Cosmic Irony

Awhile ago Andy introduced us to his categories of irony. The most humorous was "Alanis Irony" wherein all the things she sings about in her song "Ironic" aren't really very ironic. The deepest one is "Cosmic Irony" wherein a medal winning olympic swimmer drowns in his own bathtub.

So, considering this, does anyone else find it Ironic that on the day Mister Alito is going to be confirmed to the Supreme Court (and thus strike a blow against civil liberties and freedoms in favor of corporate greed, executive power and domestic spying) that Coretta Scott King (the widow of Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.) dies?

Fry 'em!

http://today.reuters.com/news/

I hope (without having read this article about the facts of the case) that they get the same 25 years that the other CEO got not long ago. And since the judge has refused repeated change of venue requests and the Houstin public is still pretty peeved about this, I suspect that will be the case. Their "defense" that the perpetrators were all people at "lower pay grades" is very nearly the definition of "lame". We need to send a message that people without ethics will be punished when they're caught (and we need to work on catching them I suspect). Next target, Congress!

http://www.abcnews.go.com/
http://www.npr.org/

Why is this any more of a news story than any of the other Americans or Iraqis who are killed or wounded in Iraq on a daily basis? Why is it more of a story than the London Times reporter who the NPR piece referred to? Why did a "co-anchor" go out there? Isn't the point of working hard for 10 or 15 years to earn an anchor spot that you won't have to go to places where people are shooting at you or blowing up bombs? I'm fairly certain that if a cooresponding military officer (say a senior major or lieutenant colonel) had been out hot-rodding around with the troops and got wounded he might have been reprimanded for not being at his office/headquarters where he was supposed to be. Despite a "lead from the front" mindset of military officers.

The ABC article has some interesting facts on battlefield and brain injuries. The NPR one I heard in the shower this morning started me thinking about this. For the most part reporters are ametures, they're not trained for combat as the troops fighting are and they're not "smart" like most of the non-combatants (who are usually trying to hide, seek cover or get the fsck out of the way), they're the stupid ones since they're sticking their heads out of armored vehicles trying to "get the shot" or see what's going on or other things. Maybe combat reporters should have to go through basic training (and not this lame ass crap that they have to do when they get "embedded", full on combat training like the troops do).

"But they don't fight" you say. Well medics don't fight either and they have to go through basic just like the infantrymen.

[reads articles]

Ah, he's a "well known American journalist", that's why it's news. And yet I didn't know who he was. It still strikes me as "so what, why's he special?". It seems to me the Lay/Skilling trial and the Palestinian election results are more news than this.

More Miscellanity

Been awhile since I posted anything, I guess nothing to funny has been happening lately.

I got an email on some dating site I filled out one day when I was bored and now some girl is Russia is in love with me. Or at least the idea of being in love with an American. When she asked me what I thought about "us" I told her she seemed like a very nice person but I didn't think she knew me well enough to love me yet but that appears to have "bounced off".

I started chili in the crockpot this morning for the game tonight and a bit ago I hear the sirens as the fire engines down the street from us took off. Visions of the cat knocking over the crockpot or ... well I was going to say Matt playing with something he shouldn't (I smelled burned paper one day when I got home but he claims he's not stupid enough to play with fire in the house) but he wouldn't be home yet. I got panicked until I realized that if my house was on fire the response would come from the fire station down by the grocery store up the street from us, not all the way up here (half way across town) ... unless it was more than one alarm.

[removed]

Karate is going well, I'm *almost* to the place where I look forward to the classes rather than look upon them with trepidation (I wouldn't say dread since they are a good workout, but *knowing* your going to hurt afterwards makes me nervous apparently). Saturday I may have figured out what my problem with rolls is. Last week Marlin pointed out that I was "catching myself" with my hand and then not really rolling. I tried not to and my elbow pressed so hard into my side that I bruised my ribs. It's finally not sore anymore a week and a half later. So Saturday I tried again but this time I tried to "throw myself" at the mat, to kind of "jump" and when he watched me he said it looked a while lot better. Woo Hoo!

I got a half way decent idea for the ASGR Challenge of writing a setting for the gaming retreat. I'll likely post some of it some place when I get more written down and have it edited a bit. It's got a pretty scientific premise as the base so I don't want to get *too* technical. But I'm excited about it.

I was thinking about going home early to sleep a little but now that I've had my lunch (mmm, curried meatballs and rice, I love that stuff - but Matt hates the smell of curry) I think I'm better. Guess I should write some more documentation, we're recabling the test lab tomorrow.

Hot Topics

There was a bunch of political stuff I wanted to blog about and generally I do that on my myspace blog since it's sometimes less than entertaining. But the debate about political reform is becoming interesting.

