Don't Look At Me!!!

Recent Reading On Technological Unemployment

2012-01-05T18:07:00.004-06:00

In the last month I read two Kindle books about the same topic: How our economy, specifically employment, is going to change in the face on increasing computer automation. Due to automation’s potential negative effect on employability, this is termed ‘technological unemployment’. The books were both excellent and flawed, each in their own way. For the purposes of this review, I think it is important to look at them simultaneously to better assess the books and to help get a ‘big picture’ view of how exactly these concerns apply to ‘the average worker’ (ie – me and you).

The books in question are

“Race Against The Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy”
And
“The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future"
The links are to the Kindle editions as that is what I read.

Both books make separate but complimentary cases for the potential negative impact of automation of the employability of the population at the current and, following trends, expected future state of things. They both succeed in making these arguments but do so to differing degrees. “Lights In The Tunnel” makes an excellent analogy of, well, lights in a tunnel that I think is one of the major accomplishments of the book. Ford should be commended for creating such an evocative and educational allegory of the modern income & consumer-driven economy. Not only does it demonstrate exactly why an economy with large unemployment is a long-term bad thing on economic grounds, he provides a great easy-to-comprehend tool for people to think about macroeconomics and how to relate big-to-small (ie – them). This is no small accomplishment.

In explaining the coming problem, “Race Against The Machine” is no less convincing but does not provide that an over-arching mental model through which to view all the potential changes that the book is attempting to make people aware of. However, their approach is far more even-handed. In “Lights…Tunnel” Ford’s tone veers towards the panicky. Not explicitly so but his attitude towards automation and view towards where it will all end up both reflect concern without much counterbalance. “Race…Machine” goes to some trouble to point out that automation’s benefits and technology’s benefits in general will act as a counter-point to some of these potential negative effects. This differing attitude in framing the problem has huge consequences when it comes to arriving at prescriptions for handling technological unemployment. I’ll talk about this in a little bit.

The macroeconomic effects of income/revenue dependence in the modern economy is pretty much the punch-line of most concerns about automation. Our consumer economy works because people get paid and use that money to buy things, profits from this are reinvested by businesses in new products and we get new innovations. This is, of course, greatly simplified but this chain of causality is important because if 1/3 of people do not earn money anymore and, in fact, are not capable of earning money ever again then it isn’t just unfortunate for them. Whole industries will cease to exist because the money is not there any more. In addition, our government's financing problems would also become infinitely worse as aside from credit (which is in the process of imploding on a fairly epic scale) the government’s main financing comes from redistributing revenue in various ways. You take that money out and how will any government services continue to work?

I actually think this is a huge, huge deal because all this talk about the Singularity requires something that pro-singularity people do not often deal with directly: In order for all these technologies to be developed a staggering about of money has to be invested in developing them. This investment can and likely will occur in a variety of ways (public/private, standard-venture-capital/kickstarter, etc) but if there is no more income in the economy then it cannot occur at all. Not every aspect of the Singularity will require it but the really, really "Rapture of the Nerds" type stuff definitely does. The other braking effect comes from fact that technologies don’t really ‘mature’ until you make 20million of something on four continents and that most of these technologies are networking-intense so their exponential power really doesn't kick in until you have a lot of them everywhere.

This is how mobile tech is today. We are getting really, really good at incorporating increasing functionality and cost-reduction into mobile devices. This maturity is being driven by the fact that everyone has phones and is willing to pay for financing those innovations. If 1/3 of people can’t pay their cell phone anymore, it doesn’t necessarily stop this innovation but it certainly would slow it down. In the case of technological unemployment, Singularity-type technologies may indeed succeed in developing in the lab but the money isn’t there to put them everywhere or to commoditize them to the extent they become ubiquitous and some of the positive networking effects are seen. What I find really strange is that in both books, even when they mention the Singularity, there's minimal discussion of these potential connections except in a very general nod to "future tech needs research today".

Another more explicable failing of both books is in regards to how they present technological unemployment’s effects on educated versus uneducated people. “Lights In The Tunnel” does better job of pointing out how education does not necessarily protect you from technological unemployment. Ford outlines a great comparison of a housemaid and a radiologist showing that, of the two, the radiologist is far, far more replaceable. “Race Against The Machine” points out the negative effects to the uneducated in quite overwrought terms but doesn’t spend a much time dealing with the fact that certain educated, professional jobs are equally in danger. Where both books fail rather spectacularly is in the prescriptions. Both treat education as if it were magic. If only enough people were educated, then they would be less replaceable. Neither really bother to prove or justify this assertion. For “Race Against The Machine” it’s more forgivable but “Lights In The Tunnel” actively points out how education will not necessarily be protection and then Ford proscribes more of it. It is a pretty dissonant step that decreased the effectiveness of Ford’s argument in general (to me anyway, obviously YMMV).

As stated earlier, the differing frames for the problem especially in light of how “Race…Machine” actively acknowledges the potential positives of Singularity technologies, greatly affect the prescriptions offered in the two works. Ford, while far superior at presenting the problem in an evocative and specific manner, takes quite a negative perspective. We can’t stop technological unemployment only therefore our only option is to delay it long enough to forcibly "freeze" our economy into an income-based one. Basically, use income redistribution to mimic the existing system but without employment. This involves the usual suspects of income redistribution and state control a la Platonic guidance and goodness. It also struck me as completely infeasible to implement and demonstrably unworkable in practice. While “Lights” predates “Race…Machine” and therefore its more simplistic analysis is perhaps excusable for that reason, “Lights” single biggest failing is in its prescriptions. They are so unimaginative, reflexive and ultimately, about preserving the status quo at all costs in the face of immeasurable dislocations that it resulted, in my case at least, in a real let-down of an ending.

Perhaps Ford wished to reduce the amount of ‘new’ or ‘wild’ ideas in the book. But, I think that no matter the historical success of transaction/income based economies it is completely fair to ask "In light of new technological possibilities, do non-income economies become more feasible or more possible and what are the possibilities there?". Both books actually fail to really think about this problem. Ford because I think he was more focused on promoting awareness of this problem without perhaps following through in thinking on solutions. “Race..Machine” acknowledges the unpredictability and complexity of divergent economies via implied associations with non-commercial developments such as Wikipedia. They also do a good job of justifying entrepreneurship on the grounds that the best way to try lots of things and see which are useful is to make it easy for innovators to innovate. But, because this is a scholarly audience and people are generally skeptical about questioning historically proven ideas, they do not really question the income/transaction based model either. I don’t really think we need to tear down the present system (it is in many ways quite fantastic). However, in light of potential game-changers, re-examining key assumptions could be quite useful.

The redistribution of incomes also ignores one consequence of Singularity developments and that is the rise of the “Sovereign Individual”. Right now our redistribution system in the US is highly dependent on star-performers. It works because we have a lot of successful people. But, these are also likely some of the first people to effectively become "Sovereign Individuals" and in doing so, become less bound by state control as it were. This is a huge wild-card factor. Any system proposed to "fix" technological unemployment via redistribution or some state control scheme to forcibly maintain the income-transaction-taxation system will have to intelligently address the new capabilities of star-performers. I'm not just referring to malicious evasions either. Star-performers could innovate services traditionally performed by government. Think the current troubles of the U.S. Post Office magnified by several orders of magnitude.

I will acknowledge that my own libertarian inclinations undoubtedly affect my opinions of Ford’s plan. However, to me, it really seemed that after spending a couple chapters outlining the wild, new and counter-intuitive aspects of the problem of technological unemployment, Ford just phoned-in the prescriptions.

“Race Against The Machine” by comparison, manages to acknowledge the inevitability of at least parts of the Singularity but take a far more innovative and optimistic stance. They actively point out how automation is not a fix-all. They deal with what aspects of our jobs aren’t currently threatened but might be and what involves significant innovations whose solutions are not apparent at present. The authors of “Race Against The Machine” demonstrate significantly more thoroughness in their recommendations because they are actively attempting to make these changes a net positive and do so in a manner that gives far more credence to how people actually behave, what is likely to become public policy and potential interactions between non-economic or non-technological factors for which they cannot properly account. The only prescription which fails in these respects is the education one which I already discussed.

Overall, I would say both works are thought-provoking enough, despite their flaws that they are definitely worth their respective prices. In fact, since reading them, these works have prompted a large degree of consideration on this idea of a ‘Singularity’, the possibilities involved, my own concerns and how people can get a handle on these potentialities. These thoughts are beyond the scope of this review but I am intrigued, curious and eager to learn more. Therefore, in terms of promoting thought and discussion on technological unemployment and the Singularity, both books more than succeed.

Full post here.

3rd Party Shippers & Amazon: Stress That I Do Not Need During The Holidays

2011-12-21T16:29:00.007-06:00

Tried to order a gift-card from Amazon last weekend. Got "assigned" a crappy third party shipper called "Ensenda" who are known failures at delivering packages, you know, on time. Surprise, surprise. They managed to be unable to deliver my package even though UPS & FedEx have managed to do so under similar circumstances before.

Attempted to file a negative review on Amazon & received a polite email informing me that Amazon could not post my review because it violated their guidelines. After careful review of guidelines, I realized that yes I did violate the guidelines. Now, I do not contest Amazon's right to have review guidelines. The problem is that the guidelines in question forbid discussion of shipping or packaging issues and my recommendation to buy elsewhere if you are assigned "Ensenda". Obviously, the latter is something Amazon would be opposed to and I wouldn't have any problem removing just that. Except, guess what, I have a shipping & packaging issue. So, clearly Amazon reviews are not the forum to air my grievance. Again, I do not think Amazon is in the wrong for this particular thing.

So, since I have this weblog, I decided that posting here was far preferable to editing the key portions of my dissatisfaction out of my review. I am going to post my review unaltered as I submitted it with the exception of Amazon header information which should probably not be used by me in this context.

2day shipping pointless if you use crappy 3rd party shipper

December 21, 2011

While you would think delivering a giftcard is a relatively straightforward affair, Amazon chose to out-source their delivery of my Christmas giftcard to notorious screw-up delivery service called "Ensenda". If you see this as a shipper for your Amazon sale, cancel immediately and order the item elsewhere!

I ordered 2 items to be sent to my workplace. One shipped UPS & I received with no problems. The gift-card shipped Ensenda and I have not received it. Ensenda attempting delivery to my workplace which was apparently quite baffling for them. They noted in their tracking information that "destination was closed". Yes, my office is closed at 7:30pm. HOWEVER, we have 24hr security and they are authorized to accept deliveries &/or sign for packages. Both UPS & FedEX routinely make after-hours deliveries to my office location with no problems whatsoever.

When I inquired with Security, they said that they do not turn away after hours deliveries and are able to sign for packages. Security provided logs showing no record of an attempted delivery at the time Ensenda stated the attempt was made. Now, my office is shutdown for the year and I highly doubt the package will ever be delivered, much less in time for Christmas. My only options are either tonight waiting in the cold by the apparently intimidating gate of our work property or re-ordering the gift-card in a printed format (that avoids this shipping fiasco) and eating the $40 I spent on this gift-card. Because the package is "en route" Amazon will not let me cancel the order.

In the future, I will avoid ordering physical goods from Amazon as long as Ensenda is a potential shipper (you won't know until the package is en route). The holidays are quite stressful enough without having to deal with Amazon hiring no-name shippers to deliver their packages.

PS - Amazon customer service gave the following excuse: "ENSENDA tracking information shows they attempted delivery on December 20, 2011 but couldn't leave your gift card unattended due to their delivery policies." How exactly is a delivery to a security guard considered "unattended"? If it's good enough for UPS & FedEx, why not Ensenda? And if a 3rd party shipper has more strenuous delivery requirements, shouldn't the customer be informed of that?

*****************************************************
That's my super-negative review of Ensenda's performance. Again, I do not have a problem with Amazon guidelines on reviews preventing the posting of said review on their site. It's their site; they pay for the bandwidth so they get to make that call. Thankfully, I have the option (via this blog) to share my review anyway that way the key issue: 'Ensenda shipping sucks' is publicly shared.

My problem is with Amazon out-sourcing to 3rd party shippers with variable performance. I was not kidding about skipping orders of physical goods in the future. I am an Amazon Prime member, mainly for the benefits of 2-day shipping. If Amazon chooses to use a shipper which cannot deliver reliably in 2-days on specious and easily disprovable grounds, then what value-added am I getting from my Amazon prime membership?

Now, I went ahead and re-ordered a printable gift card. I did not get one initially because I think that they look cheap. But cheap-looking & physically present is far, far preferable to slightly less cheap-looking and completely unavailable for Christmas gift exchange. I do not have the time to lie in wait at a closed office for a delivery truck that may or may not show up. Again, I deliver to work address specifically because someone is always physically present to receive packages. In all my years of ordering from Amazon, I have never gotten a failure to deliver at work no matter the time of day. But again, that was with actual, professional shippers and not these Ensenda yahoos.

Permalink here

SOPA: Enabling & Facilitating The Death Of Internet Innovation

2011-11-07T20:20:00.008-06:00

WARNING! After not posting in forever & a day, I'm breaking my dry spell with a mega-post. Double-warning - no cut-tag on this one. I may only get a hundred or so people a week but you are should be aware of what Congress is up to.

Many people have dissected the proposed SOPA bill before the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. I am not here to rehash all of those arguments as others have made compelling cases regarding the problems with this bill. Today, I am going to explain what I find to be the worst portion of the bill, and why that portion is a fundamental danger to the internet and our future as an innovative society. There is a phrasing in this law which potentially endangers the entire Internet: every site, every domain, every single aspect up to and including the US government’s own websites. Several articles I read mentioned that this phrasing is a concern but to me, it is the most broad and most dangerous portion of the proposed bill.

People may find it ridiculous that I'm getting worked up about three little words but court rulings have been decided based upon slight turns of phrase buried in the text of a law. The fact that everyone supporting this bill believes their own web presence exempt from this clause reflects a nauseating hubris resulting from a combination of entitlement, technological or economic ignorance and knowing corruption of our legal system.

Let’s get to the clause in question. I’m going to include the preliminary stuff to give you some context but the key phrase will be bolded.

“(a) DEFINITIONS.-In this section:
(1) DEDICATED TO THEFT OF U.S. PROPERTY.-An “Internet site is dedicated to theft of U.S. property” if –
(A) it is an Internet site, or a portion thereof, that is a U.S.-directed site and is used by users within the United States; and
(B) either-
(i) the U.S.-directed site is primarily designed or operated for the purpose of, has only limited purpose or use other than, or is marketed by its operator or another acting in concert with that operator for use in, offering goods or services in a manner that engages in, enables, or facilitates-“(1)

The text goes on to list various violations of trade-mark and copyright laws. Now, if you do not know anything about either IP or information technologies this may seem sensible. But this phrasing is the exact opposite of sensible because it ignores two key facts.

One, all intellectual property is information. IP is a legally recognized monopoly on segments of information consisting of either designs (encoded as CAD, drawings, etc) cultural artifacts (encoded as songs, pictures, videos), processes (encoded as services optimized for most-useful function) or objects (encoded as physical goods). So any law regulating IP is ultimately about regulating who gets to control what information and who gets to replicate or make profitable use of that information. This post is not arguing against doing this.

Secondly, all information technologies, the best known and largest being the Internet, are by design and intent about the sharing, copying and distribution of information. The initial purpose of networking was to communicate with and share computer resources among mainly scientific users at the connected institutions. This information-sharing default is not a historical factoid with no relevance today. For a number of the sponsors of this bill advertise their IT products or advocate other IT products which also help people share information. For example:

A number of this bill's sponsors share their IP via Hulu. From Hulu’s website:

Mission
Hulu's mission is to help people find and enjoy the world's premium video content when, where and how they want it. As we pursue this mission, we aspire to create a service that users, advertisers and content owners unabashedly love.(2)

The entire purpose of Hulu is to make information protected under IP laws available to the public. It exists to share information of a cultural nature.

Circling this square of two contradictory facts, and ultimately two fundamentally different economic models, will be a very important political and economic adaptation in the twenty-first century. Especially since information is neither industry-specific nor commercially-specific. We tend to be aware of information-proliferation effects on the entertainment industry but that is because its profits are the most dependent on perceived information-scarcity. However, every single business on the entire planet is affected by information technologies. Also important, every single cultural and political sphere is equally affected because all social networks are ultimately, information networks. This is exactly why information technology is quite so transformative and why it is also quite so destabilizing. Again, getting this balance between tolerating the old until we can transition to the new (or determining if we do not want to transition particularly valued portions of the old) is pretty much the Great Big Deal of our times.

So, we have this ongoing question of how to balance between two seemingly contradictory industry structures. Into this debate, our lawmakers have given us SOPA with its "enables or facilitates" criteria for illegality. This annihilates a balanced approach to our two contradictory structures. Again, every single information-sharing technology ever meets the criteria of “enables or facilitates”. EVERY ONE. Every webpage, every domain, every database, every peer-to-peer network, all of it regardless of the amount of actual infringing being performed on or using these tools. Every single one of those companies listed as sponsors is also a violator of this standard because every single one enables or facilitates information exchange via information technologies cited in this law. And if you enable or facilitate exchange of information, then it becomes possible to exchange (legally or not) IP which is nothing more than a protected category of information. This bill does not provide IP owners the ability to destroy those who violate IP law; SOPA gives whomsoever can afford legal counsel the opportunity to destroy websites based upon the physical possibility of IP infringement absent any other proof of wrongdoing. This would cover every single site on the entire Internet.

I know what supporters of this bill will say, “But that’s ridiculous! We only mean sites which break the law!” But, and this is important, that is NOT what the law actually states. “Enables, or facilitates” does not require that IP laws are broken only that the violation of the laws cited is enabled or facilitated. Again, all web sites, by inherent definition and function, including those of the bill’s sponsors, meet this standard.

Wait a minute! I’m ignoring something. Elsewhere in Sec.104 of SOPA we find that in order to get these take-down injunctions the submitter must include:

“...under penalty of perjury, that the signatory is authorized to act on behalf of the holder of the intellectual property right harmed by activities described in subsection (a)(1)” (3)

Well, that solves everything, right? Because copyright holders never submitted frivolous or wrong-headed take-down notices. Being major corporations, they would not be terribly burdened by the occasional court costs imposed for being a little too aggressive. Especially compared to IT start-ups or mom-and-pop business who can't blow money on litigation with no revenue coming in without ending up in bankruptcy court. Also, RIGHTHAVEN. A company proved NOT to own the copyrights in question managed to shake-down dozens of people for who knows how much money before getting caught. How much worse would it have been if RightHaven could have brought whole sites down first? How many small business owners could be extorted before they were caught?

Nothing in the this clause actually delimits the “enables or facilitates” to portions of sites or users of sites actually violating the IP laws cited. Someone, who is a legitimate IP representative, could file these injunctions against a site not for violating their IP law but for “enabling or facilitating” a violation of their IP law. This is the key. You do not have to actually commit IP infringement to get these injunctions placed upon you. And anyone who makes an argument about judges not allowing frivolous injunctions – how are they to determine the facts when they only have the plaintiff’s accusations to go on? An injunction is issued prior to the defendant being told about it not after you have had the opportunity to contest the claim and failed.

Now, supporters of this bill all claim that this level of regulation is necessary to stop “real companies [from] being bled to death by these foreign IP-thieves” (note the hand-waving over the fact this bill also regulates domestic sites). This would be significantly more believable if these same bill sponsors hadn't just issued the “Copyright Industries In The US Economy” Report which basically says theses same poor, put upon industries are somehow, despite being threatened by every website ever, making absolutely bagfuls of money. All that profit does not exactly justify broad extrajudicial powers to protect these guys. If they are doing fine, why do they need this law? Especially since content-sharing industries based on IP-law exceptions are actually a pretty significant boom to our economy as well.

The problem is that none of these pro-SOPA folks are honestly dealing with the elephant in the room: A great many business-models are based around the scarcity of information in time and space. No industry more so than entertainment. So, you have a global information network which eliminates the scarcity all of these businesses are based on and, surprise! They want to control it. Of course they do. Control = Forced Scarcity. With this control, their business model survives and so do they.

More importantly, this level of control means that anyone who wants to do business on the internet has to go through them, the self-selected gate-keepers, first. Innovators have to make “gentleman’s agreements” with this protection racket in order not to be threatened by these take-downs. These same innovators will be forced to make these deals from a negotiating position of extreme and government-enforced weakness. Anyone who attempts to threaten an information-scarce-based organization, political or commercial, without breaking the IP laws cited does not get to compete fairly against these scarcity-based models because whomsoever is most threatened by a legal information-proliferating competitor can file a take-down injunction against them under the “enables, or facilitates” criteria. Anyone who denies this possibility simply has not been paying attention to how IP law actually operates in our courts.

If a patent or copyright troll can hack existing law to extort people for money, what do you think they will do with an opening like this one? One which does not require the breaking of IP laws, but only the possibility that such violations could occur.

