Fatkiddown

I found God: Nutrinos, GRBs and Free Radicals

2009-09-16T11:19:00.001-07:00

And no, Kurt Cobain, not in your head....

I'm trying to find the fooker, God. Wtf is he? K, lately, some things have turned up. I don't think he was careful enough this time. Neutrinos. Hah!!! He never thought we'd catch on. Obviously, evidence he's been there, is there, going to be there. They're every where and any where all the time going where they want. It's him I tell you. It's him....

GRBs. Gamma Ray Bursts. God-farts. They gotta be. And, finally, we can measure them. Yes, we can measure god passing gas -- I mean HUGE GAS!!! So big, these things would annihilate anything. Hope he never lights one.

Free Radicals. It's how he kills us. Oh sure, a car crash, disease, or pack of pitbulls usually does the job, but just in case, he made free radicals. Free hit men I say!!! So low down, man. He can't even play fair. Damn things burn us up as if we're kindling over time.

I'm going to catch him naked making breakfast one day I swear it. Bacon grease popping onto his peepee. Hey, it can happen....

Comment Spam Punked!!!

2006-01-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

I finally punked you buncha losahz!!! Yea, you know who you are. It's really sad that spam has gone from polluting inboxes to polluting blogs. Now, instead of having an easy and free way for anyone to comment on a blog post, folks will have to register and go through some hassle and, maybe, give up in the process. All you loser -- that's what you are -- spamming blog comment areas like mine deserve to be sentenced to shoveling the entire city of Detroit making parking spots in the middle of winter, or maybe you should be made to pick up sticks in the area around New Orleans post-Katrina, or maybe you should have to wash parked cars in Brooklyn at midnight -- something. In any event, you've made me post for the first time in months, so maybe there's a silver lining....

The Wanderer

2005-09-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

I traveled far. I traveled wide. I went from coast to coast and saw an ocean I had never seen before. I stood on the hill surrounded by beauty and gazed upon the titan across the sky. I saw strange people. They looked strangely upon me. She was with me but not. I carried mountains of pain and nearly every day it rained. I rose above great landscapes and I was so far away, yet I was so close. I could not escape her. She was with me all the time. Had anyone held my pain the cup would fill the heavens. And, now, so familiar are the crutches, the stitches, the needles and the bandages that I welcome them as friends. I hobbled there and I hobbled back the ghosts never ceasing to taunt, tease and check my progress only to attack. I kissed her, but not her. I held her, but not her. She held me, but it wasn't her. If I could have ripped my own heart from my chest and torn it apart I would have. I wanted it to die. So great a love, so unworthy a one. So much passion, so much bereavement. And she only lives in me.

I went out walking with a bible and a gun
The word of God lay heavy on my heart
I was sure I was the one
Now Jesus, don't you wait up
Jesus, I'll be home soon
Yea I went out for the papers
told her I'd be back by noon
Yeah I left with nothing
but the thought you'd be there too
looking for you...
Yeah I left with nothing
nothing but the thought of you...
I went wandering

A moment for Johnny Cash
/head-bow

The Windhover

2005-08-31T13:14:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I took my daughter to a theme park. It was to be her day – popcorn, candy and rides. We did the bumper cars twice, rode the dumbo planes and mini rollercoaster. She loved it. While stopping to get a drink I noticed an open theater and nearby a huge net covering the forest. It was an aviary – a place wherein to keep birds and keep them from flying away. As I approached I noticed a large placard regarding eagles. It introduced me to this effort involving the protection of birds of prey – raptors. I looked up into the netted forest and saw several of the huge, bald eagles sitting on low tree limbs. My first thought was, "these fellas are meant to soar at 1000s of feet – here they are grounded." My heart was sad. Nearby, an even smaller, caged area contained eagles which could not fly at all.

We entered the open theater and waited for the "show" (that word is a disservice to what we witnessed). There, we saw, live, these incredible creatures. The handlers brought out owls, hawks and eagles of several kinds. All were majestic, beautiful, powerful. An eagle has enough strength in its huge talon to snap your finger in two. It could pick up and fly off with an adolescent child or full-grown sheep. Its vision is as keen as you or I with powerful binoculars and can spot a mouse moving miles away. Its wingspan is larger, by far, than a man is tall. Its eyes are striking, powerful, overwhelming. And as we saw these birds flying over our heads – literally inches above (one nearly clipped me as I sat) we were given the statistics: there were, some 100 years ago, nearly a half million bald eagles in the wild in North America. There are now a few thousand. Each day, some where in the U.S., a raptor is shot from the sky by someone wielding a gun. This happens about a half dozen times daily – why?

I am reminded of Isaiah when I see these birds, "he who waits upon the Lord shall renew his strength. He shall mount up on wings as eagles...."

I am reminded of Hopkin's Windhover where he describes seeing a raptor soaring on the gusts and declares it an image of God, Lord over the earth:

I CAUGHT this morning morning's minion, king-dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding of the rolling-level-underneath-him steady-air, and striding High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing

The raptors kept in the aviary were all there for a reason. They had been mostly shot or hit by a car or sick in some way. Some had been raised by humans since birth, and no matter how many attempts had been made to return them to the wild, they would always seek out human contact. For some, this also meant their deaths. As each bird was brought out I sat in amazement at its beauty and grandeur. Like beholding ancient kings, you simply could not tarnish their nobility. Finally, a golden eagle stretched his wings wide and it dwarfed the handler.

I thought about the eagles who simply refused to soar, who had forgotten, or never learned of their ability to reach the heights. They had no clue what they were missing. They could be scraping the edge of heaven with aplomb. They could be reaching the apex of the planet and lord their majesty over it, but, instead, they were content to be shackled by leather to a leather glove, to be handed meat scraps like pet jackals. They simply didn't know. They simply didn't understand.