Rep Shadagg from Arizona has thrown his hat into the leadership ring with a cry that public pensions should be removed from people who confess or are found guilty on bribery charges. I agree but also tend more toward the tar-and-feathers crowd for people abusing the public trust. And penalties for companies that do it as well. Right now the penalty is only for the politician, so the companies feel free to try. Maybe strip citizenship from those who are found guilty? "If you don't want to play by our rules you can leave!" (your natural-born rights as a citizen don't include that mister senator)

And Rep Blunt? You're freaking wife is a Big Tobacco lobbyist for pete's sake. (I capitalize that phrase but generally I hate the Truth.com ads on TV) And trying to insert language into legislation to favor them? Even if it wasn't you who did it that's ... well I don't know why I'm outraged, this is Missouri after all, one of several states that is Land of the Good Ole' Boy. Ethics-smethics! Now I understand why the governor wasn't in office five minutes before charges of improprieties surfaced, he learned that at home!

Politics. If it weren't so serious it would be more entertaining than TV.

Finally

Okay I won't bail on it since this time the codes stuck. Now to see what else I can tweak.

There was something in the news the other day I was going to blog on but I can't remember. I've been watching the Alito hearings and the main day of questioning he apparently stood up well but his wife left in tears. I'm not sure how to feel about this, I wanted him to be grilled so we could tell if he planned on rolling back all the advances in civil liberties of the last 50 years, but to ask something so mean his wife cries ...?

Of course if she so tender that she gets her feelings hurt and cries ... I mean he's been in government service for what, 25 years now?

NPR did have an interesting piece on the day the hearings started, the dug up people who were born the same year as him and asked them if there were any opinions that they held 20 years ago (when they were 35) that have changed now (that they're 55). Most all of them, even the ones who were staunchly conservative, have changed their opinions over time. Interesting. The question about his positions on the powers of the President on the other hand, worry me.

Tabs

Well in poking around I found a different tab that may let the html go through. Let's see

If this doesn't work I'm going to bail on this crap.

Star Trek game.

Publishing ...

Still freaky

Well let's see if I can figure out why the html codes I was inserting (which is no problem if I go to blogspot to create the message) disappear. Guess I'd better put some in. [nope, the leads of the angle brackets got eaten again]

Anyway we had some actual January weather yesterday and a couple days before that. In between we had the freakish global warming weather again. It was 65 on Wednesday and then it snowed last night and this morning. It's supposed to be the mid 50s again tomorrow.

We have our first brunch of 2006 tomorrow and then after we finish the Everway game we started two weeks ago. Wednesday we didn't have everyone so we didn't play the Firefly or Star Trek game. Instead we played LotR Risk. It was pretty fun but apparently this was an early version of this game and the board doesn't show all of Middle Earth, just the middle part. But it was a ton of fun. And Jack has a Matrix type game ready for the next one-off we need.

I got an idea for our ASGR Challenge (which Jeff issued last year, each of us is supposed to write an original setting). Mine is based on the theoretical physics work of Burkhard Heim which links Quantum Physics with Relativistic Physics. That sounds a bit high brow but that's only the idea kernel, the setting will be much more useable to the laymen (like there's really any way I can understand what a man who his own type of calculus wrote).

I bought Civ IV last weekend and actually got to play it finally. It seems quite a bit different from Civ III, aside from having to learn the interface, but it should be just as fun.

Well we'll see if the change I made to the Performancing settings makes the html code work now. Publishing ...

Why no,

There's no global warming!

No, I've no idea why it's 50 degrees in Missouri in January, but there's no global warming! Nosiree!

The Reform Party

There's a lot in the news these days about scandals of various sorts. I heard an opinion piece this morning by Newt Gingrich on the Republican position in all this (telling his own boys they need to get straight). I find it hilarious that 11 years ago the Republicans swept into power to "clean up Democratic corruption" and now the "culture of corruption" is the think in Washington.

Tommy DeLay has loudly proclaimed "I've been ethical my entire career" (while finally deciding there's no way in hell he's going to get his leadership post back). Let me say to Tommy boy, "I don't think that word means what you think it means".

Sheesh, I mean when *Congress* admonishes you for ethics violations that's like ... a good anology escapes me, it seems there are no words which describe that depth of irony. (it goes without saying I hope the scoundrel spends a nice stint in a place where he wears a number on his shirt)

Judge Alito goes up before the Senate committee this week. While he may be a fine jurist, I worry about his ideas about rolling back our advances in civil liberties and allowing people to control their own lives and destinies. It strikes me a bit too much as allowing the old, fat, rich white men to run things and they haven't done so well so far (in human history rather than American politics).

Mister Cheney is back in the hospital and while it's particularily unchristian of me to wish him dead, I do wish his health would necessitate that he retire to some place where he won't get so many people killed or cause so much ruckus.

Enough politics, let's talk about something else. The Boy has finals this week. He claims he has his study plan down but I remain skeptical. All the homework assignments he's been showing me the last few weeks have been for the classes he enjoys rather than others. I asked him why he didn't do his government work and he claims it's boring. I then asked him how boring it might be if he failed and had to repeat it next semester (or year).

Karate started back up after the holidays. The workout kicked my butt but not *quite* as badly as I feared. Having said that, if Marlin reads this I expect to thoroughly have it handed to me the next couple classes. We got two new guys in the class on Saturday. I was paired with one and learned that I talk to much when I'm supposed to be helping them practice (I can't say "teach" them because I realized I really don't know much so I should keep my mouth shut and not even attempt it). But it's good advice, worry about yourself and let others worry about their stuff.

