1. Health: SGL (109), feeling pretty good at the moment.
2. Family: Called my daughter last night. She had some ultrasound-sourced news: Baby Kanenwisher is a grandson. Her and Sam have picked a name for the little guy, which will be announced when he makes his debut in August.
3. Politics: There has been a big stink on certain cable news channels -- mostly one named for a certain fur-bearing animal -- about "tax protests" over President Obama's budget proposals. To symbolize their protest in a manner unmistakable to any American who is aware of his heritage, they've adopted the Boston Tea Party model, and are calling it "teabagging the President."
Guys, "teabagging" has a whole 'nother meaning in the here-and-now. In gaming, it refers to fragging your opponent and executing the maneuver described in the UD link with your foe's virtual corpse.
Of course, these protests -- basically corporate astroturf in action -- ignore the objective reality that the US has among the lowest taxes in the world, and has over the last, oh, thirty or so years, a lot less progressive while income distribution has skewed upward.
Gwenny referred to it as "insanitea."
4. Gwenny: I'm going to see her this weekend. It's been two weeks and I miss her badly.
5. WoW: Patch 3.1 landed on Tuesday, and it was a mighty thing indeed. Neat new content in Northrend, a big bad new raid instance I'm not anywhere near ready for . . . just grinding cash for Marty's epic flying skill and mount. Gwenny, through the lovely Paharita, donated 1k gold to the cause. I'm bringing over another 3k on another toon, which should be Just About Enough.
Showing posts with label teh stoopid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teh stoopid. Show all posts
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Friday, November 21, 2008
Beyond Disgusting . . .
Grown man pairs up two year olds and makes them fight . . .
And this guy passed U.S. Army Special Forces psych tests? Some psych guy needs to lose his license or commission over this!
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Now playing: Red Rider - Lunatic Fringe
via FoxyTunes
And this guy passed U.S. Army Special Forces psych tests? Some psych guy needs to lose his license or commission over this!
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Now playing: Red Rider - Lunatic Fringe
via FoxyTunes
Friday, April 4, 2008
brain...splode!
Selected results from a slash fic pairing generator:
Jayne Cobb (Firefly)/Luke Duke
Hiro Protagonist (Snow Crash)/Gabriel (Constantine)
Cassandra of Troy/Jack the Ripper
Alex P. Keaton (Family Ties)/Wyatt Frame (Josie and the Pussycats)
Dr. Stephen Maturin (Master and Commander)/Doc Brown (Back to the Future)
Loki (Norse Mythology)/Lancelot (King Arthur)
Governor Swann (PotC)/Prince Humperdinck (Princess Bride)
Mal Reynolds (Firefly)/The Conduit (Angel)
Count Olaf (A Series of Unfortunate Events)/Garibaldi (Babylon 5)
R.Buckminster Fuller/Pee-Wee Herman
Loki (Norse Mythology)/Squidward (Spongebob Squarepants)
Jesus/Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice)
Saturday, February 2, 2008
What next?
OK, this is more than enough!
What "this" is, is that a state legislator in Mississippi has introduced a bill to forbid serving overweight people in restaurants with more than five seats.
No, this is NOT a joke! I guess since discrimination against people with dark skins is out, these assholes have to have someone to discriminate against. Or maybe this is a way to accomplish the same goal (since people of color are also very often overweight).
Overweight people are a class of people it's OK to hate. Perhaps the only one left in the US anymore. We get stares . . . we get sneers . . . we get criticism disguised as unwanted medical advice from EVERYONE, because everyone is a weight loss authority. The last thing overweight people need is shame; most of us have enough other issues with our relationshio to food as matters stand!
At least some medical people are starting to understand that strident advice / shaming people to lose weight is counterproductive.
What "this" is, is that a state legislator in Mississippi has introduced a bill to forbid serving overweight people in restaurants with more than five seats.
No, this is NOT a joke! I guess since discrimination against people with dark skins is out, these assholes have to have someone to discriminate against. Or maybe this is a way to accomplish the same goal (since people of color are also very often overweight).
Overweight people are a class of people it's OK to hate. Perhaps the only one left in the US anymore. We get stares . . . we get sneers . . . we get criticism disguised as unwanted medical advice from EVERYONE, because everyone is a weight loss authority. The last thing overweight people need is shame; most of us have enough other issues with our relationshio to food as matters stand!
