Like most people, I do my best thinking in the restroom. Quality time in the shower, meditating on a shave, reflecting on my day while brushing my teeth, or just relaxing, it’s a place where my mind has the opportunity to meander peacefully. Some of my most creative ideas have come to me while showering, and while taking my junior qualifying exam at Reed I figured out the path for two of the problems I was stuck on during restroom breaks.

It’s not one of the topics I cover here much, but I enjoy hobbying in computational analysis. Mathematica is one of my favorite tools for this, and I’ve used it for a number of projects, including building a pretty nifty game with the goal of making the world a better place. Related to that, I was given the opportunity to review a pretty cool book about Data Visualization in Mathematica, aptly titled Mathematica Data Visualizationby Nazmus Saquib.

Hired by the dwarf Gundren Rockseeker to escort a supply wagon to the Forgotten Realms frontier town of Phandelver, the party comes across the wreckage of a goblin raid.

Spoilers below the fold.

http://www.internationalbeerday.com/“I thought that was every day.” – Kevin

Up front, I am far from being a chess master. If you’re experienced enough to know that you’re not very good, we’d probably have a decent game. But, I’ve done some research on chess openings, and played quite a few games, and would like to put together a quick, accessible summary of some sound opening principles. These opening principles are guidelines: you will find plenty of exceptions as you play. But faced with so many options, this should help to narrow them down.

Well, I have to say, I’m a bit sad. I have really enjoyed MS Flight. It seemed to be targeted at the casual Flight Simmer. I suppose that would be me. I like FSX as well, but it’s a bit clunky, and very full-featured. When I feel like some defined missions or lightweight adventures, MS Flight is great. The graphics and performance are nice on my system. I just read today that they’ve cancelled the program, which is too bad.

I’m embarking on a new mission with my family to simplify our lives and get out of debt. We’ve somehow managed to drive our credit card debt well into the 5 figures, and that’s not sitting too well. We are working on becoming aggressive towards our debt. Here are the initial steps we’ve taken to eliminate this burden. Stop using credit cards Move cc balances to 0% interest account Kill debt with savings Consolidate subscriptions Question purchases This is where we’re at after an initial paydown, and the consolidation in progress.

was just thinking about my commute since I’ve been riding regularly, and how much I enjoy my morning time on Portland’s light rail, the Max. It’s really the only time of the day that I can count on to be my own time. I can read, write, get some work done, chat with strangers, or just stare blankly. When I work, it’s without fear of interrupts, so that 30 minutes can be more productive than a whole day in the office.

I recently received my new Flip camera. I ordered online and got the custom design. Sorta half-assed that, but that’s okay. The first thing I noticed about it after picking it up is that it is lighter than I’d expect. As in it feels somewhat plastic. I immediately plugged it into my computer to charge it and play with it. The charge happened pretty quickly, so the playing did as well.

After the US’s disappointing (yet thrilling) tie against Slovenia, you can be sure that there will be a clamor for instant replay in soccer. On the surface, it seems like a great idea. Matches will end with the true winner victorious, honor will be restored to the game. This is a terrible idea. There is a purity about soccer. 23 men on the pitch, and only a few rules on how to play the game.

okay, police violence sucks. It’s a drag that unarmed people get shot. Lately, I’ve been putting together some tips I’ve picked from my years of experience not getting shot at by the police in an effort to help people avoid the short barrel of the law. First, you can take a preemptive strike and keep the police away in general. Try to avoid situations in which housemates and loved ones feel the need to call the police in regards to you.

Like Jeff, I recently followed a thread at the OBC about the price of beer. It was surprisingly heated, considering that nobody was forcing people to drink specialty beers, and these are people who spend a lot of time making beers of their own and promoting the craft. Jeff’s article is very thoughtful and reasonable (as usual) , and we both draw similar conclusions. But I wanted to toss in a few more pieces.

Okay, I’m pretty frustrated with the more liberal party right now. Tuning in, there are two major themes right now. Health care and Fort Hood. These are both important issues, but I am not liking what I’m hearing. First, Fort Hood was a tragedy, plain and simple. But the theme that I’m hearing on the (left) radio is almost a defence of of Hasan for the pressures he was under. Laying the onus on the military, that they didn’t listen enough.

