You guys know me, I like to play around with encryption and cryptography just for the fun of it (nothing I do is really encrypt worthy, ever, but that doesn't mean I won't encrypt it just to play). I figured I would share this link because most of you use Firefox, quite a few of you use Gmail, and I thought it would be fun to play around and build a circle of friends who use safe messages:
And, while I'm here, might as well ALSO share the sad (and short) story of a man who lost a spitting contest because he decided to run up to the balcony to get an extra boost.
Si Vales, Valeo
May 15, 2008. Thursday.
(11:17:55 AM CDT)Old Fashioned Bag o' Links, Daily Show on West Virginia, Good/Bad Obfuscation
When I had to tell two family members "No, Barack Obama is NOT a Muslim" it was with a sense of expectation. A lot of my family get their news solely from word of mouth or from a mixture of that and Fox News. A few wrong facts are to be expected. When I heard one of the people from my hometown say "I'm not going to elect a nigger because he'll put blacks in power and take it away from white people and I can't take that chance," I just pretty much kept my mouth shut. Sure, not standing up to the tyrrany of racism is sort of approving of racism, but, with apologies to MLK: NAWF.
This is largely why the clip from the Daily Show made me laugh so much. It is not so much because West Virginians are dumb (well, I'll leave that up to your interpretation). It is because as much as I defend Alabama when I get the chance, hearing the things that South Alabamans say come out of another state's mouth is, well, special:
Another topic (rather than the election and gas addiction) that has been on my mind has been good versus bad obfuscation when it comes to confusing someone trying to crack into your personal information. The concept of the brief cases with the little three numbers occurred to me. Let's say you have something of value in that briefcase, ok? Three numbers means you can have 1000 combinations (assuming all three digits can range from 0-9). Assuming from 5-10 seconds to try out each possible combination, that comes out to be within 5000-10000 seconds, or, if you assume the middle, about 2 hours to crack into your briefcase. Anything work two hours of work is not safe. However, anything not worth two hours of work is relatively safe. Just adding one more digit increases the work load to 20 hours. Two more digits and it will take a week (of constant working) to get into it. By this time, however, the question of the briefcase integrity comes up. Also, two three-digit pads does not make a six-digit pad. It only doubles the workload, assuming the pads work separately. No, those briefcases are bad obfuscation. They only hide the truth is a small field of untruth.
A common technicque is to the hide the truth in a unsuspected field of untruths. For isntance, a briefcase that has a few wrong combinations that "work", but cause a central compartment that is relatively undetectable to stay locked. Or, well, the idea of hiding datat in "plain sight" through things like HTML. For an example of how easy it can be, look up at the previous paragraph (the one that begins "Another topic..." If you have Firefox, then highlight the first sentence of that paragraph and then right-click and "View Selection Source". A simple message that might just be so harmless or so timely that the chances of finding it and acting upon it in any way is almost impossible. And, had the message been, say, true and useful, then there are a dozen things I could do to make it more hiddden. View the source of the words around Firefox and you will see sort of what I mean. A bit of code that looks like it might be of server-side usage until you reverse the letters and realize that this might also mention old baileys at 11pm.
I wonder how often people will check my source code now, just to be safe?
Now, for today's Bag o' Links!
Following in the footsteps of a president whose big promises (from ending the War on Terror, to space exploration, to budget fixes, to fuel economy, to ecological repair, to diplomacy) all tended to involve years in which he would have no power (forcing the country to either continue his policies or put up with his supporters saying that his positive achievements were abandoned unfairly, an act of rhetorical pissantry): McCain predicts Iraq War over in 2013.
You know how one of the BIG reasons why we should hate Mexicans who come over our border is because they cost us $10,000,000,000 to $30,000,000,000 per year in tax-payer money? What the hell, then, should we do with the information that single parent families cost tax-payers $113,000,000,000 per year? I would guess probably nothing. Well, I mean, something. But those who tend to hate illegal immigrants probably aren't about the money anyhow.
