Check In?

 Been more than a year since I posted anything here. My guess is no one is reading it so no one noticed. And I'm only writing this to kill time before the end-of-shift. 

Been playing Diablo Immortal (the free online game). Bought Diablo IV but ran into a rough spot so I haven't played as much. Also still playing Age of Wonders 4 a bit. Played a *lot* just after it came out early last month.

"It is difficult to ride two valebeasts 

Host body construction commences.

When my sentence is up I'm going to copy all this shite from here back to facepool. Just because I want to annoy them. 

Fuck You Facepool 

(it cannot be said too often)

Facebook Jail, Day 3 

I think the thing I miss about facepool is liking other's posts. I make posts just to get random things out of my head without needing to actually say them to someone.

"I was promised an adventure. ... Someone lied." 

[character chatter, Fallout Shelter]

"Dave can get you $500 of your "future money" instantly."

That's called a loan. And, generally speaking, those sorts of loans have usurious interest rates. Let's go see what they are on the dave.com website. 

Well it doesn't tell us up front but every time they mention the $500 it has a superscript symbol (1) next to it. 

The ExtraCash™ account is a part of Dave’s pilot program and is open to new members only subject to availability. ExtraCash™ is a DDA account with overdraft utility that is subject to eligibility requirements. Taking an ExtraCash™ advance will make your account balance negative. Express delivery fees apply to instant transfers. See the Extra Cash Account Agreement for more details. 

A DDA account is basically a checking account. No advance notice is necessary to withdraw funds. 

They claim to have no overdraft fees and no minimum balance. Characteristics that bank accounts often have which restriction when and how you can use your money. 

It was founded by three guys who were fed up with banks, their terrible service and their high fees. 

I actually started this post being snarky about another dumb commercial I had seen too often while watching Paramount+ but it looks like Dave may actually be a good deal instead of a bank (which I actually hate, I have my money in a credit union nowadays).

He built a model of the crime scene out of mashed potatoes, broccoli and corn cobs ... 

"I find it difficult to take communication advice from a guy who talks to his girlfriend in binary."

It seems ... unwise to hate a stellar phenomenon. Even if it has done you great harm. 

(watching Star Trek Discovery season 4)

I don't *care* what's new this month (on Paramount+) because you keep showing me your "reality" tv shite. 

Fuck off.

You're only saving grace is the trek shows you have. Otherwise I'd be out of here.

Facepool Jail, Day 2

It seems like if you have hate speech that is nazi, republican, or conservative you can post freely to Facepool but if you try to make jokes then you're up for critical examination and you're going to Facebook Jail!!! 

God forbid you post  a joke about cheese knives or bricks.

Next time they ask me about features they should add I'm going to suggest they put an automatic message that shows up when you're in facepool jail. Perhaps put bars over your icon and a warning message complete with alarm klaxon. 

"ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! 

This user is not fascist enough to meet Facebook Standards!"

Facebook Jail, Day 1

Well I'm in facepool jail again. A comment which (iirc) talked about hitting fascists with bricks (for a reason I forget) was flagged (rather than hate speech by nazis and republicans) and I was restricted. 

2nd or 3rd time this has happened and for the same reason, a joke about violence. I guess I should just *imply* the violence rather than say it.

Dang. Ten years since I posted anything to this blog. I guess facebook, cesspool that it is, has made blogs a bit pointless. But there are still a few blogs I read when filtered by someone else. I don't peruse the internet much since so many places on it will raise the blood-pressure unnecessarily.

But perhaps I'll resume. Not too many folks respond to my facebook posts so this should be no different. ;-P

Spore

This is a widget that's supposed to let you see my creatures from Spore.

To Our Friends Who Are Still In The Desert

"To Our Friends Who Are Still In The Desert"

(I've used this title before it seems.)

This is an old, old French Foreign Legion toast. I tried to look it up on wikipedia with nothing and google it without result. I likely read it in a book on the foreign legion years ago but I can't recall which one now.