I was pretty excited about V. It was bringing back what in my mind was the original miniseries, and a nice bit of sci-fi. But this time with a budget and awesome effects and some hindsight on making a great series. Plus, I wrapped BSG and 4400 up pretty recently and need a new sci-fi serial fix. I watched the pilot last night, and was a bit disappointed. 4400 was great, and there are some strong ties to that show here, between Joel Gretcsh and Scott Peters they really raised the bar.

Portland has been a Gen-X city for as long as I can remember. Which is as long as I’ve been here. We’ve had a lock on cuisine, fashion (?), transportation, attitude, periodicals, entertainment. Pretty much the whole shebang. Sort of a Gen-X wonderland. Don’t get me wrong, PDX is a city of variety and range, there’s a lot of of other stuff too for Y’s and boomers and everyone in between.

I’ve been riding my bike a fair amount this year, pushing 30 miles 2-3 times a week, from where I work in Beaverton to home in fairly far-east Portland. The route that I take has a variety of paved terrain, from busy suburban and downtown streets to cozy residential streets to dedicated bicycle (and other non-motorized activity) paths. There’s a lot of controversy around bikes this year, as more people take to the pedal path, they remain misunderstood.

The debate has been serious this summer. From touchy questions on sides of buses to annoying comments on blog posts to occasional legal debate. The community has been vexed by this question: Is a bicycle a car or a pedestrian? To help shed light on this problem, beerdrinker has gone undercover, actually riding his bicycle most days, frequently more than 25 miles. I’ve been thinking about this question for quite awhile, but it really came to a head (or mine) when Webtrends posted their controversial question on Portland’s public transportation: Should cyclists pay a road tax?

I’m a fan of social media sites. Sites like twitter and facebook are loads of fun, and great for staying in touch with old friends, new friends, and potential friends. In a recent post I commented on what I felt were the differences between facebook and myspace. In the end, I believe that myspace is primarily a vanity site, whereas facebook focuses on relationships. A more subtle comparison happens between facebook and twitter.

I am terrible at identifying plants, yet at the same time I’m really susceptible to poison oak. For some reason, it is very difficult to find a decent image of the toxic weed. Guidebooks all have the same line drawing as can be found at trailheads. Pics on the internet are obscure and frequently hidden behind broken links. So I found a plant I think might be poison oak. Can somebody please confirm?

I’m completely aware that Facebook is pretty handily kicking the figurative ass of Myspace. I am pretty excited about this, because I’ve never been a fan of Myspace as a social networking site. I’ve enjoyed visiting band sites, and I managed to connect with a few people there. On the other hand, I love Facebook. I talk about Facebook. I advocate its use, and might occasionally be obnoxious about it. But the conversations are interesting.

There are tons of ways to share photos (and videos) on the web. I currently use three main sites to share my photos, each for different reasons. Picasaweb – I’ve been using google’s photosharing the longest, largely because I didn’t want to deal with getting a yahoo id. Which isn’t that tough. I like the album nature of picasaweb, and put most of the photos that I take onto there, treating it like as a bit of a cross between a backup and a social network.

So, I’ve been working on an idea. Devalue the dollar. Print money. Lots of it. My idea is to print money and use it to help people pay mortgages. Bottom up principle. Save people’s houses. Keep the notes good. The banks stay solvent. Everybody’s happy. Of course, what if you don’t have a mortgage? I guess that’s a bummer for you because your dollars are being devalued as well. I’ve been trying to think of a better solution.

I’ve been thinking about social web stuff a lot today. The good folks at Nemo Designs were good enough to have a long chat with anners and me about their social interweb. But that’s just the setup, I’m not really going to go into that…it was interesting though.

What I wanted to hit on is the kids and their lack of email! Which is something that’s come up in conversation, and it came up sometime after the aforementioned meeting, but not during. So the argument that I hear goes something like this:

– Email is going away.

– Why?

– Because kids don’t use email.

– Huh?

– Yeah, they’ve studied kids and they use facebook and twitter and stuff and they don’t even have email accounts.

