Fucktards

You know who I hate? I hate the team-killing fucktards in Battlefield II online, especially the ones who switch teams during a game.

Happy Solstice

Last night was the longest of the year, so I hope you enjoyed it. The days only get longer from here, so enjoy that too.

Amanda the Houseguest

I had a houseguest the night before last and yesterday. I had first met Amanda when she was living upstairs from me. I was living in the first apartment I had ever rented with my girlfreind at the time time. Said girlfriend was the first to quickly notice that the two women who lived upstairs from us were probably lesbians (the pretty looks they gave my girlfriend were a good tip-off). Not long later, Amanda broke up with her girl and I broke up with mine and Amanda and I became fast friends and started spending alot of time together. Checking out (and hitting on) chicks with a good-looking lesbian is a ton of fun. I would go into some more stories along those lines, but this is a family blog. Let it suffice to say that we were pretty tight (get your mind out of the gutter, I said we were just friends already, ok?) Anyway, I eventually graduated college and left Maine and the phone numbers I had for Amada eventually became disconnected. I tired to find her through the net but she has a very common name and almost no presence on the web.

Then one day last summer she googled my easy-to-find name and found my contact info. She called up and the next thing ya know, she's coming by to visit for the night on her way out to her new life in Las Vegas. I had hoped she could stay longer, but she wanted to be sure she could make it to her relative's place in Las Vegas before Christmas.

So anyway, we didn't do much yesterday. We just looked through a bunch of each other's pictures, cooked some meals, chit chatted and ran some errands. Even still, it was great fun for me to see and old friend who helped shaped who I am today, at a pivotal point in my life.

Normally that would be the end of this post, but since I know your minds have not escaped the gutter, I might as well throw you a bone. Someone has figured out an eerily accurate way to determine how slutty you or someone you know is. Type in the name of some sluts or saints you know and check the results. Then go read the about link to see how they do it. I am apparently 2% slutty which puts me over my wife at 0.96%.

Football Sunday

I haven't been watching as much football this year as I have in past years. I think I've just been busier with yard work on Sundays recently. But then we had this early snowfall, and all of my 2005 plans for the yard and the house came to an abrupt end. So now I'm catching up on football instead. I've always been a Patriots fan in my heart so that has been rewarding for about five years now, but I got worried earlier this year when all those injuries were clearly affecting thier abiliity to win games. But now it seems like everything is on track again. They beat the Bucs last night and man, they did it with mojo.

The Ravens, unfortunately, can only dream of such a comeback. I moved to the mid-atlantic shortly before the Ravens won the superbowl, and I almost started to feel like it might be a better idea to be a real Ravens fan. You know, all the way, like when people ask me where I'm from, I'll start saying, "Maryland."

"Nevermore?" Fuck no, I'm a New Englandah. Live Free or Die muthafuckahs!

Noodly Master

Fuck Christmas

You might as well be building miniature Stonghenges in your den.

Oh ya

I remembered what else I was going to say about last night's Christmas party. I had a few drinks of course but my buzz veered to being contrary and depricating instead of goofy and loose. I always feel weird the morning after a night like that because I end up thinking, "oh shit, I hope I didn't piss anyone off." I mean, I enjoy being contrary and depricating when I'm sober too, its just that when I'm sober I have a better sense of when its funny to be that way and when its just offensive. Ascerbic humor is a fine line that must be walked carefully. As we all know, alcohol can make you feel like you are walking fine when you clearly aren't.

Christmas Party

I had two Christmas parties yesterday. The work christmas party was during the day, 1-5 pm ish, and the evening party was a regular cocktail party. I opted to go dressy to both. Its probably faggy for me to go on about how pleased I was with my new holly-and-jingle-bells-patterned, Jerry Garcia tie, but fuck it, it was a rockin tie.

Chris made some deserts that were so good I had to discourage people from eating them so I could ensure that we'd be taking some home; Apple Bavarian Tort and Caramel Fudge Brownies.

Crap, there was some other stuff I was going to say about all this but I've already forgotten... oh well, maybe it will come back to me later.

Snow

I really love the way the trees look when they have snow stuck to every branch. I really hate shoveling my driveway.

New Template

Because my wife complained too much about the weird after image left in her vision with the last template. I hope you all like this look better too.