I think of this when I read reports of the numbers of soldiers we've lost in Iraq (and Afghanistan). Or recently when one of the bloggers I regularly read told us her sister's national guard unit has been mobilized and will deploy to Iraq. I would find her news ironic since she's a staunch conservative and was a Bush supporter. If it wasn't too serious for that. If I had absolutely no idea of the anguish she's going through now. But I can't. We've disagreed before but she's shown herself to be intelligent and articulate and the facts of an issue will sway her point of view. I used to think that my mother never worried about me while I was stationed in Germany (1982-1986). A few years after I came back she disabused me of this notion. And that tour wasn't nearly as dangerous as current tours in Iraq or Afghanistan (although we did have four deaths in our battalion - 500-600 men - during those four years). I think I can say nothing affects a soldier the same way as those boots with the helmet on top that are set before the podium in the chapel during a memorial service. Or the lone bugle playing Taps afterwards. Especially not an officer.

I can't really say I know how they (deploying soldiers) feel, it's been too long since I've been a soldier. But I can empathize with their desire to "get the job done". If they don't seem to accomplish anything over there then all those deaths (American and Iraqi) would be pointless. And that thought is simply abhorrent. So I can understand that from their point of view we can't leave until the job is done. The problem comes from politicians not defining what "the job" is before sending troops into combat. And the platoon and squad leader or even the grunt on the ground can't really influence this. But since it's an all volunteer Army now, they've chosen to be in the Army and thus have to take it all. Eventually the number of deployments a soldier goes on may wear even this commitment away. That will be a sad day.

But what does this quote mean? I've used it before but I don't really think anyone who heard it understands. It refers to the comrades that Legionnaires have left behind in the desert dead. It links to the Legion motto "March or Die" from their very earliest days in the North African desert. And their indomitable spirit. Get the mission done regardless of cost. If you won't march, you'll die. An American quote I've heard soldiers use is often "To Absent Friends". This is the same.

This I think, is the spirit of our soldiers, sailors and airmen deployed. In that same spirit I can only support our soldiers (but not the people who sent them there with no clear goal) and raise my glass to repeat the toast.

"To Our Friends Who Are Still In The Desert"

Infantry Weather

That's what I always say when people remark on the rain. No one ever understands, so I present something some of them may have heard at some point ...

"Every day is a holiday ...

Every formation is a parade ...

Every paycheck is a fortune ...

Every meal is a banquet ..."

The last line is "God I Love the Corps" and I recall it from Aliens(1986) and ... well I thought it was in Jarhead but I guess not. Well google doesn't show much either. It must be a Marine quote. Hoo Yah!

The NEW Granola State

It used to be California, the land of "fruits, nuts and flakes". But I submit to you that the new granola state is the District of Columbia, Washington in fact.

EPA Chief Defends Shielding of Global Warming Papers

And Mister Johnson is right, California doesn't need it's own standard. There should be a Federal standard that everyone has to follow. But since "president" bush's government won't enact one, some states see the problem and the urgent need for action and decided to take it on their own. Perhaps hoping to shame the Federal government into action.

And then trying to claim that he needs to keep things secret for court action. Cheers for Representative Boxer for calling bullsh!t on him.

Taxi to the Dark Side

Taxi to the Dark Side

I heard about this on NPR this morning on the way to work. I want to see it, maybe even own it. It sounds truly disturbing and ties in directly with what I've been thinking about posting about for awhile now.

Congress is all up in arms about the CIA's destruction in 2005 of tapes of "harsh" interrogations of suspected terrorists in 2002.

House Panel Criticizes CIA Tape Destruction

I agree that it's deplorable that they've destroyed this sort of thing without getting anyone's permission or anything. However in all the hue and cry I think one serious issue has been overlooked. That these CIA interrogators TORTURED PEOPLE IN THE FIRST PLACE. All while our "president" was telling us (and the world) that "the US doesn't torture people (so we don't need any new rules or laws or anything)".

Just how far down are we going to allow our leaders to let America fall before we do something about it?

Have I mentioned

that I love irony?

Why Science Can't Save the GOP

Hahahahahahaha

To begin with, this is a man who has Parkinson's. So stem cell research could very well have a significant impact on his life and that of his family. So, while he's not a doctor or medical researcher, he has a vested interest and I think his opinion might be more important than mine (except, perhaps, to me).

And I find another kindred soul in his phrase

"the small but intense minority who believe that a clump of a few dozen cells floating in a petri dish has the same human rights as you or I."

I've posted here before my amazement that the rights of this hypothetical person are more important than the rights of a living, breathing person standing right here in front of you asking this very question.

