

ooooh...I hate being jobless/poor :(
On October 1st, you can purchase a Robotic vacumn cleaner!!
The geek in me is screaming for one of these...It cleans nearly all types of flooring so you could skip out on sweeping and vacuming and do it in style at the same time :P
It uses a goofy style to clean though...It will spiral out, and occasionally do straight lines across your room to get a feel for objects and walls. It then uses its knowledge of the walls its encountered and the space is has traveled to determine if it has traveled over each piece of the floor at least once. Of course its going to miss places on occasion, but this is the best method for cleaning without having any sort of reasoning brain...
mmmm geeky...Just think, soon you will be "upgrading" your appliances as fast as you upgrade your computer..*gag*

man, I need a job:(:(

2002-09-16T05:49:00.000-04:00

Man, I am getting sick of the internet...the signal to noise ratio is blown all out of wack. You can't find what you want because you are surfing through mounds of crap.
I especially hate MSN...They have hit a new low recently. My father challenged me to beat his score in Cubis. When the game is loaded, you get spammed with an ad while it is "loading". My father has broadband too so its not like it should take much longer then 15 seconds for any sort of online game to load. This game took close to a minute to load. This lengthy "loading" time was never a problem until the ads appeared..What jerks. To make matters worse, I found that if you don't keep the window up as the active window, the game doesn't load. If you try to appease the MSN gods and click the ad in the hopes that they will cut your wait short, your out of luck. They make you sit there and watch the crap. The ads aren't even animated.its like watching an emergency broadcast test. With my poor ADD riddled brain, I was clicking wildly like a drunk monkey trying to make things move faster. I was so impatient my father had to load the game for me so I wouldn't sit there clicking like an idiot.

So, speaking of a lack of quality sites...Does anyone have any favorites that they are hording from the rest of us?
I know B doesn't...every night we have the same conversation.

B: Bored.
T: Me too.
B: I think I am gonna go get a beer.
T: Have any good sites?
B: Have you seen Penny Arcade today?
T: No. Anything else?
B: No.

EVERY NIGHT..the only difference is B's choice in drinks...you can replace the word beer with "irished", or "Stoli".
Please...I know some of you are holding out...One of us is eventually going to drop from terminal boredom or alcohol poisoning without your help.
:P Have fun today:)

2002-09-15T02:36:00.000-04:00

whoop changing things again :P
I sort of agree with Nico, I don't much like the floating text either, but I don't think I like the template alternatives either.
I think I need to get drunk, or find someone with some sort of skill at this :P.

Man, I have been getting hammered by that XP bug I tried to help out with the other day. The sad thing is, I think my retention rate 0 or worse :P I wouldn't be suprised if one or two people wandered off in that time:P

I have also been suffering terminal boredom. My accomplishment today was answering the question, "Why don't cats have bellybuttons?".
The answer in case you are curious, is that they do have belly buttons :) We knew being a mammal they had to have one, but did you ever stop to think where the hell it went? It turns out cats and dogs don't have "innies" or "outties". Their belly buttons are relatively smooth. You can find them by going down the middle of abdomen about an inch and a half below the rib cage..It should be a roughly circular, almost unnoticable divet.
teee hee...they have belly buttons!!
I know, you think I am crazy :P

2002-09-13T18:45:00.000-04:00

goofing again...I am going to do this slowly step by step:)
The image in the top left is "Jet" from Cowboy Bebop.
Since I am abit biased, let me know if it interferes with your reading (white text on the image, or just too flashy to be under the text).
If it does ok, I might look for a -really- dark image to put in the body area.

Also, if anyone can think of a more efficient (but still automated) way to handle the archives, let me know.

2002-09-13T17:43:00.000-04:00

ahh...what junk in the news today...I think Kronos' apocalypse is getting closer.
The -very- first thing I read today was about some woman supossedly reporting terrorist activity. Well, it turns out that either she fabricated the whole thing because of some sort of racial motiviation, or as it appears more likely, the men didn't like being stared at like monsters, so they decided to goof on her. The goof was that they started talking about 9/11 like they were in the know, and then making references to 9/13 and miami and how they could bring "it" down. Well, eventually they were located because they ran a tollbooth. The police detained them on the spot for over 14 hours. They were doctors (as in the island certified kind..you know..dooocctoors) in their 20's on their way to a medical conference in Miami. On top of this, they had medical equipment in their car which the dog's found suspicious, so they blew it up. The men were of Jordanian, Iranian and Pakistani descent. This really freaks me out because it might have been something I would have done in their shoes. I wouldn't have liked being the monster either Also, when they were pulled over, they refused to let their car be searched..which just caused more waiting and problems in the long run, but I would have done the same. Lastly, when they traced ownership of the cars, they found the brother of one of the detainees owned the car and resided in Chicago. -HE- was also detained and later let go...This is just psychotic. Nothing those men did was out of line...Foolish yes, to be bull baiting...but who hasn't done that? I would almost say its their right, for being goggled at. If I were in their place, I would have left the U.S. the moment I got out of custody. What a stupid police state. I know that some of you will be arguing about profiling, and I am not oppossed to profiling (despite its lack of political correctness) because we are from a government standpoint in a war, A guerrila war, but a war none the less. The reaon why I am oppossed in this given situation,
is that 1) their car had nothing dangerous in it, 2.) their backgrounds check out, 3.) their destinations checked out, 4.) their motives checked out, 5.) their relatives check out. The government has been crying wolf every time it has even gotten a hint of danger because of that huge battle over responsibility and why knowledge of 9/11 was not put to use before the incident actually occured. So now, we just get flooded with bullshit. I think over reacting to every little thing is far worse then missing an incident or too..When you look in terms of Guerilla tactics, we are doing exactly what the target should be doing. Panic and over reaction.
Let's see..what else is on the agenda of doom politics today. Lets just get the 9/11-esque stuff out of the way in one shot.
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien stated the motivation behind the 9/11 incident was the "perceived arrogance and selfishness of the United States and the West". They were careful to point out that this did not mean he thought the U.S. was responsible for the attack, it was just his observation on the motivation behind the attack. Chretien believes that since the fall of the Soviet Union, the super power checks and balance system has been destroyed. He seems to hint that gluttony and bullying will bring harm tp the west in the long run. Yet again, I have to agree with this grim outlook. Its hard not to when you look at the trends in events for the past couple of years. The part that suprised me, was that he mentioned it at all. I wonder what his intent was. Chretin is not known for caring too much about foregin policy, and this statement only seemed to agitate the right-wing Canadian Alliance party. I can't think of a single foreign tragedy that the U.S. acknowledges in mourning, yet here we have Canadians, Australians, and the British all raising American flags, and holding events to show their support. It seems so one sided to me...almost as if our size and status alone makes us more important. Not fun to think about. Maybe Chretin's timing has to do with the fact that war with Iraq is looking more and more likely. I am not quite sure what to think with the whole Iraq situation.
I would lie to see the U.S. tone down their foreign policy a notch or eight, but at the same time, Saddam is slowly dragging his country into a nuclear ready status, and I would not put revenge past him. So damned if you do, and damned if you don't. To make matters worse, there are speculations that a war with Iraq would leave to a severe economic recession the likes of which we have not encountered in many years. This would be due to the fact that the oil cartel would rally and stock pile in an effort to drive prices sky high. Once again, I am not sure I see anyone to blame but ourselves. The U.S. government allows the fuel industry to put a strangle hold on alternative energy technology (especially when concerned with transportation). I also don't think the U.S. government has supported Hybrid or green cars enough either. They seem to be fine with maintaining our dependence on a finite, dirty, and expensive fossil fuel that we have no control over. It almost makes me wish that stockpiling gas wouldn't lead me to be a nominee for the Darwin awards. The last topic on yucky news for today is that Russia and Georgia might be headed for war as well. To make a long story short, Putin says that Chechen militants are aiding and housing Al-Qaeda members. Georgia denis this, but the Russian Parliament is ready to give approval for Putin to "help" Georgia with their little "problem". The U.S. in this case is not supporting Russia. I am just worried that Dubya will take this as another opportunity to "help" and boost his ratings at the same time. All these little things at once...I just get the feeling its going to snowball into WWIII in the coming years..blech blech.

With all this crap I have left for you today, I have a happy link for you. In fact -THE- happy link. If any of you don't know, Duct Tape is my God. I use it for everything. I have even repaired holes in a rowboat with Duct Tape...I put my life in the sticky, loving embrace of Duct Tape :) Without further ado, Duct Tape Fashion. I think this might inspire me to see if I can build my own Duct Tape wallet...

2002-09-12T22:21:00.000-04:00

ok..my patience is fading on this whole template thing. I am just going to fix it enough to put some images in when I am feeling more creative...