So, my response is…So what? I mean, did you have a mailing address as a kid? I don’t recall getting much mail. And most of it was highly temporal, non-transactional information. Birthday cards, Ranger Rick, um, I think that’s about it. I was way ahead of my time and couldn’t stand sending letters because the transit time was ridiculous and I didn’t want to pay for a stamp.

‘”Change has come” and we can all work together for a better and united future for all in our country and worldwide.’ That was my mom in the comments tonite. We had a fun little election party, and for the first time in a long time, we ended up happy, not just wiser. And we cheered. McCain’s speech was great. That McCain may have won the election. He was honest, sincere, honorable, clear, and inspiring.

Oh, the disappointment. Later and later it got at the Yukon Tavern, drinking Pabst after Pabst, watching the states black out one after another. The red carpet on the walls and the mannequin legs dangling above. Great conversation as we drifted further and further into desperate (to know!) drunkenness, and then even further into it with desperation not to know. Doin’ it bourgeois-style at Everyday Wine. Grimmer and grimmer.

Okay, last email here. Hopefully I can make it count. The topic for today is what are you afraid of? I’ve had a lot of conversations with people who “don’t like either candidate” but are voting for McCain. My question for them is — Why? What’s wrong with Barack Obama? Sometimes you don’t trust him, sometimes he’s not experienced enough, sometimes, you can’t really express it. What has Obama ever done to break your trust?

A good article by a conservative voting for Obama. Cliff notes version: It’ll devalue Jesse Jackson. He’s more fiscally responsible. Better foreign policy Better relationship between foreign policy and the military Obama is cool, calm, and collected. He’s intellectual about his Christianity I’m not sure what he’s getting at here…I think it’s that he’ll help ease the generational divides.

Sent: 10/22/2008 It appears that internally, at least, al-qaeda and other terrorist organizations support McCain’s candidacy. Makes sense, considering how successfully the war in Iraq has divided the country, emptied our coffers, exhausted our military, and alienated our allies. “Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,” said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the “failing march of his predecessor,” President Bush.

Sent: 10/15/2008 Okay, I just can’t resist commenting on this, because it is such an absolutely clear illustration of Sarah Palin and her in-your-face lies. Sarah said: “The report that came out also was very clear in that there was no unethical or unlawful behavior on my part,” Palin told a local CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, adding, “No abuse of power there at all.” Actually she said things like that multiple times.

Kali, one of my favorite pups in the whole world passed on this morning. She was always so sweet, and just wanted to be loved as much as she loved you. A great personality, she’ll be in my heart. And my love goes out to ACUC, I can only imagine how you are hurting today. Here’s my effort to help you celebrate her. And this video I came across just tugged at my hearstrings…it’s not Kali, but I think you get it.

McCain will show up to the debate, and there will be more than one “fist pump” on the approach to the podium. You heard it here first. But Obama will still hand him his ass, probably still with fist pumping.

Playing with google ads. I don’t have any illusion that they’re going to make be rich, or even more than a few pennies a year, but I’m not in this blog thing to retire early. I’m in it for the fame and notoriety. So you’re probably better off pretending they’re not there.

Not sure if any of you get the forwards digging into Barack Obama…his secret code references to Muslim jihad and his non-citizenship and all, but I came across his personal site addressing the smears. It’s pretty good. Even more interesting is reading the ones that I haven’t heard yet.

Personally I don’t really give a crap about who Iowans think should be president. I know one or two people from there, but that’s as far as it goes. But man, did they just hammer some hork into the republican gameplan. Romney just got hosed by Huckabee, and Giuliananinaniani didn’t even show. A couple other dudes got some votes. I missed Ron Paul, who despite my serious issues with libertarians (in brief I believe it’s a great philosophy for an ideal world) is better than all the others.

There have been a number of tragedies involving bikes and motor vehicles around Portland recently. Very sad for all involved, I truly feel for the families of the victims, and for the drivers of the vehicles as well. But setting up bicycle stings at innocuous intersections is just not the right way to go about fixing the problem. Why are the victims being punished? Cyclists, watch out at Flint and Broadway, the man is waiting to swoop in and wreck your beautiful day.