And he points out that the cause of the creation of all these embryos is the in-vitro fertilization clinics. Which aren't illegal and may be receiving federal monies. And don't seem to be the target of attack for the rabid forced-pregnancy proponents and their anti-research cronies. None of them seem to address the concept that if we stopped these procedures there wouldn't be extra embryos which needed to be protected.

But then, if I recall correctly other reading I've done, logic has little impact on these people ...

So Resign

If you don't want to do your job then.

Why Diplomats Won't Go to Iraq

I saw this topic come up yesterday and I'm still of the same opinion. I find it amazing that they're given a choice of their assignment in the first place. True you can ask for an assignment in the military but it's a well known fact that you go where you're sent.

If they don't want to go to Iraq then they can resign the Foreign Service. That's very simple. The military doesn't even have that option. Once you sign up your done. You go where you're told when you're told to or you're brought up on charges and face a Courts Martial. Until you're mustering out date. Also very simple.

It very much strikes me as

"WAAAAA Coach, I don't want to wear the pink polka dot shorts!"

To which I respond, "tough".

This time he didn't save the ship!

Okay, I may have been, just slightly, one of the Trek fans who was of the "Die Wesley Crusher, DIE!" variety.

It seemed, back then, that lazy writers who had little idea of good science fiction would, too often, after having gotten the Enterprise and her crew into trouble, resort to using a brilliant idea by Wesley as the "Deus ex Machina" to get the ship out of the jam. That got old even the first time we saw it, given the other badness they gave Wil Wheaton as dialog. But he was just a teenager and didn't realize it or didn't really care about it. I won't dwell on this too much except to put it into context. I didn't think much of the actor and really didn't like the character. I did see "Stand By Me", it was a good movie and I enjoyed it, but I couldn't really bring Wil to mind recalling the film.

Then, and I don't recall how, I found his blog at http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/ (these days). I started reading because I was in our operations center and sometimes we don't have much to do except wait for the phone to ring with people calling about problems. He was a geek like me, got to work on Star Trek and was a pretty good writer. Enough to come back. And in the days when lots of people were blogging but they mostly didn't have a lot to say. I even ended up buying his first two books, "Dancing Barefoot" and "Just a Geek". I enjoyed JaG but haven't actually read the first yet.

So when he published his latest book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives I bought that one too, after reading about how much fun he had packing envelopes to the folks who had already bought it. There is a warning in the first few pages that most of the material in there he's published on his blog already. And as I read the stories I recalled first reading them. But that doesn't seem to matter. I just finished it today and I enjoyed it very much. I just passed it to a friend of mine who on reading the first few pages already laughed out loud. I think he'll like it. And I'm fairly certain he doesn't read Wil's blog so all the stories will be new to him. And he'll relate to them just like I did because he's a geek too.

So without going into much detail about the book itself, I will heartily recommend it to anyone whose youth may have included;

• playing Atari
  
• playing pacman (or any other arcade game) in any of a variety of stores, offices or other places
  
• geeks growing up in the 80s
  
• role playing geeks
  
• gaming geeks
  
• computer geeks
  
• geeks who are parents
  

Or anyone else who enjoys good, well told stories that will make you feel something. :)

Try it, you'll like it.

If not you can come back here and hit me with a fish!

And now for something

totally strange.

123,910 People
JustSayHi - Dating

Unusual Deaths in 1961

* On march 23, soviet cosmonaut trainee Valentin Bondarenko died from shock after suffering third-degree burns over much of his body, due to a flash fire in the pure oxygen environment of a training simulator. this incident was not revealed outside of the soviet union until the 1980s.

People who died on November 21 (various years)

* 2006 - Pierre Amine Gemayel, Lebanese Cabinet minister (assassinated)
* 2005 - Alfred Anderson, last Scottish World War I veteran
* 1993 - Bill Bixby, American actor and director
* 1969 - Mutesa II of Buganda, President of Uganda (1924)
* 1963 - Robert Stroud (The Birdman of Alcatraz), American prisoner
* 1924 - Florence Harding, American First Lady
* 1916 - Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria
* 1899 - Garret Hobart, Vice President of the United States
* 1844 - Ivan Krylov, Russian fabulist
* 1361 - Philip I, Duke of Burgundy (plague)
* 496 - Pope Gelasius I

Hmmm. What's a fabulist ... ah, that makes sense.