This is of course, a ridiculously broad criteria. And the second you start applying it elsewhere, that becomes very clear. For example, it is physically possible for me to run over people with my car. Doing so is rightfully illegal and morally wrong. However, I am not required, every time I purchase or use a car, to swear under penalty of perjury that I will not do this. Pedestrians cannot sue me based on the physical possibility of me injuring them with my vehicle, only if I do in fact injure them. The current text of SOPA, via “enables or facilitates”, is not so restrained. This broadness is exactly what all information-scarcity based organizations want. The broader the criteria of control, the better they will be able to control the marketplace rather than compete within the marketplace.

What is most face-palm-inducing about this is how little any of these organizations, companies or even the government itself realize that this law threatens them. Any portion of the web meets these criteria, including the parts SOPA's sponsors currently own or control. Each and every one of them are equally bound by “enables, or facilitates.” The difference is organizations like the MPAA operate under the principle that “he who has the best lawyers, wins.” They pay big money to have the best lawyers (and the best members of Congress). So, in creating this law as it is written, Rep. Smith, far from promoting “prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation”, is more accurately promoting “rent-seeking, extortion, litigious behavior and stagnant economic growth due to technology innovation slowdown”.

In some respects, I almost hope this law passes as is. Because I would pay for tickets to a trial some of these companies when it comes the IP battles that they start and fight with each other all the freaking time. Do they really think that their constant on-going IP suits against each other won’t extend to this law? Do they really trust each other not to use every legal tool available to win these lawsuits?

Which is another horrible future allowed by this law: One of IP trade-wars where companies, who routinely sue each other for patent or copyright infringement, now have a new tool in their legal arsenal to go after each other. While this would be amusing to watch, the legal costs of fighting these battles would likely be passed along to consumers or taxpayers. Additionally, site-shutdowns would endanger anyone whose livelihoods depend on websites, ads on websites and/or online payment providers. All that is right there in the text of “enables or facilitates”. All that is being pointedly ignored by these trade organizations because all of them believe that “enables or facilitates” ultimately, does not apply to them.

This hand-waving over “enables or facilitates” and insistence that, no matter the actual text of the law, it won’t be abused is why I am completely furious to share a state with Rep. Smith. Because you are giving today’s industries veto-power over tomorrow’s industries. You will not continue on the internet unless you get permission to exist first from some vested interest and your continued survival will entirely depend on cultivating that toleration. Again, I don’t give a damn about what anyone of the writers or sponsors of the bill intend. Laws and litigation are not often about intention; they are about what the text of the law actually says and allows. And, for SOPA the text of states “enables or facilitates” IP infringement NOT “actually commits or advocates the commission of the IP crimes listed below”.

Doubly ridiculous is how this bills’ supporters in Congress are being disingenuous about the scope of this law in regards to politics, elections and free speech. Because this same standard applies to government and political websites. The Department of Homeland Security recently got caught using a PSA video for which they likely did not have the appropriate copyright licensing. Members of Congress routinely use copyrighted materials in crafting campaign or position advocacy videos. Again, copyright law is very complex. It is easy to make a innocent misstep, especially if you’re a campaign staffer who does not specialize in IP issues. Do members of Congress really want to run the risk of accidentally having a copyright violation and, in the middle of an election campaign, having their websites and web-based campaign finance machine shut-down?

Again, each and every one of them is either ignorant of this possibility or thinks themselves above it. Now, D/R Establishment politicians would probably have a vested interest in not using this law against each other and they possess the lobbyist connections or experience to prevent this. But what about political outsiders like Tea-Party primary challengers or the Green Party or third party candidates in general? Establishment politicians see these kind of challenges as threats to their power base. This law empowers Establishment-supporting IP-holders with a rather specific tool to take down amateurs in the political arena, again because the criteria are so broad that it is not a question of who is violating IP law, but rather of, who doesn’t have the resources to stop us from litigating them out of existence? Who does “enables or facilitates” empower and who does it burden?

Now, again, I’ll probably get a lot of song-and-dance about IP infringers and darknets. If this law actually targeted those sites and people who actually break IP laws, then I would have no problem with it. Frankly, including commercial aspects of a web-site in take-down is a smart improvement for combating actual rogue sites and actual rogue users of popular sites. If the law targeted these people and only these people, then I would not be writing this post. But, “enables or facilitates” is such a gaping-wide criteria that the entire IT industry is under the gun. Again, this is not hyperbole because:

IP = Information (valuable because scarce or difficult to apply in valuable manner)

IT=Information-proliferating (reduces economic and political value of scarce information by making it common and easily shared/implemented but information also gains value due to network effects, commercial or social)

SOPA encodes into law is not a “targeted killing” of IP-infringers or IP-infringing websites but rather an ongoing threat of nuclear bombardment regardless of actual, provable wrong-doing in the hands of people who routinely sue grandmothers and get caught abusing the existing DMCA take-downs process (for example).

The important thing for the average citizen to understand is that none of these sponsors, political or commercial, has any incentive to interpret “enables or facilitates” narrowly. Information-proliferating technologies undermine entire industries on a structural level. These sponsors are big, unwieldy organizations and the people who benefit from their financing, all of which are at risk in the changing marketplace of default information-proliferation. This law means they don’t have to bother with adapting to these changes anymore. “Enables or facilitates” encodes into law “some (industries/politicians) are more equal than others” by empowering vested interests. “Enables or facilitates” takes the decision of who succeeds in this brave, new world out of the hands of the market and the consumer. It then places the IT marketplace, and all that transformative possibility, in the hands of lawyers and anyone with the deep pockets to pay them.

Now, you may think this overhanging threat is a good thing because it will keep people in line. People won't pirate when they could lose whole sites. But again, “enables or facilitates” does not threaten only those who violate IP law; it threatens everyone who is physically capable of violating IP law which in an Internet connected world is EVERYONE. This is because every single webpage, server, social network, peer-to-peer file sharer, campaign website, advocacy group, industry website, EVERY SINGLE ONE is designed to "enable or facilitate" the exchange of information. And again, all intellectual property is ultimately information. If you enable or facilitates the sharing of information then by design you are enabling or facilitating the sharing of intellectual property.

That’s the true extent of “enables or facilitates.” That’s the terrifying breadth of this law and ultimately, I fear, that is exactly what the industry supporters want. Because nothing terrifies any corporation more than being outmaneuvered by the marketplace. A lot of these bills sponsors feel out of control in an interconnected world. This is not an irrational fear nor should we dismiss it entirely. These companies have thus far succeeded in providing what people are willing to pay for. But the marketplace is an tempestuous, ever-changing mistress. Businesses come and go all the time. This is a reality that every business must deal with. These sponsors have been caught flat-footed by technology developments before and do not want it to happen again.

However, in a free market system, creative destruction is a fact of life. Of course, arguments could be made that we do not truly have a market-system anymore. Obviously, when the government intervenes in the banking, automotive and aviation industries in order to pick who survives and who doesn’t, then clearly, the market is being manipulated. As it is currently written, SOPA becomes just one more example of these sort of interventions. “Enables or facilitates” is exactly the tool by which the marketplace for ideas or money could be short-circuited. “Enables or facilitates” ultimately means that whether in politics or business, you either are deemed non-threatening to vested interests and are left alone OR you are labeled a threat and because of “enables or facilitates” vested interests can use their legal and institutional clout to make you disappear instead of having to compete with you.

If Congress wants to protect intellectual property, that’s great. This transition from information-scarcity to information-proliferation does not have to be dangerously disruptive. Striking a good balance between intellectual property and information technologies is a smart way to improve both old and new alike. So, how about Congress write a law that actually does strike that balance? That actually treats intellectual property holders and innovative technology companies like they are equal partners in creating a profitable, diverse marketplace of ideas and money? Because, as it is written, SOPA is not balanced or really even about protecting intellectual property. The actual text of SOPA is about giving legacy industries veto power of how the Internet should be used and how it should develop far, far beyond protecting their intellectual property.

Notes:
(1) Found in Section 104 of the bill. This phrasing is repeated in a similar form in Sec.103(a)(2) for foreign-based web sites as well (keyword “facilitates”). Meaning the U.S. Congress is applying the standard everywhere.

(2) How does this “enable or facilitate” IP infringement? Streaming videos on the internet can be retrieved from sites like Hulu in a number of ways. Hypothetically, let us say that an IP holder licensed their material to be shared via Hulu and later discovered users had stolen it provably from Hulu. If they believed that Hulu did not do everything the IP holder considered technically necessary to protect their IP, they could conceivably sue Hulu under “enables or facilitates” clause. Because Hulu is about, well, sharing videos Hulu would bear a high burden of proof regarding how they could be expected to both share videos and prevent the sharing of videos. That's how insanely crazy broad the "enables or facilitates" standard is.

(3) SOPA, Section 104(b)(4)(A)(vii)

Suddenly Feel Like Blogging Again...

2011-08-13T13:06:00.002-06:00

Returning from the void to share more opinions. The past 2yrs have been a bit crazy but I kinda missed doing this.

As a 'welcome back me!" exercise, NPR recently put together a list of the "Top 100 Science-Fiction Fantasy Books". Below in bold are the ones that I've read....

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson - Started this but only got 1/3 of the way through
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks - In my "To-Read" pile
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson - Started this & hated it
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks - Am reading the first book in the series, "Consider Phlebas" now....
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

Hmmmm....47 of 100. I really thought it would be higher. Guess I have some reading to do...

Are You Freakin' Kidding?!

2009-11-10T06:08:00.003-06:00

Washington University shuts down End of Communism memorial. Because reminding people about the horrors of the gulag & communism's obscene death toll is "too offensive". WTF?

(Twitter pics here of the protest which seem fairly typical in terms on on-campus protest outrageousness)

Moving Notes

2009-11-08T19:34:00.004-06:00

So, I'm in the final throes of my moving preparations. Hopefully, by this time next week I will be forevermore done with apartments. In the process of cleaning, packing, etc, I've noticed several things:

1) I am the kind of person who packs their rock collection more carefully than their breakables. Which is completely reasonable! Those rocks are the unique outcomes of millions of years of geologic history than I can never hope to duplicate. I can always go to Pier One if I break a vase.

2) You become attached to the strangest things...like my largest Tupperware bowl. This thing is ancient. It went with me to college. This was the first large "serving bowl" I ever owned. When I went to place it in the give-away pile, I almost couldn't do it. To appease my guilt, I used it one last time to make green-bean casserole. Still, I feel like I'm abandoning an old friend.

3) WHY DO I KEEP EVERY SCRAP OF PAPER THAT PASSES THROUGH MY HANDS????!!!!! I had notes from Junior High School classes, fortune cookies from I-dont-know-when, passing notes written between my friends from freshman year of high school. WHY?! I went through several garbage bags just getting rid of all the crap.

4) I buy a lot of blankets. Somehow, I did not realize this until I cleaned out my linens cabinet (it's amazing how many blankets you can cram into that tiny little space). I know I do not need 7+ afghans...Somehow I must attempt to remember this when I am confronted with them in the store.

5) Culling my book collection resulted in some odd choices. I have no problem ditching romance novels but I will rarely part with a science-fiction book even if I hated it (*cough*"Looking Backward"*cough*). However, the hardest choices were the older books that I've had since I was a child. I went through a Joan Lowery Nixon stage when I was like 10 & I still had them. All those crap Junior High School reading books like "Light In The Forest" are finally gone. But I just couldn't part with "Terror In the Tomb Of Death" or "The Reluctant God".

6) In a fit of nostalgia & practicality, I cooked my last full meal in my apartment tonight. If you can call dumping anything vaguely Asian from the fridge & pantry into a pot, adding sesame oil & soy sauce until the bottles empty, putting it in high and hoping for the best "cooking". It was tasty though.

Interpersonal Decency FAIL

2009-10-19T17:39:00.005-06:00

I would like to propose a hypothesis: Anyone who needs advice on whether to remain friends with people who mistreat them as horribly as this, has irredeemable self-worth issues. I'm not talking modern wishy-washy self-esteem issues but a complete blindness to the idea that your person has a worth and that your person is worth the effort to defend, comfort, and preserve.

That's totally aside from the complete failure of human decency exemplified by the deceptively-title "advice columnist". Many people around the web have commented on that perspective. However, I'd rather just note that to me friendship means you find a person worthy in some way of your time, companionship and private emotional life. And, presumably, they reciprocate. That's what makes people friends.

This woman, in needing to ask if she should remain friends with two women who obviously don't think she's worth the least inconvenience, expresses uncertainty herself as to whether she's worth getting up out of bed in the wee hours of the morning and being comforted. Think about that. I don't know this woman's history or any facts which would explain how she believes her friendship, those unique aspects of herself that only certain people know, is worth so little. I fear that her suspicions of her low-worth were so heartily confirmed by the columnist, who is irrevocably on my list of "Indecent Losers". Because it is fundamentally indecent to treat people like they are worthless, like no trauma or strain in their lives could possibly trump a broken fingernail in yours. And I mean "indecent" in the old-fashioned sense of the word. While I generally prefer our more informal free-wheeling times, when it comes to respecting the value of the person you're with (or at least showing respect), a little bit of propriety does a lot of good.

Maybe my opinion is influenced by the fact that I'm such an extremely introverted person. When socializing at all is so high stress, than you only choose to do it when it's really worth it to you. That's how I view my friendships. These are people who are worth my time and my private thoughts, whose companionship offers something unique that trumps the stress I sometimes feels when I am around others. From this introvert's point of view, why would I bother to befriend someone if I don't think they are worth doing inconvenient stuff for occasionally? Why would I befriend someone who doesn't think I'm worth driving to a hospital after I've been roofied?

From this comment on a blogpost about the column, here's another pertinent thought:

what to make of Rosenfeld’s comment that late-night help is only expected of husbands or boyfriends, not mere girlfriends? Lovely thought, that: “Unless someone’s having sex with you, don’t expect them to give the slightest damn about your well-being.”

My inner feminist weeps angrily.

Just thoughts, somewhat unfocused...

Blog? What blog?

2009-10-17T10:24:00.002-06:00

Between my Xbox haze, work and scrambling to get moved before the end of November, I've been quite negligent in my blogging duties. 5 months worth! Jeez, my backlog of PotW alone will take forever to get posted. I'll be typing those up for a massive series of catch-up posts sometime in the next week.

To get my through my social media drought, I've been listening to:

CDs
Creaturesque "Throw Me A Statue"
Eli "Paperboy" Reed & The True Loves "Roll With You"
Mt. St. Helen's Vietnam Band "Mt. St. Helen's Vietnam Band"
MC Yogi "Elephant Power"

Songs
Royksopp "The Girl & The Robot"
Apocalyptica "Inquisition Symphony"
Bomba Estereo "Fuego"
Infected Mushroom "Smashing The Opponent"
The Apples In Stereo "Energy"

More (hopefully) sooner than later...

Everything Really Is Better With Zombies

2009-05-30T13:07:00.002-06:00

Completely unable to resist the allure of the evil undead, I bought “Pride And Prejudice And Zombies” recently. While it was somewhat jarring reading, overall, I quite liked the book. And zombies really do make everything better. In full post, there are many spoilers as I discuss the changes that I liked and (a few) that I didn’t.

Overall: Worth reading if you enjoyed the original and don’t mind some gore.
(Slight aside: I can't believe I didn't have a "zombies" tag until now!)

Changes I Really Liked:

1) Wickham really got his and voluntarily too! Lydia still gets off scott-free and totally delusional (as in the original – oh how I long for a story where she becomes more than a caricature).

2) Mr. Bennett is made into the early nineteenth century version of a gentlemen survivalist nut. When zombies take over, every gentlemen in England apparently went flocking to the Orient to learn proper beheading skills in order to protect their families. Bennett however, decided the best way to protect five daughters was if they could protect themselves (“Girls, Pentagram of Death!” - hehehe). Of all the changes, this felt like the most natural progression from the original novel.

3) Lady Catherine & her ninjas – making her a legendary zombie-killing bad-ass was a really good call. Without that, the new Elizabeth’s toleration of her behavior would have been completely out of character. Plus, I really liked how completely disposable those ninjas were. No matter the problem she had, Lady Catherine always just threw some ninjas at it. Don’t like Elizabeth? Goad her into dueling your ninjas. Angry Mr. Darcy won’t marry your daughter? Send your ninjas to invade Pemberly. So very in keeping with her personality.

4) Mary was a lot more interesting as a dedicated warrior who never married (but still developed a few relationships with the soldiers protecting the countryside). I especially liked how when it appeared that Wickham had kidnapped Lydia, both she & Kitty swore to kill him and then spent the whole debacle in the dojo devising slow, painful ways to fulfill their oath. Mary was still utterly embarrassing but somehow more sisterly than I remember from the original.

5) They gave Darcy a sense of humor, especially when having to deal with Miss Bingley. While it was done with some ribald jokes, they managed to show that the only way a Mr. Darcy trained in combat could NOT kill Caroline Bingley where she stood was to make fun of her without her knowing. That the author gave Elizabeth just enough knowledge of sex to get the jokes actually helped justify her change of mind later. In the original, this always seems a little abrupt but here, where no matter her opinion on Darcy she at least respects his fighting skills and his ability to toy with Miss Bingley without her catching on, it works.

6) Whatever Mr. Collins’ other flaws, he did care for the woman he married and was devastated by the act of killing her to spare her becoming a full zombie. I liked how it was done off screen and the characters were caught up enough in their own drama that they didn’t dwell on it. In a world overrun by zombies, it is just one more tragedy.

7) They managed to make Jane a 100% believable zombie-killer while changing absolutely none of her personality as a generally good, kind-hearted person. Prior to reading this book, I would have never believed this possible.

8) The fact that zombies, driven mad by hunger for brains, easily mistake cauliflower for their favorite organ and can be trapped thusly.

9) The “Literary Questions” at the end of the novel were hilarious! Just like re-printed classics which try to spur on classroom discussion with talking points, these questions for the most part focused on the strange, dual nature of the characters as zombie killers and members of the English gentry. Although, my favorite: "Does Mrs. Bennett have a single redeeming quality?"

Changes I Did NOT Like:

1) In a book where the deprivations of the undead are universally condemned, not the least for eating human flesh, I could have done without Elizabeth taking a bite from the heart of Lady Catherine’s ninja that she killed while dueling and dreaming quite so specifically about drinking blood from Mr. Darcy’s skull as vengeance for his wrongs against Jane. It did little to distinguish her from her friend, Charlotte’s descent into zombie-dom.

2) They made Mrs. Gardiner unfaithful to her husband for no reason whatsoever. In some respects, the Gardiners are supposed to be the foil for the Bennetts, everything that the latter couple is not. This is both to represent that Elizabeth does have a clear example of a successful marriage nearby and to demonstrate to Mr. Darcy that not all of the Bennett relatives are embarrassing. By making Mrs. Gardiner so careless, they undermine the importance of that marriage in being both a catalyst and a standing example for Mr. Darcy’s & Elizabeth’s burgeoning affections.

Still, these two are fairly minor quibbles in a quite satisfying book.

Poem of the Week #20

2009-05-30T12:19:00.002-06:00

Very Late but with 2 BONUS! Haiku...

A:
Bewildered drifting
Metal arcs frozen, silent
In pain evermore.

B:
Imposition great
That no puppy eyes can cure.
Plants are enough work.

C:
Blue/orange hoops dangle
Required & exacting much;
I leap - to what end?

BONUS! 1
Buttons stick with sweat.
Sensors hum, all out of tune.
These are excuses!

BONUS! 2
Gems of power gleam
With hues too varies and wild.
I need order, thrice.

Enjoy!

My Memorial Day Spree

2009-05-25T19:45:00.003-06:00

So, in commemoration of our fallen veterans, I purchased a Xbox this weekend & “Guitar Hero: World Tour”. Needless to say, I have been having lots of fun. While setting up & using the Xbox & game was a total cinch, I did have some trouble with purchasing the GHWT game. Basically, I wasn’t paying attention in the store and just grabbed what I knew I wanted & checked out. I got home, set up my Xbox, turned to the “Guitar Hero” box and went “Why does it say Playstation 2?....Shit.” Thankfully, “Best Buy” was very understanding and let me exchange it but I felt like the biggest idiot because it says “Playstation 2” in about half a dozen locations all over the box. HOW COULD I HAVE MISSED THAT?!

“Guitar Hero” is awesome btw. I’m not very good but the game is so fun that I don’t care. Only, I have no endurance. I’ve got maybe an hour’s worth of play in me and then my hands whether from drums or guitar are just done. And I need a decent stool for the drum set. I was just sitting on my coffee table but that’s really uncomfortable after a while, especially for songs where you have to use the foot pedal a lot. Also, there is nothing better in the world than playing drums for Foreigner's "Hot-Blooded".

I also joined X-Box Live, originally to download new music for "Guitar Hero" but I quickly began downloading games from the arcade & ODing on demos. The best of which (by far) was the "Portal" demo. Dear God, that was AWESOME!!! As soon as I get some more Points, I'm downloading the full game. It was just wonderfully interesting and creepy and it's a game about solving puzzles with PORTALS! Who wouldn't like that?!