Auto Rad

I have to go into work sometime today to develop an autorad. This does not mean that I am devising a method to become automatically radical. "Auto Rad" is actually short for autoradiogram or autoradiograph. In any case, I've always wanted a polo shirt that said "autorad" on the part where the logo usually goes. Unfortunately, there is no company called "Auto Rad" from which I might be able to scam a promotional polo shirt. There is however a company called "BioRad" and I could easily get a polo from them. I will have to remember this next time I chat with a BioRad sales person.

Running Sucks

But I went for a 1 mile jog this morning anyway. I know myself to well enough to not be fooled into thinking that this could be the start of some kind of healthy pattern. You see, after the turkey bowl, I noticed that my recently-sprained ankles (yes, both at the same time) got a little stronger afterwards. I also noticed that the headaches I had been getting from caffeine withdrawal came back. So I thought a little bit more exercise might be good for my ankles, and might also shake looose the last of these annoying withdrawal symptoms. That, and I've acquired some additional waisted-space from thanksgiving (pun intended). Maybe one more run and I'll shake the headaches. The heartburn seems to have been nixed at least so thats good.

No go hear a song about how lovable Macs can be.

Big day, wandering thoughts

Today was all about the chores. Painting moldings, varnishing furniture, taking Ollie to the dog park, and raking leaves. Oh those dammned leaves and the blisters I get from raking them! Anyway, while I was mindlessly raking I had some mindless thoughts. I think it might have been something about the play Chris was recently in, "State Fair" and also maybe thoughts about Chris and I trying for a kid.

I was reflecting on how the times have changed basically. It used to be (pre-1960's) that when folks felt a powerful sexual attraction towards one another, the first thoughts they would have were about how quickly they could get married, since sex was hard to have without the resulting children. But then the pill came along and it changed a fundamental, cross-cultural social system that had been in place for tens, maybe hundrteds of thousands of years. Don't get me wrong, I'm not postulating that the institution of marriage per se has been around that long, but I do expect that homo sapiens have always been social animals and that girls and boys who fucked probably stuck with each other long enough to keep the resulting newborns from dying of exposure.

It makes me wonder how the pill is changing the pressures of natural selection in homo sapiens. I have a long list of speculations on that point, the first most obvious one is that we are simply having less kids. It used to be that women would have lots and lots of kids. Sure, I know industrialization had a lot to do with that, but even so, after industrialization and before the pill, people still had a rough time having an affordable amount of children. The pill has helped alot on that score. But now women who may have been gentically prone to not have a viable pregnancy until after a miscarriage or two or three may be selected out of the gene pool more effectively because of the pill. People who were more emotionally attatched to the first person they had sex with may not have as much of a selective advantage as they once did (like the penguin mate-for-life strategy). I wonder if the whole sexual revolution was predicated on the idea that all of our social conventions had no basis in biology. After all, married people do report greater happiness over thier lifespan. If monogamy were purely a social thing, I expect people would feel happier being more promiscuous in a post-pill world. What are the selective consequences of conception being a choice rather than an accident? Will the passion that caused 16 year-olds to marry in 1947 wither and die? Will people begin to evolve strong emotions against contraception rather than towards biologically attractive mates? Or will our drive to procreate shift from being emotional to intellectual? Might this help explain the explosion in autistic children?

Letting my thoughts wander, lots of people have assumed that the correlation between the introduction of the MMR vaccine to increasing rates of autism is causative. I really do wonder if it has more to do with altered selective pressures due to the pill and industrialization as a whole. The rates of autism started jumping in 1972 in this country, and in 1978 in the UK. The pill was introduced in these countries in 1960 and 1961 respectively, but the pill didn't become widespread until later and of course people who took the pill were having thier kids later still. It seems reasonable that we wouldn't begin to see any contribution of the pill to increases in autism until a decade later. Of course, if there is a connection between the pill and autism, it could be simpler than what I've rambled about above. It might just be that autism is more closely correlated to people having kids later in life (which is still a consequence of the pill) as is the case with schizophrenia.

I guess that's enough mind-wandering for tonight. Does anyone else have any speculations on how the pill might be changing the selective pressures on humanity?

Thanksgiving

The meal went really well for us this year. Everything was timed perfectly, but I was a little unhappy with my turkey. I felt like it came out a little dry. I have to try that brine-marinade trick one of these days. My rye-maple syrup sausage stuffing was awesome as always, and Chris' yams were incredible. Chris and her sister Lisa had too much fun with the camera after dinner, while John and I played video games.