They only know of the shackle and scraps and that's what they prefer. Learning to soar, learning to dive, learning to kill and eat is tough, and we refuse to try, to struggle, to rise above – to soar above. We'd rather stay where its safe, where we know the familiar and the familiar knows us. But if only we'd try, little by little, to flap, to fly then someday we would soar. We could learn to climb and we could stand atop of our world, Lords of it and above all those things we once allowed to shackle us to earth….

The Death of The Tao....

2005-08-24T06:03:00.000-07:00

Quaint are these arguments pinning all the woes of the Western world on religion, on Christianity. Typically, Christianity is blamed for any and all murders, genocides, etc. I find that systems void of any deity are quite effective at slaughtering people too, thus we had millions killed, murdered, exterminated under fascism/communism (and whatever "ism" Pol Pot ran).

In the Abolition of Man Lewis argues that there has always been a string of truth throughout civilization (citing there is only one civilization). He calls this the Tao and argues that it has always existed and keeps cropping up no matter what in whatever religious form. Kant's paradox points this out as he compares the mystery of the starry heavens to the mystery of the moral law within. We just can't escape it -- this need to do and be right, so, call it what you will, but Christianity is simply another form of it (no one ever said it was perfect).

Lewis goes on to note that, for the first time ever, the Tao is actually under attack and in jeopardy of being done away with -- that this is a unique event in history. This is exactly what happened the last century in Germany, the USSR and Cambodia -- Taoless (The Tao being a general concept of a supernatural force we must answer to) systems took over the minds of humanity (yes, even in Cambodia -- oddly). Now, people died, and, sure, people died under religions too, but the fact remains that, for the first time ever, people were killed, en mass, not for land, not for belief, not for any reason other than the fact that they no longer should exist on the planet. The Jewish Holocaust is the best example of this. It was killing, for the first time ever, with the goal of entirely eliminating a certain people from the planet. Say what you will, but all other wars and conflicts had another, primary, goal.

In short, Christianity may suck, religion may suck, but these have never produced the goal which a Taoless system has produced, nor has ever such a dismal concept been conceived in any religion.

Irreligious systems, Taoless systems (communism, fascism, etc.), surprisingly, have the same goals as religion. They simply don't want a god to be any part of the solution, but this causes the paradox of demanding the function of a heart without having a heart. We simply don't behave very well on our own without the thought that we will, eventually, answer to a higher force. It is the brain that feeds the stomach through the heart. We remove the organ and demand the function.... We castrate and then demand the gelding procreate -- it simply cannot happen. Or, Lewis puts it another way, "what makes a man sit in the trench through the 6th hour of bombardment for God and country?" which he answers, "what else can make a man sit through the 6th hour of bombardment but God and country?" (These quotes from memory). This leads into thought that along with religion comes concepts of country, nationhood, family, etc. One could argue that we are moving beyond these hindrances -- that the American Civil War marked the end of state-centeredness and into nationhood, or that the end of WWII marked the end of nationhood and into a global community. Indeed, perhaps we are moving beyond god, beyond the boundaries of answering to such a force, but without the heart -- without these pesky religions -- it is an ominous world looming wherein there is no great parent up there to whom we must answer, where Nietzsche's ubermensch will create his own world, in his own likeness and the final minorities who don't look like me must be removed as so much infestation.

I empathize with Voltaire who witnessed the horror of a flawed religion, a flawed Christianity. I empathize with Bultmann who attempted to save the embattled faith from itself, but at the end of the day Kant's "moral law within" cannot be escaped, nor can it be supplanted with a godless system based on what's best and what's best void of god, for what's best void of god is relative and what's relative is horrific and so the 20th century has taught us.... The removal of the Tao produced for humanity the mindset to eliminate his fellow man for the sake of elimination and the grand achievement of human effort produced the nuclear bomb. What will happen when the twain finally are joined?

Dude, where's my sword?...

2005-08-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

/. had this blurb today about life ebbing out into reality when it comes to MMOGs:
“while some guy in Korea murdered another guy over a rare sword that existed only in an MMORPG”

Google/newsed it and found a simliar story concerning two Chinese men and a game called "Legends of Mir II" (never heard of it):

This is like a litmus test. Normal people will respond to the news of someone being murdered over a sword in a video game with something like, “that’s just terrible.” An MMOG player will respond with, “…what were the stats?”

Reminds me of Fight Club when I said, “Normal people.” You know, “people, normal people, do everything they can to avoid a fight….”

SoTD

2005-08-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

Or, "Sigs of The Day." I think some of the best stuff on the Internet are people's sig files. Such nuggets of truth, or humor, or whatever -- enuf. Here we go:

"Oh, something I learned last night... Don't try to reseat RAM while drunk. :/"

"Everyone's crazy save thee and I, and sometimes I wonder about thee."

"The real trouble with reality is that there's no background music"

It's a face-melting-type-thing....

2005-08-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

In case you missed it, your face will melt in WoW ... in PvP ... will melt and stuff....

Creed's Torn

2005-08-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

Torn
Peace is what they tell me
("What we offer will make you happy")
Love am I unholy
("But truth is not evil" I replied)
Lies are what they tell me
(I think they're lying to me -- I found out too late)
Despise you that control me
(I can't stop. I'm bound. I'm doing what's wrong and cannot stop it)

The peace is dead in my soul
(The peace they offered killed real peace)
I have blamed the reason for
my intentions poor
(My excuses to do wrong are weak, cop-outs. I knew better)

Yes I'm the one who
the only one who
Would carry on this far
(All those I'm with don't know. They don't know what I know. They've given up trying. I'm the only one who still is)

Torn, I'm filthy
(I can't stop, but I want to. Romans chapter 7)
Born in my own misery
(I was born into this evil world full of pain, full of wrong)
Stole all that you gave me
(It took my innocence. It took my happiness, and is still taking it)
Control you claim you save me
(My new friends, my new habits, you promised you'd make me happy, but I'm not. You took away what really made me happy)

"For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:19,24-25)

Cursor Thief

2005-08-11T05:33:00.000-07:00

This damn thing stole my cursor!!!