2002-09-12T19:48:00.000-04:00

woo hoo!!! McDonalds hit a 7 year low with sluggish U.S. sales.
Could it be there are a couple of others out there who are like minded?:)

2002-09-12T02:05:00.000-04:00

ok...as you know, I don't sleep very well...and what little of my sleep schedule thats left has been shifting later and later. Currently, I tend to goto bed around 7a or 8a now and wake up around 11a to 12a. I am not one of those people who can do that, so I end up constantly tired. Well for once, I tried going to bed around 11p tonight.
The cat would have nothing to do with it. He tore a hole in the bottom of the boxspring, and began crawling *INSIDE* the bed. He absolutely loved it while I couldn't stand it. All I could hear was the creaking of the fabric, as he missed the support, the *PONGS* of the springs as he ricocheted off of them, and the rumbling as he ran back and forth, back and forth, across the large supports. I tried squirting him but it didn't work. He would just hide in the corner of the bed where I couldn't get him. My next brilliant idea was to put his harness on, and have him leashed at my side IN bed. Well, at first he thought it was a game, and kept swatting at both the leash and myself.
Next, he felt stifled, so he started trying to chew through both the leash and myself. This woke the GF up, who was like the dead before this. I had tried to wake her up when he was tearing the shower curtains earlier, but I couldn't. I was shaking her, calling her, spinning her ring, poking her...but anyway, I am getting side tracked. I pulled the cat out of his harness and threw him outside of the bedroom. From that point on, the cat would just scream while running through the apartment. He hates not having full access to everywhere. He also has learned that if he reaches under the door and pulls it from underneath, that he can make it slam on the door frame at a very rapid (and very noisy) rate.
So...here we are...I'm up (for the millionth time)...I have a fresh bottle of water. I am going to be the bane of his existence until he hates me and just doesn't want to be in the same room. I am so tired of his crap. Tommorow is going to be bathing extravaganza for Darwin. I hope he has his swim cap, and a good pet psychologist.
I swear..I think he is making me delusional from lack of sleep. I wish I wasn't so paranoid:( I wake up at every little thing, while my GF won't wake up for -anything- but the alarm clock. If I could sleep through his crap, and just deal with the damage in the morning I would be ok. For some reason, I can't sleep while he is destroying something...just the thought that he is doing it keeps me awake.

Well, if anyone can think of any good booby traps to keep him away from the sugar glider at night, I will be your eternal slave. I have racked my brains, and I can't come up with anything that is safe for the apartment and effective. Cans and tape don't work. The only things I can think of that would work would be electricity and water. Unfortunately any home built invisible fence like contraption is probably out. I don't want to kill the cat or set the house on fire. This kind of limits any sort of trap that can be built...I dunno..I am just sort of rambling now..sorry.

2002-09-11T13:01:00.000-04:00

well, I was hoping to have something more fun to blog about, but this one kind of take priority.
There is a bug (which has been around awhile) in Microshaft's Windows XP that alot of you need to fix now.
The bug has been around for awhile and supossedly fixed in SP1, but you might want to test it out now.
The bug is in the helpcenter, and it allows a URL that is run to wipe select pieces (or all) of your hard drive.

To test your self:
1) Create a folder named "test" in the root of your HD. (c:\test\)
2) copy or create some files in the folder that you won't mind losing.
3) Click here

If this does affect you...you have a couple of options..:
1. Delete or Rename the file: "C:\WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\System\DFS\uplddrvinfo.htm"

2. Find and Remove the following code from "uplddrvinfo.htm"

var oFSO = new ActiveXObject ( "Scripting.FileSystemObject" );
try
{
oFSO.DeleteFile( sFile );
}

If this affects you and you still have trouble or don't quite understand, drop me a line and I will assist.
Perhaps later today I can blog about something cooler.

2002-09-10T18:57:00.000-04:00

I hate the phrase "open minded". We see it everywhere and it is such total bullshit.
I have been seeing it on websites...for example:

Site Requirements: //IE 5+//1024 x 768 Resolution//An Open Mind//

awww...isn't that cute and clever ? *gag*
and might I remind you, I find these things not on the websites of political refugees, or extremist of some sort, I find them on boring web sites.
When I see this crap, I know I am probably in for a sleeper.

Here is another good example...A Gay Day event going on at Disney World. It says in the article that if you are not Gay, but would like to attend anyway, to wear a shirt saying "Straight but not Narrow" (as in minded). This is just as good as saying "open minded", so my gag reflex instantly kicked in.

The World Church of The Creator says that their members are open minded, and I am not even going to get into all the anti racist, anti sexist, anti-X sites that think they are open minded. So, here we have two opposing forces who both think they are open minded.

Its time for a news flash....Open mindedness and stupidity share the same burden...No one admits they are stupid, and no admits to being close minded. The funny thing is, the majority of the population is afflicted with both!

In fact, as far as being open minded, there are literally only a few on this planet that I can think of who could rightfully claim to being so. Humans are built to quantify, and group, and seperate. Stereotypes, cliches, and labeling come naturally to us. I don't care who you are, you do it. You can't help it, its in your nature. I can already hear the gasps already, as people are saying "but surely not me!".
Think about it. Really think about it. Unless you are free of all hate and anger, you are not even close to being open minded.
I am not saying you shouldn't try to fight whatever shortcomings you have, because that is the mark of a good person.
I am just saying that if closed mindedness was a mold...then that would make you the stale bread :P

Just in case there are a couple of you shaking your heads, lets look at it from one more point of view.
Do you have faith in something? God perhaps? Ok, now lets define "faith" and "open minded".

According to Merriam Webster:

Open Minded is defined as "receptive to arguments or ideas".

Faith is a little broader, and I am going to include the entire definition to make sure we don't miss something.
Faith is defined as:
1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTY b (1) : fidelity to one's promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs
synonym see BELIEF
- in faith : without doubt or question : VERILY

The parts that concern me are the "firm belief in something for which there is no proof", and "without doubt or question".
These two aspects of faith are most common in the religious sense.

Now, to clarify further before we start proving things. This whole time, when I spoke of open mindedness, I spoke of being open minded in all areas of life and society.
I hate the irony of two groups clubbing each other over the head because they are open minded and the opposing group is close minded.
So in this case, we are going to use the specific topic of religion to keep things simple. For this example, when I speak of being open minded, it is solely in the religious context.

So, If you have faith in the Church of Widgets, faith is belief "without doubt or question" it is not possible to be "receptive to arguments or ideas". Because if you are receptive to ideas against the Church of Widgets, it:

1) display doubt and question, which is a lack of faith
2) If the argument is successful, will put you against the Church of Widgets, which again is a loss of Faith in the church.

Now..I can feel people shaking their heads again...Just because you listen to an argument doesn't mean you are receptive to it. If you aren't open to the possibility of being wrong, then you aren't in an argument, you are in a lecture.

As for faith in terms of a "firm belief in something which there is no proof". If you believe something to be true, but you can't prove it, a wish and a fart could disprove that belief (assuming that the wish and the fart were both factual:P). The only way to maintain your belief is to shut out any factual evidence against your belief because you have no factual base to defend with. For example, if we were to feed Kronos Cynanide and we observed his body afterwards:
Someone might believe he is alive, but how do you maintain that belief when you are confronted with the fact that cynanide is lethal to humans, Kronos has no pulse, No eye dialation and no brain activity. If you want to maintain your belief that he is alive, you have to make your self unreceptive to those facts, or at least unreceptive to the fact that those combined states are associated with death.

So, with this in mind, it is easy to see the difficulty in being open minded in all areas of ones life, and why I get irritated at how people sling the word around so casually.
The best I can say is try to lead a good life by your own standards, and stop trying to convince others your right. At the very least, if you have one of those open minded disclaimers on your site change it to a requirement that they not argue with the values you hold to be true.

2002-09-10T14:29:00.000-04:00

Ok, this has to be the most morbid, yet refreshing information I have heard in awhile. I love it when those rare individuals will just give you the real deal, whether its good or bad. Keep an eye out for the "bad idea" list too..for some reason my list would end up being much more painful :P

2002-09-10T04:57:00.000-04:00

Ok real quick about the books...
My thoughts on formatting it were like this...I like alot of the books you guys like, but I know we don't all like the same books...
for example, B and I both read neal stephenson books, but I read Harry Potter, and he reads that alternatative historical fiction stuff.
I know for a fact B would probably enjoy a Calculus text book just slightly more. So this way, if he sees a book that sounds interesting to him, and I have rated it highly, he knows that it might be a good match for him.
I figured by explaining it in my words, and rating it, that you could pick out the books I read that interest you, and you could avoid the stuff you don't like.
The problem with Kronos' Book list is that I have no idea what he liked or disliked or what the book was about.
If I had that knowledge, I could probably determine if I wanted to read it.
So, if any of you can think of a format you prefer, without sacrificing functionality, I will gladly change it.
If the thing is totally useless, let me know too..I will just remove it ;P

If not, the one thing I would want to add is a "recommended/need to read" list like Kronos.
I have already had a couple recommendations, and it let people see what is on deck, and also insure I don't forget.