And I'll end with this, a website about becoming complaint free. Sure, when I stored the link to post later, my original intention to say "Well, I just don't like it and I find it to be stupid and dumb" (you know, irony) but I won't go there. Because I do stupid and ironic all the time. Instead, I'll let you go and make up your own mind. But I will say that the phrase "Your thoughts create your world and your words indicate your thoughts," makes an interesting case against negative thoughts but fails to note that our world is actually created by collective thought process. Sometimes which must be overcame. If you define "complaining" as only recognizing problems but not acting upon them, I agree than cutting it out will help. If, however, complaints are a way to organizing an offense against problems, then they can have a place. The issue, of course, being that most want to complain ("Wwwah! gas prices are high and I wanted to drive to San Francisco for the fun of it!") without action ("Carpool to save money? That's dumb!").
Sarah has good news. Ask her next time you see her in person.
Now, I give you a comparison between the Windows way, and the Linux way. Windows way: charge $79.99 for a product that converts documents to PDFs and lets you work with PDFs and blah, blah, blah...which has minimal customer support (apparently) and bugs. The Linux way? Um, free.
Another tidbit I want to share is a poem by Robert Chambers (found in In Search of the Unknown):
Where the slanting forest eaves,
Shingled tight with greenest leaves,
Sweep the scented meadow-sedge,
Let us snoop along the edge;
Let us pry in hidden nooks,
Laden with our nature books,
Scaring birds with happy cries,
Chloroforming butterflies,
Rooting up each woodland plant,
Pinning beetle, fly, and ant,
So we may identify
What we've ruined, by-and-by.
[In response to gasoline addiction...] Sarah says: "My name is Sarah, and I'm an addict."
All facetiousness aside, the quicker we can admit to how much our society has allowed itself to become addicted to a diminishing resource, the better. And, to show that we are not all talk, we have managed to cut down our gasoline usage by about 33% over the past year.
And, to end it, I will post a "link" of sorts. This is a collection of speculative fiction ebooks in a 240MB zip file, give or take. There are several hundred, maybe as many as a thousands, books here. Most are in a text format and all should be in the public domain or, essentially, "abandoned text". It can be kind of tricky to get used to reading off of a computer screen, but it actually isn't that bad once your eyes adjust. And even if you don't read them, you still have a massive amount of Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, and so on to sort through. I am posting the link as a "plain text" thing because I don't want random website mirrorers to keep picking it up (some of which ignore robot.txt). Just copy and paste it in a browser window if you want to download:
When a friend mentioned how gas prices are rising despite the fact that supply is staying the same (thankfully, people are finally beginning to note that OPEC and the Middle East may not be the real culprits here), I felt the need to point out that the other half the equation is definitely demand. In order to do so, I posted the following reply, which I am copying here:
Sarah and I have been talking a lot about this lately. I have an essay about 45% written in my head on the subject. One half of it deals with the question of regulation (considering the central place of gas in our lives, how come it is not regulated when, say, our telecommunications and hydroelectric power are?). But the other half takes a "soapbox" stance on how addicted our society is to gasoline, and how expecting people who can make a profit off of this addiction to not make a profit is naive.
We transport plastics from all around the world just to save pennies on worker costs, and burn up gallons of fuel to do so. I mean, think about how much fuel was spent to bring us a truckload of Barbies, whose bodies are made out of petroleum. We transport fruit from across the country just so we can have Californian apples or Washington grapes or Central American bananas or whatever. We like big name stores with their huge distribution centers that use up thousands of gallons of gas to transport things back and forth to just to aid in regulation. We pave our roads, in a fitting cycle of life, in a petroleum derivative. More and more Americans are trying to move out into residential areas and drive anywhere from half an hour to two hours to work. Our very notion of a vacation involves traveling for hours to some new spot. Such a large amount of business that could be handled locally, or electronically, becomes an excuse for businessmen to fly around the world.
Every scrap of plastic and most synthetic fibers involve petroleum. A good number of medicine involves petroleum. A large amount of adhesives and other household chemicals, ditto. Etc Etc
Our country is hopelessly addicted to petroleum. And, one of the truest signs of addiction, we keep blaming others. It's the scientist's fault for not coming up with an alternative. It's the government's fault for not regulating or enforcing price caps. It's the car maker's fault for not giving us better models. And we deny the level of addiction. Suggestions to change our lifestyle usually bring about scorn and incredulity.