EQ Babe

2005-08-05T05:33:00.000-07:00

Every fat geek dreams of her, but she only dates -- IRL -- dumb guys with broad shoulders who can't type:

"Girl, duh duh duh duh, you'll be an EQ Babe, soon (repeats "duhs"). Soon, (more duhs), you'll need a man...."

Personally, this one, wrecks me. She'd make a great EQ liver dish too -- bottle of Chianti and all that.

You shall not grow old….

2005-07-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

His name was Mitch Hedberg, and I’ve been following news about him since, well, since his death. I first happened upon his bit whilst downloading random MPGs from Kazaa a few years ago. It was one of his standup acts performed on the David Letterman show. With his hair covering his eyes which were also hidden from view by rose-colored sunglasses, Mitch delivered one after another short jokes and observations that I found hilarious. Some of my favorite:

“You know that Pepperidge Farm bread, that stuff is fancy. That stuff is wrapped twice. You open it, and it still ain't open. That's why I don't buy it, I don't need another step between me and toast.”

“Dogs are always in the pushup position.”

"I don't have a microwave but I do have a clock that occasionally
cooks shit."

Mitch, it seems, had some bad demons. He not only did drugs, but he did a lot of them. This abuse is likely what contributed to his untimely death just before his first HBO special at the age of 37 this past March. I, too, am 37 this year, so I find myself examining this man’s life along with my own. He shall not grow old as I shall grow old, and now we wonder about the real man and the things that drove him. What is it that drives me or what turmoil exists in each of us that no one might ever know about until we are gone from here?

Jupiter, like most of the planets, is a tempestuous place. Scientists say that red spot is actually a gigantic storm wherein many earths could fit, yet from afar we hardly think of it at all, or of any of the storms going on in the gulf or in the next county ... or in the next person. We, too, are made of storms. We are two things: mountains and storms. The mountains stand up to the storms, but the storms never stop trying to take down the mountains. In Mitch’s case, maybe the storm got big enough and the mountain was worn enough and it finally capitulated. We should know that there is one who is over both and that the storms will never stop coming. However, the mountain’s roots will run deep and the storm need not destroy, but instead shape the mountain and give it character.

God bless Mitch. Rest in peace….

Goodbye Sneaky and Sticky

2005-07-14T06:25:00.000-07:00

I found out today that two living things in my care died: Sneaky and Sticky. My daughter wanted a snake, but at the pet store, a couple of weeks ago, I talked her into getting a frog. Boy, I should’ve asked some questions. Frogs need a lot of care. We fed it bugs about every other night and it was moist in its jar, but it still died. I had read the sheet and got “the basics” and planned on getting an aquarium for it, but apparently, I was supposed to also be “dusting” it with vitamins and calcium. It also requires a daily spray of fresh water which I had been doing, but not in several days. I don’t know. It just makes me feel terrible – like I’ve displeased God or something by having these little creatures die. When my daughter woke up I told her about it. I said, “I guess we didn’t take good care of him.” She said, “no, he just didn’t have that tank.” She had been giving him bugs too. I then told her that we needed to release Sneaky – a Salamander that had wondered into my office this week. I got it Tuesday and we took it home in a plastic cup. This was just over a day later, but the thing died. We went out to release it this morning and there he was – stiff and shriveled up. She picked him up and tossed him into the front yard saying, “well, if he’s fake-dead he needs to stop.”

You know, how I do fret over this and that. Just look at how she handled it. No big deal. She is my sage. There I was upset about Sticky, the frog, and Sneaky, the salamander, dying. There’s a lake behind my house and maybe 1000 frogs and salamanders die back there each day, yet I don’t think about that. True, I should make my best effort to care and provide for things given me, but why fret over it when they perish?

I’ve suffered several tragedies in my life in recent years and even recently. It’s time to toss them out into the front yard and say, “well, if they’re fake-dead they need to stop.” And walk away. My daughter simply wasn’t going to deal with a salamander who was either truly dead or faking it. The next time something doesn’t work out for me I’m simply going to say, “well, if it’s fake-dead, it needs to stop” and let it go. The Bible tells us to be like children. I think if more of us were like that the world would be a much happier place….

Shuttle

2005-06-30T16:46:00.000-07:00

US space shuttle Discovery set to launch July 13: NASA
http://www.physorg.com/news4874.html

We vacationed every summer in FL. It was always part of the trip to visit Cape Canaveral (Cape Kennedy). I have fond memories of it. Hot faced from too much sun, beach clothes and sandals, and seeing those incredible rockets towering into the sky as my dad drove us onto the compound. Little did I know of the history, for I was born in 1968 and at the time was a child. My dad was really into it and took all the time to explain the details of the thing. To me, he was everything, and so was my country. He bought me a Space Shuttle model, and I remember clearly the towering building wherein it all was assembled -- labeled with our nation's flag. I remember the juggernaut machine that traveled at one or two miles an hour which moved the rockets into place. I remember the launch pad, the museum displaying the Apollo crafts and astronaut suits. My dad took lots of pictures. He taught me to believe in our country and in its projects. There was so much pride in me then. I was proud of my dad, our country, our achievements.

My dad is gone now, and I'm not sure what he would think about things now. I think he would be sad. We have angered countries, lost landmarks and shuttles have fallen. I would not want him to know these things, and I bear them now in his memory, but maybe, just maybe, we can regain our standing as a nation and in space....

Microcosmic Gods

2005-06-19T06:36:00.000-07:00

We really can't hold on. We can't even hold on to one part of it or even one piece. Naked we are born and naked we leave -- Job said. Yet, oh how we try. In high school I read, "Microcosmic Gods." It's an early scifi story about a scientist who creates life in a petrie dish and then continues to test and strengthen that life over time. At each test many of the organisms die, but those who adapted to the test or were strong enough to endure lived on to reproduce a stronger offspring -- evolution microscopically. As time passed and years went by the experiments continued until the organisms became more intelligent than the scientist, yet, they always thought of him as their father, their god. Finally, at the end of the story, they reach out to assist their own god realizing he is inferior to them.