PS - I know there should be a PotW#20 posted by now but Sunday night, instead of writing poems, I stayed up until 3am trying for a PuzzleMode Achievement in "Bejeweled 2" (and, eventually, got it). The Poem will be up later in the week.

Poem of the Week #19

2009-05-22T15:08:00.002-06:00

Very, very late. But here goes:

PotW #19

A gleefully blank day flies.
My hands awhirl, carefully
Selecting hues & pieces
For walls unknown & nowhere,
Except a vague "someday" soon.

Bonus Haiku (as penance for lateness)
Blinking cursor sits -
Daring and cue-less to me;
A tool out of reach.

Overheard At Work, pt 19

2009-05-22T15:04:00.003-06:00

Released from work a little early, plan to spend weekend introducing myself to "Guitar Hero: World Tour" (more on that later). For now,

QualityGuy: [returning a borrowed part] Once again, you have out pack-ratted me.

Arachnid Assassination Plot FAIL

2009-05-14T21:05:00.004-06:00

Clearly the world of creepy-crawlies could not let my gleeful post on Zombie fire ants go unpunished. While reading on-line responses to tonight's "Supernatural" finale (WOW!), I look up to see one of nature's stingiest arachnids attempting to nonchalantly scuttle into my bedroom. "It's just summer in San Antonio" you say? *shakes head* No, this can't be coincidence. They're after me. But, they will have to do better than a mere Infiltrator-Scorpion-Ninja-Assassin as he was easily foiled by a rear attack with a pair of needle-nose pliers.

Additionally, while I hate and despise scorpions to the extent seeing them fills me with more dread than other household creatures with more than four legs, I enjoy mocking their utter lack of hiding skills. No matter what surface they are on when you spot them, they always freeze like they still live in a world where "if I don't move, it won't see me" is an effective anti-predation defense. They could be on a brilliant chartreuse paisley-print pillow but upon being spotted, hold very still and act like eight-legged arachnids with curling stinger tails are always found on chartreuse paisley-print pillows, didn't you know? Silly scorpions. I wave my needle-nose pliers at you in defiance!

Of course, now I can't go to bed for a while....*clings to pliers*

Zombie Fire Ants!

2009-05-13T05:51:00.003-06:00

Finally, those pernicious insects which haunt every yard in Texas are getting what's coming to them! Found via AceofSpades, here's an article with all the wonderfully gory details. That's the thing about Nature, she's so much more disturbing than most horror films:

The flies "dive-bomb" the fire ants and lay eggs. The maggot that hatches inside the ant eats away at the brain, and the ant starts exhibiting what some might say is zombie-like behavior.
.....The maggot eventually migrates into the ant's head, but Plowes said he "wouldn't use the word 'control' to describe what is happening. There is no brain left in the ant, and the ant just starts wandering aimlessly. This wandering stage goes on for about two weeks."
About a month after the egg is laid, the ant's head falls off and the fly emerges ready to attack any foraging ants away from the mound and lay eggs.

But wait! It gets better. The flies terrify (rightfully so) the ants!

Plowes said fire ants are "very aware" of these tiny flies, and it only takes a few to cause the ants to modify their behavior.

"Just one or two flies can control movement or above-ground activity," Plowes said. "It's kind of like a medieval activity where you're putting a castle under siege."

I know it may seem exceedingly petty to revel in the horrific death of an anonymous hive insect but considering how often & how badly I got bit by these things when I was a kid, dude, revenge is SWEET. *wonders where I can purchase large quantities of phorid fly*

Poem of the Week #18

2009-05-11T06:08:00.003-06:00

Well, last week was a good week for writing poetry, just none of it very good. Below are the least bad example(s):

PotW #18
Earthy aroma floating
Upon my mind - cart ready.
The shelf lacks! Another, less,
Waits, pale granules taunting -
Not expected nor desired.
How will I awaken now?

Bonus Haiku! (for the lateness)
Crunch, snap, crackle, yum.
Nature's bounty broken crisp -
My tongue tastes verdant.

My Beliefs...

2009-05-08T18:06:00.004-06:00

...At least as well as they can be described with an internet quiz. The top result really isn't surprising. After that they are just nonsensical frankly. There were several questions on this quiz where my option simply wasn't available or the least inaccurate option wasn't quite correct. I think that led to some funny percentages.

The most unexpected outcome is that the religion I was raised "Roman Catholic" was ranked equally with Islam and less than Mormonism?! Neither religion I've ever felt the least affinity for. Or that I'm more Scientologist than Catholic? Really?! Why is that even an option? Why don't they just include Pastafarianism while they're at it?

Here's the results:

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Theravada Buddhism (95%)
3. Mahayana Buddhism (80%)
4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (79%)
5. Secular Humanism (79%)
6. Liberal Quakers (78%)
7. Nontheist (78%)
8. New Thought (77%)
9. Neo-Pagan (74%)
10. Orthodox Judaism (72%)
11. Reform Judaism (72%)
12. Hinduism (69%)
13. New Age (68%)
14. Scientology (65%)
15. Sikhism (65%)
16. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (62%)
17. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (62%)
18. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (62%)
19. Eastern Orthodox (58%)
20. Islam (58%)
21. Roman Catholic (58%)
22. Taoism (49%)
23. Baha'i Faith (47%)
24. Jainism (47%)
25. Jehovah's Witness (40%)
26. Orthodox Quaker (40%)
27. Seventh Day Adventist (38%)

Quiz found via carnaby fudge

Friday Fury of DOOM

2009-05-08T17:41:00.004-06:00

It's Friday, yes? That time of blissful relaxation where I'm browsing my favorite web sites and groovin' to some new music purchases. Or it would be blissful relaxation if I hadn't received 5 (FIVE!) calls from telemarketers in the last HOUR!

FYI marketing people: if your company, organization, political group or charity calls my house using a recorded message, I am hanging up on you. I don't care if you're calling to tell me aliens are invading and I need to evac now. If you can't take the time to put a real, live person on the phone than this real, live person has no time for you.

Also, this is going to sound mean but when someone with a clearly Indian accent introduces herself as "Mary Brown", I'm hanging up as forcefully as possible. Because if you're willing to encourage your employees to lie to me in such a blatant & ridiculous manner, well, what do you encourage when you think no one will notice? I have no problem at least hearing out someone who introduces herself as "Aruna from Mumbai calling on behalf of Bank of America", but don't frickin' lie to me first thing!

If I get another call in the next ten minutes, I'm unplugging the phone for the weekend. Anyone important emails me anyway.

Wolf Club For Men

2009-05-05T18:53:00.002-06:00

With their own T-Shirts....And the most hilarious Amazon reviews ever. My favorite:

After reading the reviews i ordered a dozen of these hoping to either bring my wife back from the dead or at the very least meet the wolf god who took her. Neither of these happened. Nothing has happened. Nothing ever happens, and I don't know why expect online purchases to plug the hole in my heart. Nothing has, nothing will, and certainly not some wolves howling at the moon.

*snickers*

May2009 Desktop

2009-05-05T17:25:00.003-06:00

After months of super light (grey & pale yellow) desktops, I’ve embraced color. Maybe re-planting my patio garden spurred this, but I chose a green-theme. And it looks awesome!

Clean:

Busy: (the Nautilus background is a borderline to me but it was the best match, even a solid color didn't work as well)

Expo w/ terminal, firefox & songbird:

Details:
Wallpaper – I have no idea where I got it.
Emerald Theme – Fedora Light WEED VER
Controls Theme – (modified so colors match) Clearlooks Mod
Icon Theme – Gion
Firefox Theme – Vista-Nature
Songbird Theme – Euphoria
System Font – Purisa BOLD
Nautilus Background – Green Muted Pattern
Gnome Panel Image – My own creation “Grn-Gloss3”

On a side-note, adding new patterns for Nautilus backgrounds & creating my own panel images are both in the category of “Obscenely Easy Tasks That I’m Embarrassed Took Me This Long To Actually Do”.

Seriously, this is all it took to creating the panel took a whopping 2 minutes using GIMP and that includes saving 3 different panels with different transparencies. The one shown is the one that best matched the rest of my desktop. Still, since installing Ubuntu how many hours have I wasted searching Gnome-Look for the perfect panel when I could have just made one? Clearly I need to develop a more proactive mind-set when it comes to tweaking.

Poem of the Week #17

2009-05-04T18:41:00.002-06:00

A little late but present. It's Haiku cop-out #3 (of 13) this week.

A:
Incandescent ire
Unleashed! But not needed, you say?
(small voice) Nevermind.

B:
Hentai tape grapples
Against those with no desire
For its attentions.

C:
Footlong's worth of hope
for Mr. Bartowski's health.
Will kung fu save him?
*fingers crossed for renewal of "Chuck"*

Warner Music = EPIC FAIL

2009-04-30T16:58:00.006-06:00

SEE UPDATE2 - I WAS MISINFORMED. (I also have a policy of not deleting posts, even if they only exist because I'm a moron)

Actually, this blog-post title is somewhat inaccurate. Warner Music is so far beyond an “Epic Fail” that they flew by that benchmark going Ludicrous Speed and haven’t shown any inclination to slow down. I’ve spoken before about how Warner Music has an economic death-wish but their latest stunt is simply mind-boggling. What level of colossal moron sends a completely invalid DMCA takedown notice to the most vocal and articulate opponent of DMCA abuse?

Let’s just ignore Warner Music’s growing and continued obsession with criminalizing legal customer uses of legally acquired music which, for some unknown reason, they don’t consider an economically unsound business model.

Instead, let’s focus on the apparent legal knowledge of whosoever issued this takedown notice. I assert that said person or persons has some collection of the following characteristics:

1) They are so behind on the public discussion of copyright law that they didn’t recognize who Lawrence Lessig is when they issued the notice.

2) They have so little understanding of actual copyright law as to be unable to identify clear “fair use” even though their job, issuing takedown notices, involves judging whether the use is infringing before sending the notice. (Note: having no law degree myself but after seeing the presentation in question – dude, it’s fair use)

3) They had so little understanding of public perception as to be completely surprised that any member of the public would find it perhaps convenient for Warner Music issue a takedown notice to a presentation critical of their own legal tactics.

4) They likely collect information on the DMCA takedown notices they file to be used by Warner Music & RIAA lawyers as justification for stronger copyright protection law (because every customer is a presumed pirate until proven innocent).

5) They are getting paid a salary by Warner Music, presumably for their legal acumen and good judgment, despite some collection of the above facts being true.

Although in general I’m no fan of lawyers or litigation, I’m also a big believer in punishing excessively detrimental stupidity which is the least-bad possible cause for this debacle. Because if Warner Music doesn’t have a collection of stupid people infesting its DMCA takedown office, then the most likely other explanation is they have a collection of malicious abusers of the DMCA system working in their DMCA office. Either way, I hope Lessig wipes the floor with them. And then I hope he writes (another) bestselling book about how he did it.

UPDATE: Ok, someone in the comments to the linked article mentioned an automated takedown notice being the culprit. That changes nothing about my opinions above. Automated takedown systems do not create themselves. The mindset(s) that created such a system would be just as prone to the "characteristics" listed above as an individual person or person(s) directly issuing the takedown notice. The only thing an automated system would do is embed the said characteristics in the system so that the fact they are architecture makes it easier for Warner Music to claim them as immutable (which someone should really write a book about).

UPDATE2: Apparently, Lessig's video was NOT removed because of a DMCA takedown notice. The culprit appears to be some sort of automated YouTube content-ID program designed to ensure that companies which allow "fair use" videos with their content get attributed the ad revenue for the pages showing the videos in question. Warner Music (due to a previous fall-out with YouTube) is set to "block" so this appears to be something internal to YouTube, not Warner Music. The system YouTube has in place actually sounds like a pretty good idea & they apparently have a very responsive counter-notice system (Lessig's video is already back up) so OK, I flipped out for nothing. While I could change the title of this post, etc, I'm not going to. I have a general rule that I will not delete my posts, even if they make me look at best imprudent. Aside from a note about how wrong I was, this stays as it is.

Poem of the Week #16

2009-04-26T17:19:00.003-06:00

ON TIME! Holy cow!

PotW # 16 aka "Lazy Sunday"
Absent routine, orthogonal and straight,
My days unbroken lethargic sloth-sleep.
Tasked (listed, ignored) for a later date.
Longing but not assertion in does seep.
I flop about a passive, neutral day
While hi-sparks build inside, now held at bay.

With bonus Haiku!
Ripened spring display:
Plastic-wrapped fruits call out sad
For rain-fed roots gone.

Except for a little bit of grocery shopping, I didn't get much done today....

Plates – Up, Up and More Up

2009-04-26T12:46:00.002-06:00

Introducing the Never-ending Staircase of Plates from Rosenberg Texas!

Bottom Landing

First Flight On Left

First Flight On Right

First Landing

Second flight

Second landing

*deep breath* Third Flight

Top Landing

From the same antique shop, the two ugliest plates I have ever seen in my life:
*shudder*

With bonus purse of doom:

Connections - Literary Edition

2009-04-20T20:42:00.006-06:00

I've spoken before about how "Atlas Shrugged" results in some very *ahem* conflicted reactions from me. It appears I'm not alone on that. Here's a very good review about why, for all its flaws, "Atlas Shrugged" still sells like hotcakes. RTWT.

Nothing however beats this line (after describing several characters):

They are a bit reminiscent of similar characters found in Robert Heinlein novels, except they are less flawed and tend to lack the ability to laugh at themselves.

In retrospect that connection is painfully obvious....I feel obscenely blond for missing it.

Although, now I have an uncanny urge to paper over the walls of Galt's Gulch with posters like this one:

*is repressing*

(Note: the "what the hell?" tag is for my brain for going from Galt to Heinlein to Joker's catchphrase in about 2.5 seconds)

We're Linux (and we're crazy)

2009-04-19T19:49:00.003-06:00

Been watching the "We're Linux" ads posted by The Linux Foundation over on YouTube. Some very good stuff. Although it appears a great many Linux users have no problem being just a tiny bit creepy.

Example 1 - For those who always wanted a stalker OS:

Example 2- For the booming super-villain market:

Some more-encouraging videos:

A la TV infomercial of awesomeness

Obscure French Film awesomeness (this is HILARIOUS!)

Aren't these all so much better than trite corporate commercials?

Poems of the Weeks #8 Thru 15

2009-04-19T18:09:00.002-06:00

While I've actually been keeping up with writing the poems, I've obviously had much less luck with posting the poems per my 2009 PE Goals. So, to make up for it, here's a mega poetry post.

PotW #8
Inner eyes unfurl twilight
Lancing through dreams delicate.
Ring down the hope of good-times.
Here, futures flicker out quick.

PotW#9
Debris letters flood the page.
Chatter indiscriminate.
My cubicle rings with waste,
Offensive to efficiency.
But in solemn corners waits
Echoes of Archimedes
Sparse & telling symbols proud
Encompassing all with less.

PotW#10 aka “A Domestic Diversion”
Wafting call of denied renaments,
You haunt shuddered halls with foul arrogance.
A cleaning needed, grasping elements
Which purge these walls of your tainted presence.
But, lethargy and disgust turn my hands;
The evasion of godly duty brands.

PotW#11
My thoughts assemble in discord profound,
Seizing each and all gnawing babble.
Boxes in rows, few, leave many unbound.
Realization, I am all rabble.

PotW#12 aka "The Deeply Creepy Bug-Dream Sonnet"
Canopy floating, through leafy webs go.
Each branch, no solace, hides creatures beady;
Antennae flick at this intrusion. Bough
Writhing all, for perch I do entreaty.
Unheard dangling from thin line now sway
In a space untouched by bark, pincer, legs.
Forest sounds echo; the ground falls away.
Watching spiders chase after fuzz-legged dregs,
I ponder neither high nor low, idle.
Scramble jaws close on innocent insects.
Hungry arachnids sated on trifle.
Larval sparks dribbling life, open necks.
Betwixt, hanging the teeny deaths whine-shout.
I bob, in place, salvation in doubt.

PotW#13 aka "Haiku Cop-out #2"
A:
Numbers crunch, then act.
Frenzied tools change & construct.
Dreams real, now can breathe.

B:
These times, like all else
Confuse, entangle and maul.
But do they embold?

C:
Yes, the Turtle moves
Though Vorbis says “No”; Brutha
gardens Defiance.

PotW#14
Here, dashing flights of fancy
Clash titan-proud with rock hard
Truth (as defined by numbers);
A contest lacking victors
But resolved time and again.

PotW#15 aka "Death of A Router"
Cheap plastic circuits flash-bang
In time with lightening bright.
All else reboots with no hang.
But no matter flashing light,
My network no more functions.
Unplug this & that. It's you!
Surge-subject your dead junctions;
Bricked now, you were sorely new.
Replacement, I will soon seek.
Not again choose I so weak.

That's it! Any opinions?

Games In Ubuntu

2009-02-25T19:56:00.003-06:00

After trying Guitar Hero for the first time last weekend, I was in the mood to try out some new games for Ubuntu. Via the Ubuntu forums, I came across this really fantastic compendium of all things Ubuntu-gaming. With some experimentation and downloading, I ended up trying out several games most of which I really liked.

AssaultCube : I’ve never really been into FPS games but I thought I should have just one. This seemed like the one with the simplest premise (although Tremulous looks awesome) so I chose this one because I figured it would take me a while to get used to playing this type of game. Boy, was I right! I suck at this game. With everything set to easy and in a deathmatch with two measly bots, I never win. I can kill one bot but not the other before it gets me. However, it is fun and while frustrating, it is the kind of frustrating that is enjoyable so I can definitely see myself playing this in the future. My only two gripes are that the default keyboard settings are very awkward and that the only way to open the game is through the command line. The keyboard settings are pretty straightforward to change but you do have to take some time to think about what you should change them to in order to perform certain actions quick enough. The command line thing isn’t so bad; the main annoyance is that it takes 3 commands instead of just 1. I tried automating this but my script wouldn’t run. I’ll have to fix that if I plan on playing this a lot. Which I do.

Frets of Fire : Very disappointing. I can definitely see the potential for the game but, after playing Guitar Hero, it’s just not even in the ballpark in terms of playability and enjoyment. For one thing, the Tutorial to introduce you to the game is incredibly, stupidly condescending. Seriously, there’s no reason for it at all. Also, the F1-F5 keys are incredibly awkward to use as frets. I couldn’t get into it at all. Finally, while I understand an open-source games can’t include copyrighted songs, the included songs were pretty difficult compared to the “Easy” settings for Guitar Hero. I didn’t keep this one on my computer but if there are future improvements, well, I’d have no problem trying again.

Kobo Deluxe : Great space arcade game. The levels are varied and the premise of blowing up stationary objects that are defended works really well. I very much enjoyed this one.

gBrainy : Really good game loaded with logic and math puzzles. It’s not complicated or flashy but the puzzles are engrossing and just hard enough to require something of you. I really enjoyed this one.

Pipewalker : Really cool puzzle game where you have to rotate “piping” in order to connect computers to the network. The randomizing function is just good enough that it is quite difficult but not so much that you don’t believe the puzzle is solvable. The puzzles are pretty hard too. I played for two hours straight and only connected all 20 computers once. Exactly the best kind of game: not easy to win but easy to play. Just a note: This one is available from the repositories so the link is just to a description page.

Other Games On My To-Do List:
Phun – Physics simulator & mechanism creator.
FlightGear – Flight Simulator with tons of different aircraft

Poem of the Week #6 & #7

2009-02-25T17:46:00.002-06:00

Well, I apparently suck at this whole "Poem of the Week" thing, don't I? Here's my two deliquient entries.

PotW #6

Metal-scented daydreams flee
Before those wrapped in eager glee.
Surrounded, my words count more
How they land builds a new lore
Of restraint embracing soft.
Echoes from future thanks waft
To me, query-pressed with stress,
Purposeful and now, no less.

PotW #7

Numbers begin and end my days
I begrudge them nothing big.
The wheel turns at their command.
Speaking clear, my mousy hand
Awaits the only choice mine.
Can you graph comprehension?

I greatly prefer #6 over #7. Just my opinion...

Steampunk Puzzle Game?!

2009-02-09T06:53:00.000-06:00

I cannot wait!

Poem Of The Week #5

2009-02-09T06:43:00.002-06:00

My (slightly) late entry:

Sorting through this week's debris,
Baskets - categorized color,
I ache for discarded times.
But these walls are finite still;
Decisions beckon constant.
The trash needs emptying now.

WITH BONUS HAIKU:

Alien symbols
Now waver before my eyes
Odd understanding.

Randomosity. On Wednesday.

2009-02-04T20:30:00.005-06:00

Busy as a bee with ADD at work, but I'm been distracting myself with crass commercial soma. For instance, I didn't need a new pairs of sneakers.....until I saw these in Target:
They are somehow terrible and wonderful all at the same time! But, I don't have any socks to go with them. Darnit.