I got Civ IV the other day so my gaming might change from always playing WoW. I suspect this will be as addictive as the last three have been but in a slightly different way.

Well I had to edit this again. It seems the Performancing stuff doesn't deal well with html code in the blog entries. I'll have to see if there's a setting I can tweak or if it won't do it at all.

Too seriously?

Okay this is the second test of the new Performancing stuff. I'm looking at a stupid webcomic apparently written by a guy who takes himself way to seriously. I clicked on the little notepad in the lower right corner of my browser and this pops up on the lower half of the screen. So I can write something sarcastic in my blog regardless of where I am on the net. Could be cool.

Anyway this guy has apparently (according to Gabe at Penny Arcade) appointed himself the ... commentator?, narrator?, guardian? of this new "medium" of webcomics.

I find it as funny as minor dental surgery. Actually my hygenist and dentist are very nice folks and I don't mind going to them, so I find this less funny than minor dental surgery. Along the lines of "Beavis Butthead" or (for a more contemporary reference) "The Office" (Steve Carrell seems to me to be an idiot).

Ah, I should put the link to this lame-assed "comic". Panel One Don't go see it, it's stupid. ... Well, okay, go see it once so we can laugh at this idiot.

Well the formatting I put into this didn't work too well. Some things got eaten.

This is a test

Well it seems to have posted successfully. I don't know how useful it will be but it certainly looks interesting so far.

It can handle blogspot blogs but I don't see myspace in there, which is where I've been posting my political rantings and ravings lately. We'll see if this edit of a previos post works also.

On the first try it didn't edit the original post, it just created another entry with the same title. However it's easy to cut and paste and we'll see if we can delete the two previous entries after cutting and pasting their content into this entry.

Well it didn't look like the two previous entries were deleted but it just seems to have taken a few minutes to cycle into their database. Now they seem to be gone. So it seems to be a pretty nifty tool. We'll see about it's ultimate utility.

This is only a test

This is a test of something called "Performancing" that Erik sent me. It's supposed to be an "inline" blog editor which will allow you to write blog entries from anywhere rather than having to log into blogspot to do it.

Let's see how it works.

...

New machine again

Well this is the first blog entry on my new laptop (a Dell 810 Latitude). I'm still getting used to the softish keyboard with no nice click and I still don't much like touchpads, but it's going well. I've gotten some of the major software installed again and next week I'll work on transferring all my data files.

The game was a bust last night when Brand had to cancel (so it would have only been Jack and I) but the karate group is coming over tonight. I'm making Alton's Mac & Cheese plus some dogs and brats. Last night I went ahead and fixed the lasagna I'd prepared so I now have *absolutely* no leftover containers unoccupied atm.

Matt's reaction to return to school hasn't been too dramatic. His grades dropped when he didn't turn in two major English assignments (a book report and a children's book). We'll see what consequences I have to produce depending on how well he finally does, his finals are next week he tells me. We'll see how well he studies as well. He's been going to be without much drama and getting up very well. So well that I may be able to roll back when I wake him (which means I don't have to get up at six freaking o'clock!).

Another one

Yet another amusing phrase,

"Yes, his trousers were the subject of a controlled detonation after one of his socks exploded. We're not sure why."

More good phrases

To add to the previous good phrase to come out of Pratchett's book
("... a womanfull of anger ...")
I add the following phrases I've discovered with the ensuing disclaimer;

"He's only dead for a given value of dead."
"Posthumous Professor of Morbid Bibliomancy" and it's attendant
"Prehumous Professor of Morbid Bibliomancy" and lastly
"... twenty-seven pounds of dangerously spring-loaded underwear."

(I think the last one should be on the list of Good Names for a Rock Band.)
To warn everyone I state (for the record)

"You may experience the taste of eggs and the sensation of being slapped in the face with some sort of fish."

Thank you.

2006??

Well I'm not much into looking back over the year. There's going to be enough of that on the media for the larger events of our lives. I suppose it might be a good thing for me to do it with my life just avoid making the same mistakes (I'm big on not making the same mistake twice). But it just seems to exhausting right now. I've been fighting off something for the last few days. Maybe later this week. It has been interesting from some other perspectives.

I got an email on Friday (well two actually) from PlayNC (the network that runs City of Heroes) telling me that the character I made to run around with Erik and Mary (a Mutation Defender) had a bad name. I guess not being a comic book fiend is coming around to bite me. He was called "Doctor Doom" (which admittedly seems like more of a Villain name than a Hero name but I had some reasoning behind it - I just can't remember it right now) but now he's "GenericHero2600". I think I'm going keep that just because. Erik tells me that "2600" is a famous hacker 'zine.

The motor on the garage door opener has died I think. The light still comes on but it only makes a click and a hum and then doesn't open the door. So not only are we back to the days of manually opening the garage door (like at the South Hampton place) but since it won't lock when it's down I have to manually fidget it so it's secure. I need to call the "Overhead Door Company" (they conviently left a sticker next to the light inside the garage) to get it fixed but I suspect that I left the phone number at home.

There was something else around the house that's broken but I can't remember what right now. I guess that means I won't get it fixed until my memory jogs.