2002-09-07T14:40:00.000-04:00

Ok, I added a book list too....I read a heaping shitload, so for now, I am just going to go back a month or two and add books. I might also add the really good ones I know of. Also, I might not be too fast..Sometimes I read alot of Go books or computer books back to back. The niche for those are too small for anyone to care about their quality or what they are about. Believe me, I just finished two Crystal Reports books (err not the books..just my attempts at reading them) and even _I_ kept falling asleep.

2002-09-06T23:47:00.000-04:00

ok...check out this archery game.
I spent far longer then I will care to admit trying to get on the scoreboard.
If you do play, look on the golden arrow scoreboard:)

2002-09-06T17:16:00.000-04:00

man..I am really chatty today..I must be getting low/delirious :P

I just thought you would find this amusing...The blog got a visit from an online Auto insurance company Progressive.com with a referral from Google for beating a redlight ticket from our discussion of redlight cameras.
Man, wouldn't you just love to know what that was about? Is it someone trying to keep tabs with the comings and goings of the auto underworld?
Is it a claims agent trying to disprove a claim? Is it just someone trying to get out of a ticket they got and just happened to work for Progressive?
Way too funny :P Whats next? a hit from gates.microsoft.com looking for "newest linux distro"...rofl..god just putting those words in there, I have probably doomed myself :P

2002-09-06T16:59:00.000-04:00

check it out! A glider that works by using the drafts created by your body in movement!
I dunno how well it works though. I might have to goto the toy store and pick one up for experimentation.
This thing is called a Walkalong Glider.

2002-09-06T14:42:00.000-04:00

finally finished the "100 things". Thanks again to Nicolette for the super idea :)
I am also going to try to do a book section some time this evening too :)
Its over on the left under "stuff".

2002-09-06T01:05:00.000-04:00

I went with my GF today to goto a meeting at a computer training site. This place charges you about a 1/2 of your soul, and you get all the certifications known to man.
I thought it might be nice, as I would not have to solely rely on programming to get buy. It would also broaden and compliment my existing knowledge nicely. This place is about 40 minutes away, and before we had even gone 10 minutes, I had already lost the directions out the window on the highway :P The funny thing is that my GF almost stopped to make me pick it up. That would have been a world of hurt. We managed to get there without a problem, and we promised them that if we attended classes, they could sell our children into slavery to pay for the courses. After that we stopped at the diner had a quick bite and headed home. The funny part is after we get home,
someone is -pounding- and screaming at our door. I ignored it because I thought it was one of our neighbor's friends who was drunk and trying to get into the wrong apartment. Well, it didn't stop so I goto the door to check it out, and this old guy with a cut on his nose starts screaming at me to get the hell out of his house..hehe..
So I am standing in the door way blocking his way, and this old guy is trying to bust his way in by hitting, pushing, and pulling on me.I didn't move, and I am sitting here trying to explain to this poor guy that no, he doesn't live here...and trying to get it out of him where exactly he did live so I could get him back.
The problem is he would do that old people mumbling until he got really pissed off at me, and only then could I understand him. He kept pointing at my apartment and saying he lived at "163" . My apartment says 168 in nice big six inch numbers on the door. We were both standing inches away from them too.
So I pointed him out to 163, and called the cops because 1) I don't recognize him, and 2) I highly doubt he knew which country he was in let alone where he lived.
Hopefully he is resting comfortably now in his house, watching T.V. Also, a big Fuck You to his family who neglected to take care of him.
I tried to help him, but all he wanted to do was get inside my apartment, and he wasn't coherent enough to hold a thought for more then about 2.5 seconds:(
I dunno..I feel sort of bad that maybe I should have followed him while the cops came.

2002-08-31T20:58:00.000-04:00

ok..this one is for Jahva and Nicolette .
Btw, I curse you both for deciding to discuss this. I had to wade through way too many science and trivia sites to finally figure out who had no idea what is going on.

The quick answer is, the hemisphere you live on has nothing to do with how your toilet flushes. This myth was started because of something called the "Coriolis effect".
The Coriolis effect is the force of the earth's rotation. This force occurs from one rotation of the earth per day and that force is distributed over an insane distance.
This force determines which way air spins in low pressure centers and hurricanes. When it comes to a drain or a toilet, the water moves too fast and there just isn't enough of it for it to be influenced by the Coriolis force.
Here are a couple of links for you if you still feel unsatisfied by that explanation :P

Toilet Museum FAQ (this one has some links to further research this topic as well)
Mercury News article

2002-08-31T17:26:00.000-04:00

ok..since martha has come up abit..Here is the link Nicolette mentioned about the fence/running over incident.
In a nut shell, she thought the gardener put the fence up, and she flipped out on them, and then thinking he was going to leave the scene, she crushed him between a cemented in driveway security pad, and her suburban. The mirror broke before she could crush him (from the gardener's point of view, it sounds like there was intent to crush him completely). Evidentally, no charges were filed, but they said it had nothing to do with her being a celebrity...riiiiight.
What I am really curious about is if she went off on her neighbors for putting the fence up. I also want to know why she didn't like the fence. Maybe the put it on her property or something. I dunno..there has to be a reason for it...no one flies off the hook like that without a good reason. Even if you are crazy, it takes more then what is apparent in this transcript to make you lose it. Sadly, we will probably never know.

2002-08-29T15:36:00.000-04:00

a bunch of silliness for you today...

MIT won a $50 million dollar defense contract by stealing *cough* prototype designs from a comic book called Radix. The story is located Here. Evidentally, they boosted a couple images, slapped them together digitally, and *poof* there is their prototype.
A guy said he had his daughter draw up designs based on his specs but its pretty obvious it was boosted. Especially when you compare the Radix comic book's description to the description of what MIT is proposing...BWHHAHAHAHAHAHA...and of course, MIT is denying stealing anything.
what a fucking riot..

Here is another one for you...This link is to a news story about a park closing because 2 squirrels and a cat were found to have the bubonic plague. Thats right, the black death. Mmmmmmmm....Kronos could use this for his apocalypse theories...Ring around the rosies, pockets full of posies....

This next one is about Martha Stewart...
I need some help with this one because she seems to have lost me somewhere along the way. The first memo states that they are getting rid of the company christmas dinner (keep in mind this is last year's dinner), and instead having their employees host many small dinners at their homes. They will be given $300 to fund these little get togethers.
Evidentally, so few people responded that Martha had to send out a little admonishment. Some of the reasons stated for lack of enthusiasm was 300 was too little, Too preoccupied, not interested in hosting random coworkers, embarassed at the state of their homes, etc.
Then we have this wild jump...Forgetting the exscuses that Martha listed above she comes out with the below quote...
The terrorist have won if we don't our poorly planned christmas dinner? BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
There is a supreme battle strategy...I wonder if it was Sun Tzu who said "Deprive your enemy of christmas dinner and victory is guaranteed!".

This is a very, very special year, not just for MSO but for every company and person affected by the events of September 11. To me the terrorists have certainly succeeded if so few of you participate in a company-wide effort to "get together," to not splurge, to treat friends like family, to be generous not fancy and to make an effort to be with people that otherwise we would never have the time to get to know. Please look at this as a special time to spend with special people, your colleagues.