And now for the customary list of things I am thankful for; a beautiful wife, a friendly dog, a solid home, and a decent job. All of which still cause me to pinch myself to believe they are real.

Turkey Bowl

My job has a tradition we like to call "Turkey Bowl" which takes place on Novembver 23rd of every year. We all quit work around 1 or 2 and go to a local elementary school field to play a few hours of two-hand touch football. I usually play tight end, sometimes QB. I have noticed that as the years move on, I become more and more debilitated after each Turkey Bowl. I expect to have serious trouble walking from tomorrow onward. Pity me.

Free drugs! Highly addictive!

Occasionally, something happens that makes me quit drinking coffee cold turkey. Last Sunday it was the crazy heartburn I had all night after the 25 buffalo wings and the two natty bo's that prompted me to quit drinking coffee this time around. You might be right if you are thinking that I really ought to be swearing off wings and cheap beer. I see it differently. I get heartburn to varying degrees from eating almost anything these days (the beer-wings combination just being the worst for it). I also know that on the few days when I cut my coffee down from two cups to one, I get less heartburn from whatever food I might eat. I also know that when I'm on vacation (and therefore unstressed) I get zero heartburn. So the way I see it is, I can either take ratinidine daily, for the rest of my life, I can quit my job, or I can quit coffee.

Now don't get me wrong, I have no doubts that my quitting coffee will be a temporary phase (it always is). I mean, they give away coffee for free at work to keep me coming back to the place regularly, how could I say no? I just feel like its time for a little breather. I think it must have been more than five years ago since I last "quit" coffee. I'm due.

So ya, my last cup of coffee was around mid-day Sunday, and boy howdy do I feel like poop right now.

I-O-Way

All I know, all I owe, I owe I-O-Way.
I owe I-O-Way all I know and I know why.
I am I-O-Way born and bred,
and on I-O-Way corn I'm fed,
not mention her barley wheat and rye.

Chris and the NASA theater group she's been with for the past few months, closed thier show of "State Fair" last night. It was lots of fun, Rogers and Hammerstein goodness. Unfortunately, the cast party was dry due to a last-minute surprise decision by some lawyer at NASA (libaility stupidness). During this cast party, they put on some skits that seemed pretty clearly oriented towards drunks. It was a pity none were in the audience.

Superman

It was just this week that I watched "An evening with Kevin Smith" on DVD. Its funny, you should watch it too. Anyway, at one point, Kevin tells us an anecdote about how Warner Brothers had asked him if he wanted to write the script for this new movie they want to do on Superman. Ultimately he never ends up doing it because of some nutjob producer and the fact that the studio hires Tim Burton to direct it (who hires his own writers). Kevin goes on to make the DVD I watched the other night. The nutty producer goes on to make another movie, "The Wild Wild West" and Tim Burton makes gets replaced by Bryan Singer to direct "Superman Returns" which is only just now being advertised (fresh!). Looking at the timing of all this, I can only guess that Christopher Reeves' accident really pushed the release date on this movie back.

Poll

I almost forgot to mention that last night, I got a call from one of those automated political polls. I became really excited when I heard the first question: "How would you rate George Bush's job performance?" I've never participated in one of these kinds of polls before. I thought two of the questions were not very well thought out though. They asked, Do I work in 1) Government, 2) a non-profit 3) a private company 4) xxxxx etc. I chose option 3 only because they didn't give an option for a publicly traded company (technically, the only private companies are the ones which are not traded on the stock market). I thought they should have just said, "3) a for-profit corporation or company."

The other question I didn't like concerned my religious affiliation. The choices were: 1) christian including catholic 2) jewish 3) muslim 4) hindu 5) atheist 6) other. They never mentioned agnostic! The way I see it, there is little or no difference between an atheist and an agnostic, yet most of the agnostics I know feel there is a strong differences, and would never characterize themselves as athiests. I also happen to know many more people that call themselves agnostic than atheist. It seems very strange to me that they would drop the agnostic choice from the poll.

Lots of questions were asked about local politicains as well ("If the election were held for MD governor today, would you vote for Erlich or O'Malley?")

I can't wait to learn the poll results.