New, pod-o-matic Channel of awesomeness:
UMRK Web Radio
It's like a late sixties early seventies radio smorgasboard. Really good stuff.

Currently, I am trying to decide which T-Shirt to buy:

If only TypeTees wasn't so awesome, I wouldn't have this problem.....Although, in keeping with the random theme of this post, I should go with Tee #1, yes?

Poem Of The Week #4

2009-02-01T19:25:00.001-06:00

Here goes: (on time!)

All week, I sped by
Faster than words,
Hindered by their odd weight.
This day, scatter-shot acts
defined my hours few.
Only now, laundry tumbling
Do I allow them
To close distance quick
Angry, forgiving and dear.

Opinions?

Warner Music Is On CRACK

2009-01-27T19:26:00.004-06:00

Because when the Monty Python guys possess MORE sense than you regarding YouTube videos and copyright, then, I’m sorry Warner Music but you fail at life! How utterly delusional do you have to be to think you’re losing money because people are posting home-made dance videos using your songs! Again, when the Monty Python guys are out-thinking you all the way to the bank, besides functioning as a warning to others, what exactly is your value-added to the corporate world?

Do you have any idea how many songs I’ve purchased because I first heard them on video on YouTube?! Here’s three real-life examples:

Fanvid – Women of Firefly (using Wicked’s “Defying Gravity”)

Loved Firefly but, in addition to the craftsmanship of the fanvid, I really enjoyed the lyrics to this song. Snatched this one from the Amazon MP3 store the second I found a version by Idina Menzel.

Bollywood Video (Dar-de-disco)

Spent a weekend a couple months back just watching semi-random clips of Bollywood dance numbers on YouTube. I wrote down several songs but not all were available in the Amazon MP3 store..This one and a couple others were.

HP-Firefly Mash-up Video

Really enjoyable combo of fandoms but this video is how I discovered the awesomeness of Jonathon Coulton. Total songs bought after this vid: 5 that day.

Now, the next bit requires a bit of a leap but work with me: Imagine I’m not the only one who bought these songs after seeing these videos. Each video has a relatively large number of viewings....Let’s assume approximately 1% of those total view(er)s actually did what I did and bought the song, just the song, in the video. The below table shows that in each case, whoever owned these songs MADE MONEY because of these YouTube videos.

Other notes of importance:
(1) The videos themselves were all “unofficial” content, no one affiliated with the content owners had anything to do with creating or posting these videos.
(2) Even if my estimate of which % of viewers actually bought the songs is in question, I know that I bought every song cited (and then some) resulting total actual verifiable gross (spread to all content owners) of $8.91 MIN.
(3) While I cannot speak for any other viewers, for all of these songs, this money is a clear gain because until I watched these videos either did not know these bands or singers existed, much less that these particular songs existed, much less that I liked these songs. What these YouTube videos provided to me wasn’t a source of illegal content; what they provided was a previously missing desire to purchase these songs. If these YouTube videos did not exist, the content owners of these songs would have made $0.

Please also note, this same logic applies to books, television shows and movies for any fan-created or posted work. Again, some real-world-actually-happened-to-me examples are:

Purchasing “North & South” DVDs and Book because of clips of the BBC miniseries on YouTube
Purchasing “Leverage” Episodes via Video On Demand because of clips and trailers on YouTube
Purchasing “Life” DVDs because of clips on YouTube

In conclusion, Warner Music = MORONS because while they may be “numbers people”, like most Big Content companies and industry groups, they also don’t possess the sense (numerical or otherwise) that God gave a bag full of hammers. Please fix.

Poem Of The Week #3

2009-01-26T17:18:00.002-06:00

Ok, this is slightly late...But here goes:

The cadence of another's tongue
Frozen in between the lines
Of coldly reproduced type.
My shelves buckle with the weight.
And yet, each strange collection
I stand before holds me still
With awe and eagerness more.
The card slides as my arms reach.

Opinions?

Journals A Million! (Really Four)

2009-01-18T19:17:00.005-06:00

While waiting in the checkout line at my local "Books A Million" I noticed several awesome patterns in the journals & diary section.....Four in particular were note-worthy.

First, the terror of the group:
My eyes will be forwarding the bookstore their therapy bills. I could feel my vision degrading as I stared....

We have two nominees for best patterns that I did not expect to like but still, find appealing:
Although I'm no fan of orange in general, here it works. Strikes me as vaguely medieval perhaps because of the patterned flowers (not the super-curly leaves, those always creep me out....it's too "Seymour, feed me!" for my tastes). Again, the components aren't something I ordinarily favor but how they assemble together here, works...

Very calming pattern. The paleness of the turquoise and the yellow, damn, it's relaxing just looking at it. Perhaps that is a good thing. Whoever buys this journal will be writing a lot less angst-filled poetry than whoever buys the pink & green monstrosity above.

The winner by an overwhelming margin:
Absolutely stunning pattern. I bought this journal for it alone even though I have absolutely nothing to use it for (well, maybe my ideas for "Poem of the week", but I didn't think of that until later).

Poem of the Week #1 & #2

2009-01-18T17:01:00.003-06:00

As promised, here's the first entry in my "Poem of the Week" personal enrichment goal for 2009. In the future, I’ll try to post these on the weekends after the week in question.

Week #1: I actually did write the first entry during the first week of 2009 as I knew I wanted that on my PE Goals list. For the first one, I decided to do a sonnet as, well, when we were required to for English class, I really enjoyed writing sonnets. As for the topic, well, I think you can guess what I was doing my first week back at work.....

Design Analysis Blues

Siren numbers dance and trill tunelessly.
With silent motion, I fumble on while
My damp hands grasp, forcing each quantity
To meet its measure well, ending the trial.

Alas, the rhythm of scratching symbols dies,
Leaving poorly constructed gibberish
For me to sift through, discarding the lies.
My ego weeps red, making me squeamish.

A force this way; An angle not obtuse.
Enough? The numerals taunt me sing-song
As Aunt Sally orders me to let loose.
Buttons click, numbers crunch, righting the wrong.

But will these digits do the work I need?
Do I trust them with life and limb? Take heed.

Week #2: I actually wrote more than one poem but I'm not happy with a vast majority of them. They're....OK, I guess. But they are ultimately lacking whatever it is that makes me enjoy my own writing. So, unfortunately, I'm defaulting to post haiku as the official entry. There are three which are unrelated topic-wise....

Haiku #1

Black boxes lined up.
Arrows cross but do not link.
Dear me, what a waste!

Haiku #2

Wood balls arc in rings.
Lights and song, ringing victory.
I need more tokens.

Haiku #3

The clock ticks late/early.
Words bubble up, Grey spaces.
My nightclothes don't fit.

Either week, any opinions?

2009 Personal Enrichment Goals

2009-01-17T20:32:00.005-06:00

When after last year’s dismal showing, I am hoping 2009 will be much better in terms of self-improvement. There’s a great deal of carry over here but I’ve done some tweaking of those tasks to ensure they actually get done this time around. I’m nicknaming 2009, “The Year Of Versatility”. This is going to be all about doing things in a way that I can adapt to any changes in my schedule.

Total Goals for 2009: 20
Computer / Technology Related: 6
Education: 4
Financial/Home: 4
Leisure: 4
Fitness/Self-Defense: 2

You can certainly tell where my priorities are....See full post for details.

Expanded Exercise Program: Instead of requiring I hit a KM level (which needs an amount of time I may not have to spare thanks to work), I’ve created an exercise program which does require I attend 1-2 KM classes a week, exercise in the morning 2x a week and do 1 “Other” bit of exercise a month. This gives me a good deal of flexibility while also requiring that I get out there and work. The morning exercise routine is something I used to do before I signed up with the Krav Maga Gym but in the last couple of years, I’ve started sleeping later (ie – staying up later) instead of exercising which really isn’t a smart move on my part. Also included on my checklist is to take a multi-vitamin a couple times a week just to ensure my body has what it needs to benefit from the exercise.

Adult Education Classes (NISD): Instead of separate requirements for specific classes, I’m just going with a general adult education category. I hope to take several classes but my requirement is at least 3. The topics of interest to me are HTML/web page programming, archery, pottery, cooking, First Aid/CPR and welding. The specific classes I take will depend on price, scheduling and availability. Hopefully, this way of structuring the requirement will be more successful than previous requirements for specific classes.

Must read 20 Non-Fiction Books: I’m probably going to include this one from now on. I can do reading on potential topics for future goals and generally, I notice I’m a bit more on-the-ball with other things when I keep up with my reading. The requirement is still 20 because I got close to it in 2008 and frankly, I went a couple months without reading a non-fiction book. So, I still consider 20 books a completely feasible goal if I stick with it.

Research Self-Employment: Since I work in the automotive industry, things are a bit uncertain right now. I have no desire to switch jobs as I actually do like where I work. However, it may not be up to me. So, instead of waiting for the ax to fall, I’m going to do a little research on how to get-by if I have to search for a job in the current economic environment. As far as self-employment goes, in the current economic climate I’d like to have the most versatility possible and self-employment is the one option I’ve never done any looking into before. I consider this to be more learning about where the info I will need is and preparing myself to be ready to go if the worst happens.

Blogging Tweaks & Improvement: First things first, I really need to improve my blogroll. The list of actual blogs I read is much, much longer. Using the X/HTML references I collected last year, I’m also going to be looking into either major tweaks or a full-on rebuild of my blog template. It’s looking old to me for some reason. I’m not going to set a post/month goal like I did last year. However, I do want to keep up with posting a bit better. I’ve got some ideas about how to do that and thankfully, one of the goals this year will require I post regularly (see “Poem Of The Week” below).

Clean Apt More Often: I am a terrible housekeeper. I know this. Everybody (including, unfortunately, my mom) knows this. So, this year I’m going to dedicate myself to keeping my apartment cleaner. I’ve added several reoccurring tasks into my Thunderbird Calendar specifically to remind me to keep up with certain things. Also, in the past, one of the reasons I put off cleaning is that I tried to do too much at one time (ie – do everything on a Saturday and whatever doesn’t get done, doesn’t get done). This is a wildly ineffective system. No more. Now, I will purposely do 3-4 things every 2 weeks and spread them out through the week. If I only have to do 1 thing, I’m more likely to get it done after work or before I start playing on the computer on weekends. I hope....

Charitable Education: I’ve long desired to help improve K-12 education either through charitable foundations or my own work. Last year, I discovered DonorsChoose which is a good charity for targeted educational improvement. This year, I’ll continue my donations there as long as I’m financially able but I will also begin research into private or charter schools in the San Antonio area. At some point, I would like to create scholarships for kids at one or more of these schools. This year will be about researching those schools and developing the financial tools necessary to do such a thing. Right now I just have a broad goal of eventually doing this, after 2009 I’d like to have a specific plan of HOW I plan to get this done.

Take Up Shooting: There is a shooting class that I want to take but it isn’t through NISD (although they do have a disarming class). Also, I may attend “open” days at local shooting ranges and / or buy some kind of gun. What I really want is a small rifle. I remember as a kid that I enjoyed shooting a rifle a good deal more than handguns (no idea why). Anyway, this is just one more step in improving my ability to defend myself. I’ll probably start with a rifle and work my way into handguns.

Use Skydiving Voucher: I paid for it, might as well use it. I think I’ll probably wait until Spring. For some reason the idea of jumping out of a plane when it’s really, really cold just makes it more nerve-wracking for me. Still, I do look forward to this. While waiting for the weather to clear when I originally went, they showed videos of other people jumping and it looked insanely fun. Probably not something I’ll do more than once, but definitely something I've always wanted to try.

Teach Myself: Controls Engineering: I got through about ¼ of my book last year. I’m hoping to do at least the same in 2009. The first couple chapters took me a while because I had to do a great deal of reviewing. I’m hoping some of these middle chapters go by quicker now that the groundwork is laid. For the most recent work, I do feel like the material is easier for me because of the review work. I also look forward to making more use of the Octave computer application as that is the closest readily available substitute for some kind of Controls laboratory work.

Ubuntu/OSS Advocacy: In the last 1-2 months, I’ve been advising a coworker who was interested in switching his kids’ computers to Ubuntu. He completed the switch over the holidays. I greatly enjoyed the experience of answering his questions both because it helped remind me of some of the things about Linux which intimidated me at first (the Command Line) and because he asked some really interesting questions. So, I’m adding some kind of open-source or Ubuntu advocacy goal to this year’s list. I’m going to look for a local Ubuntu group to work with and I plan to do (even more) blogging about different aspects of the system from the perspective of somebody who isn’t a programmer. But I really do believe that the open-source model of development results in a far superior product so I’m going to be much more conscious about doing my part to ensure more people know about it. This strikes me as especially necessary after my experiences trying to buy a computer without Windows Vista on it back in September (I don’t see why I had to pay a premium for Vista when I’m going to wipe the HD & install Ubuntu without ever booting into Windows).

Update/Reintegrate Financial Goals: While last year I took steps to improve tracking my finances, my short-and long term goals have languished for a couple years. This is not to say I haven't been completing my financial goals. Only, my financial goals haven’t really been updated in a couple years and when looking at the list, I realize they are a bit dated. Some of them no longer apply, while there are other things I’d like to do that I need to start planning for. So, I will be updating these goals and my 5-10 year financial plans.

Start Using Media Management Software: Last weekend I counted my books. I have 743 (not including magazines and electronic copies, .pdfs). And in the last week, I have bought even more. Needless to say, managing and sorting all those works in a 1-bedroom apartment requires a great deal of shelving and alphabetizing. But I would like to have some way of tracking what I own and what I don’t. This is especially important for some of my sci-fi series where I have trouble remembering what I own and what I still need to buy. And for non-fiction books, I’ve been a little bit haphazard in how I divide them by subject so maybe using a Media Management application will force me to pay better attention there.

Improve PuppyLinux Install: I set this up on a flash drive right before my trip to Japan last year. While for the most part it was a positive experience, they released an update to Puppy shortly thereafter and I never took the time to really tweak the applications. Since the main purpose of having Puppy on a flash drive is to access certain linux applications that my borrowed-work-WindowsONLY laptop does not have, I need to get the drive fully set-up to have all those applications and any useful add-ons. Frankly, I don’t see this taking any more than a weekend or two but it does need doing. Now is the perfect time too because I don’t have any travel for work on my schedule.

Patio Garden – Food: Needless to say my garden revamp of 2008 was a disastrous failure. This year, I’m going to focus on edible plants. I’ve noticed I tend to take better care of plants that are doing something for me. The whole care for nature because it is an inherently worthwhile act isn’t really a motivator for me. In order to be successful this time around, I need to plant earlier (late Feb) and plant things that I will want to succeed (flowers, who cares? Give me a good jalapeño plant any day). I’ve already got some ideas but I need to sort through my seeds to see what’s still good and what I’ll need to buy.

Write 1 Poem A Week: One of the reasons I started blogging was to improve and maintain my writing skills. The more I work in engineering, the more I see the value in being able to communicate properly and clearly . As a teenager, I went through the typical angst-filled poetry phase. However, I actually still like some of the poems I wrote back then. I'm not referring to the depressing self-pitying crap. However, some of the more thoughtful pieces still resonate. In an effort to contrast the dry engineering writing I do every day, I will write 1 Poem a week for the entire year. There are additional restrictions. Over half (26+) must be form poems (sonnets,haikus,etc) as sometimes I work best when restricted. And of the form poems, if I do a haiku I have to do at least two or three as they are so short. Since we’re in the end of the second week of 2009, I’m already behind. But I’ll catch up. The goal is to post the poem on Saturday or Sunday.

Investigate Green Home Design: I do not like how most modern housing is built. I get that it is a business and they have an obligation to drive costs down, but it seems like if you want a certain level of quality, you’re only option is to custom build. This is a prohibitively expensive jump for most people. At some point, I would like to build my own home. In preparation for this, I have been developing some very specific ideas about what I’d want from that home. Green design appeals to me not for its environmental street-cred but from an efficiency standpoint. Green builders are really the only ones thinking outside-the-box in homebuilding today. So, I’m going to do some studying of what’s cutting edge here in anticipation that sometime in the future, I’ll be able to use that knowledge to build myself a nice, quality, energy-efficient home.

Teach Myself: Applications of Interest (MIN 2): I’ve added several applications to my Ubuntu install but haven’t taken the time to really learn them. Even after finally getting why GIMP is so cool, there’s a lot to that program I simply don’t know how to use. So I will make more of an effort to learn some open-source applications involving skills that are important to my future plans. These applications include photo/video editing, CAD programs, programming tools and productivity-enhancing tools. Initially, I plan to focus on GIMP and the FreeCad program as I feel they would be the most immediately applicable.

Improve Language Skills (Spanish & Japanese): I work in a multilingual environment. While I can follow conversations with differing levels of competence, I’m terrible about using the language skills I have and making an effort to improve them further. Part of it is a confidence issue, I don’t want to say the wrong thing but I really need to get the hell over that. So, I’ll be using more Spanish (especially in emails where there’s plenty of opportunity to check your phrasing) and trying to learn some additional Japanese. I think at the very least, I should learn the romanji alphabet as that’s how Japanese renders as lot of words they got from other languages like English. I don’t know that I’ll ever be fluent in any language other than English but I’m certain I have the capability to be functionally conversant.

Rent Larger Apt/Duplex/Townhome: I need more space! In addition to room for all my books, I would like a guest room for my parents and relatives to visit (yes, I actually like hanging out with some of my relatives, crazy but true). I did some looking around in 2008 but didn’t find anything that justified moving. There were a couple of places that appealed but unfortunately, they didn’t have anything available. I’m be keeping my ear to the ground for something better and saving money for a move & some new furniture. I may also be doing some preemptive cleaning to get rid of stuff I don’t want to bother packing up and carrying someplace new. This goal is tentative pending any abrupt changes in the financial situation or a lack of anything available. We’ll see.

That Which Is Unquestionably Awesome

2009-01-17T20:25:00.002-06:00

I haven’t done a single book review post in a long while, and even then, it is usually reserved for non-fiction books. That changes now, because “Vorpol Blade” was the single best piece of military sci-fi I have read in a long, long time. Which given the authors are the same team which wrote the completely brilliant “Von Neumann’s War”, is no real surprise. I bought this book expecting a good solid read. What I got was a brilliantly hilarious rip-roaring read that I could not put down for a second until I finished it. Seriously, I took this with me to read while waiting at “Discount Tire” and I swear to God, I death-glared the kid who interrupted me to tell me my car was ready.

How could I possibly not love a book whose characters use Firefly slang, where Marines debate the merits of country versus goth rock and which has a major plot point involving gargalizing? Oh, and the ex-Navy SEAL who loves flower arranging so much he brings dried flowers on the mission just so he has something relaxing to do in his free time!

*runs off to buy “Manxome Foe” ASAP*

2008 Personal Enrichment Update

2009-01-10T14:43:00.002-06:00

Aka, “Diary Of My Year Of Abysmal Slacking” Seriously, I got almost nothing DONE. Lots of things started but no follow through at all! And most of it is just my own damn fault. There were a several of goals that upon closer examination weren’t really good ideas so I nixed them for scheduling, financial, or other reasons. However, the vast majority of this list was completely feasible if I had only applied myself more. Here’s the depressing breakdown:

Actual Completed Tasks: 2
Eliminated/Postponed Tasks: 3
More Than 50% Complete Tasks: 4
Less Than 50% Tasks: 4
Never Did Anything Category: 3

In the “Actual!Completed!Tasks!” Category:
Both are lame, small things.
Support WGA Strike – Did that until it was over in FEB-2008. DONE.

Keep Ubuntu Install Updated – DONE but then when my computer crashes and I have to buy a new one, it’s pretty much guaranteed my install will be the latest & greatest. I do feel good that I did 2 fresh Ubuntu installs & customizations, install a router in my apartment and added several applications to improve productivity.

In the “Eliminated/Postponed” Category:
Laser Eye Surgery – Due to restrictions on nighttime driving after, this had to happen in the summer & didn’t. It was a scheduling issue. I already had a dental surgery planned this summer and didn’t want to miss that much work within such a short time. Of course, the dental surgery got pushed back. It will be on next year’s list.

Buy & Test Google Phone – Due to certain other financial to-dos that frankly are more important, this got placed on-hold. While I could order one right now, I’ve decided that the money that I’d have to spend would be better used elsewhere. This one isn’t opportunity/time related so much as a change in priorities.

Linux Professional Certification Test – The more I’ve studied the CLI & scripting this year, the more I realize I’m not ready for this test. Per my other goals, I have been focusing on using the command line and I have bought several books on improving my skills here. But I’m nowhere near “certification-worthy”. This will however remain on my list for next year simply because I do believe that further progress is possible and desirable. Just I haven’t had the time to made enough of that progress in 2008.

In the “More Than 50% Complete” Category:
Teach Myself: Controls Engineering – While I’ve made pretty consistent progress here, I’ve going to fall far short of my goal of completing the work for half of my textbook. The main delay here was due to my taking the time to review several Differential Equations concepts that I hadn’t really used since college. While this delayed me, it also ensured that I’m actually learning (and will remember) the material far better. In this particular instance, I believe retaining the information is much more important than merely covering it. I have so far completed about ¼ of the textbook (besides the review stuff) so I consider this goal half complete.