2002-08-27T03:09:00.000-04:00

ok..you guys are going to love this...
Take this as a bit of fun news and as a warning...
My GF and I are big Harry Potter fans. While we were out today we ran across some "every flavor" beans at the store and we had to try them.
For those of you who don't know, Every Flavor beans make an appearance in the books and movies. They are literally supossed to be every flavor.
well my GF and I looked at the flavor listings and we couldn't believe it..so we quickly purchased a bag and ran outside to see if the packaging was true.
The flavors on the packaging were :
Banana
Black Pepper
Bluberry
Booger
Bubble Gum
Cherry
Cinnamon
Dirt
Ear Wax
Grape Jelly
Grass
Geen Apple
Lemon Drop
Toasted Marshmallow
Buttered Popcorn
Sardine
Spinach
Tutti-Frutti
Vomit
Watermelon

We were primarily interested in the bad flavors. Even though we didn't believe they tasted like that, we still didn't want to try them.
We eventually decided on an "intermediate" bad flavor of black pepper. We both popped in a black pepper bean on the count of three, and damned if it wasn't true...I was expecting a black licorice bean called black pepper...but it was honest to god black pepper. My GF next tried a "dirt" flavored one...she had a funny face when she ate it. She said it tasted like potting soil, but she still managed to get it down. So..because she tried a bad one, the next one was my turn. I decided to try Sardine because I refused to believe that they would go that far..needless to say, that was one of the foulest things i have eaten in awhile. I couldn't even keep it down. Sardine bean ended up all over her door and the parking lot :P I have never had a sardine before, but this thing was filled with fishy, salty, and a good bit of nastiness....so foul...I next tried an ear wax bean....that one wasn't too bad..I am going to have to try MY earwax now to compare :P
My GF tried a vomit bean..her face screwed up abit, but i don't think the bean was ejected anywhere. She said it tastes how you would imagine it would taste based on the smell..but the moment you get to the revolting part, instead of tasting that, it goes sweet instead.
We haven't tried the rest, but we got the big ones out of the way pretty much. The best part was coming home, I sat down to do some reading and I hear this screaming "EWWWW" from the bathroom, and the sound of fragmented Sardine bean flying all over the place. That sound of disgust can't be mistaken :P
I think I will like the grass beans...hehe...The best part is, more flavors will be coming out...We are taking bets on whether the "roast beef dinner" bean will be in the next one. Personally, I want a pizza bean, a beer bean, a rootbeer bean...so many choices..hehe

I dunno..overally , despite it being a mostly disgusting experience, I was pleasantly suprised :)

2002-08-24T18:48:00.000-04:00

man...when boredom hits...it hits hard.

I was watching the terminator, and had a slight epiphany...
A person can have an unwaivering belief in himself or an event (like the apocalypse) and be called a nut.
A person can have an unwaivering belief in a higher being and be called faithful.

they are the same thing...both unprovable, and not talked about with any sort of logic, yet one of these will land you in the funny farm, and the other will gain you the respect of society. I find that sort of creepy.

Also...
I was so bored I made a song...using the Merriam Webster pronunciation examples found with words...
I had to take certain liberties with the song, given the restraints. For example, Merriam Webster will tell you how to pronounce "fuck" but you won't find a pronunciation for "is" in there. If you are thinking it's too common a word, I found the pronunciation for "I" in there without any problem...
I didn't finish it all..I might save it for later, I might not.

So, if you are in the mood to see just how deep bordeom can run,
I give to you Merriam Webster's tribute to the Nine Inch Nail's song "Closer".

2002-08-24T15:53:00.000-04:00

hehe...A hilarious thing just happened which shows where humanity is headed. My girlfriend (fiancée?) went to WaWa just now and purchased :
2 sandwhiches
1 package of doughnuts
2 blue pepsi's
Total: $15.14

My GF hands him $20.15 ...you see where we are headed? The intent is to receive less change.

Change received: 3, $5 bills.

Stupidity Tax, maybe?

So lunch and breakfast tommorow is courtesy of WaWa..woo:)
I just find it boggling...its not like she was playing the shell game or find the queen with him.
she owes $15+ so they give her $15+..
I think the last time I got free money, I found $5 in a parking lot. I was like 10 yrs. old though :P

2002-08-23T02:43:00.000-04:00

bah!
I fucking hate Go :P
AGHHH
The harder you try to improve, and the more you want it, the less likely you are to get any improvement.
my anger is getting to me again :P Its like my parents house all over again:P I am going to be an expert with wall plaster and wood putty at this rate. Maybe this is life's way of saying I should change careers ;P

On a side note...I was flipping between two crappy movies (did I mention I like shitty movies?:P) and I had a retarded question for you...

Would you rather be Conan the barbarian or Sid 6.7 from virtuosity?

Conan is the greatest warrior in the lands, who is destined for legend, and his own kingdom. He earned everything the hard way through skill. Conan was Sumerian to give you reference to when he lived.

Sid 6.7 is a virtual construct. His personality is an AI which has been raised by all the nastiest murders and despots in the world to form his personality.
His body is made from silicon and he can heal wounds by absorbing other sand based objects like glass. He also has strength and speed somewhat above average compared to a normal human. Sid 6.7 existed in the early 90's.

So what would it be? Virtual immortality (sorry..I couldn't resist the pun) and rampant killing in modern times?
Or ruling by the sword and your wits in Sumerian time?

I think I would choose Conan...A barbaric time appeals to me...also, the predestined aspect of Sid 6.7 is abit disturbing.

2002-08-19T04:04:00.000-04:00

sorry everyone :) I forgot to tell you guys I was headed to my girlfriend's family reunion ( in CT) from thursday to sunday :)
It was an interesting thing...so many bad drivers both ways...i was devising my fantasy EMP, and ball bearing guns the whole way up.
The reunion itself was sort of weird too..You have to understand I am not much of a people person....but I really tried hard...
I walked into a group of about 50+ irish people and tried to introduce myself to everyone...the funny thing was I would walk up to them, shake their hand and tell them who i was....90% of the time they said "oh" and walked off....this might be the last time I don't just go sit off to the side :P
The good part was that this was the first reunion I have been to which had a keg :P The bad part was it was an outdoor event in well over 90 degree humid weather.
Alcohol+heat+sunlight+diabetic = world of hurt :P Thankfully, I didn't pass out :P I downed enough beer and nachos to keep the carbs up :P
I always need something to keep the blood sugar up. Sugars get processed quickly, so they affect blood sugar quickly, and leave quickly. Carbohydrates take a long time to process, but they sit in the system a long time too..The helpful thing I found that no one told me is this :
If you have a low blood sugar, the only thing that is going to help you is sugar..ideally, follow it up with a couple of carbs, and you will be golden.
But...if you know when you usually get low, and you go to eat something before its too late, all it takes is carbs and you won't get low.
I know your not seeing much of a difference here...but to me its pretty big :P With the first method, after you eat the sugar you can't go hog wild on the carbs...or you will end up high...but just having a few carbs is like preventing the inevitable. It means your going to get low twice that day. If you have the opportunity to eat more carbs and no sugar, its the same volume of food usually, but it lasts a whole lot longer so you don't have to eat later. so at the reunion, I knew I was going to get low, I knew the heat was helping, so I just went to town on the beer, water and nachos :P The amazing part was I didn't burn, and I think I am still a 10 on the pasty factor the whole thing still sort of sucked though.
It was sort of shitty for my girlfriend too. It was her birthday, and it got crapped on alot because of the reunion. When we got there, both sides of her family were swapping news, and of course they looked to her for a "status update". In that family, that means "are you pregnant or married?"....with a family that size it happens more then you could possibly imagine. So her mother pipes up for her that "She is young, and has a couple years left". This wouldn't make my job any easier later.
You see, for her birthday, I had planned to propose to her....I was totally fine with it until her mother piped up...at that point I was standing in a stranger's kitchen jumping back and forth between "well shit, I didn't even get her a present" and "please God, don't let me kiss linoleum". Before this whole thing, I knew proposing wouldn't be a problem. I always thought I knew what her parents would say/do.....This threw a giant monkey wrench into the whole thing...Now i was wondering if I was risking life and Limb. I spent the rest of the day pondering my actions. I eventually decided to go through with it anyway...I had planned this whole suave thing that is too sappy for me to ever repeat to another living soul for as long as I live. The problem is anytime I try to do anything that would necessitate the use of the word suave, and this event some how involves my girlfriend, it gets foiled. It never fails, and this was no exception...She seemed to like the manner in which I proposed despite the loss of smothness...god knows why though :P She did accept, and I was just about to retire to an easy night's sleep when she blurts out the one thing I hadn't thought of..."When should we tell my parents? Should we just let them sleep until tommorow?" AAAAAHHH SHIIIMMMMAAATTTAAA....her parents...the reason why I freaked out in the first place. I opted to tell them in the morning...it would give me more time to think...I also sort of hoped that maybe she would handle that part for me if I just sat there and did nothing....WRRROOONNGG. I *begged* her to let me go get the doughnuts (in NJ, if possible) while she told them....She didn't let me though:)
I was fully amped on fight or flight mode when we all ended up in the same room. When her mother burst in to tears I crapped a perfect sphere and thought "Oh shit! Plan back fired! Must run before I find out whether they are armed". It turned out they were tears of joy..but it still took me about 15 minutes and 15 cigs before I realized I wasn't going to die. It all worked out...the girlfriend accepted, the parents didn't kill me..its all good.
My parents will be a piece of cake...
The ring is nice too:) Its been in my family for well over 100 years. Considering my grandmother is nearly 100, and that ring makes her seem young, I just figured its easier to err on the side of caution. Its been passed down to the wives of firstborn sons for nearly its entire existence. The funny thing is, there are a couple of instances usually involving a financial emergency. Everyone who had the ring remained married, everyone who didn't ended up with a divorce. Creepy isn't it?
Its a 3ct. diamond set into a platinum ring. I will take some pictures if anyone is curious, if not, thats ok too :P Very nearly flawless (if not so...I didn't care enough to get into that many details:P...it was already pretty fantastic looking..anything else is just details.) I just liked hearing all the women swear alot. These were people who would say "gosh or darn" if they cut off your thumb.....but when they saw the ring... whoops...out comes "hoooolly shit". I love that :P
So anyway, got some beer, got some food, my rank in Go went up, and I got a fiancée...not a bad weekend :)

2002-08-14T10:55:00.000-04:00

rofl...here is your creepy story for the day..As usual lets get the background info needed out of the way. I live in a nice apartment, but the fact is corners have been cut. Evidentally the carpenter broke his level the day he made my apartment, because none of the doors are level. The outside door is so bad, that combined with the weather, it has a huge crack. The bedroom door is what we need to discuss though. Because it's so off kilter from the frame, it drags along the carpet, meaning you have to put alot of force behind it to get it to move at all. When you do get it open, the noise of parting carpet makes this loud static sounding *WHOOOSH* noise.