Ravens v Steelers

A co-worker of mine is supposed to be selling me hist tickets to the game this Sunday, which is great, I rarely make it to football games. Unfortunately, I had a bunch of shit I was supposed to do this weekend though (house stuff, painting, moldings etc.). It looks like I may have to drink beer and yell alot instead.

A Big Ad

Hilarious

(volume up)

Order!

I once got into a big tussle on another blog over the idea that the theory of evolution ought to be a law. What the poor folks at that site didn't know is that I was fairly pissed off that week and was really just looking for a fight. Also, I think the admin of the site in question is a boozer ponce flotsam jerk-off. So anyway, while I sat back and argued a point I didn't really believe (that evolution should be a law, not a theory), I managed to rattle loose some novel thoughts. Skip to the end for the novel part, or keep reading to get the full train of thought.

One of the things I learned from the ponce was the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning. Which was nice, but don't get too caught up in that right now. I also noticed that all the good laws (the laws of conservation from which the laws of thermodynamics and motion sprout) can be expressed mathematically.

Now as every good biologist knows, the mechanics of evolution all follow the laws of thermodynamics, such that all living things are basically suspended within environment-specific equilibrium between the margins of a diamond (perfect order) and vaporized charcoal (perfect disorder) with lots of other contaminating elements.

(The nifty thing about crystals like a diamond is that its existing structure will create more of itself, when provided with the necessary food (diamonds get bigger when you add more carbon)).

I think the the laws of motion and thermodynamics are essentially just re-statements of the laws of conservation. So I got to thinking; in biology were are mostly concerned with how things are ordered, and how that order propagates itself (like dirty diamonds). We get to talking about "genetic information" alot. So, I wonder if the laws of evolution might be more accurately described as the "laws of informatics". I can generally (but not specifically) imagine how these laws might be expressed, and what's more, I can also see how they could be applied to all kinds of self-propagating information, from diamonds to digital data (excuse the alliteration). Since evolution really just describes a mechanism for the tranfer and preservation of information, this kind of universal applicability to all information is what would be needed to qualify it as a proper law. That, and a law of informatics just seems like a good idea.

So I googled "laws of informatics" and found this site. The guy seems to start on the right track and I like his laws as stated, but I think he goes way off track once he starts talking about Frederich Nietzsche, and he never tries to express his laws mathematically. So, I think I'm going to try and give that a shot in my spare time and I'll keep updates here. Any of you math whizzes have some good ideas?

Asleep yet?

America's Funniest Animals

Now go check out the rest of the Sun's top 25 viral emails of the week.

(Be careful though, some are NSFW)

Hepatitis A

The list of diseases I currently have vaccine-derived immunity against:

measles, mumps, rubella, polio, tetanus, diptheria, influenza, typhoid, hepatitis B, yellow fever, and as of today, hepatitis A.

The last ones on my list to collect are: smallpox, herpes type-2, and anthrax. I really wish I didn't miss out on that smallpox vaccine just because I was born too late.

Biodiesel (first of many)

Here's a post on biodiesel I got from Wired. Biodiesel is one of my biggest infatuations. This particular article goes into the uses of it for home heating oil. I have natural gas heat (but wish I had oil, with water-convection baseboards) so this isn't going to help me so much. No, my primary interest in biodiesel is for a transportaton fuel. My next car is going to be a diesel, just so I can make my own feul for it in the garage. Of course, I drive a 2001 Honda Civic now. The car gets awesome mileage and since I only work 5 minutes away, I don't put many miles on it, so I may be stuck with this car for many more years to come. In which case, I'll just need to be sure that the boat or motorcycle I've always wanted to buy are diesel-powered. I specifically want this bike, in case anyone was thinking about what they could get me for Christmas.

Amazing what a little information can do...

As most of you reading this right now know, I sent out a mass email to my freinds and family earlier today, alerting you all to the presence of this blog. Maybe I should have waited to do this on one of those days where I marvel about the tick I pulled off of my dogs neck, or about the nature of lint or something, rather than having people diving directly into the intelligent design debate. Apologies for that. Most of the time I expect this blog will be really shallow and self-absorbed, so please don't let this weighty, first-encountered issue prejudice you about what may come.

