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This is a page to encapsulate my web cam and a growing list of interesting things that are in some way linked to me.
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News
11/22/09 (1536)
Wow.
Has this Veterans Day been a media meltdown or what? Today I've heard stories of valor, sad images of Section 60 at Arlington, of our soldiers raping their own, mass graves, and the joys amputation and the comfort of body armor.
You'd almost guess the theme of the century was pointless war and death.
Quick! What the point of the Korean war? Vietnam "Police action"? Bay of Pigs? Iran contra? Georgia? The second Iraq war? Afghanistan?
Did we win? Does it matter?
(hint: no)
The list of places that are better for having sent soldiers is short.
My stomach churns every time I read that we can sleep well at night because of the sacrifices and bravery of our men and women, because it's a lie. Anyone who gets radio-sodomized at the airport by the TSA-Gestapo-Stasi-Lackeys, anyone who wonders about warrentless wiretaps, about how the FBI creates thousands of new files on people every day, has got to feel like there is something wrong. One can't help but feel anger and resentment: our soldiers sacrifices are in vane.
We don't sleep well at night.
We wonder who will kill us first: Al Queda or Homeland Security?
Lemme tell you the honest to God truth:
It's hard to blow things up and make friends. Try it! Blow up your friends car and see if they ever talk to you again. 20 lbs of Black Stuff can seriously mar a relationship. Much less a cruise missile.
You can't just push a button and make problems go away.
None the less, our government ceaselessly thinks this. After 50 years, they haven't figured out, or forgotten, some very fundamental concepts about how the world works. So we keep selling our freedom and killing our kids in a effort to save our freedom and make a better future for our kids to live in.
Wait. How does this work again?
Remember: Every time you vote, you support the insurgency!
Postscript: Rereading the above, it almost reads like propaganda from certain, militant, anti-government groups. No, I haven't joined Oathkeepers. My point couldn't be further from this. Waving guns around is the simple technological solution to social problems. Unless you mean to kill everyone, that solution is more than likely doomed to failure, as it creates as many social problems as it causes. Kill a leader and there's a power vacuum. Kill a parent and there's an orphaned child. Problems are as likely to grow as they are to shrink.
In a planet with 7 billion people, we're going to have to very carefully manage how we interact with each other. Our greed and desire for easy, simply solutions is going to give way in order to achieve a positive balance.
Be a (wo)man: hand ssh a "-C" when you grab it.
Also, I discovered that Igor has built in arbitrary precision math! I'm so happy! I've always wanted to know what 171! is, but my variables kept overflowing into my soup.
Hint:
(12410180702176678234248405241031039926166055775016931853889518036119960752216
917529927519781204875855764649595016703870528098898586907107673312420322184
843643104735778899685482782907545415619648521534683180442932395981736968996
572359039476161522785581800611763651084288000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000)
One of the many people who occupy my office started talking about how much she loved Twilight. I smiled politely and put on my big yellow headphones. It's not that I have personally seen or read Twilight, it's just that every single thing I heard about it makes it seep of stupid teenage angst. Maybe I've aged, but I enjoy things that exude the social complexity of Firefly or the point-blank meaning of life considerations of Frozen River.
Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky?
This is a long belated series of posts. I have photos to show you. I have scripts I wish to write. I have a system of differential equations to put into one of my solvers for work. What do you think I'll actually get done this evening?
11/10/09 (1911)
Magic Show:
Ooblec:
Quail Man:
Rock Wall:
Trees:
Users/karl/Desktop/Scale/DSC_8340_mod.JPG">
Dog:
The Girly:
Tomatoes in November:
Things:
11/07/09 (1052)
The leaves are almost all gone now. I can stare up and to the right over the corner of my computer display and and count all the houses all the way to Central Avenue. I can crane my head further over my shoulder and see the clock on the church two blocks away through frozen kelp forest of bare branches. I conceptualize the houses on my street as being wildly different, because I'm used to seeing them up close with The Dog. Some are convered in trinkets and kitch, on has cracked plastic dishes of cat food in front, another has an ackward wad of pipes dangling of one corner. From a block away, however, I can see that they are three pastel triplets, powder blue, seagreen, and yellow, starched and crisped in the November sun.
We're sick again. Maybe again-again. If you feel bad long enough, you begin to wonder if maybe one illness supplanted another. I lay in bed and wished something slightly bad would happen to the Dog that would keep him occupied for a couple of hours. He paced back and forth, whined like a little girl, then rammed his wet nose into my mouth. I hoped some drunk hunter would have stumbled in and planted a beaver trap in the tub or delusional a lion tamer, would have decided to spend the night on the couch, then wake up, muzzle The Dog, make him sit on bar stools, jump through flames or hold a kitten in his mouth. Or at least take him on a walk so I could sleep. I was very happy asleep. The Dog clearly views sleep as some crazy accident that happens if you are not too careful.
I made 10 six ounce cups of coffee this morning. This is equivalent to 5 american cups, 7 european cups, or 15 cups if you bought your coffee maker at Wal-Mart.
I read that I show several signs that I am an axe murderer: I have a middle class background, i have trouble maintaining relationships, I am white, and I am male. I only need an axe and exhibit cruelty to animals.
Maybe that's why I'm always searched at airports? Because I'm an axe murderer?
The phone company went bankrupt. Then they billed me again. I called them again on monday and they transfered me to a manager who claims that it is all fixed. I seriously doubt it, especially since they now claim that they have to wait until the next billing cycle to be sure.
You would think that deleting an entry in their database would be easy.
11/04/09 (1416)
I have no problem keeping my plants watered. I think schlake is doing it wrong. Maybe he should give up his schedule. I have various vessels that hold water, and if one plant looks dry and I am holding a vessel, all the plants get watered. Except for the tall pointy thing. It only gets watered when i forget the last time I watered it.
Whenever I water it, The Dog tries to eat the soil.
Because the tall pointy thing is so pointy, I just grab his tail and pull him away. I think he gets the message because he tries to eat me instead.
The Dog periodically needs water too. If he acts weird there are several courses of action to try:
a)Let him outside to pee
b)Take him on a walk (possibly to poop because he doesn't like to poop in the yard).
c)Play fetch or tug of war
d)Feed him
e)Give him water
f)Pet him
g)Shoot him with the squirt gun
h)Lock him in The Dog box.
i)Neuter him
j)Yell at him
I don't hesitate to note that (i) is remarkably affective but costly to do on a regular basis.
I received an email this morning notifying me that there is a flu outbreak on campus. This isn't exactly news to The Girly or meself, i spent the weekend and Monday trying not to die. Last night, for the second time in a month convened our cough-and-sneeze duet.
I have 7 pairs of large men's briefs (white). Large is what the label says, but this means that they are extremely comfortable to wear outside of my pants.
Writing thesies really really really really sucks.
10/27/09 (0815)
Shake!
Old News
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