I've been working out some ideas for how to break the addiction, and some of them are along the lines of: 1) Buy locally as much as possible. If an apple travels 1000 miles to get to you, that's a lot of gas for a piece of fruit. We can grow corn and potatoes right here in Alabama. We do not need to add gallons of extra fuel "for convenience". Supporting local farmers not only keeps the local economy stronger, but increases tolerances to several allergies. Large farms also tend to use a much larger scale of equipment, though in relation to smaller farms, the gas cost might be about the same. 2) Avoid chain stores as much as possible. Their reliance on distribution centers is just one good reason. 3) Buy used (or use something like Freecyle) as much as possible. This helps cut down on transportation and construction costs. 4) While plastics are unavoidable, try and buy products that minimize plastic waste. Disposable anything should be cut back. 5) By certain foods in bulk and freeze them or store them. This cuts back on packaging costs, shipping costs, and so forth. 6) Drive smartly. Do grocery shopping in single goes, instead of many small trips. Carpool.
Sure, none of this tips are absolute. There are times where you can't help but have to drive way out of your way to get something, or when you can't find something but in a chain store. But I'm not talking about cutting gas out, I'm just saying reduce gas needs by 10-20% and suddenly a lot of profit is going out of the window.
Over the next couple of days, I will continue to brain storm ideas related to this topic and posting them here.
And now for some comments by Becca (on previous posts):
Becca C. writes: Wow, I can't believe what happened w/ Sarah and the bird! (I hit a bunny w/my car once... I had a "why God?! Take me instead!" type of response, including tears and having to pull off into the ditch, and I think I may have even slammed my fist against the steering wheel, the way people mostly only do in movies...) In brighter news, indeed, that Thai actor is mighty fine! But yikes, what's going on in Hungary?! I got my economic stimulus check too (woohoo!)!!!! And I <3 Juno.
[As a sidenote (hence the need for brackets, plus they're just fun), your blog is often a bit of an emotional roller-coaster, D... Or maybe it's just me? lol]
[Note: brackets are fun. Not sure if she meant me to post that or not, but it was such a fun, breathless outpouring I couldn't resist.]
Si Vales, Valeo
May 13, 2008. Tuesday.
(02:13:43 PM CDT)The Truth Behind "I Don't Watch TV Shows" + Balancing Budget (i.e. why me?)
When Kris Kristoffersen sings "Why me, Lord? What I have ever done..." our new hip/ironic mindset translates that into a whole other meaning. Why me, Lord? Why do you hate a fellow? Of course, the song "Why Me?" is about unexpected blessings as opposed to unexepected cursings. I really don't know why that occurred to me, but when I said "Argh, why me???" outloud while balancing the budget, after a simple little mistake made math look off when it was actually dead on and cost me half an hour of life trying to find where the whoopsie was, that was the thought process that occurred to me. I wonder what the song would be like if I sung it?
Just an FYI, I'm the one who thought the song was "I lost my thrill on Blueberry Hill" for the longest time. I'm pretty sure "Why Me?" would be a less a happy song in my hands. "Why me, Lord? Is this a test, a jest, something else?" Something like that. And I don't even quite mean it. I've always been one who has joked, though seriously, that God is out to get me and the Universe enjoys trampling me down underfoot. But I've always said that with a certain joie de vivre. If fate cares enough about you to make your life miserable, well...you are in the big league. If the World-at-Large changes even one single solitary atom around just to make you stumble and drop your favorite ice cream cone or to give you a case of the sniffles on a pretty day like today, then you have truly gotten somebody's attention. If you think back to kindegarten when that boy, or girl, pushed you down and that meant they liked, this just means 1) the Universe is infantile and 2) it has a crush. On you. Or, well, me. How sweet is that?