At least some medical people are starting to understand that strident advice / shaming people to lose weight is counterproductive.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
"Bumper Nuts" reach a new low
Nothing says "Support the Troops" like a Camouflage "Support the Troops" plastic scrotum to hang on your bumper!
edit: evil thought -- A Vietnam era phrase variously abscribed to LBJ, Nixon and SecDef Johnny McNamera was "If you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow . . . " In this 'support the troops with a magnetic sticker" era, why not just get them by the bumper? That way you get the scrote, heart and mind too!
edit: evil thought -- A Vietnam era phrase variously abscribed to LBJ, Nixon and SecDef Johnny McNamera was "If you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow . . . " In this 'support the troops with a magnetic sticker" era, why not just get them by the bumper? That way you get the scrote, heart and mind too!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
More This 'n' That
1. American racial bigots adopt the term "Canadian" to refer to African-Americans. People from Canada not amused.
2. Speaking of race, sanity prevails in Florida Republican primary: Rudy "9/11" Ghouliani drops out, throws support to Florida primary victor Sen. McCain.
3. Sad day: my Dem candidate, John Edwards, also drops out.
2. Speaking of race, sanity prevails in Florida Republican primary: Rudy "9/11" Ghouliani drops out, throws support to Florida primary victor Sen. McCain.
3. Sad day: my Dem candidate, John Edwards, also drops out.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Stoopid StarCraft Install Tricks v 1.0
OK, so there I was, at work, installing the copy of StarCraft I got as a prize on my MacBook via Firewire target disk mode (due to the bad optical in this MB) when the evil nasty badness began. My MB was on battery and in the middle of the install it shut down, out of power.
One of the "thall shalt nots" of FireWire Target Disk Mode is "do not forcibly dismount the target volume during data transfer or you will hose the target disk."
Oops.
I restarted my MB, hoped for the best and got the worst. Dreaded apple /gear startup. Disk Utility confirmed that the volume was as hosed as Chicago in 1871.
So, I reformatted the hard drive, reinstalled Leopard from a FWTDM'd workstation and went home.
Once home, I started first time setup and restored from my Time Machine external backup volume.
EVERYTHING is BACK -- all my gaming notes, my bookmarks, email, iLife suite, music, pictures of Her Cuteness, and oh yes World of Warcraft. Only a couple of hours lost in restoring. Had I had a working optical I could have restored while booted from it.
Mac users: if your machine can run Leopard, and you have not installed it yet, your data is at risk...If you've installed Leopard and not gotten an external hard drive for Time Machine, your data is at risk . . .if your machine cannot run Leopard, get one that does. You know you want to, and it is the right thing to do.
If you're not using a Mac, well you need to.
Update 1: Ran software update and it hosed my HD AGAIN! Fortunately, archive and install fixes this crap.
One of the "thall shalt nots" of FireWire Target Disk Mode is "do not forcibly dismount the target volume during data transfer or you will hose the target disk."
Oops.
I restarted my MB, hoped for the best and got the worst. Dreaded apple /gear startup. Disk Utility confirmed that the volume was as hosed as Chicago in 1871.
So, I reformatted the hard drive, reinstalled Leopard from a FWTDM'd workstation and went home.
Once home, I started first time setup and restored from my Time Machine external backup volume.
EVERYTHING is BACK -- all my gaming notes, my bookmarks, email, iLife suite, music, pictures of Her Cuteness, and oh yes World of Warcraft. Only a couple of hours lost in restoring. Had I had a working optical I could have restored while booted from it.
Mac users: if your machine can run Leopard, and you have not installed it yet, your data is at risk...If you've installed Leopard and not gotten an external hard drive for Time Machine, your data is at risk . . .if your machine cannot run Leopard, get one that does. You know you want to, and it is the right thing to do.
If you're not using a Mac, well you need to.
Update 1: Ran software update and it hosed my HD AGAIN! Fortunately, archive and install fixes this crap.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
"You work for the US Army? Merry Fscking Xmas!"
Just when you think the fscking bastard in the White House can sink no lower, he manage to do so . . .
This is the kind of thing the sole defense contractor I worked for half a lifetime ago did one year: a week before Christmas, they had guards armed with automatic pistols (these guys were normally unarmed . . . and they were contract guards, not the in-house security guys) and clipboards waiting one morning as employees as they walked in. If you checked in and were on the list you were sent to a "morning meeting" where the contents of your desk, your pink slip and even more guards were waiting. Not everyone was laid off; this method was supposed to stop the rumor mill from grinding on. What it did was point out what a bunch of dinks the management was there.