Intelligent Design

The very fact that this is even a debate in our country right now really annoys the crap out of me. As I ask around about it, many people who I formerly assumed were educated and thoughtful about the subject have professed support for teaching intelligent design as science. The first thing I realize about these folks is that A) they don't seem to understand the definition of the word "science" and B) they don't care. I want people to care.

This is serious shit people.

Everyone should know this cold...

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

Neuvo Ventanas

We're having all the windows in the house replaced today. Last night I had to remove all the fittings for the blinds from the casings and move all the furniture in the house to make space in front of each window. Now these two guys are making lots of smashing noises in my house. Its a party.

Post-Halloween

The party on Saturday went well, but I kept wishing that I had invited more people. All of my friends are either married on in long term relationships, so I felt bad for the few single people there. I was hoping I could have provided a better setting for singles. I guess I have to accept that I'm beyond that scene. The Halloween party at work was fun, but more short-lived than last year's. We did the traditional chili cook-off and the same people who made the best chili's in previous years won again this year. We didn't do a pumpkin-carving contest though (as we did last year), so all in all, the party only lasted an hour. That night, we got more trick-or-treaters than last year, 6 groups in all, for a total of maybe 15-20 kids. Not too shabby.

Sideways

I watched a netflix movie last night called "Sideways". It was occasionally funny, but mostly just fucking depressing.

On a more positive note, I've torn out my natural-gas-firplace-in-faux-wood and replaced it with an actual wood grill for burning actual wood logs. I've used it twice now and its much more fun. Wood fires aren't terribly energy efficient but burnable wood is essentially free for me, unlike natural gas. As an added bonus, I sporadically catch whiffs of wood smoke in random areas of the house now, presumably from the leftover charcoal.

This post reminds me that I need to write another post on the virtues of biodiesel and how it may improve our social life.

Even Batman Forgets...

I stayed up late last night because a halloween episode of Batman was on the cartoon network last night. A vampire dude came on the scene who started biting the good people of Gotham (and Joker and Penguin too) which turned them into vampires (known as "the lost ones"), all under the mental control of leader-Vampire dude. Anyway, during all this mayhem, some reporter-hottie was trying to hook up a date with Bruce Wayne but she kept getting blown off because Batsy was too busy fighting crime. In the last few scenes, Batman determines that the way to beat this vampire and save Gotham was to use science to develop a medicine that would reverse the physical changes caused by vampirisim, allowing the lost ones to be resistant once again to immolation by sunlight. Bruce was up all night working on his drug and he got so wrapped up in his experiments that he totally spaced out on his dinner date with reporter-hottie.

Classic.

Secrets are Frustrating

Work is a big part of my life. That's a good thing because I like my job most of the time. Its a bad thing sometimes because I often find myself wanting to write about what I'm doing lately in this blog or other places. This is a natural desire when one is excited about what they are doing. Unfortunately, most of the stuff I am doing is patentable, and I work for a corporation, so that means I can't say anything that may qualify as "public disclosure" until I get my shit together and submit the patent applications. I can only imgine how frustrating these kinds of things must be for people who have to hold thier secrets without the recourse of a patent. Top-security at the NSA or some shit must be a real bitch.

argh

Life has been hard ever since Blogdex went down.

Absinthe

I totally want to try this stuff. I think it would be a good Halloween drink.

Bored and Lonely Again

This morning when I was posting I felt like my head was overflowing with topics and ideas to write about. I almost always feel that way in the mornings. Often, in the morning, it takes a considerable amount of effort for me to break my concentration enough to get up and start the morning routine that concludes in my drive to work. Because of this, I often don't show up to work until after 9:30 AM or so. I feel a little guilty about this sometimes, technically speaking its a mildly deviant behavior, but at the same time I feel like I shouldn't feel any guilt as I almost always stay till at least 6, if not 7. I might be rationalizing when I say I might feel selfish about using my peak brain time for my own solipsistic pursuits.

Speaking of which, I was reminded by a friend of another one of my quirks recently. I've known this before but maybe its gotten worse lately. I have this habit of disengaging in conversations in the most abrupt way. I've always felt like the best way to disengage from a conversation was to flee from it, rather than to actually, to actually, uh... see? I don't even know how I'm supposed to end a conversation, all I know is that peoople have told me that I do it in a strangely terse way. I hope I haven't inadvertently pissed too many people off with this behavior. Maybe I have Asperger's syndrome-light?