Sometimes it seems we are nothing more than organisms in a petrie dish. He strips of this and that. At the moment it seems unbearable and we kick and scream against him, against reality, in death throws. What follows is a period of coma where we are zombies living in the aftermath of the loss, in shock, in lingering disbelief. Ah, reality "is strict in his arrest" (as Hamlet might say). The ultimate manifestation of reality is death, and we will all most likely attend a service wherein we bury someone and face that reality.

It is reality that we must serve. Attempts to circumvent it end in disaster. Our brains, it seems, are adroit at leading us into un-realities ... things that, at the moment, seem so promising but end in harm. All difficulties, really, come from a struggle against reality. Spending money that we do not have, eating food that we do not need, making love to someone who is not ours -- all of these are harmful to our existence. So we do the un-realities and we reap the results: obesity, debt and broken homes. To "fix" we liposuction, bankruptcy and remarry.... then we suffer illnesses, age quicker and die sooner. The body, it seems, creates sickness that reflect the harm of our attempts against reality.

Reality is the scientist and his tests. We are the organisms. But it is not always ill that he bestows. Sometimes he showers down nutrients that grow without killing. We can spend the money we do have. We can eat the food we need. We can make love to someone who is ours. Perhaps all religion is really a force trying to steer humanity away from the forays into the streams of un-reality and back into the healthy river life, reality. It seems we are meant to live in plurality and to do so we must be in harmony. Anyone in the choir who does not sing the same song, the same key and the same rhythm causes discord and it is unpleasant to the ear. Heh, in some church right now somewhere in the country sits someone listening to bad singing, wincing, thinking, "how on earth did they allow this music?" Yet, that person is fat or bankrupt or making love to someone not theirs and reality chuckles at the irony....

Perhaps, if we keep struggling to live in harmony with reality we will grow to benefit that reality. Perhaps, it is only by, first, giving in that we truly start to live. Once we give in we thrive and once we thrive we contribute. Finally, we are reality, we are life and everything we do prospers. Then, we are organisms who have reached a place beneficial to our creator....

Oh The Irony....

2005-06-17T05:43:00.000-07:00

"These were just kittens we were trying to find homes for," he said. "PETA said they would do that, but these cats never made it out of the county."

That's cold man....

I can hear Elmer Fudd right about now, "kiwl duh wabbit, KIWL DUH WABBIT!!!"

The New Dachau

2005-06-17T05:16:00.000-07:00

Rush makes the point that while democrats and liberals are very concerned how cold-blooded terrorists fair at Gitmo, they did not have such sentiments towards American citizens during the Clinton administration's "Waco" tragedy. Regardless of how weird, odd and strange they were, they were American citizens. And with only untried charges against them, the government blared music at them all night, shown bright lights on them so they couldn't sleep, and ultimately used M1 Abrams to, arguably, burn the compound to the ground. Again, they were Americans not yet convicted of anything and due all the rights and laws of the founders. Now, democrats in congress are concerned whether or not Arabs held in Cuba have proper air conditioning. These are people who are not Americans and who have sworn to live or die to kill any American -- indeed they will kill any Caucasian or, heck, anyone not like them they can find.... So amazing.

This says nothing of how Randy Weaver was treated at Ruby Ridge by a liberal-controlled government. For deciding to live in the great outdoors and own a few guns and mistrust his government, he was first entrapped and then his son and wife were slaughtered by federal thugs under the directive of Janet Reno/Bill Clinton. His wife, carrying an infant, was shot in the head by a trained sniper (imagine, that man had to see it was a woman with a baby). God forbid we find a family of terrorists plotting the next big mass-killing of American citizens who might decide to defend themselves deep in the woods. Why, our first job would be to make sure they have Qurans and all the religious food they can eat. We'd also provide air conditioning, clean towels and a subscription to Netflicks. Of course, amnesty international would be nearby proclaiming that all of that just-described treatment constituted the new Dachau....

Gitmo

2005-06-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

I think it means, "get mo' terrorist!"

Dick Morris has a good review this week on the political issues surrounding the prison-base at Guantanamo Naval Base.

I really enjoyed amnesty international's claims that America is the caretaker of the new gulags -- a nice comparison to the Soviet version. The problem is, out of some 70,000 prisoners processed at Guantanamo Bay only about 100 have died and only 5 warranting any investigation. We have about 24,999,995 to go to if we want to catch up with the soviets.... We've also spent over $2 million trying to get the proper, religious, foods to the prisoners there, and by and large have treated these people with far more humanity than they would ever think of offering an American (the comparison can hardly be made). The gulags were a place where people were interned for being late for work or having a minor accident on the road. Once there, they were literally worked to death and once they died they were left to rot where they fell, trampled under foot until they became, literally, "camp dust." This became an expression of threat in the former U.S.S.R. itself, a sort of, "take him for a ride" amongst gangsters. Humans in these camps were treated worse than animals, and many there longed to be the dogs guarding them who received proper care. This comparison by amnesty international is ludicrous and they should be ashamed. It rivals (I want to say eclipses, but I'm not sure) Michael Moore's confession that there is no terrorist threat against America -- said in the wake of 911.... In the mean time, when these same people have had the opportunity to capture our soldiers, they kill them, mutilate them and hang them from bridges. They go on to kidnap any European, or Caucasian, they can find and treat them the same. They saw (not cut) their heads off, make videos of these grizzly acts, and load them on the Internet flaunting their butchery. What does amnesty international, or Michael Moore, have to say about that?

"Liberty or death," but that never meant laying down arms and allowing the enemy to conquer. Just whose liberty are AI and Michael Moore concerned about? Sure, giving your enemy the liberty to attack you is, indeed, liberty -- in bizarro world! Tyrants, tyranny and terrorists must be met head-on and fought. Neville Chamberlain took the long, passive road of peace with Hitler, and Hitler used every gift, token and boon to advance his empire until it was obvious that all passivity had accomplished for England was to put them horribly behind the 8-ball in an all-out war with a determined and evil enemy.