Ok..so after last night's (morning's?) blog post i was poking around abit before I went to bed and I came across the below story on The Weird Wide Web. After the story I will have one of my own..

-- Begin Copy 8 Paste --

Michael

When I was ten years old I had a friend who lived across the street from me, her name was Angie.

Angie and I had been friends for a few years when she and her family went to California to attend a funeral of her cousin's who I think was six years old, he had died in an apartment fire. At the time I never had heard of this cousin who I later found out was named Michael, but Angie had told me that his family and hers were very close, and used to spend there summers together befor the family moved to Cal- ifornia. After Angie and her family came home after the funeral, Michael's family had also decided to move to Indiana, I'm not sure why. Shortly after Michael's family moved to Indiana I was no longer allowed to spend the night at Angie's house, and neither I nor her knew why, but she was allowed to spend the night with me.

One night I remember Angie asking me over and my mom telling me no, and after crying want- ing to why I could not stay there any more, my mom had told me that Angie's parents were not having company over due to some family problems.

My mom refused to go into any details, but said that the problem was being taken care of. About a month later I was fin- ally allowed back to Angie's house for the night. Angie told me that night that they had had a psychic in the house because they believed that Michael was for some reason haunting the house.
Angie said that her mom was up all hours of the night swearing that she saw him, Angie said several times she herself would wake up and think she saw something standing in her bedroom doorway, once her rocking chair was rock- ing, and there were several other things she had told me but I don't recall them. I did take any of this seriously, I was ten years old and had always been told there was no such things as ghosts. I had always thought her family was kind of weird anyway. I cont- inued to spend the night every weekend and nothing was ever metioned.
Until one night Angie, her two small sisters and I were upstairs in Angie's room playing Duke's of Hazard. It was a Saturday night and it was pretty late.
Angie's mom and dad and some friends were down in the kitchen playing cards. We had decided to go downstairs and get something to drink and get snacks.

Outside of Angie's room was a small hallway then the stairs to go down. These were the type of stairs that had a first set then a landing and continue on with more stairs, where the landing was there was a light bulb that hung over it to see where your going. As we went out in the hallway and were about to go down the stairs, before we even took one step down all of us saw a perfect shadow standing upright, it walked up the first set of stairs and disappered in the landing, it is so hard to explain to someone else what it looked like, but it was just like looking at a person, and it was shorter person than I walking up the stairs only it was a perfectly formed shadow. We were stunned for a few seconds, then we all took off crying and running down the stairs.

Angie's mom and dad tried to play it off as "you know how kid's are" because there friends were there. I went home that night, and I don't remember if I told my mom what had happened, but I never spent the night with Angie again, she would call my mom and ask her to let me spend the night, but I refused to go back. I feel really bad now, because me and Angie were never really friends after that, and I wish I had of remained friends but I was too scared. Shortly after that Angie and her family moved to California and I never really heard much from her.

Years later I was telling my mom about what had happened and I remember saying that she probably would not belive me. Mom told me that day, that during the time when I was not all- owed to spend the night with Angie and I did not know why was because they had a psychic who came into there house with Michael's parents and told them what they needed to do to keep his ghost out of there house, such as getting rid of all his belongings, he had toys and clothes that were there from summers he had spent with them, they had to get rid of a wind chime that was made out of whale bone, a pair of black goldfish, and several other items.

I had also found out that shortly after Michael's funeral Angie's dad had fallen down both flights of stairs and broke a wrist and an ankle. He told his family and friend's that he slipped on a piece of paper, he told my mom in confidence that someone had pushed him. There house was never occupied after they moved, so I don't know anything after that. But I am 25 years old now and I can still see that shadow walking up the stairs just like it was yesterday.
--End copy and paste--

Ok, so the cat was in my lap asleep while i was reading this story. When I finished I heard this big noise come from the hallway. The noise was loud enough to wake up the cat and he took a peek to see if anyone was getting out of the bathroom or bedroom. By this point I was pissed. My GF was asleep, the cat was with me, which meant some sort rat was loose in the house and I would have to get it out the house before the cat found it. So I shutdown my computer, and head to check the closet...nope no rat. I move to the bathroom and check that, but there is nothing there either. Finally I go to check the bedroom..and the door is open. The door is never open or the cat will wander between the asleep person and the awake person and continue to wake the asleep person up. Now, the bedroom door had been closed hours, and like I said, It takes some elbow grease to get it open. So its not really a possibility that it "swung" open. I also am not saying the thing was wide open..it was just open so there was an inch gap between the door and the doorframe. So i guess the opening door was what I had attributed to rodents. Also, keep in mind, ghosts rank right up there with a one true god...which is to say, I'm not holding my breath. I just thought it was a very tasteful coincidence to have this incident occur after reading a ghost story.

2002-08-14T03:40:00.000-04:00

I found This article over at Wired and figured you guys would appreciate it. Its a freakish Gibsonian tale of artifical vision for the blind.
This doctor sends his patients to portugal to have two holes put in their skull, and roughly 100 electrodes a pop into those skull holes. Residing on the top of brain is a surface implant to control your sight. Of course, this whole thing is in its infancy, and it costs his patients $115k to do it (I don't think the doctor profits from it at all)
..but they can see again..Oh, and massive seizures when you fuck up calibrating the machine :P Evidentally a surface implant requires alot of juice to stimulate the appropriate parts of the brain, so a little too much and you go beyond hallucinations right into seizure fun land.
What do you guys think of this? I think its pretty cool. If this became common place, you would do something like this as elective surgery?
They were saying if this guy wanted to to, he could have thermal vision, night vision, etc. I think that rocks :P
I am all up Gibson mods. I would gladly jack into a deck that wasn't built by Bill Gates :P Poke a hole in my brain, and plug it into the wall socket, baby :P
The real simple one i want...was that from that cyborg professor guy, who added an implant into his arm to control his computer mouse using home brew drivers.
That would rock too...I would do that now if it weren't so @#(*@#(* hard (and probably expensive) to do.
i am sure you have to have a crazy doctor and bribe him out the ass...and on top of that...he probably has to be kick ass , to get the surgery and medication done right so your body doesn't reject the implant...or your arm or something.

man...I think if i was only born a couple of decades later it might be a possibility...but with that in mind, If Kronos has his way, everyone will be radioactive soup by then.

2002-08-12T23:45:00.000-04:00

more on the beyotch....

evidentally on sunday she was calling my father an asshole, and messing stuff up and telling my father he couldn't do a damn thing about it because she was leaving....my father said "then get the hell out" and pushed her out the door because she refused to leave. Well, she was pissed my father got the last word so she called the cops on him. He was read his miranda rights, which he waived....that saved him from going to jail. After the officer got to look around, and heard the story, he realized that my father doesn't abuse anyone, and that it could hurt many more things then it could help. He was accused of "offensive touching"...rofl
Evidentally he and my sister "had a talk" and my father feels she is "genuinely sorry". What a load of fucking bullshit. Everyone but them knows she isn't sorry.
Even worse then this, My father has a 72 hr. restraining order on him, and within hours volunteering to pick her up from one of her various orgie^H^H^H^H^Hconcerts for my mother, and he let her back in the house. I told him flat out he is being stupid, and shouldn't goto jail on her behalf, but I think he might need it to open his eyes.
My father is pretty depressed...he pretty much slept most of sunday because he is just floored. He finds the thought of being responsible for someone, but having no way to enforce their actions depressing. Like he is going to take it up the ass either way.
Basically, I am fed up at her treating everyone I know like shit. I told my parents I would be back down on weds. and if she is not gone, I am burning whats left of her stuff, and giving her a better reason to call the police. Here is what bothers me...To use an alcoholic term, both my parents are enablers. They wonder why this shit doesn't stop, but they are the reason. Now my question for all of you, is this :
How far is too far from my point of view? Do I let my sister get away with all this shit, and let my parents suffering continue or do I go against my parents wishes and ensure my sister stops this for good?