But anyway, getting back to the point, I find myself now, after the workday, fairly tired and unable to remember any of the stuff I could barely resist writing about in the morning. I just don't have it in me. Which sucks because, yet again, my wife isn't home, so no cuddling or talking about our days. I haven't the where-with-all to shoot hoops or ride my bike or work-out... ecch. In writing this of course I've thought of a few errands I should do, so maybe that's my plan for the evening.

there's always an agenda

Apparently, said ex-girlfriends' recent communication had an agenda behind it. She wanted to send me the latest batch of cutsey baby pictures. How tedious of her.

I keep getting emails from my ex-girlfriends

Its not that I really mind so much, but now that I'm all grown up, I think I'd really rather not have any kind of relationship with these people. I never initiate contact with them, but from time to time, when they get in touch with me, I tend to ask the pointed questions, soley for the purpose of deriving a sick sort of schadenfreude in hearing about thier lives. The thing is, we all have hiccups in our lives, and honestly my life is really no better or worse than anyone else's.

I can feel the coffee in my brainpan producing a galaxy of concepts only vaguely related to this, but I should probably work on something that will get me paid instead.

My New Firearm...

...because as they taught us in hunter-safety class, you shouldn't call it a "weapon." So I've been wanting to do this a while now and even though I can't really afford it, I went ahead and pulled the trigger so to speak and picked up a Benelli M2, just like this:

lonely

My nights lately have gotten pretty lonely. Chris is home really late in the evening practically every night with this play she's in now. Ollie keeps me company, and I take him to the dog park and stuff, but I miss Chris.

Home back to normal

The grandmother left yesterday and I was amused by how exhausted I felt. I certain sense of relief washes over you when houseguests on an extended stay finally leave. I don't think it would have been so weird if I had more in common with my grandmother. Maybe that sounds cold and heartless but remember, I had only met this woman four times in my life. How often do you invite 74 year old, distant aquaintances to stay with you for a few days?

Grandmother

All of my grandparents, but one, are dead. The living one, my paternal grandmother, does her living mostly in Austrailia. every decade or so she does a world tour to basically visit some or all of her progeny, which at 74 is a considerable number of people most of whom are smart, successful, cosmopolitan types. This woman was an amazing breeder in her day, having 8 children of her own, and another 6 step-children. All 14 of her kids were given a strong reproduction ethic and each in turn has had between 1 and 3 kids of thier own (29-30 grandkids in all). I am her oldest grandchild and my father is her oldest child. I have only met this woman four times in my life but she has stayed in steady contact with me by email and hand-written correspondence. She remains quick-witted and devoutly baptist.

She will be visiting us today and staying in our guest room for three days. I expect her stay to be interesting and painfully awkward.

I really hate spam

But I really like blogger's "random blog" linky thing. Which is why it enraged me to find a crap load of "spam blogs" like this one when randomly going through blogger blogs.

grrr. Its the bad side of capitalism and freedom of speech I suppose.

long time

Wow, its been almost 5 weeks since I've updated this. Too long. Not that anyone is actually reading this blog as of yet. I just wanted to give a nod to my buddies spike and tom and thier blogs.

Perhaps I will start a blog roll!

hm.

On Blogs

I've been following this Terri Schiavo thing recently (ugh, what a mess) and a few things abotu the nature of information and blogging have occurred to me. Number one, most websites these days are ranked by popularity (number of page hits). Google is a good example of this. But other ranking systmes are based on the number of links a given page gets form other pages (like www.blogdex.net). In any case, I've noticed that many of the blogs that pop up on my radar are talking about Terri Schiavo, just like the talking heads on teh TeeVee. I honestly think that most of the country doesn't give a hoot about Terri Schiavo, or the current Steroid Abuse hearigns or any of the other inane shit going on in the mainstream media right now. So why do the blogs have to parrot the subjects the TeeVee wants to cover? I thought the internet was supposed to be more free-thinking than that?


Many "blogs" out there fancy themselves as their own media broadcasters. Usually, they suck. In most cases, they just comment on something the real mainstream media has put out there though. This sucks. I also tend to notice that the worst, most provocative information tends to come from blogs that do not have a mechanism for collecting comments and reader feedback, Again, I thought the internet was supposed tobe more free-thinking than that. Ultimately, these kinds of sites get much better google and blogdex rankings because people get so pissed off with them that they have to link to the offending blog posting in some other blog or bbs that allows for comments and reader feedback, so they can express some kind of counter-argument. The problem with this is that no one ever reads the counter-arguments, because they don't get ranked well in most webpage indices. All a guy like me usually sees is the pooorly thought-out posting meant primarily to piss people off.