I'm all for liberty, freedom and rights. God bless all who stand-up for such. But anymore that seems to mean everyone's rights but Americans to defend their country. Rights, it seems, begin outside the borders of the United States, those same borders all other foreigners are trying their best to cross. There seems to be two popular desires with non-Americans when it comes to their thoughts on our country (and, indeed with some Americans too): to come into our country and live off the blessings or destroy it. The rest want either to eliminate laws that protect our tax money and entitlements or to eliminate our ability to defend our statehood.

How can we make sense to such critics? If 911 can't convince you then what on earth can?...

Silencing The PC

2005-06-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

LCDs tend to top the list of ergonomic concerns when it comes to computers, but the Wall Street Journal has an article today discussing the "growing movement" of "quiet computing." Apple has made the low volume-noise of the Mac mini an advertising point and Dell apparently has an "acoustic lab" where tests are carried out to ensure their computers live up to their quiet standards. The article goes on to mention such sites as SilentPCReview.com. Silencers are out to put an end to "loud gaming PCs" which produce upwards of 55 decibels. The golden mean of sound should be 20 decibels or below, "a sound all but inaudible, even close by." Some go as far as suspending disk drives in hammocks "made of elastic bands." The issue has grown recently due to media-center PCs which have brought computer noise to the living room.

Holy wow....

2005-05-31T05:51:00.000-07:00

"New from Thomas Sowell!
Black Rednecks and White Liberals
Poor Southerners were once regarded as "lazy, lawless, and sexually immoral." But even as both black and white Southerners have moved up in class and affluence, Sowell notes that ghettos are still filled with "black rednecks" who have never escaped these self-destructive patterns. Why not? Their attempt to escape, Sowell says, has been consistently and repeatedly hampered by white liberals! Save 23% when you purchase Sowell's newest book today!"

I'mma lazy pos who needs to stop neglecting his blog (lest it leave me), but I was encouraged to post today when I read what you see above. Holy wow batman. I've lived in the south all my life. Where is this guy from? (Googling). Ah, ok, grew up in Harlem. God bless ya sir. Have at it. ...I do love what people with too much time do with it....

Finding tanks with a metal detector

2005-03-10T11:15:00.000-08:00

The boys at the "Tank Museum in Kubinka", Russia, have found a cool means by which to keep their supplies stocked. They head out onto the old battle fields of ww2 -- wherein 1000s of Soviet and German tanks battled -- and pull them up out of the bogs. Using metal detectors, they locate and then excavate the finds. The funny part is that the Russian government, Department of Defense, lays full claim to any such finds -- in case of a current war, they reserve the right to put the pieces back into combat. The boys at the museum boast that they can have them 100% battle-ready....

FreeBSD Expedition: Entry #1

2005-01-26T07:09:00.000-08:00

K,

I've decided to learn FreeBSD. Here goes me! I went to google and punched in "FreeBSD" (cuz, I kept reading about it on /.) and the first link took me to this site: http://www.freebsd.org/. I'm already afraid cuz when I got there I saw a devil -- a cute, little, devil, but still a devil. What are they already trying to tell me? That this will be hell? Why do Open Source people choose such zany mascots?

Debils! I see Debils!!! ----
|
\ /

So, I go there and immediately want the ISOs to burn the install disks. I had to look for a good minute to find the right link -- not too hard, but all sites should have a huge "DOWNLOAD HERE" button or area on the site for easy, and thought free, downloading cuz, well, not just to deal with dumb people like me, but mostly because I HATE WAITING or LOOKING or ANYTHING THAT TAKES AWAY ONE SECOND OF MY LIFE THAT COULD LATER BE SPENT WATCHING THE SIMPSONS!!!

So, four clicks later -- and more thinking and looking for what I want, cuz I want the latest greatest being teethed on Windows, and will settle for nothing less, and, well, 5.3 is the latest/greatest, but I see the date on the 4.11 folder (erm directory) is actually later than on the 5.3 and -- well, got confused but figured it out and DLed it.... Btw, when I think of OSes and 4.11 I think of Netware....

So, got the ISOs DLed and burned and pop disk 1 into the ol' CD drive. Helo (proper way to spell "helo" when doing SMTP commands) Darik and thine way cool hard disk eraser! I know thee well -- well, not well ... just used it once before, but still. I hit the read me on a floppy of Darik's I already had made and read the readme to find "quick" and do a quick erase -- um, quick ... ya right quick....

"DBAN succeeded. All selected disks have been wiped...."

Woohoo! On to FreeBSD install! This should be a cinch!...

Apple ain't dyin'...

2005-01-13T05:19:00.000-08:00

"COMPUTER icon Apple has posted a huge rise in quarterly earnings, trumping Wall Street expectations and setting a new record for the company."

It's the Ipod and the Ibook. You got to hand it to Jobs, the fudgepacker ain't dumb and continues to prove himself a visionary. Gates has got to be feeling like a Salieri -- if not now, then maybe years down the road....

Work....

2005-01-03T06:29:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm not sure my boss knows what I'm supposed to be doing either, but he wants me to be very busy doing it....

Robert Ringer stated that working long, hard hours gets you one thing: old. He taught the principle of working smart, not necessarily hard. Management catches on to phrases, things, slogans. The ol' 80/20 rule. They love that one. There's a book on that ... a book on that -- can you imagine?... Lemme give it to you in a nut shell: 20 percent of the people cause 80 percent of the problem. 80 percent of the people cause 20 percent of the problem. Deal with the 20 percent, yada, blah, phooey. I first heard a preacher use this. I just love how business and religion is so mixed these days. They read the same books, use the same ideas, go to the same seminars. Religion is just another business anyhow. Hey, I'm off topic!