I have such a long way to go in the personal development dept:P
I like helping good people.I enjoy helping people who try do the right thing and get crapped on anyway....but unfortunately, I also like punishing the bad. Even worse, I know this makes me no better then they are...and I see it as a necessary evil. I know Its not a good thing to do but I like it...which is usually the catalyst for a whopping migraine as dueling lunatics is played out in my head. I still have trouble coming to grips with karma, and I still have a warped sense of justice...People are always spouting off shit about "who are you to judge?"....Everyone gets off on judging others....If it comes down to me or someone else doing it, of course I would prefer myself.

Well, we'll just chalk this up as being one step closer to homicidal maniac. Send in your hit lists early....when I do snap, I will be processing those lists on a first come, first served basis.

2002-08-08T16:43:00.000-04:00

wooo...found it here is the link and the post was pasted below.
Evidentally it looks like the same company does it for a couple different businesses. They would have wanted me to goto horsham, PA to pick up my prize...which has conditions too...there is just too much of this knotted crap to post...you can imagine where its headed :P

This is the Silverleaf Resorts. They are a timeshare. If you call the number the party you ask for won't be available but they want to get you to commit to coming down for their presentation with a guaranteed trip to either Las Vegas or Orlando, just for coming down! What they don't tell you is that you have to pay for it in the long run! Don't waste your time! They are hard-sellers as well. They had 4 people try and talk us into it before they gave up!

These jerks have been calling my house for over a month and each time I've either hung up on them or deleted their messages without a second thought. Now, however, they've just plain gotten on my very last nerve. (Bad idea to cross a menopausal woman!) Today, I decided to give the chick that called a bit of her own medicine and kept telling her not to give me any number to call, because I wouldn't even write it down. This got her going of course, trying extra hard to make me buy her scam. After about 5 full minutes of me refusing to write the number down and not hanging up on her either, she got so frustrated with me she actually went as far as shouting through the phone to get her "urgent" point across. I just calmly kept repeating "I'm not going to write down the number". (She was wanting me to read it back to her to make sure I had written it down.) I was almost in tears from laughing inside hysterically, but I finally won the battle. The poor girl couldn't take it anymore and hung up the phone on ME!! What a way to have to make a living. Funny thing is, I immediately logged on to my PC to this site and look at what I discovered........?! They must be the stupid ones to think we are that "STEWPID". I'd hate to be that Lowrey guy's neighbor almost (but not quite) as bad as I'd enjoy living next to the atheist that thinks the Pledge of Allegiance is "unconstitutional". Hey Tex, guess he won't be joining us at those pearly gates either, huh? What a shame, would've liked to meet him (NOT!)
I'm contacting the BBB right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

2002-08-08T16:09:00.000-04:00

oh...I almost forgot to tell you guys...I had some dude try to pull the weirdest phone scam on me on monday. He called at 8:30am, so of course I was fast asleep.
The message he left went something like this..."Gee, I hope I have the right number. I have been trying to reach you for some time. My name is Greg Collins. I am calling from the Awards Verification Center regarding your entry for a 2002 Jeep Liberty. Please give me a call toll-free at 888-699-4998 x50. Thank you, and I look forward to your call".

now, he is talking to "you" which only works if you leave your name on the answering machine, which I didn't. So he didn't know who to ask for. He also didn't leave a business name. Other people have had experience with this and have actually tried calling the number. It stays busy during the day, and rings all night but thats it.
Frankly, I wouldn't call that number for love or money. I talked with the phone company and looked on the net abit, and evidentally, phone scams that involve the phone company get investigated and prosecuted, but if it doesn't involve the phone company, then you should just ignore the call...Convenient isn't it?

I can't believe that people don't get in trouble for even conspiracy to damage....or some new law like that :P
I dunno...the name and number in the example is legit. (well legit considering the name changes for each call, and the extension changes too)
if you can find who owns the number, the first beer is on me :)

one site that lists this scam is here.

2002-08-07T20:37:00.000-04:00

well, I don't know whether to thank Nicolette, or just plain cry.
I did a list of 100 things....now I look at all the links I have to put into it...*shudder* You can also be damn well assured I am making a perl script for the line breaks :P
It will probably be done in a day or two just because I am dreading it. It is good 4a.m. mindless work.

2002-08-07T15:35:00.000-04:00

ok...either I am slow, or I have just found how nutballs were born.
This sort of shares Kronos' story about the apocalypse.
Here is an article which talks about a philosopher trying to mathmatically prove a doomsday will occur.
I have so many problems with this, I don't know where to begin.

1.) Everything is finite, and the world is destined to die at some point or another. No matter how or when it occured, wouldn't it be a doomsday? Even though this guy is trying to prove a doomsday that will occur "sooner" rather then "later", It still seems off.
2.) He uses "cubicles" of people and identifying classifications of those cubicles to help the reader understand some of the probability related math going on. He somehow thinks because the cubicle example is true, that it relates to doomsday, and is therefore true.
3.) I think he just confused.
4.) the only thing I learned in this article is "Cubicles = doomsday" and god, do I think that is true.
5.) I think this is what happens before philosophers go out to pasture. Philosophers are forced to study logic until they want to vomit. By the time they get their doctorate,
They can talk around anything so well that they believe it themselves.

If anyone agrees with what the hell this guy is saying, and can explain your idea in english, I will put it up here:P

2002-08-06T00:18:00.000-04:00

Talked about my stagnation of my Go game with some people. They think it might be nervousness. Their reasoning is that I get right to 18k and then I lose a ton, and then getting back to the edge of 18k is done effortlessly. I actually was 18k for a couple seconds today before losing :P
So difficult to be so addicted and not care about outcomes...
ahh such is life :P

2002-08-04T13:52:00.000-04:00

Tried some Pepsi Blue last night. What do you guys think of it? To me it tastes like that generic artifical "berry" flavor in seltzer water.

in other news..we have another update about my sister..tee hee...
It turns out she lied about the trooper being too small to move stuff. She was hoping if she bitched enough that she could get something better then a trooper.
Well, she decided if that was her only option, it was pretty good. So my father moved all her crap up there.
She WAS due to come back..but who knows anymore. She didn't like the fact that when she was ready to come back, my father wouldn't drive up, pick her up, and drive back down. Because of this she stated she might just stay up there or with friends instead. Also, they couldn't get the money in time, so as of saturday they didn't have enough money to get in to the apartment. She asked my father, and I think he laughed. She made my father leave the room, and asked my mother, who at this point probably knows my sister is the reason the scotland trip is ruined....so my mother probably said hell no too. She eventually borrowed 800 bucks from a friend to get in the house. My father thinks its hilarious because he is taking bets that her friend never sees his money again. He isn't even sure if he will let her come back so soon...BWHAHAHAHA...
my grandmother gave her the typical "make sure you lock the windows and doors" BS...
What my father didn't tell my grandmother is that the apartment has no air of any sort, so the windows have to be open, and the locks don't work.
BWHAHAHAhA....so if you need like a free fridge or anything, just walk in and grab one :P

2002-08-03T01:41:00.000-04:00

wooo...good day today.
I had a nice dinner, many a praerie fire, and a vat of bloody mary to top it all off.

Also, Go articles hit the mainstream :P
Here is the sad thing...one article is from 1997, the other from a few days ago. Both are entirely too similar.