I have a proposal for a remedy:



1) Do not link to webpages that do not allow reader comments.



That is all.

Oh the Places I've been.

bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

quick post

I gave this url to someone I work with yesterday (Hello Eileen, *waves*). That probably wasn't such a smart idea because now I'll be self-conscious about griping. Which might be a good thing actually...

Okay off to work.

Image hosting experiment

So I've been thnking I wanted to post picutes here for a while now. I finally thought to google "free image hosting" and came across ImageVenue. Let's see if it works.

Here is a picture of my dog Ollie, on the first day we took him home.



cool!

Update: Okay, same picture of Ollie I used earlier with that crappy hosting service, lets see if flickr works better.

bland subject line...

...because I'm just feeling bland and uninspired right now. That's what I hate about alcohol. I thought having a few drinks with friends last night was a great idea but this morning I'm just feeling uninspired to do anything at all. Not that this is new to me or in anyway unexpected. What is surprising to me is that I'm getting to a point where being sharp minded on a Sunday morning somehow seems more appealing to me than drinking at a bar with friends on a Saturday night (although hanging out at somebody's house seems like a good idea).

It would be nice if it wasn't an either/or situation, but alas, I think it is. In any case, despite my lack of creativity right now, I thought I ought to make a post. I ought to make a post daily, if I were really craving readership, but I'm not.

So lets see, what has gotten me feeling jazzy lately, well there is my friend Kira's site. She's been doing some fun things lately.

I just bought an after-market superdrive last night. I've been steadily upgrading an old Sawtooth over the past year into a beefy video and audio production machine, and this purchase represents the last step of that process. I have high hopes of using that DVD burner drive to store all the massive video and audio clips I can't fit on the already groaning 250 GB Hard drive I bought earlier.

Okay, boring tech talk I know, don't say I didn't warn you. Ugh, that's the best I can manage right now folks, so sorry.

Have a nice day, come again.

bzzzt

Been a long week but I thought I should get something up here. I've been fooling around with a program I read about in a magazine on the plane recently. Its called AVIDA, and they claim it isn't just a simulation of evolution but actually an instance of it. Once I got into it, I agreed. I've noticed that the Mac version works much better than the Windows version (as is usual).

Conference over: The Morning After

So after a really rocky start this conference turned out to be fairly enjoyable. I learned some good things and planted a seed on at least two interesting potential collaborations (and that's what this conference gig is all about).

I tried to see if I could escape this city earlier than I had flight reservations for. But alas, I was informed that such a flight change would cost me another 200 loonies. You have to love a country that regards money as loony. Its a wonder how anyone here can consider capitalism as a sane endeavor.

"What? You want to what? You do realize that if you sell this amazing awesome thing of yours you'll get buried in loonies right?"

Now think of it, a pool stuffed with urine-soaked, blathering, sociopathic autists, all struggling to lick the sane smell right off your arm hairs. That's it, that's capitalism in Canada, buried in loonies.

Did I mention they have some awesome healthcare here?

I spoke with a woman on the plane over here who worked as a nurse practitioner in Canada. She used to work as a nurse in the US though and so had some high-quality perspective from which to compare the healthcare systems in the two countries. I've met many nurses and only met one who occasionally annoyed me. Anyway, she predictably mentioned how all the hype in the US about how socialized healthcare leads to shitty service and long waits for life-saving care is just that; hype. Contrary to what you learn on "South Park" Canadians are not stupid people. They know what triage means and understand that letting people die in the fat-rolls of beuraucracy is a human-rights crime. If you are sick, you will be treated. You might have to wait in line to get a tattoo removed, or to get some decent hair plugs, true. However, you can't really bitch about that with any moral authority though now can you?

Our conversation eventualy led us to the high cost of healthcare in the United States. That string of words trigged a Pavlovian response about how trial lawyers are the ones to blame for that.