Bottom line is: don't worry about your job. If you have any modicum of skill at all you can get another one. Trust me on this cuz people with no skills whatsoever have some really good jobs. And getting back to that 80/20 thingy: only 20 percent of your success is actual job knowledge/skill level. 80 percent is personality. Don't ass kiss -- you gotta be able to sleep at night and nobody likes a phony -- if you kiss ass it'll come back to haunt you I'm convinced ... maybe in Valhalla before Odin or something, but it'll happen. I can see it now, some ass kisser standing before Odin and Odin going "ya, yer damnen assen kisser ... senden yourden assen to Loki now. Ya, Loki, show deez assen kisseren what ve doern here withen heezen kinden..." (I typed that out didn't I?).

So, chill bill. Job/shmob. Don't let it run your life. Work to live don't live to work. Let's say that again -- all together now: WORK TO LIVE! DON'T LIVE TO WORK!!! Cuz, like, you know who died on 9/11 and who lived? The "good" employees died. All those folks who got up early, got there on time or beforehand. They bought it. The slackers, the people they interviewed down on the street after it was all over -- lots of them were late and thus were able to breath and speak. Can you imagine being a dude that maybe just got fired a week before or a day before? Wow. Whata new view on that experience! Love your family. Work to provide for others -- not just yourself loser! And don't let your job make their lives miserable. Capice? Comprende? Good....

Look! I'mma not a liberal!...

2004-10-22T13:20:00.000-07:00

This is from me and me only, but whenever a liberal dons camo, carries a gun, and kills a fellow living being -- what we southerners normally refer to as "game" -- then it means he's in deep caca (that's a foreign word for "poopy").

This cracked me up. Here’s an Australian newspaper’s take on Kerry’s recent "hunting trip:"

Hunt for bloke vote
Melbourne Herald Sun - 1 hour ago
A CAMOUFLAGED John Kerry mounted a pre-dawn shotgun attack on an unsuspecting goose yesterday in a bid to broaden his image among undecided voters as "a guy".

I dunno, maybe PITA joined them and they chanted a prayer to the, well, the notta-god of animals or something containing language about how the goose was a sacrifice for the greater cause of destroying all real hunters. "My dear lovely goose. My brother in feathers. Your death will serve, one day -- after we take all their gun you see -- in one day meaning no more of your kind will ever be shot from the skies again...."

Back on track....

The last democrat I remember doing photo ops of himself with a gun -- just before an election -- was Tom Foley, OR. He was the speaker of the house who was ousted in the republican upset of congress that took place in '94 (I think that's the year) after the Clinton election. In the days just before his loss -- the first Speaker of The House to be put out by his electorate since the Civil War -- he was filmed at the gun range shooting a (*gasp*) rifle.

So, I'm thinking this is a sign Kerry is in trouble. Sure, the race is tight, and some things I don't like about it, but so far, in all the polls, Kerry has really not topped Bush -- yet. But this thing is darn close.

It really doesn't matter to me if Bush can speak plainly or not. A good-enough conservative deaf/mute would be fine by me as long as he killed our enemies, cut taxes and feared God, but, still, for the love of mike, teach Bush how to talk -- it does, for some reason, matter to liberals that a candidate look/sound good ... hrm, I wonder if that explains their psyche a little.... Hehe, Cher actually came out a week or so ago and said the dems need to get the fatboys -- like Joe Lockhart -- off the team cuz his fatness would cost them votes....

Pissed....

2004-10-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=189055

"Please help me. Please help me," Hassan said, trembling. "This might be my last hours." The gaunt Hassan begged, shaking with fear and burying her face in a tissue. Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped director of CARE International in Iraq.

When will people learn? It doesn't matter how big your heart is for these people. They will still kill you. Nothing will stop them from hating us, wanting to kill us, and sometimes succeeding. Nothing except one thing: strength of might -- a show of force. Liberalism has never won a war for any nation. Peaceful protest has never succeeded in keeping an enemy from conquering you. Sure, the British left India, but only because they wanted to. They left other nations around that same time, but people hold up Ghandi's peaceful protests as the means by which it happened. I am not opposed to peaceful protest, and it has its place. But this is not the place, this is not the time, not when we're seeing stuff like this.

Yesterday, I discussed building your testimonies, and I meant that. However, when I was a kid I saw this bee drowning in my dog's water dish. My heart went out to it. "That poor bee. He's dying. I feel sorry for it. I want to help it." And, so, I reached in with my hand and scooped it out. Guess what, he promptly stung me. In pain and fear and impulse I squished it, and then I learned an important lesson that day: misdirected compassion can come back with an equal amount of harm. In our attempts to be compassionate, we have to use our grey matter. Don't feed an able-bodied man who can work. Don't hand an alcoholic homeless man cash, and don't pick up a just-released inmate and take him home to sleep in the same place with your wife and kids. Have the heart of a dove, sure, but have the wisdom of a snake....

I tell ya, what I'd like to hear is, "all CARE International workers are doubling their efforts in Iraq -- they are also now required to carry loaded M16s...." Now, see, that's love....

But, back to the point: this really pisses me off. On one hand, I feel for these people who care so much for humanity, but then I want to jack slap them for not getting it -- for not getting that their world view is screwed up, for not getting that a state is only a state as long as it has the military power to be a state, that the world is not inherently good. It is inherently evil (do you still need proof?). That although you are a big-hearted, peace-loving, wanna-help-your-fellow-man sorta person, that doesn't mean the people in the world you want to help feel the same way. They are confusing their desires (to give and to help others out of their plenty) with the desires of these blood-sucking bastards that capture innocent, western workers in their countries and then cut their heads off.

If you want to be a martyr for a useless cause, then by all means, head over seas -- to a country of your choosing wherein poverty is rampant, hatred of the west is replete, and the need is great -- and offer up your head on a stake. But for the love of Pete, don't act fucking surprised when the time comes to separate your cranium from its foundation. I'm sorry, I truly am, but you've asked for it....