As for another ironic statement, I was thinking today about how many of my friends say "I don't watch TV" and how many of my friends are liars. What they mean is "I only watch it at random, I don't have many favorite shows" or "I only watch TV shows on my computer" or "I don't watch much TV" or "I watch less than the average American" or "I only watch Movies on TV". Something like that. I say it, too. I, too, am a liar. Because what I mean is that I don't watch American TV. With the exceptions of Mythbusters, How It's Made, Dirty Jobs, and, when it comes back for a second season, Flight of the Conchords, very little American style TV appeals to me for long. If Arrested Development came back, I would be all over it. If Scrubs, Family Guy, King of the Hill or The Simpsons could return to their writing level of several seasons ago, I would be all over it. I don't watch "much TV" because I simply can't before I go insane and want to scream at folks involved. I do watch a lot of indie and horror (usually of the indie sort) movies, and find that American indie movies tend to be quite excellent, but when it comes to television show watching almost all of it that I do is foreign or older American TV shows that are classics. I was looking at the series I have queued up for watching, and you can see what I mean, being mostly a mixture of British and Japanese shows with a couple of off-air American shows at the end:
Robin Hood the second Series
The Colour of Magic mini-series
Kamen Rider Kiva
Kamen Rider 555
Dekaranger
Magiranger
Ultraman
Ultraman Nexus
Ranma
Full Metal Panic
Gunslinger Girl
Tales from the Crypt
Twilight Zone
Over the next four or five months, that adds up to several hours of shows but I would not be able to spend a fraction of that time watching the current American output. I just can't. There is something wrong with the rhythm. Also, other countries spend a fraction of what we do on budgets. They make full-length, well-done motion pictures for under the cost of some of our sitcom episodes. And so many of their series still retains a sense of fun, wonder, and entertainment that American shows seem to be trying to replace with easy jokes and repetitive storylines.
Anyhow, that's what I mean when I say I don't watch much TV. I do. I just have to import it first.
Just wanted to share two things with you real quick. First off, I have added a review of Kamen Rider: The First. Secondly, this picture (which is of an electrical storm caused by an erupting volcano, click the picture for the original URL):
Proving the (joking) statement that white girls don't have a thing for Asian guys is false, I present me female readers with the following pic. And, yes, I have been searching around the Internet to uphold my promise to show off some lovely Asian men.
For those who don't recognize him, about the only tell-tale sign (besides that hair) is his mark near his right eye, which might be more obvious (wink) on this page (and yes, it's safe for work).
To all you mother's out there, happy (now belated) Mother's Day. It's a rough job, and probably the most central job to the whole off our society.
I suppose yesterday (the 11th) would also be UAH's graduation. They tend to have them on Mother's Day. The only person I know that graduated this year is Laura Nabors: congrats to her. I had several friends who had indefinite classes to finish: Ryan, Vandiver, others. If they graduated, congrats to them, as well.
I've now had my headache since Friday. It is getting quite bothersome. I have thought about things I can maybe do to get rid of it, but nothing really comes to mind. I just need to keep flushing out my sinuses, I suppose. Tomorrow I may try and spend some time without focusing on any given thing. The only problem is how hard that is without going for a walk and that will just expose me to more pollen. Trading one headache for another is not a good thing. I guess I will sit at some window and stare at Barnhills for a while. Maybe Barny the Barnhills Mascot will be out. I can look upon him and be thankful that I am not him. Then, maybe I can go down and punch him, and just deal with pollen. Ah, joy.
I posted rough reviews (as in, I would like to edit them later when I feel more like writing) of Casshern and Equal Rites. I still need to get some sort of reviews up for Mr. Stain on Junk Alley, Juno and, now, Matango. I'm going to be reading Nate Kenyon's Bloodstone some tonight, but maybe I'll have time to get a little bit of writing done.
I'm on my way to bed now, seeing that the storm has definitely passed. I hope no one got hurt by it, outside of the standard storm sort of stuff, but I am gladd to see any amount of rain falling on Alabama right now. It's been absolutely miserable as of late with the dryness and the pollen. And if we don't get more rain by summer, we are going to be in an unquestionable drought. If it can drop another 5-6 inches before the storms leave over the next couple of days, I will be happy.
Sarah and I have been watching movies over the past couple of days. We saw Daywatch last night, and Juno and Casshern tonight. I still need to watch Matango and possible The Mist tomorrow.
But, for now, I need to sleep.
Si Vales, Valeo
May 09, 2008. Friday.