Disaster Kits – Kits are set-up and my email calendar has dates input for re-stocking supplies. However, the at-home stuff is scattered in several storage places instead in one easy-to-assess/access location. Also, due to the new car, I had to reorganize the auto kit and, thanks to some new compartments, will likely expand that kit. I’ve already bought a trunk organizer. Once decide what additional items I want to include, I’ll do my last bit of shopping for “Auto-Disaster-Kit version 2.0”. I consider this task approx 75% DONE.

Read 20 Nonfiction Books – I breezed through the first half of this goal but have since faltered. Thankfully, I did a bit of reading toward the end of the year so while I didn’t get 20 books read, I did get 18 finished. So, 90% DONE.

Better Track Finances – After a disastrous computer crash and an unimpressive test-run of GnuCash, I thought I had finally found a Ubuntu-compatible money management program that I like: KmyMoney. I did begin teaching myself this program which is for the most part fairly intuitive. However, it does a lot of things for you that I’m used to being able to do my way in a spreadsheet program. So, it’s been slow-going converting to the new system. Also, I’m still not sure this program by itself will be enough so there may be a few additional spreadsheets that kinda piece together certain things. I’d say this one is about 60-70% DONE.

In the “Less Than 50% Complete” Category:
Study Command Line – While I didn’t set any specific targets for this one, I have kept up with it better by both using the command line and acquiring both online & offline references. What I have not done is really write scripts. Part of that is I haven’t felt the need to automate processes which appears to be the #1 reason for writing a script. For programming stuff, I usually move at a glacial pace. Part of this is my own insecurity regarding programming (which this is supposed to help with) and part of it is my belief that most tasks are made easier by thinking them through before you try to do them. Unfortunately, the whole point of learning CLI is to automate tasks using scripts and since I haven’t done that, I cannot claim more than 20-30% DONE on this one.

Be Sociable – In general, I’ve most improved in terms of commenting on websites. No longer am I strictly a lurker. While I’m no social butterfly of a commenter, I have made an effort here and by commenting on different types of sites from fan to political. At first I had attending a sci-fi convention of some sort but that got scratched off fairly quickly when I discovered how expensive they were! In a year when I’m buying a car (and maybe doing some other things), I cannot drop $300-$400 dollars (MIN) on one weekend. I hope to continue commenting such that it becomes more habitual. Since I did break my lurking habit, I would say this is 25% DONE.

Patio Garden – I planted new stuff but thanks to the heat and lack of rain, this did not turn out too well for me. Thankfully, one of the shade plants survived. There’s one area of my patio that hasn’t had anything ever because it’s too dark. At least for my shady corner, it doesn’t look so desolate now. Still, most everything else died. Great = Planting new things. Not-so-great = They all died. Also, 25% DONE.

Maintain / Improve Weblog – While I missed my 20 posts/month goal for much of the year, I did tweak the layout a bit by creating a better header image, adding feeds and improving the sidebar. One reason for posting decline, aside from work, is that I have been trying (with mixed results) to better define my blog “voice”. One of the reasons I started this blog was to develop that voice and for 6-9 months or so, it just wasn’t there. Now, I’m starting to feel like the posts have a more targeted feel (not in terms of subject matter but that they sound like ME). I have some ideas for further developments but that is next year’s list.

In the “Never Did Anything” Category:
Krav Maga Level 1 – While I’ve been OK about going to the yoga class, making it to other classes hasn’t been occurring with any respectable frequency. Part of it is that on weekdays, I don’t really have time in the evenings and on weekends, well, no excuses I just haven’t gone. Needless to say, I’ve really not applied myself here. Part of it is time constraints but the large majority of this is just me not trying hard enough. FAIL.

HTML class – Hasn’t actually been offered by NISD all year! It was especially frustrating this fall because, even though “Intro to HTML” is listed as a prequisite for two classes, they don’t actually offer “Intro to HTML”. I’ve attempted instead to build a little bit of a library of HTML/XMTL references. So officially, FAIL but I worked around it.

Skydiving – I almost went through with this. I found a place in San Marcos that offers tandem jumps with DVDs (this doesn’t count without photographic proof….no matter how embarrassing). On Saturday November 22nd, I drove out there but the weather wasn’t good so there were no flights that day. I got a voucher good for a year that I can “cash-in” at any time. I had hoped to do so before the new year but either the weather was bad or I had previous engagements on the weekends (the skydiving place is only open Fri, Sat & Sun in the winter). So, once again, FAIL. No excuses for scheduling either because if I’d tried it earlier, I’d have had plenty of time to get it done.

OVERALL:
For all my excitement about an ambitious list at the beginning of the year, that feeling did not carry over to actually completing my goals. Several items will be carried over with modification onto the 2009 list (coming soon!). Seriously, this performance is pretty embarrassing especially since it is only the second year of doing Personal Enrichment Goals so it’s not like I got lazy after so many years of working. One thing that I do is get too specific in the goal. I need to keep the goals general but have a specific plan for fulfilling that goal separate from the goal itself. This way, fewer goals are eliminated or left incomplete after further investigation reveals they may not be what I had in mind (Linux Certification) or due to lack of availability (NISD not offering any HTML classes). Also, I need to focus more on feasibility both in selection and execution. While part this year’s slacking here was due to work getting busier at certain points, I should be taking that opportunity to hone my multi-tasking skills instead of eliminating non-work stuff altogether. In conclusion, I’m quite disappointed in myself and improvement must occur in 2009!

Bibliophilia - Holiday Edition!

2009-01-08T18:54:00.002-06:00

While I was too busy to blog for the entire holiday season, I was of course not too busy to read. Full post has my opinions and links. Note: Some reviews include spoilers....

Summary:
Comic Books - 8
Young Adult - 1
(Historical) Romance - 3
Historical Adventure - 2
Sci-Fi - 9
Fantasy / Satire / Pratchettesque - 1
History - 1
Psychology - 1
Memoir - 1
Education / Politics - 1

"Steampunk" by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer. (Anthology) This is creepy unsettling science fiction. The only problem is that ALL the stories involved some really dismal alternative possibilities. Why is it that people equal dismal dystopian pointless surreallism with literary quality story-telling? Because if you don’t get that, you will NOT enjoy this book a bit. The depressing & macabre tone made it really hard to keep coming back to read another story. Also, I did NOT appreciate the story regarding what happened to the guy from the HG Wells “The Time Machine”. That was perverted, gross and pretty damn useless. So, a lot of potential here but ultimately, I couldn’t finish this and it’s going straight into my sell-back pile. Steampunk gone wildly astray.

“Girl Genius volumes 1 through 6” by Kaja & Phil Foglio. (comic books) Great neoVictorian technological fun. No that’s not right. More like: OMG THIS IS AWESOME!!!! Female heroine with a strange past, steampunk universe on crack, lots of awesome supporting characters and an artistic aesthetic to die for. Not to mention the whole idea that super-geniuses/heroes might be a profound danger to society and therefore are usually regulated, contained, controlled or killed is a really intriguing idea, especially when the universe makes very clear that these people have caused untold death and destruction in the past even when they were “good” guys. For such a depressing premise, the authors create a wonderfully amusing, thought-provoking and (for a comic book) logically consistent story. That alone makes LXG (see below) look like total amateur hour by comparison. Steampunk done right in every way imaginable.

“Me & Mr. Darcy” by Alexandra Potter. Ok, you know what’s going to happen here. The art is in the “How” not the “What”. This modern retelling is surprisingly good considering it’s predictable as hell. Plus, I have to love a book where the main character is a bookstore-managing bibliophile. I think I prefer the “Darcy” novels by Elizabeth Aston to this one but, if you’re in an airport and see this, it’s definitely worth picking up to pass the time.

"The Time Axis" by Henry Kuttner. Yet another download find. An excellent, mind-bending read. The premise is straightforward but what sells it is the author’s presentation. Told from a single perspective, the main characters journalistic style combined with his confusion about what is actually happening makes for a wonderfully enjoyable tale.

“1215: The Year Of The Magna Carta” by Danny Danziger & John Gillingham. Rather intriguing summary of life in England the year of the signing of the Magna Carta. It includes some information on the historical significance and actual intent of the Magna Carta as well as background on the conflict between King John and the barons that lead to Runnymeade. Quite a nice weekend read.

“Odyssey”, “Cauldron” & “Polaris” by Jack McDevitt. All three solid sci-fi stories. The first two are continuations of the “Priscilla Hutchins” series. And they are both compelling additions to a fantastic future history. "Cauldron" is especially good. I love the super-villian character introduced in the end - creepy, amusing and effective. Lastly, we have a novel in the “Alex Benedict” series which although good was my least favorite of the three. For reasons I can’t quite pin down the Alex Benedict novels are less satisfactory for me than McDevitt’s other works; there’s an underlying cynicism to those stories that puts me off. "Polaris" especially was ultimately about a bunch of scientists screwing everyone over because people weren't ready for "the truth". YAWN of an ending.

“True Darcy Spirit” & “The Second Mrs. Darcy” by Elizabeth Aston. Thank God Austen is in the public domain. So we can get authors like Aston writing such wonderful continuations of the story. Two wonderful historical romances involving Anne de Bourgh's daughter and a Darcy widow. Very enjoyable and left me craving for more (so much so that I asked for yet two more P&P continuations for Christmas).

“Genius Squad” by Catherine Jinks. Sequel to “Evil Genius” (which was brilliant). This book covers the aftermath of the fall of the Axis Institute and how Cadel Piggot deals with being outed as the child of an evil genius. The rag-tag band of maybe-not-quite-good super-genius kids who may-or-may-not fight evil was exceptionally well written. At no time do you forget that for the most part, these are children or teenagers with some severe emotional problems. Great kids adventure that never forgets even geniuses kids are ultimately kids.

“A Slave Is A Slave” By H. Bean Piper. (short story) Got this little gem off ManyBooks.net after realizing one of my favorite sci-fi quotes originates from the work. An excellent (if somewhat depressing) story on human nature, slavery and the dangers of “fixing” other people’s societies.

“Rebels of the Red Planet” by Charles Louis Fontenay. (novella/short story/I don’t know) From the golden age of sci-fi comes what would be a really good novella, if it wasn’t so horribly dated in places. The heroine is cool as a super-spy underestimated even by Martian government officials (one in particular who is very keen on marrying her). However, the second she interacts with the hero character, she throws all that out the window and turns into the typical 50's sci-fi damsel in distress. Lots of good twists and plot beats about evil manipulations of settling Mars but overall underwhelming because if you’re going to have a female character that cool, you need to have a equally cool male character to pair her off with and the “hero” didn’t cut it. It’s never a good sign when you’re rooting more for the crazy old guy in the secret government hydroponics facility than the supposed hero.

“The Laughing Cavalier” & “The First Sir Percy” by Baroness Orczy. Two great novellas about the equally audacious ancestor of “The Scarlet Pimpernel”. Just lovely, old-fashioned swashbuckling reads. Great fun, good suspense and surprisingly packed with great one-liners.

“Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir In Books” by Azar Nafisi. A simultaneously depressing & uplifting book. In addition to the women’s pov on living in The Islamic Republic of Iran, the author’s background as someone who had previously supported revolution made for very interesting reading. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it; this isn’t a book anybody enjoys (in some respects I get the feeling the author didn’t enjoy writing it so much as needed the release). But definitely a thought provoking work.

“Omega, The Man” by Lowell Howard Morrow (short story) BLAH & YUCK. A completely unnecessary and depressing story about the end of the human race in some far, very dismal future. Not to ruin the end for you, but we don’t come out too well. I’m good with dystopian futures but this one didn’t have any purpose to it at all!

“The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (vol 1 & 2)” by Alan Moore (& Kevin O'Neill, vol.2) (comic book) It’s very rare that I have such wildly variable responses to two different books in a series but that’s exactly what happened here. Volume One was excellent. Volume Two was complete & utter dreck. So I’m dividing up the review:
Volume 1 - Solid and enjoyable but not a story for kids. I especially loved all the little details like the incorporation of the Sherlock Holmes mythos, nod to ‘Mysterious Island’ and my favorite, hints that a previous league existed earlier in British history including (SPOILER) The Scarlet Pimpernel himself! My only negative is how they keep hitting you over the head with the Mina/Quartermain relationship. Given Mina’s past, I can understand why she would be attracted to an older man but the way they are going about it is very, very junior high school. Aside from that, definitely good stuff.
Volume 2 – UGH. A comic book involving a “War Of The Worlds” scenario should be excellent. The premise is yours to screw up. And boy, did they! Let’s just say that after reading this comic, I’m remembering the LXG movie a LOT more fondly than I did previously. The actual invasion parts were cool. The actions and thought processes of the League characters were a DISASTER. For one thing, there were 2 sex scenes that (I thought) were totally out of character for the Mina Murrary of Volume One. Also, the Invisible Man’s betrayal was so predictable, its aftermath didn’t engage me at all. And while Dr. Hyde died well, he didn’t really have much to do but avenge the Invisible Man’s betrayal in a completely disgusting manner and die well. Also, while I agree that the British Empire had its bad points, the constant harping on how terrible it was really annoys me. We are talking about the only empire in history to outlaw slavery, right? The same one that managed to leave behind more productive, relatively stable societies when it collapsed than most, right? The same one that exported the Industrial Revolution and all of its technological wonders around the world, right? Sure it wasn’t all roses but dude, the downside of the Victorian/Empire Period has been so DONE that the clicheness of those plot twists took an already mediocre story and made it terrible. Needless to say, I'm skipping volume 3.

“Ivory Towers On Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies In America” by Martin Kramer. Got this as a .pdf from the author’s website A little bit of a dry read (but if you really like reading tales of academic infighting, this is for you!) but an interesting summary of both why Middle Eastern Studies in the US is so incredibly biased and how it got that way. Seriously, even knowing the book has its biases, Edward Said sounds like a complete tool!

“Kris Longknife: Audacious” by Mike Shephard. Yet another awesome addition to the equally awesome Kris Longknife series. This is how you write a sci-fi heroine. Plus, I’ve got to love a book that opens in the middle of an assassination attempt on the main character, is focused on causing/preventing/it-depends-on-the-chapter a coup, and has some of the best wacky space politics & how they got that way future history I’ve read in a long while. Seriously, New Eden politics was wonderfully complicated and believable.

“Making Money” by SIR Terry Pratchett. Of course this doesn’t suck! There are very few surer bets in modern fiction than a DiscWorld novel. Still, this was really good even for Terry Pratchett. Several Laugh-out-loud moments, excellent wry commentary on fiscal policy and just a wonderful plot. Also, Lord Vetinari is one of those characters who started out awesome and continues to out-awesome everyone around him on every single page. Pratchett deserved to be knighted just for creating HIM.

“Games People Play: The Basic Handbook Transactional Analysis” by Eric Berne. An interesting if difficult read. I think it says something about the state of modern psychology that they take such a cool topic and then spend 100+ pages sucking the cool from it one dry academic pronouncement at a time. If the topic weren’t something that deeply interested me, I’d have stopped after the first chapter. Also after reading, I am left with a lingering but distinct desire to play “Now I’ve Got You, You Son Of A Bitch” (which will forever be on my list of Best Game Names EVAH).

Flashbacks of the Not-So-Pleasant Kind

2009-01-07T21:10:00.006-06:00

Hattip this person on LJ whom I've never heard of before, from this AP article:

A construction official falsely billed $1.2 million for supplies not delivered to clean up a toxic ground zero skyscraper in exchange for cash, clothes and trips to the Caribbean, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Robert Chiarappa was the purchasing agent for the John Galt Corp., which was hired to clean up the former Deutsche Bank tower after it was heavily damaged in the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center across the street.

On a sidenote, Wikipedia links people READING GALT'S GODFORSAKEN 3-HOUR-BUT-IT-FEELS-MUCH-MUCH-LONGER-RADIO-SPEECH-ALOUD!

I actually read that speech aloud once in college just to see if it really was three hours.....It took me five hours to get through. I lost my voice for two days after. It cured me of Objectivism for life!* Why are you people putting me through that again?! Why are you putting anyone through that? I thought Objectivists considered masochism immoral or something?

*Not that I actually disagree with most of Rand's philosophy. It's just John Galt, like most devout Objectivists, is kinda an asshole. Don't you always hate it when the sanctimonious jerk who everyone ignores at parties espouses your long-held beliefs for the single dumbest reasons evah and in general, causes you to seriously re-consider any world-view which includes them on your side? Me too.

How To Destroy Civilization With Bad Science

2009-01-04T13:20:00.004-06:00

Somewhere in the afterlife, the ghost of King Arthur weeps.....From the Telegraph:

...the residents of Glastonbury, which has long been a favoured destination for pilgrims, are at the centre of a bitter row in which many blame the town's new wireless computer network - known as wi-fi - for a spate of health problems.

Amid incredibly vague descriptions about the "dangers" of wi-fi, there's this entrepreneurial spirit:

Matt Todd, who campaigns against EMFs, said that residents had complained that chakras and ley lines are being disrupted. "They believe positive energy flows are being disturbed," he said.

Mr Todd has started building small generators which he believes can neutralise the allegedly-harmful radiation using the principles of orgone science. The pyramid-like machines use quartz crystals, selenite (a clear form of the mineral gypsum), semi-precious lapis lazuli stones, gold leaf and copper coil to absorb and recycle the supposedly-negative energy.

I would weep for the home of the Industrial Revolution but I think that was centered in the North and Glastonbury is in the South. Still how can a modern country expect to survive when at least a town full of its people lack any and all critical thinking skills or understanding of basic science?

*Is going off to defiantly read a book on wireless routers, you ignorant peons*

Backlog of Interesting Patterns....

2009-01-01T12:22:00.004-06:00

Between comforter shopping over Thanksgiving & my travels for Christmas, I've actually made some really good pattern discoveries lately. There's really only one dud in the bunch (but what a dud!).

Teaser: Gorgeous blue sofa upholstery!
Click "full post" for more...

Seriously, whoever picks the scrapbook paper prints out for Michael's stores does know their business. Here's a really pretty purple & cream pattern:

While looking for a new comforter, my Mom & I also browsed the shower curtain, most of which were blessedly forgettable. The exception:
A dismal 70's flashback. It really is gross.

In addition to the usual papers & upholstery, I also spotted some wonderful antique cups. Here's a lovely Asian pattern:

And, I'm quite surprised I liked this one given the pink but the color isn't so bad with the gray:

This last one isn't a pattern I found but rather one I made. I got this poster for Christmas and since it's an odd size, there were no ready-made mattes in the stores. So a couple of packages of origami paper later....
*is feeling very crafty*

Dereliction of Blogging Duties

2009-01-01T09:42:00.004-06:00

So, I disappeared for a month (and a half). Between work, the holidays and planning for dental surgery (and actual dental surgery), I've been just a teensy bit busy. To make up for it, the next couple of days will b e a posting frenzy including:

1) My holiday pattern discoveries
2) Recent reading
3) My absolutely dismal update on 2008 Personal Enrichment goals
4) My entirely more upbeat 2009 Personal Enrichment goals
5) Whatever else I think of....

TGIF For Sure....

2008-11-14T06:41:00.001-06:00

(Note to self: Must not wake neighbors with laughing)

Unhealthy Shockingness

2008-11-13T18:21:00.003-06:00

During a very disturbing conversation on San Antonio Area foods that can be bought off trucks & at concession stands, I discovered that people in this town have wacked out eating habits. Examples:

Salt on Cantelope / Watermelons - I like sweet/sour combinations but seriously?

Pickle Flavored Snowcones – Not with actual pickle brine (which as someone who has drunk pickle brine I would understand) but pickle flavored syrup expressly producing for making super-disgusting snowcones....Because using real pickle brine would be inauthentic?

Limon-Hot Cheetos with Nacho Cheese (!!!) – The latest hit at high school football games

Just thinking about that last one caused my arteries to harden....In other news, I had a lovely salad for dinner.

Spree of Auditory Delights

2008-11-08T15:38:00.003-06:00

Man, it’s either feast or famine with me music-wise. Last month was gluttony central. In addition to music purchases, I’ve found (via BoingBoing) another wonderful source of internet radio awesomeness! Podomatic offers podcasts that play in your web browser or that are available for download. They have something for everybody, both music and talk radio. Personally, I don’t like talk radio so here’s my favorite stations in the music category:

The Casbah – Only 4 episodes available but what episodes! Produced by someone right here in San Antonio, it’s a wonderful combination of Surf, Oldies, Garage & Punk.

Ready Steady A Go Go – Lots of episodes dedicated to the bands of the British Invasion Era. Really good foot-stomping music from some bands mainstream “oldies” stations often ignore.

Texas Blues Cafe – Exactly what it sounds like. Texas-style blues with a bit of a bawdy twist. Not necessarily for family listening but great fun anyway.