I don't know about you, but "retarded asshats" does not begin to describe this behavior.
On the other hand, when the last tech company I worked for sent my job to India, they did it *after* New Years' and they gave all of us the bad news. They even held a beer bash on the last day when they collected your badge. I hated being laid off, but the company went the extra mile in treating me like a human being.
Apparently, the gang in Washington will do ANYTHING to keep the mess in Iraq rolling. Just over a year till our long national nightmare ends . . .
This is the kind of thing the sole defense contractor I worked for half a lifetime ago did one year: a week before Christmas, they had guards armed with automatic pistols (these guys were normally unarmed . . . and they were contract guards, not the in-house security guys) and clipboards waiting one morning as employees as they walked in. If you checked in and were on the list you were sent to a "morning meeting" where the contents of your desk, your pink slip and even more guards were waiting. Not everyone was laid off; this method was supposed to stop the rumor mill from grinding on. What it did was point out what a bunch of dinks the management was there.
I don't know about you, but "retarded asshats" does not begin to describe this behavior.
On the other hand, when the last tech company I worked for sent my job to India, they did it *after* New Years' and they gave all of us the bad news. They even held a beer bash on the last day when they collected your badge. I hated being laid off, but the company went the extra mile in treating me like a human being.
Apparently, the gang in Washington will do ANYTHING to keep the mess in Iraq rolling. Just over a year till our long national nightmare ends . . .
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
I hate payday loans
Yesterday I proclaimed my appreciation for Sacramento RT and Elk Grove e-Tran. Today's bit of bloggery has to do with an industry that should, even in a free market, be run out of town like criminals. And, sadly, one I became all too familiar with during the first part of this decade.
Back when I was a kid, usury laws were on the books that forbade the loaning of money at massive rates of interest. People with wealth and property could always secure loans with collateral from federally regulated banks. Folks lacking these resources turned to "the bank of Guido and Luigi," the local shady operators, often a Family operation, who substituted the threat of pain or worse for more tangible resources and charged enormous rates of interest. Well, laws have changed and the collection specialists (legbreakers) are something of a thing of the past. Now anyone with a fixed address, a steady income and a startling lack of financial sense can score for themselves a "payday loan" from one of 22,000 such bloodsucker locations scattered across the fruited plain.
Payday loans are like the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars: " . . . once you start down the Dark Path, forever will it guide your destiny . . ." "Easy" money is soooo seductive, a quick way out of a jam that carries a tremendous cost of its own. How well I know because a few years ago, my paydays were little more than covering last pay period's payday loans and re-writing new ones . . . then taking the cash, minus a couple hundred in fees, to pay the bills.
I admit it, I knew better. I could read the disclosure statements and I winced at the 300% - plus APR interest rates. I wish in retrospect I could have learned to say NO to these loans. I'm owning up to my own weakness, accepting my share of the blame. I've completely eschewed them and stayed that way for almost two years.
It seems that the industry now has a trade association. Go figure.
Back when I was a kid, usury laws were on the books that forbade the loaning of money at massive rates of interest. People with wealth and property could always secure loans with collateral from federally regulated banks. Folks lacking these resources turned to "the bank of Guido and Luigi," the local shady operators, often a Family operation, who substituted the threat of pain or worse for more tangible resources and charged enormous rates of interest. Well, laws have changed and the collection specialists (legbreakers) are something of a thing of the past. Now anyone with a fixed address, a steady income and a startling lack of financial sense can score for themselves a "payday loan" from one of 22,000 such bloodsucker locations scattered across the fruited plain.
Payday loans are like the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars: " . . . once you start down the Dark Path, forever will it guide your destiny . . ." "Easy" money is soooo seductive, a quick way out of a jam that carries a tremendous cost of its own. How well I know because a few years ago, my paydays were little more than covering last pay period's payday loans and re-writing new ones . . . then taking the cash, minus a couple hundred in fees, to pay the bills.
I admit it, I knew better. I could read the disclosure statements and I winced at the 300% - plus APR interest rates. I wish in retrospect I could have learned to say NO to these loans. I'm owning up to my own weakness, accepting my share of the blame. I've completely eschewed them and stayed that way for almost two years.
It seems that the industry now has a trade association. Go figure.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Abject Stoopid, part 1337
No wonder so many people are turned off by politics: the STUPID! IT BURNS!!!
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Listening to: Leslie Fish - Witnesses' Waltz
via FoxyTunes
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Listening to: Leslie Fish - Witnesses' Waltz
via FoxyTunes
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