And now for some Churchill quotes:

"When I warned them [the French Government] that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, "In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken." Some chicken! Some neck!" --Sir Winston Churchill

"In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Goodwill." --Sir Winston Churchill

What Ya Think?

2004-10-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

Where are you today in life? What year is it for you? What month? Count the months you've been here so far. How many more hours you got left? Minutes, seconds -- that's all we are in part. We are a bit of time, so many ounces of carbon-based life, so much protein and chemicals and minerals. Are you where you thought you'd be at this point? Plans derailed a bit back? What happens tomorrow?

The history of the world -- I'm not so sure about. Firstly, to believe everything "experts" tell us of the world is too much I think. They can't know everything. People get facts wrong about the living, the now, much less the past where those who witnessed are gone -- not to mention those things that occured that no one was even there TO witness, and all we got is evidence. Extrapolation is precise conjecture and conjecture is hog-wash. We really don't know what life's all about. Boy, I'm a ramblin' fool today!

My point is, just what is there is to this life? Who, or what, are you really serving? What's your motive, your take, your angle, your goal? Self? Is it all about self? As Tyler Durden tells us, "self improvement is masturbation."

What really remains of our time here? I believe it's what we do for others. Nothing else really matters. At the end of life we either die or we end up dying in a place where others take care of us. What an end.

Titles and testimonies -- those are the two things we really build in life. "Dr. Soinso..." or "Attorney Suchansuch" or how 'bout "I have a Masters in..." and so forth. Those are titles. They serve to serve you here. They impress others. They get you a good job -- maybe. They make YOU feel good about YOUR self, but at the end ... on the day you're buried and the folks go back to the church and eat 'tato salad ... what do those "titles" serve you then? What will people really be saying about you? How many tears will be shed for you? Maybe your family will cry -- that's a given, but how many people will show up that you've really made a difference in their lives? And, heck, maybe some of your family won't even cry -- or be there!

Testimonies though ... you can't get 'em in school or college or the university. There's no corporate title that attributes testimonies. Testimonies are the things people say "about" you -- the stories of how YOU made a difference in their life. Not being consumed with yourself, not looking out for #1, but giving of your time and energy to others -- that builds testimonies. At the end of it all, if you've given to others, then at your funeral maybe people won't be in such a big hurry to eat potato salad. Maybe people won't be thinking of getting out of that suit, of how much weight edna's put on, maybe, instead, they'll want to tell the tales of you, your life, the difference you made, how they owe it all to you. Maybe their children will even remember you at their parent's funerals and recite the same stories, the same testimonies.

Testimonies make you live here beyond your life. Your titles are buried with you. Your testimonies carry your name for generations....

WWW

2004-10-08T05:04:00.000-07:00

Or "What Women Want...."

Everything is more fun naked except cooking with grease.

Yes, cooking naked is bayad, mmmkay? But it's nice attire with a woman, that is, if she wants you in that state....

Women don't know what they want, and you can't find out by asking them. Oh, sure, they'll tell ya what they want, but that's not what they want.

What do women want? I'll tell ya: a rich guy -- flat, plain, simple. Now, this might also mean a jerk. Why? Cuz rich guys are typically jerks and/or, jerks make it up the ladder more than non-jerks. Pushy businessmen, lawyers, etc. -- they get places. Jerkdom also displays testosterone. Read about what effects testosterone has on a guy and it basically describes the typical, jerk, high-achiever-type, and that's why women chase these ... well, these jerks, but that's not what they'll tell you. When you ask them what they want they'll say, "I want a nice guy." Bullpoopeyshooshy! They do not, and if you are a nice guy and/or if you treat them the way a nice guy would treat a girl they'll dump you.

Remember, a real man doesn't need a woman to be complete. As a matter of fact, he might just let one tag along for the heck of it, but if she leaves -- big deal. A real man is grappling with his world, conquering it, making money, climbing the ladder, going places and a woman is nothing but a footnote to that. Boy, what a jerk I am for saying that eh? But, see, that's what they ("they" being women) want. I'm only explaining it to you. If I thought fawning over women, being nice to them, catering to them, telling them how beautiful and wonderful they are -- if I thought that's what they really wanted then that's what I'd tell you, but they don't.

Remember, always be a jerk -- except to your mother. Be good to your mother....

Perhaps George Santayana describes, best, the thought processes of a woman:
"Sanity is madness put to good uses"

FK

Der Debate

2004-10-01T05:24:00.000-07:00

Or is it, Le Debate? I watched just about all of it except for the first 15 minutes. Kerry looked taller, more poised, polished, prepared, articulate. Bush was laid-back, simpler, firm and jovial. As one column I read put it, "Bush looked like a guy you'd want to have a beer with." Kerry looked like the lawyer you'd want representing you in court.

I want to stop here talking about who won and who didn't and discuss something that just about drives me stark, raving, mad. The look and sound of a leader is not what makes a leader. It reminds me of the scripture, "you got a nice suit on, you be our leader...." It's like that Peter Seller's movie, "Being There." He looked and sounded good, so he was on his way to the presidency at the end. Emanuel Kant was hunched over and deformed, but his philosophy changed modern thought since his day -- he is the Plato of his millennia. Steven Hawkins would never win a muscle contest or make GQ mag, but anyone into astronomy will hone-in on his words and transcripts. General Patton was said to have a high-pitched, screeching voice that was annoying, yet he's heralded as one of America's greatest generals. Do you buy a car because the salesman looked and sounded good? If you do then you probably pay too much for most things. The same goes for who should be president, and it makes me nuts when people talk about Kerry "filling more screen" than Bush or that Bush, "seemed more jovial and laid-back" (and stating Bush looks like a monkey or Kerry looks like Lurch ... I thought I was out of 3rd grade?). One thing and one thing only should be the basis of your vote: what a politician does. If you agree with what they have done -- the decisions they have made and carried out -- then vote for that guy. Kerry has one of the greatest records of diminishing the American military. If you vote for him thinking he'll be a good wartime general -- because, hey, after all, he spoke better! -- then you are deceived. Bush cut taxes and therefore will not support big government programs. If you think voting for him will get more money for your grandmother, then you are deceived -- but, hey, he looks fun to be with!...