Now for the usual suspects:

CD Baby
Erin Jordan & The Whiskey Temptation “Gateway To Temptation” – Bluesy swing with a wry sense of humor. Not to mention the main singer has a fantastic voice.

Fiddlefire “Playing With Fire” – A family trio, the oldest of which is 15(!). Very good selection including both upbeat numbers and ballads.

Sleepy Horses “Somewhere Out West Lonesome For You” – WOW. Incredibly mellow alt-country that manages to be haunting, fun and diverse all at the same time.

Divahn “Divhan” - Arabic-influenced Jewish music. No really. Great stuff with unique sounds and the harmonies of the four ladies singing are gorgeous.

Amazon CDs:
Atomic Fireballs “Torch This Place” – Amazing modern swing with a unique lead singer. Although the album is normal length, the songs blast out at such a frenetic pace, it’s over too quickly.

“Vintage Collection: Tennessee Ernie Ford” – I bought for “16 Tons” classic song but it’s a really solid collection of standards. I’d never heard of Ernie Ford before but the guy had one heck of a voice.

Amazon Downloads (best of recent):
The Undertones “Bye Bye Baby Blue”
The Adverts “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes”
Rainbow “Sixteenth Century Greensleeves”
Calexico “Attack El Robot! Attack!”
Jonathon Coulton “Someone Is Crazy”
Bedlam Bards “On The Drift (instrumental)”
Rosemary Clooney “Come-On-A My House”
Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog Soundtrack "My Eyes"

On a sidenote: Dear God, Amazon Prime is addictive!! I talked myself into signing up for the 3-month free trial a while ago....Seriously, it’s completely awesome to just click on something and know it will be at your doorstep in exactly two days. I’ve been ordering so often that the UPS guy doesn’t even bother dropping off my packages at the apartment office anymore. He just tosses them onto my balcony and adds a little arrow to the sticky note left on my door (I’m not certain if he’s saying “I Threw It Over There *points*” or “Go Over Rail For Package”).

Study Says Lefties Natural Worrywarts

2008-11-06T05:45:00.004-06:00

While I don't necessarily agree with how overwrought they portray us southpaws, I have to admit this study on left-handed people makes a lot of sense just based on my own personal experiences. This in particular is right on the money:

Wright, a lefty, agrees. “They [left-handers] like to colour-code things, they like to write lists, it’s almost a way to alleviate their stress,” she says, adding that she is the classic example of the things that she finds in her work – "which is frightening”.

*Looks at my 4-5 To-Do lists* So, that might be a teensy bit true....

Well, Damn.

2008-11-05T06:30:00.004-06:00

So, I didn't vote for Sen. Obama and am not at all thrilled about his positions on most issues.

On the other hand, America just elected somebody as President who wouldn't be able to eat in certain restaurants, drink at certain fountains or attend certain schools less than 50 years ago. While I don't agree with his specific proposed changes, that is change I can believe in.

Surreallism in Action...

2008-10-31T16:48:00.002-06:00

When you look across your cubicle wall and see this:

In other terrifying Halloween news, courtesy of Geek Press, scientists have decided to create an evil supercomputer intentionally in order to learn more about human morality. Because evil supercomputers, HOW CAN THAT POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

On that note,
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Overheard At Work, pt 18

2008-10-30T18:49:00.002-06:00

(I am returning from lunch & walk by a coworker)
Co-Worker: So, the weather is already causing static problems for your hair?
Me: ... :o ...
Co-Worker: Oh, I didn’t mean it like that!

Whatever you say pal.....Totally random subject change: What are the most common ways orbital riveting could go horribly, horribly wrong? I’m curious.

*not plotting vengeance really*

My Civic Duty – 2008 Election Edition

2008-10-26T14:08:00.004-06:00

Aka “Things I Did Not Know Before This Election But Discovered When Researching Candidates On My Ballot”:

1) Texas puts a crazy amount of information online! It was incredibly easy to find information on incumbents & what they had been doing. While downloading court opinions was very easy*, I would like to compliment especially the state house bill tracking system. Check this out:

I can track the progress of the bill, read supplementary reporting and if it was voted on get the voting info. For fun, I compared this to the website for my US Senator which frankly was terrible when it came to viewing his bills. First of all, getting to his sponsored bills took three screens starting with a teeny-tiny link at the bottom of his homepage. Then, the actual bill review site was very underwhelming:

In all fairness to my senator, he does have a very good history of pushing for government transparency & the like. Also the webpage for reviewing his bills appears to be handled through the Library of Congress so it maybe their faulty web design & not his. But why does his site make it so difficult to get to?

2) San Antonio’s 4th District Court is almost entirely female! And a pretty ideologically diverse and fair-minded group at that (reading the histories and opinions of the court). *is overcome with girrrrrl power glee*

3) While Texas is a lot better than some other states about at least allowing Libertarian candidates on the ballot, the local newspapers are terrible about reporting on them. Even when they mention a lib-candidate, there’s a very begrudging tone like “Oh yeah, both republican & democrat candidates suck so we’re not favoring either...and btw, whatshisname is running as a libertarian *textual giggles*”. Needless to say, this made googling libertarian candidates very annoying. I rarely found more than a name mention in any public newspaper OR on the libertarian party website listing their candidates! Newspapers I have little expectation of fairness from but when the libertarian party doesn't provide details, COME ON! I'm interested but I'm not voting for somebody I know nothing about!

4) Unique Texas practice: “the jury shuffle” – significantly less fun than the two-step. I discovered this while reading an opinion by the current Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Apparently, in Texas lawyers are allowed shuffle the seating placement of potential jurors if there are too many of one gender or one skin color(!) seated together. The only slightly-not-skeevy thing about it is that both the prosecutor or defense attorney can do it. Otherwise, this just sounds unwise.

5) Favorite phase actually used in Texas Court opinions (and quoted from precedent) – “A vain and useless thing” (translation: don’t waste the court’s precious time with BS that has no bearing on the case)

6) We have a LOT of uncontested District Judges being “reelected” in this area of Texas. The so-called candidates are from both parties. I don’t know the causes for this but I’m pretty uncomfortable with the idea of uncontested elections, even when the incumbent has done an all round good job. There’s something democratically unseemly about the false choice of an elected but unopposed candidate.

7) People in my area really enjoyed voting. There was no drama at all. Everyone was very polite and considerate and it was a very efficient process. One mother teased her son when he came out, “First time voting, just like the first day of kindergarten.” That earned her a "Mooooommm!".

* I got a little too enthusiastic about downloading court opinions and had to cut myself off. I originally intended only to download 1-2 opinions written by those justices up for re-election but…it got a little out of control. If the Texas Court System Database ever crashes, I can provide backups for a significant chunk of the published opinions in the Aug-Oct 2008 timeframe.

My Eyes Are Kinda Melting Right Now...

2008-10-24T21:45:00.002-06:00

via here.

*the pattern-loving part of my soul whimpers pathetically*

Old School Desktop

2008-10-22T19:19:00.005-06:00

Once again, the Ubuntu forums monthly Desktop thread forces me to step up my game....Using a homemade wallpaper and some new controls/icon themes, I decided to create a yellow-themed desktop as I’d never done one before and figured it would be a bit of a challenge. The final result:

Clean:

Expo:

Wallpaper: “Antiquing” made by me in GIMP with GPL/CC licensed brushes, gradients & patterns
Controls: Zenburn-Murrine
Icons: Foxtrot
AWN Theme: Shotglass modified to match wallpaper colors
Firefox Theme: Default
Thunderbird Theme: Outlook 2003 GreenTB (not shown)
Songbird Theme: Default with “Personas” AddOn reconfigured with wallpaper as background image
(Oops - forgot one!) Emerald Theme: Argilla

*eyes laptop speculatively*

Farwell Dear Winnifred!

2008-10-22T18:49:00.002-06:00

This week I traded in my long-time mode of transportation, my Honda Civic (named Winnifred). She’s more than served me well but it’s time for a change. I knew I wanted one of two cars to replace her, either a Nissan Versa or a Toyota Matrix. Having test driven both, I can say that they are remarkably similar cars in almost all respects. In the end, my decision came down to one area of difference. The main deal-breaker was this:
This is a fabulously designed trunk! Some Toyota engineer(s) gave real thought to the fact that people who buy a car in order to extend the trunk space probably also have other needs that should be addressed. Then, those engineers proceeded to include lots of little features that turn the trunk into a massively functional space. Although the Nissan Versa was very comparable in all other respects, it has nothing trunk-wise to compete with what the Matrix has going on here.

In other slightly odd news, based on the online information I expected to be buying the Versa so I had a name picked out for that vehicle. Since instead I bought the Matrix, I’m at a loss name-wise. While it isn’t directly impairing my ability to enjoy my new car, I find it strangely impersonal to be driving an unnamed car.

I Like This Guy! Oh, him too.

2008-10-20T22:16:00.005-06:00

With all the brouhaha about “Joe the Plumber” & how he’s being treated in the media, I was exceedingly amused to read this story over at the National Review about a Colombian immigrant who showed up at a McCain rally to debate the press. The money quote:

When I first made my way over to him, Munoz thought I was there to give him the third degree.
“Are you going to check my license, too?” he asked me. “Are you going to check my immigration status? I’m ready, I have everything here. Whatever you want, I have it. I have my green card, I have my passport — “
I was a little surprised. Did Munoz really bring his papers with him to a McCain rally? I asked.
“Yeah, I have my papers right here,” he said. “I’m an American citizen. Right here, right here.” With that, he produced a U.S. passport, turned it to the page with his picture on it, and thrust it about an inch from my nose. “Right here,” he said. “In your face.”

“In Your face.” Wouldn’t the world be a better place if more people said that to our reporters? They are not holy arbiters of objectivism but people with all the prejudices and preconceptions that everybody else has. Please read the full article including this guy confronting a MOTHER JONES reporter on their coverage. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one calling these guys out in person on their reporting.

The problem with this election cycle is that when the average citizen can discover contradictory evidence for most political reporting with 5 minutes of googling during lunch, they begin to understand exactly how terrible reporting is in general. Having discovered that 5 minutes of googling teaches them more than 30 minutes of nightly news, why would they watch the nightly news? Or spend a half hour reading the newspaper?

PS. In the category of "Why I Like Conservative Blogs Better Than Liberal Ones Even When I Don't Always Agree With Them" here's a money quote from "Ace of Spades":

UPDATE: Jesus Christ, I love you morons, but are you all on crack?

RTWT as they say.

60s Surprises

2008-10-19T13:47:00.003-06:00

From when they could actually play live music WELL.....

The Association - Along Comes Mary

The Seeds - Pushing Too Hard

The Sorrows - Take A Heart

Blues Magoo - We Ain't Got Nothing Yet

*bubble is burst* (see comment)

Pointless Sunday Stuff

2008-10-19T11:14:00.003-06:00

After a week of planning, I'm left with not much to do today as I never got the memo that car dealerships were all closed on Sundays! However, as a follow-up to my "Hobby-Lobby" post, here's a couple of patterns straight off the shelves at "Michael's" (while they do not have wacky fabrics, they have a wonderfully eclectic scrapbook paper collection).

Blue-Lime Monstrousity:

And "Should Be Ugly But Isn't"
I have no explanation why I like this except that it's vaguely fractal...

Times Are A Changin’

2008-10-17T18:14:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, during “Supernatural”, there was an advertisement that kinda made my brain stop in its tracks. They aired a commercial for “The 700 Club”. In the ad, religious show advertised upcoming special reports....Including what looks like a very positive report on solar power for your home.

You know the public’s perception of renewable energy has undergone a major shift when the fundamentalist crowd is talking about it positively. I’m just saying.

On a sidenote: What network super-genius thought selling ad-space to “The 700 Club” during “Supernatural” was a good fit with their audience? Seriously, do they think just because there are angels on the show the fundie crowd will adore it? Because the online fans of SPN are more than a little notorious for being kinky as all get out (although the show does make it easy sometimes). Can we expect “Focus On The Family” ads during “One Tree Hill” next?

Horribly Distracted At Hobby Lobby

2008-10-15T16:11:00.003-06:00

I risked venturing into “Hobby Lobby” yesterday evening for a completely fruitless search for a 20” x 34” picture frame. However, the trip did yield some truly earth-shattering patterns when I somehow ended up in the fabric department instead of framing (they start with the same letter!).

I'll spare the eyes of casual readers and put the majority of the pictures in the full post. Be warned these are BAD.

Teaser: So orange it blurs your vision.....

Stores like this are really a goldmine for a pattern-collector such as myself but even I had to pause at some of the wacky for sale. The racks of regular cloth are what first caught my eye:

These aren't all bad. It's just the bad are so loud and distracting you have to risk staring to seek out the good (or not-so-bad). I do like the third from the left on the top and the pale-blue-brown flowers pattern in the middle of the second. Later blue-brown combinations were....disappointing.

The real meat of this post came from the upholstery/curtain aisles. Just wow...I was quickly overwhelmed. They apparently stocked up on shockingly loud fabrics. Including, the below eye-catching number:
And what happens when Impressionism explodes:

Brocades are coming back into fashion:
For those who wish to create their own personal Versailles.

They also had a lovely assortment of curtains fresh off the presses in Candyland:

Also, they had rubber fabrics! I can only assume for outdoor tablecloths & such. But seriously, would you put this:
On your back patio? Seriously?

In the middle of all this color, I discovered a string of unfortunate blue-brown patterns that may forever turn me off the combination. Let's start with the misdemenor offender:
Unappealing but it could just be me. The below patterns are however inexcusable:

Warning! Covering your furniture with these patterns increases the risk of suicide by 75%.

The two worst of the worst (on the curtain aisle) still remain. Until now, you only think you've seen color, but alas those were but a pale palette compared to this guy:
It's paint by numbers for chairs!

Finally, the worst of the worst:
If Satan had a grandmother, her couch would be covered in this fabric.

Now, some of the patterns did catch my eye in a pleasant way. For reasons I cannot identify, I like this combination of fabrics:
Anyone want to hazard an explanation?

Curtain-wise I tend to favor sheer or small-flowery patterns like so:

I was also surprised to find myself liking this one:
It looked more pinkish in the store...I wouldn't want this for a full curtain set but on a couple of throw pillows? I don't hate the idea at all.

But by far my favorite print of the trip:
Vaguely dreamy purple flowers, enough to draw the eyes but not overpowering.

After physically removing myself from the fabric section, I continued browsing. During my wandering I discovered that Hobby Lobby has created certain product lines for the disabled. Here's their "Pillows for the Colorblind Collection":

They also had some really disturbing lamps. Apparently, “Victorian Bordello” is making a comeback. And sometimes, they couldn't even get that right....
They didn't quite get it right on this pair. I'm kinda getting a “grandma bordello” vibe which really isn't what I usually go for in a living room.

The best lampshade by far:
Really striking and distinctive. Alluring without the slightly slutty/garish vibe of the other lamps. Like the Grace Kelly of Lampshades.

In conclusion, there was color, a bit of shock and some gorgeous sheer curtains.

I Need To Clean But....

2008-10-11T12:41:00.004-06:00

Instead I'm staring in awe at these awesome vintage space travel posters by Steve Thomas. I've been dying to replace one of the pictures in my dining area so out with the dorky castle/dragon fantasy poster! In 2-7 days this will be what I see at breakfast everyday:

Travel to Jupiter
by

stevethomas

See the other posters prints On www.zazzle.com
View more Digital Art Posters

YouTube Is Changing The World, pt 2 Trillion

2008-10-10T18:02:00.001-06:00

I know, I'm blogging like a fiend today compared to my usual rate. But this is probably the most concise summary of what caused the current economic meltdown I have seen yet!

Overheard At Work, pt 17

2008-10-10T16:40:00.001-06:00

In the category of I-cannot-believe-I-forgot-to-post-this!

“I want the eyes of a newborn baby!”

Prompted by this lovely piece of advertising (courtesy of a coworker):

Dead People Voting In Droves!!!

2008-10-10T16:28:00.003-06:00

As a follow-up to this morning’s post on ACORN’s illegal election tactics, here’s this report on voter registration fraud in the Houston Area (oh no, not H-town!). From the facts in the article, these incidents don’t to have anything to do with ACORN. However, the situation does exemplify the sort of voter “irregularities” that undermine the public’s faith in elections. That’s it! I’m putting John Fund’s book on order pronto. If I’m going to be grumpy and indignant about something I might as well be grumpy, indignant and informed.

Also, I had no idea TexasWatchdog.org existed but wow, it is a really useful site. Government accountability FTW!

In light of the article, I got a little creative....

UPDATE: Darnit! I got beaten to the punch by 6 minutes over at Ace of Spades.....If only I could blog at work.

ACORN, taking our $$$ to undermine the election system

2008-10-10T05:58:00.005-06:00

Looks like ACORN is finally going to be held accountable for its bogus voter registration drives. Seriously, how can an organization under investigation in 10 states be receiving federal funds?! While the Republicans have had their own scandals regarding voter registrations, it doesn't change the fact that in the form of ACORN the Democrat Party has a whole organization dedicated to manipulating the voter rolls for their own ends. Belief in the system is the one of the larger things keeping the American election system working. Registering dead people or 105% of the eligible voters does not do any favors for Americans' trust in the system.

Congressman Boehner gets the "good job" tag for this one.

If you want even more details on why ACORN shouldn't be trusted to run a cheese mold factory much less a voter registration drive, check out this Rachel Lucas post.

(Found via Ace of Spades)

Congress At Work....

2008-10-08T05:20:00.003-06:00

You know, as long as we keep them out of economic, foriegn policy and health care issues, the Democrats do good work. Case in point, three Congressmen's* new proposed bill to more clearly delinate the rules for border laptop searches. The current rules of "at the border guard's discreation" are overly broad and the competing bill would merely take statistics on the situation and not actually provide the guidance it sounds like the Travelers Privacy Protection Act would.

After last night's single most boring debate ever and last week's disastrous posturing by Congress, it's nice to know our elected officials aren't totally useless.

* technically, it's Congresspeople b/c one is a woman but I think Congresspeople sounds incredibly lame and refuse to use it.

AAAAHHHHH (No Coffee Req'd)

2008-10-06T05:36:00.002-06:00

Thanks to this discovery I made in my bathroom sink.

As if it being Monday isn't traumatic enough....

Stupid Geniuses & Other Cliches

2008-10-04T18:08:00.000-06:00

What's that old quote? "Some ideas are so stupid only smart people believe in them." Or something like that....

I was all excited about the TEDTalks YouTube channel, so I click the very first video and listen to some old guy talking about how large our population should be....Of course, if only we only had 100-500 million all our problems would just magically disappear. What Zero-Sum Pro-Maltusian bullshit!

It's not about how many people we have, it's about how inefficiently we provide for them! You would think someone considered an expert in their field wouldn't fall prey to the same blinkered thinking that caused so much death and destruction in the last century.

You want to know where Americans get their anti-intellectualism streak? It's from guys saying stuff like this: "There should only be so many people, spread out where they cannot cause trouble....The right ones of course." Dude, where have we heard that one before? You want to convince people to build sustainable healthy societies, how about you not tell 6.1 billion of them that they are unnecessary?

There is no "perfect" amount of people for the world. There is only how many are sustainable at this time with the current level of technology. If you change the level of technology, then you can support more people. And we are constantly increasing the level of technology, a fact you'd expect a robotics professor at MIT would be aware of.

And spreading people out? How dumb are you?! Urban areas are more efficient than rural areas, hands-down. It's easier for people to combine their efforts in sustainable and effective ways in cities. It's easier for them to close loops so resources aren't lost or left un-recycled. It's also more likely people will hold their own reproduction in check when they are in an urban setting versus a rural one.

Let me tell you my completely non-expert opinion: Poor people who become rich have fewer children (Note: NOT poor people who are made rich by government fiat or redistribution schemes). Rich countries more efficiently use their resources so problems like sustainability and resource-shortage become smaller problems over time. As the wealth of the world increases, like it has been, these problems will be solved by people, all those supposedly non-essential workers you don't see any value in.

All I can say is, the quicker we lose these outdated 20th century thinkers from our educational and research institutions, the better off the world will be. I mean compare this view of the world with all of these other people.

OMG Really?!

2008-10-04T14:11:00.003-06:00

I will not be doing anything constructive with my weekend. Instead, I will be studiously preparing for the release of the Stargate Worlds beta on Oct 15th. It looks gorgeous!
More screenshots are available here....
If anything will help me get over the cancellation of Atlantis, this is it!

*runs off to register*

The Big Next Big Ubuntu

2008-10-03T05:36:00.003-06:00

I'd never read the release notes for an upcoming version of Ubuntu. Sometimes, the surprise of a new feature is a joy in and of itself. However, I did a quick read through of the notes and there's some pretty cool things on the way.