Before I get into that though, let me say that I also told this nurse about a movie I watched with my wife before I left. You've heard of it, "Super-size Me", the documentary about a guy who hears about the big lawsuit against McDonalds and decides to look a little deeper. He learns that the court threw the case out because of one single fact, paraphrasing; no direct evidence existed to establish that the defendants (McDonalds) products caused the health problems experienced by the plantifs (obesity, diabetes, and liver disease). So the guy decides to find that evidence by eating nothing but Mickey D's for 30 straight days. Predictably, he adds 25% to his weight, and his blood tests show progressively more dangerous symptoms of liver failure. He gets sick on the shit a few times too.

So, when most people heard of people suing McDonalds for making them fat, most folks had the same Pavlovian response I did, "oh ya another American sue-happy shit-head ruining things for all the rest of us", and "suck it up grandma". But then I learned something that really steamed me. Congress introduced a bill that would protect the fast-food industry from any additional litigation!

Now wait a gosh darn minute there. I do feel that people who don't know better than to eat McDonalds every day are being just plain ignorant and may be getting what they deserve. But what if McDonald's really is doing something insidious? What if they have invented some new high-tech addictive substance that they infuse into every cheeseburger? We ought to be able to sue them for that right? What about more pedestrian things, like that warmed-over Big Mac I had in college that put me on the toilet for two days straight (I knew it tasted wrong). I could have sued then if I had a little more awareness of the situation before I finished eating the burger. I don't think anyone would blame me for milking Mickey's teet for some genuine, negligence-inflicted pain-and-suffering.

Okay, we all know Mickey D's and all the other mega-corps own Congress so this kind of bill shouldn't surprise us. It can make us mad, but it shouldn't surprise us. We all know that the mega-corps all own the media too, and that they spend a ton of money on advertising to make make us think in a way that will make us buy more of thier shit. There it is. That's the tipping point. We Americans are an individualistic lot. We believe our power as individuals is what makes this country great and that no other power is greater. Except maybe two indivuduals, and natural disasters, and highly addictive drugs, and OH SHIT! THEY HAVE US RIGHT WHERE THEY WANT US!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ultimately, we choose our own fate. McDonalds is what they are because of us, but McDonalds is also what they are because of them. And neither entity should be entirely devoid of responsibility for the transaction.

Now, getting back to other mega-corp pseudo-propaganda advertising induced thoughts about how the trial lawyers are to blame for the high costs of health-care insurance. If I was an insurance company, and politicians were making a ton of noise about socialized health-care as being an answer to high costs, I would want the american public to blame someone else. Now lets see, who is the perfect patsy for this little plan of mine? Well, again, if I'm an insurance company, I am in the business of making money, and the only thing that stands in the way of me making more and more more money is to pay out claims, and lessee, there is one group of people who seem to cost us a pile of money in claim pay-outs, who are they now...? Oh ya! Trial Lawyers! That's it, we'll raise premiums even more to pay for a massive media campaign to paint trial lawyers as the cause for high health insurance costs! People already think that Americans sue too much so it will be easy to plant this idea! If we are lucky, we might even get some legislation passed that will not only prevent socialized medicine, but also will put limits on the people's ability to sue, thus reducing the amount of money we insurance companies can pay out! Perfect!

Think about it, if trial lawyers were the real reason behind the escalating health-care costs, don't you think we would have heard about some major insurance companies folding up like a bankrupt airline? I haven't heard of any, in fact, I think these insurance companies have gotten pretty fucking fat. They could use some rendering. I say fire the whole damn industry and then re-hire the fuckers on civil servant wages in the new Department of Universal Health Care.

Wow. I was going to write about the city of Montreal and the nifty things about this place. Somehow the above seemed more important to me.

Hiëronymus Bosch

Action Figures. Wow. want.

Stuff and Things

Right now I'm watching Margaret Cho's Revolution, she so funneee. Anyway all her ranting about SARS (Severe Asian Racism Syndrome) reminded me about this website a co-worker told me about. I think everyone who takes this test assumes they are going to get 100%. I got 50% and the site tells me "I am OK". Weee.

Then I went on to the one site I use to keep me ahead of the pop-curve. I found a link to this cool-ass tool which I am really only posting as a link now so I don't forget where I put it when I actually want to start using it here. From what I gather its basically a tool for transferring your iPhoto pics to your blog. I'm not sure how this is any better than the "export to webpage" option from iPhoto, but I haven't really looked at it enough to say one way or another.

Open the gates

We are all action figures.