Politics is not difficult for me. I look at what a candidate has done -- how they performed in the last political job they had -- and if I agree with that I vote that way. If their words back up what they've done before and after, then that's icing.

Don't vote because you hate the other guy -- that's not a reason. Vote because you have gray matter in your skull, and you've actually used it....

Reality Philosophy in John

2004-09-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

"A person making things up tries to make himself look good. But someone trying to honor the one who sent him sticks to the facts and doesn't tamper with reality." -- Jesus Christ, The Gospel of John, 7:18 MSG.

Dunkin Donuts never gets robbed....

2004-09-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

Automobile makers, government and cops -- I can tell you one they won't do: they won't ever do anything to keep you from getting a speeding ticket. I.e., wtf does my car go faster than any legal speed limit in any state of the union? Do they imagine a time when I need to go that fast? If so, where are the laws that would allow for speeding? Why do cops never hide waiting for speeders going uphill?

Insurance companies, cities, states, local governments are running a racket with speeding tickets, and I can promise you this will never change no matter what technological advances there are. They're always going to allow drivers to break it and they're always going to profit from it....

It should be simple to put governors on cars that would prevent them from going over 70 MPH -- the fastest speed limit in the U.S. (yes, yes, if you do not live in the U.S. spare me the whining -- I know laws are different else where, but, like, I don't live else where, capice?).

Ok, ok, yes, I recently got a speeding ticket....

I liked especially how he hands me a $91 ticket and then says, "slow down sir." Um, ya, I was just thinking that when I got the sticker shock of the ticket. Is it really necessary to tell me to slow down after this experience ociffer? To me, that's piling on. I'm gonna start caring an umpires, yellow-weighted flag and when such things are said I'm gonna toss it out the window, and blow a whistle and then say, "unnecessary roughness -- piling on at the end of the play by officer 267 -- first down!" Yea, that should go over well.

/rant

(Mumble) ...rookie!

The Money Pit

2004-09-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, it's been 10 generations of Jacob since I posted last....

I bought a house last week. Ya, I did that. It goes something like this: "sign here, and here, and here, and this one, and right here ... k, and here, this says the house is really ours but we let you live there as long as you give us money for a great portion of your life -- lots of money. K, sign here, and here, initial that one -- no, no -- your initials. Alright, sign here and there. This one says we own your first child. Not married? K, we own your nuts then...."

So, I'm looking at a house payment for a looong time, but oh well. My own digs....

I bought brass numbers for my mailbox (cuz, like, it was waaay to easy to just get plastic, stick-on ones....), and fought with how to attach them to it. They came with little 1 penny, brass nails. After trying to bang them in ... in the dark with a flashlight -- in a lot of wind -- I finally took the mailbox off and brought it in the house. Luckily, I had tools. I thought of drilling holes, but that made no sense. The mailbox is plastic. Finally, it dawned on hulk to use stove eye to heat nails and melt them in therefore securing the nail, but hulk's head hurt and hulk smashed mailbox and house instead. Seriously though, the stove eye idea worked out great and now I have these really fancy brass numbers on my mailbox.... I got some bigger ones to put on the house proper.

Drugs

2004-05-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

I used to drugs a long time ago, but not anymore -- not after jail anyhow. Yes, I went to jail once in my life. I was 20 (boy, wish I was 20 again -- I'd probably still be a fuck up though). The only drugs in my life now are coffee and beer. Well, those aren't really drugs but they contain drugs: caffeine and alcohol. I just remembered that alcohol is a word with Arabic origins -- I think that's right. If it's not sue me!

If a snail took a Quaalude, would it just stop moving altogether? And wtf would a humming bird do on cocaine or meth?

I smoked a lot of pot way back. It amazes me that there's no more suspicion over rolling papers for sale in places as there is (what a sentence). I mean, 99.9% of all folks buying them are doing one thing -- rolling joints!!! And, like, 99.9% of all people buying copper plumbing fittings are doing one thing -- plumbing!!!

Yea, I smoked (I keep leaving the "d" off of "smoke" when I try to say, "I smoked weed" ... maybe I'm still smoking it and don't know it) tons of weed. I love that SNL skit where they ran that antiques/headshop and when people would find some ancient-looking bowl and ask 'em what it was used for they'd say, "we're not real sure, but we think they kept their weed in it...."

I smoked so much pot, people found marijuana leaves with me tattooed on 'em....

Anyhow, anymore I just love beer, and coffee, but I don't smoke. I tried smoking once but didn't have the will power. I think it's best not to smoke unless, like, you want to commit suicide slowly -- very slowly. Cuz, I really don't think smokers live as long as non-smokers. You don't see many 100 year old smokers anyhow. I mean, if there were such things wouldn't the tobacco companies put their pics up on bill boards with a caption that read, like, "Mary Sue Williams, 101, smoking since 1924!!! and still alive!!!" I think it'd surely help tobacco. Maybe the idea would catch on and beer makers would put up bill boards that showed a blitzed guy with a caption of, "Ted G. Smith, 42, hasn't been sober in 20 years and never drives below 70!!! And still alive!!!" See! Incentive!...

I blog, therefore, I is

2004-05-19T08:18:00.000-07:00

I've been blogging in some form or 'nother since 1981 (or was it '82 or '83) when I jumped on single-line BBSes on a TI99/4A and posted stuff as a 13 year old kid. The only thing I really remember about what I said was that it must have been bad, 'cuz I was banned from a BBS!...

K, by now if you've actually read any of this drivel you are entirely glazed over and bored, but anywho, I had to write something cuz, like, if I didn't it wouldn't be a blog now would it?... <--- ellipses points. I use lots of those. Get used to it.... <--- see?