1997 Go news story
2002 Go news story

doing well in my game too...Beat my teacher at 8 stone handicap again...7 is not far off :)

2002-08-01T01:58:00.000-04:00

come on Nicolette! For the lady who has fried Oreos, I figured frying a twinkie would be right up your alley:P
I was counting on your to guinea pig the concoction on the boys :P If twinkie ends up all over the counter, we know that it was never meant to be:P

2002-08-01T00:44:00.000-04:00

ok..more on the saga that is my sister...because I know you love it :P Its better then reality tv :P
lets see...where to start...so knotted...:)
how about background?
She nearly bombed out of school, so she was unable to go anywhere but a community college. Instead of choosing something my parents volunteered to pay for,
she decides to goto some lame college in NY and live in brooklyn. The reason she chooses to take on all the costs herself, is so that she can be closer to her 27 y.o. BF who has a thing for weak willed minors...ain't it love :P
Oh, she also got two tickets for once incident on friday or saturday. The tickets were for reckless driving and speeding. Despite being guilty for all the accidents and violations she has been in, she still chooses to fight this one in court, and lets the officer know. Keep all this background info in mind, because it comes into play later.
Anyway, She has been planning for a long time to begin moving stuff up to her apartment in brooklyn this coming weekend. At the same time, My mother has now been in Scotland for one week, and my father was due to go on monday.
Sunday night she calls up my father asking if she can goto the beach. My father says, No problem. You can leave tommorow, have fun. She proceeds to argue with him that she should be allowed to go that evening. Dad didn't think that was such a hot idea. So my sister lets it drop (which my father found strange), came home from work, took a shower, and had a quiet evening. At 2 a.m. his paranoia awoke him. He found no Daughter, no car, and a note saying she tried to wake him up at 6 a.m. and couldn't so she left. Keep in mind, its 2 a.m....4 hours early. So he tries calling her on her cellphone multiple times, and she ignores him. He leaves a message for her saying she should come home before she forces him to more drastic measures. she ignores that too. Since she has already stolen the car once before, and was warned about it, he immediately called the police, who put out a APB for her. When my sister finally realized that the police were looking for her, and that her lie had failed, she headed home monday morning. Because an APB was out, an officer had to come over and interview and debrief my sister and my father. Well, she starts spewing off at the officer when he questions her trying to redirect blame to my father. Such bullshit like "Is it right for him to own me? Thats why I did it" and telling the police officer that he is being irresponsible for not carrying a pooper scooper with his horse and a whole bunch of other shit. According to my father, the officer through him the "Please let me shoot her" glance. So after this whole thing, she loses privelleges to the car for good. She can't even use it to get to work. Also, my sister was scheduled to take care of my parents dog and my sister's rabbit while they were away. She was to get $100 and a paid moving truck to NY for doing this. This is complete bullshit too because the rabbit is hers, and the dog is partly hers. I did that crap without a second thought when I lived there. Well, my father found that she wasn't giving water or food to either of them. He figured she found that by depriving them of water, they pee less. So he decides to stay to insure his animals live, and his daughter doesn't destroy anything. This pisses her off royally, because now she does not get the $100, or the moving van. She whines and bitches, so my father offers to drive her up in the Izuzu Trooper with a car full of stuff. Why he made this offer will become apparent later. My sister declines stating the car is too small and its his responsibility to get the moving truck for her. She is full of more shit then a manure pile :P Anyway, My sister is desperate for money, so she has to goto work. She calls my grandmother and lies saying her car is broken. My grandmother, finding it odd she calls her, instead of asking her father to take her, calls my father to ask if everything is ok. My father said that my sister lied, and that all the cars were in working order. This still doesn't stop my grandmother from taking the day off from work, so that she can transport my sister to and from work...now here is where it gets confusing...I am going to jump tracks a little now. My sister has 3 roomates for this apartment. To even get the apartment, they needed to pay $1,600 to the real estate agent, and the first and last month's rent to the landlord. Rent is $1,600 too.
So thats a total of $4,800 to even get the ball rolling. Well, none of them have even moved in, and one of her friends has borrowed their share of the $4800, through my sister and my mother. Evidentally my mother has yet to be paid back. The other is in a camp in N.J. and can't get the money to my sister, so my sister has to drive to N.J. and beg her roomate's father to write a check out to my sister in the amount of her roomate's portion of the bill. But, if you have been paying attention, my sister can no longer drive to NJ to even make the attempt to get the money. BWHAHaHa...Also, my father has stated that he will be royally pissed if my grandmother goes up in my sister's place to get the money. Also, my sister is due in court for tickets she stated she would fight. She has to goto this too, because if NJ has reciprocity with DE (as in, she lives in delaware, gets a ticket in Jersey, and the points end up on her license) she will lose her license because she already has a tremendous amount of points on it. She is so dumb. College will cost her over $500 per month, and her apartment will cost her about $533 a month. Her plan is to goto school full time, and work part time to pay all this. Keep in mind she is as dumb as a brick, and has been fired for some pretty bad reasons, so she will guaranteed only make minimum wage unless she can find a life guarding job. Even if you didn't include taxes, utilities, food and insurance, she would be hard pressed to make that kind of money and do school full time. So anyway, my father is pretty much done. He says he is done with the therapy "child empowerment bullshit" and done with her bullshit. What my sister doesn't realize is that my father offered to move her stuff up because he wants her out of the house. He says he has done everything he can do, and she is leaving whether she wants to or not. He also said we could have a party when she is gone, so I will let you guys know the date and time:P For all the bullshit she has caused everyone, it better be open bar. so thats pretty much it...My father can't goto scotland with my mother and their friends because he has a stupid cunt for a daughter.
but...revenge is sweet:)
|| censored this piece..evidentally too offensive for some :P ||

I dunno..it made us feel better because everyone puts up with her shit for years and years, and she sails.
The running bet is that she will end up pregnant (she has sex with anyone who is in a band, or who is an asshole like her..and its confirmed too) and on drugs (she already dabbles...Brooklyn will just make it worse...This too is confirmed.) before she tries to come running home to mommy and daddy.
BWHAHaHa...buuuuurrrrn.
I will let you guys know if I hear anything else. I hope it makes your day :P

2002-07-30T22:13:00.000-04:00

Fried twinkies.
Sounds Good? Yes.
Sounds Disgusting? Yes.
Would you eat it? YeeeeNNNoo.
Twinkies....They are those little logs of childhood that are innocent if eaten, foul if pondered.
Deep fry one of thoes bad boys and its just beyond words. A deep fried twinkie to me is like knowing your going to spend the next morning hurling your brains out, but you still have the evening to enjoy. it just defies words...its just a feeling.
Tee hee....LARD dropped in vats of OIL! BWHAHAHAHA!!!!

On a different note, I found someone else who doesn't like red light cameras. This came from The Weekly Standard.
hehe...its a five part series so he must really be pissed.
Part One discusses that redlight cameras are strictly for revenue.
You guys remember that Lockheed Martin scandal awhile back, right? A private company having the authority to ticket motorist, and actually making a profit per ticket.

Part Two discusse two things. The first is that there is no need to see redlight cameras as an invasion of privacy because we have already given it up in hundreds of other ways. I agree with this, but there is no need to INCREASE the problem. The second thing it mentioned was increasing yellow light times. This is such a joke. They think that people run the light within a certain of window of opporutinity. I think the yellow light IS the window of opportunity. If anything, I think extending the yellow light would cause more accidents. The solution would be to create overlapping redlights, where everyone is stopped together for 3 seconds. This would be super annoying, but it would insure that everyone has stopped moving before another group starts moving.

Part 3 goes on to talk about how safety has nothing to do with what the redlight cameras could accomplish. This one is abit slow and seems like filler...skipable if you are not highly interested.

Part 4 discusses how camera intersections don't actually prevent accidents or unsafe driving. Evidentally the statistics used to back this are somewhat unfounded and lacking in a control group. It seems like everyone involved with these cameras have another motive in mind.

Part 5 goes into more detail about the whole Lockheed Martin thing and the lengths they go to make a buck.

Well, thats it for redlights and twinkies...Hope you found some interesting or something amusing. Hopefully both :)

2002-07-29T03:19:00.000-04:00

well guys, with or without your help, I am starting to get a hold of the anger :P I think that since the last time I posted about it, the computer has only had to face one round of percussive maintenance and flight lessons. I will give Sony credit, Vaio's are pretty sturdy. I have been getting much better at meditation. I find that if I meditate abit before a tough game, I tend not to lose it in the middle of the game, which leads to increased wins. Also, when I do lose, I tend to take it abit better...hehehe.
Not much longer now...woooo. So many mistakes to fix on and off the Go board...no time for anger.

2002-07-28T02:02:00.000-04:00

mmm more paranoia....
awhile ago, near my house they did some significant work to an instersection. Adding some lanes, expanding it abit, making traffic abit more managable..nothing out of the ordinary....EXCEPT..they very quietly put up 4 cameras facing all directions off the traffic lights. I dunno if you have seen cameras like these before, but it looks video capable. I don't think its meant to snap pictures and catch people flying through a red light. There is some thick cat 5 cable that
look like they are for sending video. You don't need cat 5 to send snapshots of red lights.
For this reason, I always make sure to flip them the bird when i pass through an intersection. What I find interesting about this is that this particular intersection is pretty normal. Nothing exceptional about it, especially considering it is 50 yards from an intersection on the biggest highway in this area
My thought is maybe they are using this as a test case before spending any more. I hate that crap. I mean, I like the idea of increasing traffic safety,
but I don't like the fact that it will be misused (and oh yes, it will be misused). Ugh...

2002-07-24T03:38:00.000-04:00

Kronos and his provider aren't playing nice.
You can get to his blog via http://rscott.dyn.dhs.org/blog/kronos.php3/
his regular link might work on and off..its just easier to use the one I linked.