From improving privacy to little tweaks to the desktop, it sounds like I'm going to enjoy my post-upgrade experience. I can only hope they get flash/sound issues under control. Right now, that's the biggest day-to-day weakness in the system. This problem isn't Ubuntu's fault but the average user doesn't care about the politics of proprietary codecs, they just want to easily switch between playing their music and watching YouTube videos.

Ok, this post isn't intended to be a lecture. Two little things I'm looking forward to trying with the next release"
1) Encrypted Private Directories in your "Home" folder - Very neat idea.
2) "Last Successful Boot Option" - To make it easier to recover from a bad upgrade to the kernel.

Putting my $$ where my mouth is...

2008-10-02T18:17:00.004-06:00

Via the super-cool idea of DonorsChoose.org. It's like crowd-sourced education funding. Teachers post their requested items, they provide you location information and you choose which things to fund. I saw BoingBoing advertising it this morning but only just now checked it out.

So, in an effort to address the lack of math skills that I frequently complain about, I think my donations will be targeted toward math classes. There's actually a teacher in Houston requesting calculators. Definitely giving my old hometown the nod. I hit a couple others also but there's too many for just me. If you're interested in helping math & science education in Texas, please consider these:

1) Buying Students Copies of "A Short History of Nearly Everything" to promote interest in Chemistry
2) Book bins for 2nd Graders (Hey, I'm a big reader too)
3) Buying TI-83 Calculators. Heck, I still use the TI-85 bought for my high school Algebra II class. Learning to use doesn't just help math but also works as a good introduction to programming.
4) Six Pre-packaged Science Tubs full of experiments & hands-on equipment.
5) Computer Lab - This is a big one but learning to use a computer early is critical in today's world.
6) 2nd Grader's Making Their Own Science Lessons - Really fantastic idea. Just the act of explaining a topic to someone else helps you learn.
7) Fetal Pig Dissection Kit - Yeah, it's gross but I remember doing this lab in 9th grade and it really did help me understand anatomy when I took Biology.
8) Geology & Jewelry Making - Teaching kids geology and small business skills at the same time. Also, it's a fundraiser to help the kids continue to raise more funds on their own. I really like this one.
9) MANY MORE. If you're not from Texas, it's worth it to search the site for projects in your state.

Man, the internet really does help you do everything better!

Overheard at Work, pt16

2008-09-30T17:43:00.003-06:00

Well, technically this is "read at work" but it's too awesome to not post.

From a Spring Design handbook:
"Stress Concentration - The Troublemaker"

Because remember kids, sharp corners are the gateway drug of bad design! Be on the lookout for the following individuals....

*is repressing the urge to re-watch "Rebel Without A Cause"*

GIMP the Weekened Away

2008-09-21T20:12:00.003-06:00

In an effort to design some customer stickers for my laptop, I started tricking out GIMP this weekend. Basically, I just went to DeviantArt, searched for "GIMP" and loaded anything that looked interesting. There's plenty of other links, including the GIMP Plug-In Registry, blogs like hawksmont universe (for the really awesome brushes) and help forums like those at GIMPTalk (the also have a great "Resources" sub-forum).

While I didn't make much progress with my laptop sticker design, I did manage to get some pretty cool wallpapers made. Credit of course goes to the people who actually produced the brushes, patterns, etc. Their stuff made using some of the better features of GIMP very easy and fun for me.
Teaser:
I call this one "Antiquing". To make it I used brushes from several different sets and this really great pattern from here.
10 more wallpapers in full post.

Now, I'm not usually one for orange but I really, like how this one turned out...

I used the rather interesting "Glass Bottles" and "Labels" brushes to do this one. It's called "Olde Laboratory".
I definitely think I'll be doing more like this in the future.

Ok, not everything I tried turned out. For instance, although I'm happy with the purple wallpapers using other colors (see below), the straight-up purple ones really didn't turn out. This was the better one and, I don't know, it just doesn't work somehow...

Here's purple done well. This was the closest I could get to a OK-looking asian-themed wallpaper. I got tons of brushes from the various sites but few things beat the simplicity of blossoms & branches.
This is a green tentacled wallpaper. While I used the obvious curls & swirls, there actually are tentacle brushes. Not to mention some nice gradient brushes used here also.
What geek wallpaper collection would be complete without fractals? Thanks to this collection of brushes.
Ok, these last three I think are the best of the bunch. We have another green curly wallpaper. I don't know if I'm just liking the yellow better over the brown but I prefer this to the green tentacle one. Lots of swirls and curls used here.
I really really wanted to do something with plants but, man, they aren't easy to layout in a way that doesn't look stupid. It took several tries for me to get a plant wallpaper I could stand. But I'm quite happy with the final result. I'm pretty sure I used only foliage brushes from this set (which is a very good collection).

OK, this one is my favorite and it was an absolute blast to make. I used mainly this collection of bubbles brushes and a collection called "So 60s Circles Sequel".

So, what do you think?

The Vatican Has Impressed Me (For Real!)

2008-09-18T17:41:00.006-06:00

I find myself really impressed by this news: The Catholic Church is NOT Inviting Advocates of Creationism or Intelligent Design to Its Forum on Evolution.

From the Horse's Mouth:

Jesuit Father Marc Leclerc, a philosophy professor at the Gregorian, told Catholic News Service Sept. 16 that organizers "wanted to create a conference that was strictly scientific" and that discussed rational philosophy and theology along with the latest scientific discoveries.
He said arguments "that cannot be critically defined as being science, or philosophy or theology did not seem feasible to include in a dialogue at this level and, therefore, for this reason we did not think to invite" supporters of creationism and intelligent design.

Because when reviewing a topic in a scholarly manner, Jesuits (of all people) know better than to listen to those who impose EITHER-OR fallacies where they do not belong.

Also, in between a note that evolution doesn't comply with the Bible and hopes from some guidance from the Church on the subject, there is this zinger:

Gennaro Auletta, professor of philosophy at the Gregorian and head of the STOQ project, said organizers hope the encounter will help theologians and philosophers be "a bit more humble and learn to listen a bit more" to what science is unveiling about humanity and the world.

Wow guys. Keep this up, I'm might actually start calling myself a Catholic again (well, probably not but good job anyway).

(my emphasis added both quotes)

Super Stylin' Old Books

2008-09-17T22:41:00.003-06:00

While wandering around Half-Price Books waiting for them to review my offered DVDs, I came across two beautifully bound older books. Look at these covers:

On the left is "The Scarlet Pimpernel" By Baroness Orczy & on the right is "The Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio

Modern hardcovers veer from bland-looking to wrapped in gaudy cover art at first chance. I’m not knocking all cover art necessarily. Only, I think there is something to be said for a bound book whose packaging aims more for elegance as opposed to eye-catching gaudiness or slick graphic design.

Street-Crossing For The Mathematically Disinclined

2008-09-17T22:08:00.006-06:00

After the last few shopping trips I’ve taken, I am compelled to address an unfortunate consequence of the general public’s lack of mathematic skills. While you may think that high school Geometry class was useless, there is one area where an intuitive understanding of angles, lines and polynomials will greatly decrease your likelihood of being run over by a severely annoyed seat belt engineer (random example).

When crossing from a parking lot into a store, the general population choses from three possible techniques. These may be described thusly: Imagine two parallel lines each representing the boundary of the parking lot and the store entrance respectively. Pedestrian paths crossing this space can be then rendered graphically as shown below:

Technique 1: Line AB
Technique 2: Line AC
Technique 3: Curve DE

Now, it is intuitively obvious that the technique involving the shortest distance to cross the street is the least dangerous (less exposure to traffic). However based on my recent shopping experiences most people follow some version of Technique 3, which is undeniably incorrect of them. Allow me to prove it.

The points A, B, C, D & E are located as follows:
A (20, 0)
B (0, 0)
C (0, 7)
D (0, 30)
E (20, -5)

Based on this we can determine equations for each of the 3 pathways:

Distance from Point A to B:

Distance from Point A to C:

Distance from Point D to E:
(Since I could not discover via googling any way to directly calculate the length of a polynomial curve segment, I did an approximation by breaking up the curve into tiny little line segments.)
Note: I purposely chose a relatively “flat” equation to describe the path of the pedestrian. More wobbly paths intersecting the same points would be even longer. Two of these possibilities are:

Confirming the distances given by these equations is left as an exercise for the reader.

As the above calculations demonstrate, by choosing a curved path, you are exposing yourself and your companions to more danger of being run over by drivers who feel that while yielding to pedestrians is a good thing, that doesn’t apply to pedestrians too stupid to understand the difference between roads and sidewalks. So, please for your safety (and my sanity) always utilize Technique 1 when crossing streets.

Sidenote: The above analysis is equally applicable to people crossing aisles in parking lots. While obesity is becoming more common, those wide aisles lined with cars are not in fact sidewalks so please do not treat them as such. FYI.

I've Been Totally Outclassed....

2008-09-17T05:06:00.004-06:00

But it's OK. Another fan of "The Middleman" took my 9 measly "Reasons to Watch The Middleman" and raised me, "101 Reasons to Watch 'The Middleman'" (all of which are very good reasons that I cannot believe I didn't think of).

Also, another enterprising person, to address the gaping hole left by ABC Family's merchandising department, has begun offering Middleman stuff on CafePress. I'm torn between "Manservant Neville Serves You!" and "The Jolly Fats Wehawkin Employment Agency".....So I'm getting both I think.

In sadder news, my not-so-secret goal of getting people to discover my weblog via searches for "trout-eating zombies" has failed. I had decided to be more dedicated to my chosen task via (to coin a phrase) a plan that is sheer elegance in its simplicity.

To that end: trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies. TROUT-EATING ZOMBIES.

ABC News, "Ethics? What is this thing you speak of?"

2008-09-14T18:41:00.003-06:00

With all my computer work, I missed out on Sarah Palin's first big interview...Which looks like a good thing because according to NewsBusters, ABC news did a whole lot of creative editing in order to manipulate her responses.

It's pretty obvious from their edits they were trying to make her appear more hard-line and "Bush-like" than she actually was. Look at the below example (bold text deleted from aired interview):

GIBSON: Let me turn to Iran. Do you consider a nuclear Iran to be an existential threat to Israel?

PALIN: I believe that under the leadership of Ahmadinejad, nuclear weapons in the hands of his government are extremely dangerous to everyone on this globe, yes.

GIBSON: So what should we do about a nuclear Iran? John McCain said the only thing worse than a war with Iran would be a nuclear Iran. John Abizaid said we may have to live with a nuclear Iran. Who’s right?

PALIN: No, no. I agree with John McCain that nuclear weapons in the hands of those who would seek to destroy our allies, in this case, we’re talking about Israel, we’re talking about Ahmadinejad’s comment about Israel being the “stinking corpse, should be wiped off the face of the earth,” that’s atrocious. That’s unacceptable.

GIBSON: So what do you do about a nuclear Iran?

PALIN: We have got to make sure that these weapons of mass destruction, that nuclear weapons are not given to those hands of Ahmadinejad, not that he would use them, but that he would allow terrorists to be able to use them. So we have got to put the pressure on Iran and we have got to count on our allies to help us, diplomatic pressure.

GIBSON: But, Governor, we’ve threatened greater sanctions against Iran for a long time. It hasn’t done any good. It hasn’t stemmed their nuclear program.

PALIN: We need to pursue those and we need to implement those. We cannot back off. We cannot just concede that, oh, gee, maybe they’re going to have nuclear weapons, what can we do about it. No way, not Americans. We do not have to stand for that.

In the aired portion she sounds like she plans to attack Iran first thing. In the actual interview, there's a great deal more discussion of various options to handle Iran. But apparently, that was a little too knowledgeable of a response for ABC so the "corrected" it to show a response from Palin more in keeping with ABC News world-view. Because when airing a political interview which will inform millions of Americans, preserving your own prejudices is soooo much more critical than accurate reporting.

The above is hardly the only example from the interview. There's plenty more here also.

Thank you ABC News & Charlie Gibson for 100% validating my decision to not watch any network news EVER.

Adventures in Computing

2008-09-14T15:25:00.003-06:00

Having spent the greater part of last week and especially the last two days installing Ubuntu, applications and various other things, I've noticed a few things...

1) “Compaq” has terrible user’s manuals! The whole paper manual focuses on troubleshooting which presupposes the use of Windows Vista and recommends sending out for help a lot. The more technical manuals are sent on the HD instead as a printed copy. While I appreciate the stance of putting the user guides on the computer to save paper....That doesn’t exactly help people who don’t plan to ever boot into Windows. The “Acer” laptop I bought came with a better printed manual: system specs, repair tips and troubleshooting that doesn’t presume their customers are half brain-dead. The only problem was they sorta hid BIOS setting info. That is tucked away in other sections which didn’t impress me because the BIOS info was the first and foremost piece of info I needed from the laptop manual. While I’m at it, I’d just like to say the manual for the “Dell” tower that died was always useful. That book was a great example of a thin, well-written instruction guide which informs users of exactly what they need while also giving the tools to learn more.

2) “Acer” makes good laptops but for completely inexplicable reasons they cover their products in stickers! I had one sticker for the wireless brand, two for the processor chip(s?), the “Vista” sticker and a sticker with a list of system specs (which repeated most of the info on the other stickers). You know, if “Acer” put all that on the box instead, I wouldn’t have to spend 30 extremely annoying minutes getting the stickers & glue off the computer with rubbing alcohol and a q-tip.

3) 2Gb of RAM is a noticeable improvement over the 1.5Gb I was used to. With the extra RAM in both the new tower and the laptop, Compiz Fusion really looks amazing. Not to mention, every desktop switch and window opening has a certain “pop” to it.

4) I’m insanely grateful that I took the time before my Japan trip to install Puppy Linux on a USB drive. The OS and the utilities that come with it have been extremely valuable in preparing for the data transfer from the old HD. If it wasn’t for Puppy, I might have had to use Vista for a couple days (shudder). Not to mention, Puppy was the easiest OS install I have ever done. Due to the time constraints to prepare for my trip, I didn’t get the opportunity to tweak Puppy into everything it could be. Still, even the standard install with a couple cosmetic tweaks proved very useful.

5) Having played around with Vista in the store, I can now say: It really does suck. Visually, it’s quite striking. However, Ubuntu has similar visuals so that’s not really a unique selling point (I know it’s likely that Ubuntu was probably influenced by Vista visually and not the other way around). Still, Vista does everything Ubuntu does only in the most annoying and condescending manner possible. While Windows broke down and increased their theming options, they are still pretty tightly controlled. While Vista has lots of settings & menus, it’s still pretty “let me hold your hand while we do this, because changing the color of your windows is so mentally taxing”. With Ubuntu, there’s a lot more control over what’s present and how it is configured without the talking down to the customer. The only area where I would say Windows has an unquestionably good thing going on is the Windows Media Player. After my recent search for a music/media program, I have a newfound appreciation for how WMP combines all music & media tasks in one place. It’s not as configurable as the Ubuntu music applications but it’s also a lot more seamlessly functional.

6) I’d never done a straight-up install of Ubuntu. All my previous experiences were loading it on machines with existing configurations. Since there was nothing fancy required for the laptop, I just wiped the Windows install and put Hardy on instead. The actual install was shockingly easy; it took less than 30 minutes with no errors. The only hard part was getting the laptop to boot off the CD/DVD drive before Vista jumped in and started “configuring”. However, since I have a very specific suite of applications, I wasn’t really done with the set-up(s) until tonight. Here’s a quick summary of what I did post-install on both the laptop & the new tower:
REMOVED: Evolution, Rythymbox (someone made this easier to delete – thanks?)
ADDED: Thunderbird, Compiz Fusion, AWN, Last.FM client, Songbird, Ubuntu Tweak, VLC, gNomad2, several games, Octave, misc small applications & dependency files
TWEAKED: AWN applets/launchers, DVD Playing Firefox Add-ons, Emerald Themes
While I had planned to clone my previous HD, having done a clean install for the laptop I realized how messy (for lack of a better word) my old HD was. As a result, I decided to do a clean install for the new tower also. However, I still need to import some of my personal data from my old HD. This is on hold due a lack of proper cable which will allow my old HD to talk to the new computer.

7) Whatever I say about "Compaq" manuals, their case layout is brilliant. Whoever designed the brackets & cages inside this Presario PC really thought about how people would have to move around and take it apart to upgrade the machine. It was very easy adding my old HD inside the case (if not connecting it). In this respect, the did a much better job than Dell did. It was a complete pain getting my old HD out of the Dell case!

While the Cat’s Away, the Machines Will Play

2008-09-11T20:16:00.004-06:00

So, after returning from a week in Japan (more to follow on that), I discover that both my TiVo and my computer are malfunctioning. I can’t decide if this is random problems or their idea of a political protest against the new season of “The Sarah Conner Chronicles”.

The computer problem appeared pretty straightforward. My power supply died. Thankfully, acquiring a replacement didn’t take any significant amount of time. I’d never switched a power supply before and it was surprisingly easy. The hardest part was knowing which cables go where. I got around that by taking pictures of the connections for the old one before I removed it and just matching the new cables to the pictures.

Unfortunately, this did not fix my computer. After a quick check to the power supply to verify it’s OK, I realized whatever damaged the power supply probably also ruined the motherboard. Doubly unfortunately, I know very little about motherboards and changing one is a bit more involved. “Altex” is pretty much the only store nearby that has internal computer parts but they don’t guarantee the parts. I once bought a memory card from them that didn’t work at all so I’m very reluctant to buy a motherboard from them. And online sources are out because all shopping sites are blocked at work, the only other location where I have access to a computer.

So, rather than deal with the motherboard, I just bought a new tower. I am currently studying the Ubuntu forums to figure out how to clone my old HD. Also, it really is a crime you can’t walk into a major store and ask for a BLANK computer. The sales guys at “Best Buy”, while helpful, were kinda baffled by the idea of selling a computer without an OS. As it is, I’m booting into a USB-install of Puppy Linux until I can recreate my previous HD install. Even that wasn’t so easy because Vista has this dumbass “Easy Config” program that tries to run immediately after you turn on the computer the first time.

In other news, I have NO self control at all. How do I know this? Because I walked into to “Best Buy” intent on purchasing a tower.... I walked out with a tower and a shiny new laptop. Because the most sensible action during a machine rebellion is to allow one more in your life. I’ve decided the tower will be my “official” computer and the laptop will be my “play” computer where I install and try out new stuff.

Now, if only I could figure out why TiVo cannot detect my phone line anymore....

Sarah Who? Sarah Awesome?

2008-08-29T20:47:00.003-06:00

Wow, I got busy at work and missed the most interesting thing to happen in this election so far: John McCain picking a really cool VP. Seriously, the more I hear about Sarah Palin, the more excited I am about this election. Suddenly McCain went from to "At least (hopefully maybe) better than the alternative" to "Nice Work Dude!".

Besides, I like to base all my political decisions on Chuck-Norris-esque lists of cool facts. I'm certain all voters should do the same....

The deal-breaker for me:
"Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin will give birth to the man who will lead humanity’s war against the machines." SOLD!

Supremely Bad Ideas in Engineering

2008-08-27T05:41:00.006-06:00

Via Rand Simberg, I came across this NasaWatch post where a NASA employee's farewall email was posted. Reading the comments was mind-boggling. NASA doesn't have an integrated CAD/PDM system?! How is that even possible? I mean my company has three major design locations in North America and we manage to have a pretty good system for tracking CAD changes and design modifications. Still, my company designs seatbelts & airbags with usually less than 100 parts. How on earth can you design a spacecraft with thousands or millions of parts without integrated CAD/PDM? With all the NASA locations how does anyone know what anyone else is doing?

The grumbling about which CAD program to use is much more understandable. Engineers hate changing the way they work for any reason. If it's a good change, they'll come around eventually. If it's a bad change, you will never hear the end of it. Switching platforms midstream is a pain but I don't think it's as big of a deal as the fact that NASA locations have no way to integrate their design data. Please tell me they at least have a decent intra-NASA file-sharing network.....Anyone?

Needless to say, I'm going to work with a newfound appreciation for my company's CAD standards.

Songbird v0.7

2008-08-25T19:49:00.004-06:00

After giving it about a few days, I have generally good things to say about the recent update to Songbird. The only major problem I’ve had with it is the usual beta-upgrade problem: most of my add-ons are glitchy with v0.7. However, as the add-on creators update their bits of programming, I can expect that to go away. Also, I had a little difficulty restarting the Last.FM connection to scrobble my songs. The issue was easily fixed by logging out and then back in (which sadly didn't occur to me until today - I read all those bug reports for nothing). So all is working now.

One little nonfunctional annoyance....

Songbird is really only stable in the new default theme right now. Which clashes horribly with my desktop of purple & black. This must be seen to...when I have the time.

Spending the Summer Inside

2008-08-25T05:04:00.003-06:00

Instead of being outside enjoying the last of the hundred degree weather or pouring down rain (HA!), I’ve spent the remainder of my summer in front of my TV. I recently watched:

“The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep” which was a pretty good family film in a restrained British way. Everyone was good, the CGI creature was very believable. And the script threw in a a little bit of conflict in the form of a priggish British officer. Not a bad way to spend a couple hours.