(09:42:15 PM CDT)Article about "Great Tit's = Great Fun for Us Red-Blooded Americans
Sarah and I found this out yesterday, and I wanted to share. Garden Cove (the awesome little grocery store in Huntsville, near Five Points, that sells an amazing array of vegetarian, natural and organic foods) sells cereal in bulk. Most of their stock looks to be Nature's Path (the cereal brand I was bragging about the other day) and is only $2.99 a pound. To put that in perspective, if I were to order, say, Froot Loops in bulk from Amazon.com I would get 100 ounces, or about 6 pounds, for $24, which is $4 a pound. Or, I can get a fully organic cereal that is healthy for me and that actually has both substance and more taste than just artificial things for a dollar cheaper. And no need to pay for someone's cardboard box that will just be thrown away.
Actually, today's post is brought to you by a nice, warm cup of Twinings Earl Grey (with milk), a nice bowl of some nameless Black Cherry aromatic I bought from the Humidor, the VAST CD Nude (aka their U2 album, by the sound of it), and a very sleepy Dougie.
I've heard absolutely no news on this anywhere so I want to be the first to say that I have indeedy got my "economic stimulus" check. I put in an order to Amazon.com for about a dozen little things that I and/or Sarah have wanted, and I ordered a couple more Discworld ebooks at 15% off (about $6 each). I also made a "splurge" purchase in a copy of Sunao Inami's Laid Back Computing. I've been meaning to order one of his CDs for a while and since he just released a new one, which is limited to 1000 copies, and it uses the phrase "Rhythmic Noise" in its description, I figured why not? Besides, its a legitimate Japanese import for under $20. That's also cool.
My sinuses have been off and on all day, random waves of wooziness and sneezing fits. I am not as sick as I was a few days ago, but until the unpredicatble waves go away, I won't consider myself well. I have no idea why the pollen gods are being especially horrific this year, but their ways are ineffable. All I can hope to do is acclimate to their inane demands.
Tonight, Sarah and I get to make a random trip through a few more errands. I finally will get a pair of shoes that I have been needing for a while and we are going to see about getting her some new glasses. And we might be getting that mini-freezer. *crosses fingers* Here's hoping. hahahah
In the past, I have talked of the Civil/Criminal divide, how we allow cases that should have at least the flavor of a criminal proceeding to be shunted into a civil case. Most times this is used as bad excuse to bend around laws and to push for custom made punishments. But, as far as I know, this is going to cause some problems when it comes to, say, seizing proper needed in an invesigation. Looks like there is a new rule out there to enable the RIAA to keep treating cases in civil court but to get the seizures needed: Houses Passes Bill that Will Allow Them [Cops Working on RIAA Cases] to Take Away Your Stuff.
Being a natural worrier, you would think that I would be used to it by now, but apparently I have not yet innoculated myself to the fibrous tendrils of shivers that overwhelm me. It is now Thursday afternoon, only a handful of hours before my economic stimulus package thingie is supposed to be deposited "no later than" if I am going to get payment. And it's not there. Which means one of two things: 1) It will show up in the last minute or, 2) I'm not actually getting one. The way of the world points heavy and hard to #1. This is a massive, nation-wide undertaking. There is no way in hell that it can be expected to go 100% smoothly. At the same time, the power of #2 is getting to me. I never received any sort of letter saying yay or nay about how much money I am getting. I don't know if anyone else did, either, but according to their website there was supposed to be some sort of notice sent out. Did I somehow fall between the cracks? Or monkeys hijacking my stuff? I haven't a clue.
I know there is a 99.5% chance that by 2pm tomorrow the money will be there, and a 85% chance that if it is not then it will be there sometime shortly thereafter. But I find myself worrying, all the same. Sigh.
Well, to lighten my mood (and possibly yours), here are a few links to pondering:
The Fake Detective (not safe for work). This is a site dedicated to busting fake photos (generally nude, maybe all nude) of stars that circulate the Internet. I remember back in the late 90s when fake celebrity photos were a big deal. We had barely, as a people, begun to understand the ideas of what is now known as photoshopping (and what I call gimping). Even though photos had been faked through other techniques for years (do a search for "Stalin faked photos with Lenin" and some should come up). Somehow, though, the concept of altering digital photos surprised us, and I remember seeing many a website and getting many an e-mail claiming that some favorite starlet of mine had been topless. I find about half of these of historical interest if nothing else. It warms the shackles of my heart. Also, being used to somewhat sophisticated techniques nowadays, looking at several of the older and worse ones is worth a chuckle. Note, there is a HUGE amount of boobies being shown. Just warning you before you dig in.