2002-07-24T03:32:00.000-04:00

I think fate is punishing me for being a whiner :P Ever since that post about McD's not being able to get an order right, NONE of my food has come correctly, whether eating in or taking out. I am not the type of person to ask for complicated things....tonight I asked for "A marlton cheesteak w/ hotpeppers". A marlton cheesesteak is just one that has onions, mushrooms, and green peppers. I ended up getting a totally plain cheesesteak. I did ask for hot peppers this time though. I still haven't eaten at a fast food place (maybe that is it:P ). I think I am going to work on just being thankful that the food is warm.

on a totally different topic. Does anyone here get angry with themselves? I don't mean irritated, I am talking *pissed*. I find I can forgive anyone except myself.
Its been getting worse too. Every time I get angry at myself I get these giant migraine headaches. Especially during Go. I played really crappy today, and had alot of near wins against some really strong people. The thing is, in my head a "near win" just makes my mistakes stand out more. They tell me to relax or to take it easy but I can't really....I have been trying hard though. Lets take Go for example. I know Go is a game. I know that this win or loss means jack shit, but I can't seem to UNDERSTAND it or believe in it. Its not just Go or competitive things...its a bunch of stuff. I dunno...I know why somethings get to me and others don't, but I am not sure some of you would really be comfortable knowing how fucked up I am in some aspects. So any advice? and before you say it, B....topics that include drinking and bullets don't count as advice :P

2002-07-24T00:34:00.000-04:00

ok...Kronos had his prayers answered. Scientist are speculating that an asteroid might smack into the earth in 2019. they speculate that if it did hit the earth it would destroy a continent or two. Keep in mind, the trajectory of this asteroid is abit complicated and is still unverified. They could be wrong:P
Now lets pretend this was a boulder of apocalyptic proportions. Would it change the way you lived? When the end came, would you kill yourself in an effort to control your own destiny?

Interesting to ponder :)
Maybe this will spur someone to create a debris defense system for earth :)

2002-07-22T23:12:00.000-04:00

Ok...NJ must be another one of the places where just because you don't know how to operate a boat, doesn't mean you can't own and pilot one.
My girlfriend and I spent an awesome evening at a bar/restaurant which was on a river near where she works. The restaurant was two tiered. Decks and viewing areas on the top, and boating dock space on the bottom. To the left you had slips which held boats of all natures. We spent awhile just looking around while we waited for our spot on the waiting list to come up. While I was looking at the river, I noticed that both ways as far as the eye could see , the majority of the river had designated lanes for travel, and they appeared to be well used. Despite this, you had a bunch of jet skis and "entertainment" boats totally ignoring the buoys and just running around where they pleased through the traffic. On top of this (or maybe because of it) everyone was drinking. EVERY single person I saw, had a beer or liquor in hand. Both the passengers, and the pilot's were drinking. Even funnier was that these boats were well stocked, and they STILL docked at the bar 'to get a drink' when they hadn't even finished the beer that is literally still cold in their hands. My favorite part were these two loaded guys tried to dock at the bar. One guy hopped off the boat to guide it in and tie it down, and he ended up falling off the dock between the boat and the dock itself. The boat had drifted far enough in that he couldn't get back out the way he came. All he had to was swim around the boat, and hop into it on the other side, but he was so drunk that he actually tried to push the boat, from underneath while inside the water.
I guess a couple of customers rose the signal flag standing for 'asshat' because about 15 of the bar staff came from all directions to fish the guy out. About 20 minutes later, the guy is dumping water from his shoes and he hears this huge boat trying to dock with the bar. From the top deck I could see the gleam in this guys eye. Evidentally he was in the "expert mode" of his drinking. You remember the expert mode? Thats when you drink enough to keep the majority of your motor skills, but you suddenly declare yourself to be a scholar in all topics the mind could fathom. And hell, even if you don't know what the hell it is, you sure as hell have a valid opinion about it. Well anyway, this guy goes running off to go get himself hurt again and while he does that his buddy waits for him on the dock. This guy was so drunk he couldn't stand up straight...he just kept swaying like a reed in the wind. Eventually he stumbled over to a guide rail and just stared out into space. God knows what he was staring at, but the way he was doing it suggested dollar night at the strip club. I later learned that the staff who aren't designated as waiters are multifunctional.
They are the bartenders, barbacks, doormen, bouncers, and evidentally a certain percentage of them are also lifeguards. The reason why 15 people jumped for the drunk idiot was that they get some sort of bonus for fishing people out of the water. The one guy who laid claim was pretty happy...he barely had to get wet, and he got some sort of hefty bonus that he was running all over the bar waving. The other neat thing was tara got some sort of drink that had a palm tree tooth pick thing on it holding cherries. The palm tree thing had a monkey on it trying to get coconuts...BUT...man..I can't even describe it..it looks sick:P I am definitely putting it up here when I get a chance :P

2002-07-22T04:12:00.000-04:00

ok..time for the boring post...you'll have to live with it..it makes me happy :P
Most people already know of my addiction, which is the topic of the post. The game is called Go (Baduk, Wei Qi, Igo)
The basic principle is it is a turn based game on a 19x19 board for control of the majority of territory on the board. Territory is created by using your designated go stones (either black or white) to fight for supremacy. You can kill stones or groups of stones by completely surrounding their perimeters. Anyone yawning yet?:P
I don't know why I play...I have found that principles in the game have helped in the real world...but I don't understand why I continue to play. I have devoted all together a "questionable" amount of time, money, and effort into this game. In this game, you are ranked according to your skill level. From 30 kyu down to 1 kyu, and then 1 dan up to 9 dan. The waterline for being "skilled" seems to be 1 dan. Anyone can get to 1 dan given enough time and effort, but the true measure is how fast you get there.
If you make it to 9dan (or maybe a little lower) you might consider becoming a pro (yes, people get paid to play this..its kind of scary). The faster you get to 1 dan, the more potential you are said to have. The time limit designated as impressive seems to be from beginner to 1 dan in a single year. This has been my goal all along. What makes this goal difficult is that your rank spikes and plateaus based on your perception of the game. So you jump up a couple of ranks, then you level off for a period of time until you gain new understanding, then you spike up a couple more ranks in no time, then you level off again....and on and on. The higher you get, the longer you spend on those level periods. Hopefully, within a day or so of this post, I will hit 18 Kyu, which is nearly half way to my goal in about half the time I alloted (1 year).
Considering, It gets harder I might be considered abit behind...but this is where it gets interesting. When you play someone more then 2 ranks higher, they have to give you a "handicap stone" for the difference in the rank. A handicap stone is like a head start, and puts the stronger player behind from the start, so they must race to catch up. This is done so that people with radically different skill levels can offer each other a challenging game. I currently am one of a handful of students with one of europe's top amateur players who on the system we play on, is 7 dan (the highest the system will allow for). The max handicap you can get from an opponent is 9 stones.
so...theoretically, he should be able to beat anyone who is 3 kyu to 30 kyu with 9 stones. Unlike the rest of his students, I can consistently beat him by a strong amount when given a 9 stone handicap. By tommorow, I should be able to beat him by an 8 stone handicap considering at our last lesson I only lost by a couple points, and I learned from that mistake. Anyone else I play, If I get handicap stones I can usually beat them with my eyes closed. Most of my teacher's other students that I play often are a couple of ranks ahead of me. The weird thing is, they can't really get close to beating him in a handicap game. I am hoping what this says, is that there is a problem in the opening of my "even" games against my peers and that if I am lucky, it will mean while they spend a longer time later on specific lessons, I will be able to zip past and make that 1 year goal.
Anyway, thats what I am up to...I just passed my current plateau so I am enjoying kicking ass and taking names against anyone remotely near my rank...but it will only last so long...then It will be back to praying I don't set some sort of record for losing streaks :)

2002-07-19T11:02:00.000-04:00

I am sure Kronos has already read this...but as creepy as it is, after his rant...an article on the 100th anniversary of air conditioning. rofl...7 to 12...
don't listen to them when they are available...TELL them they will be there at 12 on the dot, and if you interrupt my schedule, you will be charged for my time.
This is the way the rest of the world works, its time to step up to the plate and play. You know whats worse then your whole air conditioning thing are exterminators.
Its like the triple whammy. They force you to get up at an ungodly hour, and then they show up late. They invade your privacy and you pay them for it. Then the rest of your day is shot because of their vague time blocking...

2002-07-18T23:19:00.000-04:00

hrmmm....Jahva pointed out my permalinks are busted but I swear I didn't do it:P They LOOK right...
Even scarier...mine don't work, my girlfriend's links don't work...but Jahva's does. Not fair....who did she bribe?:P
ahh such is life. More motivation for me to set up a server.

2002-07-17T00:46:00.000-04:00

Just a quick news update. I know a couple of you would be interested in this:
6 episodes of Cowboy Bebop back to back on saturday starting 11p est.
This is on the Cartoon Network, of course.