“Lars & The Real Girl” I watched this with my mother and although it’s odd, it is also a very good movie. Given the premise, there’s surprisingly little crude humor. The overall tone is quite sweet. Ryan Gosling does a wonderful job as the painfully shy “Lars”. Heck, everyone’s really good in this. Also, they do a remarkable job selling “Bianca” as a real person. When they got to her funeral, I was a lot more affected than I expected to be. All in all, this is an interesting premise executed very well.

“Chaos Theory” This was a impulse buy based on a trailer I’d recently seen. Amusing movie with quite a few twists. They did a nice little bit of past/future framing for the story. Ryan Reynolds was hilarious and moving as the main character. A funny movie about surprises and forgiveness in families. Not bad for a whim purchase.

“Resident Evil: Apocalypse" Caught this on Sci-Fi channel last night. I could not get through the first movie at all but this one was a lot better. The action better and the main character a lot more watchable. I did especially like how they tied on with the ending of the first movie in an emotionally effective manner. The only annoying thong was Sci-Fi's terribly ineffective bleeping-out of the expletives. Seriously, who does the FCC think they are kidding when they do this? Aside from that, I found this one good zombie fun (and a great juxtaposition when I was flipping between this and the closing ceremonies of the Olympics).

Stereo Decision Making

2008-08-24T15:08:00.004-06:00

Last weekend, I was in Best Buy looking for a cable to plug my MP3 player directly into my stereo. After some bad advice and $15 I’ll never get back, my dad finally found us the Y-cable we both needed. Having now used the cable a week, I’ve got to wonder....

Item A: Stereo with MP3 Player Dock = $80 MIN

versus

Item B: Y-Cable to Plug into Current Stereo = $7

Why do so many people go for Item A when B is cheaper and just as good sound-wise? Aside from the cool visual of an MP3 player plugged in, what do you get out of this that justifies $70+ dollars more? *is sorta baffled*

Although, I'll probably be buying this sucker soon as my 20GB MP3 player is currently at 19GB of used space.

Failblog is Addictive....

2008-08-24T12:40:00.002-06:00

Someone's read "The Cask of Amontillado" one too many times.....
via here (don't click if you expect to get anything productive done for about two hours)

Better Things To Do

2008-08-23T14:04:00.003-06:00

Than blog. Like working. But I did managed to snap a very Texas sight while on vacation last weekend:

An oil rig in the early morning

From my fishing trip that didn't happen (Lightening + Boating = Masochism Beyond My Ken)

Like They're MindReaders Or Something

2008-08-09T20:44:00.002-06:00

That would be the creators of this list of, "You Might Be A Fan If..."

Particularly pertinent ones:
- You own CDs because you first heard the songs in a fanvid and liked them.
- You giggled when Serenity showed up briefly on BSG. (actually, I may have clapped)
- You are incapable of hearing, reading or speaking the word "inconceivable" without quoting "The Princess Bride."
- You can't help but think LEGO anything is automatically more cool.

Although compared to some of the other items listed....I feel remarkably ungeeky right now.

Pattern Backlog

2008-08-09T17:42:00.003-06:00

With all my running around for work and real-life, I've come across several interesting and eye-burning patterns lately. Here they are for your snark & enjoyment.

Teaser: Hallway carpet, hotel in Michigan

Well, this would wake me up in the morning.

Also while in Michigan, I came across yet another example of "Carpets I firmly believe are used in Rainbow Brite's House":

The office up there had tons of chairs covered in these geometric prints. Most of them didn't photograph well. An exception is this lovely print:
Which I call "Attack Of The Colored Blobs"

Back in San Antonio, I noticed the upholstery at one of my regular restaurants.
It's like a cubist's calligraphy sketchpad.

At another takeout place, they were making repairs. Instead of hanging clear plastic to block of the area, they'd built a little plywood enclosure covered with this cloth:
(sings off-key)
Rock a bye baby
In the treetop
When the bough breaks
Cradle will fall
(ends singing)

We've had several visitors from Japan recently, who brought gifts. I got a lovely embroidered coaster and a towel: I'm somewhat tempted to taking this fishing with me. Don't know why....

While shopping for a gift in Target, I came across another example of a pattern making a comeback:
Personally, I don't know what's so attractive about glittery paramecium.

Trout Eating Zombies!!!

2008-08-08T20:06:00.003-06:00

OR Reasons Why You Should be Watching “The Middleman”
(Monday Nights @9pm on ABCFamily)

Monday nights this summer have been an unexpected treat for me. Because in mid-July I discovered ABC Family’s “The Middleman”. Unfortunately, not enough other people have made the same discovery. Which is a shame because this is such a smart, funny show. So, in an effort to utilize my little Blogger soapbox for some good, here are some reasons why you should be tuning in…..

9) PSA Announcements from your friendly neighborhood superhero team.

8) With villains like alien-dictator boy bands, lucha libre wrestler gangs and trout eating zombies, who can resist watching? Seriously if you need more than "trout eating zombies", please leave my weblog immediately.

7) Come for the wacky villains, stay for the wacky catchphrases! In an effort to avoid swearing, the title character utilizes other means to express himself, including such gems as "Flowers for Algernon!", "Holy Onions!" and "Great hearts of palm that is grotesque!" (For more go here)

6) ART CRAWL! (thanks TWOP!)

5) Techno-bablble for very non-technical persons. For example,
A "HEYDAR" is
In technical terms: Global analysis and information gathering device capable of preforming onboard evidence analysis as well as universal intelligence searches across all data platforms.
In non-technical terms: It’s a big silver ball that gives us answers to things

4) The scene which sold me on the show - The milk interrogation in the first episode.
To paraphrase “just because you’re a good guy doesn’t mean you have to be a fool.”

3) You have to pay attention. Or you miss the running gags like different timezones in the time/place captions during the 3rd episode. My favorite was "9:50 PM Mitteleuropaische Sommerz". Or that episode with all the "Back to the Future" references.

2) For a show with trout eating zombies, they have a pretty good habit of showing the consequences of actions and giving those consequences emotional weight. Examples include: A confrontational performance artist has to learn how to follow her art without getting arrested because no one wants to hire someone with a record. People who’ve known you for years won’t be easily fooled by the usual cover stories (1000+ bonus pts for that alone).

1) (Totally a personal opinion) Isn't Matt Knessler reason enough?

The not-so-secret goal of this post is to have at least one person discover my weblog via a web-search for “trout eating zombies”.

Widmanstatten Patterns

2008-08-08T19:08:00.001-06:00

Are they:

a) A German Wallpaper Company

b) A Sociological Phenomenon Used to Predict Traffic Flows

c) A Metal Crystal-form Named After The Guy Who Discovered Them Second

d) A Form of Chocolate Netting Used By European Confectioneries

Click Here for Correct Answer!

(Hint: A common alias for these elusive entities – “The reason I got an ‘A’ in my Materials Engineering lab”)

On The Left, We Have EPIC FAIL

2008-08-08T18:54:00.002-06:00

You know what one of the biggest impediment to freedom in the world is? “Freedom for me but not thee” Syndrome. Case in point is this article (via Instapundit) describing the single worst political idea of 2008, so far. Right or left, it is supremely disgusting and anti-ethical toward the US system of government to harass people for their political beliefs and donations. Which is exactly what these guys intend on doing to people who donate to conservative organizations. From the horse’s mouth:

"Led by Tom Matzzie, a liberal political operative who has been involved with some prominent left-wing efforts in recent years, the newly formed nonprofit group, Accountable America, is planning to confront donors to conservative groups, hoping to create a chilling effect that will dry up contributions......The warning letter is intended as a first step, alerting donors who might be considering giving to right-wing groups to a variety of potential dangers, including legal trouble, public exposure and watchdog groups digging through their lives." (my emphasis added)

Isn’t it comforting to know that certain totalitarian lesson plans haven’t been completely tossed into the dustbin of history? How is it at all acceptable that they are basically attempting to blackmail conservative donors into non-participation? If it's wrong when pro-life groups harass people who donate to pro-choice groups (which I think it is), then why isn't this equally wrong? One of my bigger problems with the Left in general is that for all their talk of compassion and tolerance, too many of the Left’s advocates and followers turn into emotionally unstable bullies at the drop of the rhetorical hat. Supposedly these guys are claiming they're just trying to beat Republicans to the punch...way to take the moral high ground people.

If I gave money to any organization covered by this endeavor*, I’d be doubling my donation right now. Because real-life trolls shouldn’t get away with this kind of BS.

I'm Not Dead...I've Just Been Reading

2008-08-05T17:52:00.002-06:00

To make up for my slacking off earlier in the year, I have been reading books at a breakneck pace. Everything from comics to literary nonfiction. Thanks to this aggressive reading schedule, my “To Read” pile of books has been reduced from almost 40 titles to 17.

See full post for review of 23 works. The breakdown:
2 Comic books
3 Historical Romance Fiction
7 Science Fiction Novels
2 Science Fiction Short Stories
3 Young Adult Novels
1 Mystery/Crime Fiction
1 Autobiography
1 History
2 Science & Technology Nonfiction
1 Opinion/Current Events

“Barnum! IN Secret Service To The USA” by Howard Chaykin & David Tischman. (Comic) What do you get when PT Barnum & his gang of sideshow freaks teemed up with the US Secret Service to save the US from the nefarious schemes of the evil Dr. Nikola Tesla? You’d get this fun and engaging comic book. Great premise, good story and just very amusing.

“From the Hands of Hostile Gods” by Darren R. Hawkins. What a strange wonderful read. A mind bending mystery tale wrapped up in a love story. Set in an isolated outpost on a world being terraformed, the author does a brilliant job conveying the isolation and little social quirks that come with such locations. And when the mystery ramps up into disaster, Hawkins is equally up to the task of writing suspense. This is a good creepy book at a time when I read several bad to so-so creepy books (see below). Definitely worth downloading.

“The Remarkable Worlds of Professor Phineas B. Fuddle” by Boaz & Erek Yakin. (Comic) A lost-in-time absent-minded professor, Victorian London being overwhelmed in temporal paradoxes and two wayward adventurers. Again, ridiculous but wonderful fun.

“The Ghost Map” by Steven Johnson. An account of an 1850s cholera outbreak in London, the investigative aftermath and the historical consequences. A completely riveting book that ties together sociology, epistemology, globalization, urbanization, paradigm shifts in science and other awesome topics. Although I wouldn’t recommend reading it on a sick day (total mistake), it was an excellent book.

“The Sea of Monsters: Percy Jackson & The Olympians – Book 2” by Rick Riordan. The second book in this series is just as good as the first with some emotionally interesting plot twists on the inherent evilness of Cyclops and the Olympian gods’ opinions on redemption for their fallen children. Actually, pretty interesting in that the larger conflict of the series steps up a bit and the book-specific adventure has a really, really great payoff at the end. I will definitely be continuing this series.

“Fairest” by Gail Carson Levine. A fairy tale with a twist. While there are curses & such as expected, this isn't a predictable tale. For all it's fairy-taleness, it is really a story about a young girl coming into her own. Pretty interesting. My only complaint is that after making you hate a character for most of the book, she ends up being a non-entity in the end.

“Life At The Bottom” by Theodore Dalrymple. Dear God what a depressing book! Basically, the book is a bunch of anecdotes and opinions based on years of serving as a medical practitioner in some of Britain’s rougher neighborhoods. If you ever had any doubt that people could do self-destructive and stupid things, this book will cure of that doubt quickly. Sociologically interesting but not exactly enjoyable just for the unrelenting negativity of the subject.

"Mr. Darcy's Daughters", "The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy", & "The Darcy Connection" by Elizabeth Aston. Basically this is published fanfiction set in Austen's “Pride & Prejudice” universe. It follows the daughters of Mr. Darcy & Elizabeth Bennett and their assorted cousins. Definitely quick enjoyable reads if you like Austen.

“Into the Looking Glass” by John Ringo. WHA-HOO. That’s the only fitting description for a book that opens with a 60KT explosion in modern day Florida….and then gets worse (or more exciting depending on your point of view). Very good pulpy military sci-fi with an interesting premise and a breakneck pace. I’m seriously looking forward to the other two books in this series.

“The Creature From Beyond Infinity”, “The Dark World” by Henry Kuttner. The titles aren’t related, just two works by the same author. “Creature” is a typical golden-age sci-fi work with a lot of optimism hiding under its dismal premise. The back & forward story structure is also quite engrossing. Overall, “Creature” was surprisingly enjoyable for a book I read because of its amusing title. “Dark World” is a good deal stranger. It does have a unique approach in that the main character is (one of) the antagonist(s); past a certain point you don’t really feel sorry for what happens to him. I give “Dark” points for being creepy and disorienting, but I still don’t know if I liked it.

“A Strange Manuscript Found In The Copper Cylinder” by James De Mille. Ugh. This is what happens when you combine Jules Verne, a talky-preachy frame story and lots & lots of cannibalism. Based on this book, the reader might develop the mistaken belief that people in the mid-nineteenth century were greatly obsessed with cannibalism and death cults. Seriously, WHAT THE HELL? This is just a weird, gross story that never really became a good story. The mentality of the death cult was academically interesting but that’s really the only good thing I can think of at this point. Yuck.

“Evil Genius” by Catherine Jinks. What would you do if you discovered your psychiatrist was the head henchman for your super-villain-in-jail biological dad? That’s the premise of this wildly entertaining read. Initially, it seems more like a comedy but as the plot progresses, things that were hinted at for laughs now become deadly serious as the main character realizes that maybe, he isn’t really cut out to be a super-villain. Very good read which also has a sequel that sounds interesting.

“The Cosmic Expense Account” by CM Kornbluth. (Short Story) Well, this was different. Sorta a zombie story that combines rational empiricism and questionable publishing ethics (really). It’s amusing but not very engrossing. The best parts are the complete antipathy between the two main characters and the fact that the super-villain is a little old spinster lady.

“The Crystal Egg” by HG Wells. (Short Story) Ever wonder how the aliens in “War of the Worlds” gathered intelligence on humanity before they invaded. This story is your answer. The concept is good but none of the characters really gelled into actual people for me. And the ending is a bit unsatisfying.

“Japan’s Longest Day” by The Pacific War Research Society. This is an absolutely riveting account of the last day before Emperor Hirohito’s announcement to the Japanese people that Japan was surrendering. What’s most amazing by the tale isn’t how close Japan came to fighting on at the behest of their military officers but how many of the officers and other government officials were genuinely offended by the very idea of a coup d’etat. Excellent book for anyone interested in the final days of WWII.

“Hard Corps” by Marco Martinez. The autobiography of how a guy from New Mexico went from gansta teen to Iraq War hero and winner of the Navy Cross. The Marine training was actually harder for me to read than the combat scenes, which seems weird but maybe all those military sci-fi stories have desensitized me or something. Still, very good read even if Martinez comes across a bit too strong sometimes (but honestly, what else am I to expect from a Marine?).

"Magyk: Septimus Heap Book One" by Angie Sage. Sorta like “Harry Potter” lite. A fun read but it dragged a bit in the middle. I did like how it kept you guessing about a couple of plot points while revealing others almost right off. I'll probably check out the others in this series.

“Agent to the Stars” by John Scalzi. Instead of evil insect invaders, Earth gets contacted by very polite aliens who knowing their slime-like forms aren’t appealing to humans decide to hire a Hollywood agent to introduce them to the world. Comedic premise with emotional payoff = Writing gold. Great read with the physical nature and capabilities of the aliens integrating into the story in a hundreds wonderful ways.

“Edison Conquers Mars” by Garrett P. Serviss. Written as a response to HG Wells “War of the Worlds”, it starts just after the great Martian invasion has failed. Thomas Edison & other great scientists of the day reverse engineer & improve the Martian's machines of war and take the battle to Mars. Very engaging and delightfully quaint sci-fi written by someone who apparently accomplished a great many sci-fi firsts even though I'd never heard of him before. A surprisingly fun download.

“Bones to Ashes” by Kathy Reichs. Another great book in the “Temperance Brennan” series that spawned the TV show “Bones” (which I love). The books are very different in tone and set-up but are quite enjoyable in their own right. Reichs has a real talent for creating mysteries with “expected” outcomes that don't payoff in expected ways. Great weekend or travel book (it's no wonder I always find her books in airport bookshops, they make long journeys feel short).

“Breakthrough: From The Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility” by Ted Nordhaus & Michael Shellenberger. Absolutely excellent book on the environmental movement, right & wrong. Although the authors liberal bias is very prevalent, they do present a fair portrayal of both parties’ stances. Their prescriptions for reforming our energy situation are thought-provoking. I found this a hugely interesting read.

Interesting Glycemic Facts

2008-07-24T05:35:00.004-06:00

While browsing through some of the worst offenders in the Glycemic Index Database, I came across the expected muffins, breads & grains, However, there were a few entries which really surprised me:

Cranberry Juice: 56-68 GI
Cheerios: 74 GI

Granted both of these have other health benefits, but clearly my Cheerios & Cranberry juice diet idea isn't gonna fly. There's also these quite interesting comparisons:

Ice Cream: 56-80 GI vs. "Tofu-based frozen dessert": 115 GI
Mars Bar: 62-68 GI versus Fruit Roll-ups: 99 GI

Truly, we live in a topsy-turvy world when a candy bar is healthier than a fruit roll-up!

*goes off to cross-references grocery list for any surprise offenders*

Overheard At Work, pt15

2008-07-24T05:33:00.002-06:00

[When informed a friend couldn't attend their weekly role-playing game because he cut off part of his finger]
Engineer: But he can still roll with his other hand!

I'm 98% certain he was joking.....Well, 95%.

The Dark Knight

2008-07-18T21:07:00.003-06:00

I'm not going to equivocate or explain my opinion. It's very simple really.

WOW.

If you don't see this movie you are depriving yourself of an absolutely stunning piece of film.

Summer YA Reading Spree

2008-07-14T23:03:00.002-06:00

Recently, I’ve been on a young-adult reading frenzy. It’s a bit strange, when I was a kid I preferred adult science fiction. But now that I’m an adult, I like young adult novels. Maybe it is because the YA books are a lot better than they used to be.

“The Princess Academy” by Shannon Hale. A really interesting modernized sorta fairy tale. When the royal priests degree the future princess will be from a frontier mountain known for its quarries, officials build an academy to train the local young ladies in proper princess behavior. Only the point of the story isn’t really marrying the prince, but how education broadens the minds and perspectives of these girls so that even if they aren’t the future princess, their homes and families are greatly improved because of their greater understanding of the world. When you combine this with a likable heroine, some good adventure and complex adult characters, well, it makes for an excellent read.

“The Lightening Thief” by Rick Riordan. What is it about Greek gods? 2000 years after their worship fell out of favor, numerous fictional works make use of the mythology. Perhaps the reason is that with twelve main gods and armies of various supernatural creatures, the Greek Pantheon makes for good drama. That’s just as true for young adults as is it for grown-ups. What if you discovered that your missing father was a Greek god? What if this turned out to be a really dangerous fact? That’s the premise of the “Percy Jackson & The Olympians” novels. This first book in the series is a very fun, well-paced read with a trio of pre-teen demigods trying to prevent a war. Good fun, humorous plot twists revolving around various points of Greek myth and some interesting hints about Western civilization in general. I look forward to reading the rest of these books.

“His Dark Materials” Trilogy by Phillip Pullman. Ah yes, the controversial trilogy that advocates the death of “God”. Honestly, the subject matter is less disturbing than the extreme unlikability of most of the major characters, heroes and villains alike. I’m actually impressed that Mr. Pullman wrote three novels involving people I don’t particularly like but he somehow managed to make them suspenseful. This was mainly a credit to his plotting skills. My main gripe is that the conclusion of the series is woefully anticlimactic. The story continues for a couple of chapters beyond what it really should in order to deliver a gut-punch of a twist that frankly seems entirely too convenient. These are good books in the sense of being well-written and plotted, don’t get me wrong. Unfortunately, the last book was the least enjoyable for me.

On a sidenote, I'll be travelling for work this week so it's unlikely there will be any posts until Saturday.

My Shiny!Spacy! Desktop

2008-07-09T17:50:00.002-06:00

After spending the last 2+ months with a really light desktop theme, I decided to go dark after discovering a really awesome Firefox3 theme.

Clean:

Expo: (with application themes)

Here's the details:
Wallpaper - ISS007-E-10807_800.jpg
Emerald Theme - Dark Purple Haze (modified to be more purple)
Fire fox Theme - BlackX 2 (what started it all)
Songbird Feather - Glossy Coat
Controls & Icons - AeroIon3.1 & Crux

Thoughts From The Drive Home...

2008-07-09T17:22:00.004-06:00

Superman and all those other superheroes are creations of another age. I mean, who cares about supervillians on the rampage anymore. This is 2008 and we have 2008 super-problems that need solving. In a time when the price of oil is skyrocketing, who will be the superhero for our age?

It appears our cries for help at the gas pump are being answered.....Never fear, guess who is here!