I found that link through Cracked.com's 5 most Ridiculous Causes To Ever Get a Website. The other four are interesting as well. The bit about "The Electric Slide", by the way, is true. I had a friend who offered "Electric Slide" classes at UAH and he received a cease and desist letter on the subject after he had alread ceased and desisted. The website was different than the one linked to by Cracked (both are still up). You can read my friend's stuff in his September 27, 2006 LJ post. I could have sworn I made a reply there, but one of the interesting tidbits is the fact that most versions of the Slide are described by Ric Silver as being wrong. Since names aren't copyrightable, and I don't know about dance steps, this means that not doing the dance steps right probably breaks his claim. He would most likely havea trademark case, but I don't think a copyright one. Also of interest, back to the Cracked.com article: hot-air balloon accidents and the pledge to not complain.
Also from BoingBoing.net: Suspected Terrorists Turned Out to be Tourists. They were taking pictures of a ferry not because they wanted to blow it up, but because they were curious. Yay for determining abnormal behaviour based on false concepts of what the average human does and/or will do.
Si Vales, Valeo
(12:33:11 AM CDT)Forgot How Awesome Boondocks Can Be. Upgrading Kubuntu. Working on Oblend
Just got done watching the Boondocks episode where Martin Luther King was not killed but merely put into a coma. So much about that series is so top notch, even the bits that go a bit too far. I can't wait until I can get Season Two in a box set and watch them all.
Well, I personally will be somewhat in and out as far as Net presence goes. Upgrading my personal box out of the stone-age. It originally ran Ubuntu 5.10, and then swtiched over to Kubuntu 6.06 adn 6.10 (at which point a lot of the updates sort of went wanky). Part of the problem was I did most of the updates by hand. This time I am letting the Adept package manager handle it. Hopefully it won't cock it up. I'm pretty much just keeping everything on my computer running on bare minimum and closing it when not in use so that the update manager (which has spent about 12 hours now, and has about 12 hours to go) gets all the files and installs them as it needs.
For the time being, you can click here to see the map of the (former) Empire of Oblend Cehr. This is a setting that Niko and I are working on for super simple Heroes of Oblend!. Make note Sarah and Alicia, especially, because the names of the countries are, well, meaningful.
I am the stone that the builder refused...
May 07, 2008. Wednesday.
(01:18:18 PM CDT)Alabama Credit Union: "The Interweb. Yeah, We're On It..."
Apparently the Alabama Credit Union has a seriest of TV spots, including this one (note the C64 computer as well as the "how you found your last girlfriend" punchline) that I dig:
I've been a member of the ACU since 1999. Nearly a decade. I've recieved nothing but good service since then. Just glad to get the oppurtunity to give a shout out in return.
It is pretty clear to me now that I have lost the battle towards not being sick. I don't know if it is the sun, or an increased burst of pollen, or what, buy my head is very stuffy and headachy and I have no energy. I don't really cough so much as moan, so it's not really in my lungs yet, but my sinuses are dark so they are in a fairly icky spot. The bit that let's me know that I have moved on from normal allergic reaction is how weak my arms and legs feel. I noticed last night, while watching Robin Hood (series two of the new BBC version), that my hand kept shaking while I was holding on to my tea filled flask. Ah well, I'm going to take it real easy today (not that I don't take it real easy most days) and see how that goes.
Turning now to good things in life. I found a new type of cereal, last night, on my trip to Walgreens. It was labeled as Flax and Pumpkin Seed. Looking more at the label this morning, it is by Nature's Path, and they have an amazing array of cold cereals. You can get Hemp, Pumpkin Seed and Raisin, an amazing looking Muesli, Millet and Rice, just a wide variety of grains. They are all organic, vegetarian, and (if the Flax and Pumpkin Seed are any indication) are most excellent to eat. Raw sugar, fruit juices, and molasses replace any sort of refined sugar, and the grains are notably whole.
Well, that's my mix of good and bad things for the morning.
Si Vales, Valeo
(12:07:33 AM CDT)Election Results Coming In, Little Brother Review Posted, the Walgreens Beggar.
Playing the new Nine Inch Nails CD: The Slip. Thanks to Niko for that one. Turns out it is free, too, if you head over to the website (if you wants the copy for your own self).
Walked over to Walgreens to pick up a couple of supplies. There was another Beggar. Or, I should say, one of the regulars. This guy is an older black man with a mustache. Beer belly. What 'stache. Shows up with a bandage on his arm and begs for money to get his medicine. Have seen him a couple of times before. For all I know, he has to get regular treatment and has a legitimate reason to be begging, but (like the other few regulars), he only tends to show up on weeknights after about 8:30, which strikes me as an unlikely time to be trying to attend to pharmacy related needs.
Got back, and then finished up my full review fo Little Brother. You can read it here. Heh, I apparently have waaaaay too much time on my hands (not my quote, by the way, just in reference to something I said about LB elsewhere, and that was a shorter review than tonight's).
As of right now, it looks like Obama won NC by a 56%-42% margin and lost IN by a 49%-51% margin. Popular vote totals for the two states looks like about 1.51 million total votes for him versus 1.3 million total votes her for, giving him a night percentage of about 53.7% of the votes cast. He ends up with a 77 delegate addition to her 68 delegate addition, which puts the race back to roughly the spot it was before PA gave her about 10 net delegates. Considering that 10 delegates was some sort of sign of a campaign shift, before, I'm not sure what kind of response she is going to make, now. My guess is that she is going to say that his means she should stay in the race and that people have spoken in IN. Let's wait until the morning and find out.
Si Vales, Valeo
May 06, 2008. Tuesday.
(01:29:50 PM CDT)Break from the Outside World (literally). Resume Updates.
I've spent the last hour or so tooling back and forth and trying to squeeze in more information on my resume. For awhile, it was mostly primed for bookstores and libraries, now it is a little more well-rounded. There are about as many words on it as you can get on a resume.
Besides that, I've mostly just come to conclusion that I am going outside as little as possible tonight and tomorrow. My sinuses are aflame right now and I've been dizzy all day. Just too much sun and pollen exposure. I'm taking, now regularly, Walitin and it is helping (life is better after a dose) but I overwhelmed my body by the getting a good amount of sun on top of the other things, and I'm suffering for it. Tonight I think I will just take a full break from exercise (I try to every 3-4 days, anyhow) and tomorrow night I'll do some weight lifting or something.
Si Vales, Valeo
May 05, 2008. Monday.
(11:39:34 PM CDT)Like, Oh My God: Doug Proved Right by Internet for YEARS Straight!
Not one damned day after posting about modus clintonis (arguing the affirmation of the consquequent to try and win an argument, which is wrong and but horrifically overused by Americans as of late, posted here) I get the pleasure of being proven right, again. When Stephen King says that illiterate people don't have much chance besides to besides to join the military he did not say anything in anyway about the literate people who join. Go ahead, read his caption over and over again, but you cannot change "If you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don't, then you've got, the Army, Iraq, I don't know, something like that. It's, it's not as bright... into "If you join the military, you must be dumb." Now, I'll give you that Stephen King probably even MEANT to say that people who join the military are mentally mistaken about what consitutes a good life decision (I know lots who think this) but nevertheless, that is not what he said. What he did say was "If you can read, you have choices, if you do not read, you have to take more of what's given to you." He just made the mistake of saying that in a place where anyone who suggests our country is on a bad track is obviously of Satan, of the Eastern Elite, or a dumbass. Bonus: if you look at the comments (brace yourself) then plenty of good, Christian souls wish him dead. That's refreshing.
Alright, a few more links to get off me belt. On this page I found the following image about comparative suicide rates. Something bad is going down in Hungary:
The last time I had fast food prior to tonight was Steak and Shake on March 7. That puts it at nearly two months without any. Tonight we ate out at Dairy Queen (I did, Sarah just got Ice Cream) and the experience was mixed. The food was good, but that calorie drenched food with hidden additive format just does not sit well with anymore. I've felt kind of sick to my stomach sense then. I think, next time I eat out, I may be one of those adults that gets small portions. I really do have a big appetite, but my last over indulgences have been home cooked. There is just something different about the whole thing when it's cooked at a fast food place.
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[In response to gasoline addiction...] Sarah says: "My name is Sarah, and I'm an addict."