I love Google. I use a number of google applications. Google’s search is and has always been fantastic. I have a gmail account and a picasaweb account. Blah, blah, google’s does a lot of great things and makes my life better. Thank you google! However, I’m feeling more and more that google just isn’t getting it like they used to. The internet has changed, it grows more dynamic, more personal. But while new sites keep popping up that enable users to do more, google looks the other way.

Something’s wrong with NE Broadway. There are a lot of cool little businesses along there. I love the Rose and Thistle. But for the most part, they are underperforming. Almost every stop along NE Broadway is a bit too…bland. I gave this some thought awhile ago, and my conclusion then was that Broadway and its surrounding area is the westside invasion. A few weeks later the Broadway Brewery and Grill opened up.

So now you’ve got some big channel or contract or something to make it a bit tougher to watch games. Well, I didn’t watch many anyway. But now I hear some controversy and you need cable and Monday night football is on cable…at least Dennis Miller is gone I hope. But dangit! Now I get so many stupid sp@m emails about football this and football that. I guess I should watch more football.

Well, the iPhone dropped in price way faster than I expected. I’d figured they had a price point figured out and would keep the phone around there. But they had the trendsetters figured out and took their cut. The 8GB iPhone is now $399 instead of $599. So tempting. But for all of you who are upset that you paid the extra two hundred bucks to strut it around for two months, I’m still not rushing out to buy one.

Hi Dave. I’d email you but amazingly I don’t have your address. Weird. Anyway, I always forget to mention this when I see you, but I’d comment on your blog but I am not going to register. I’ve registered for enough crap and I’m not gonna put my crap into your system and wait for you to generate a password and email it to me and then click on a link to verify and then leave my f’ing comment.

Not really, but metroblogging has the dirt on Portland’s Ikea installation. Honestly, I’ve been looking forward to getting an Ikea for quite awhile now, and now that the date is almost here, I’m starting to look at my closets and corners just a bit differently. Long ago I linked to Defective Yeti’s genius Ikea Walkthrough (at The Morning News). Here it is again for the local Portlanders. A bunch of folks seem upset about the new big box store.

Santa Cruz is a pretty sweet city. It’s gorgeous. There’s a beautiful beach, tons of restaurants, shops, and things to do. A few good breweries. Nice views, hikes nearby. It was selected as one of Outside’s most desirable places to live (Portland too!). But after a few days here, I’ve found myself wondering: where is the soul of this city? And I haven’t found it. Time on the beach is great, the sand is pleasant with the sound of the surf and the seagulls, a heavy sun radiating powerfully, beautiful people building sand structures to watch them erode with the tides.

I’ve been shying away from political posts, but that Imperial IPA loosened my tongue a bit…so this is a comment I left in response to this. After reading your post I’m amazed that at the end you still refer to Bush as a Republican president, as he is only republican in the disappointing social values perspective that your party embraces for votes alone (else why such hypocrisy in your leadership).

I wrote this to my grandmother in response to an email she forwarded me talking about how in North Dakota when they have a huge storm nobody complains to the government. More or less telling New Orleans to quit their whining. of course ideally we’d all be prepared for a disaster. And it wasn’t the rains themselves that were the problem but the fact of the levee breach. It had been recommended to the Bush administration to improve the levee, and the disaster that occurred had been laid out to him ahead of time.

This is sad: Arrested Development is getting canned. Dear Fox, You create and maintain some great shows. 24 has been awesome, Prison Break is good, The Simpsons is a classic, Family Guy is amazing. But Arrested Development. Please don’t do it. Keep Arrested Development. Sometimes a joke comes to me days later. I laugh at strange times thanks to your show. Keep it. Laugh at me laughing. The characters are amazing.

Wow. Is this true? prezzo has borrowed 1.05 trillion dollars, which is as much as the previous 42 presidents combined. Holy crap. That’s pretty scary. It’s a lot of money. It’s basically around 5000 bucks per american. Sweet. And now he wants to get rid of my mortgage interest writeoff. That writeoff is huge for the middle class (which I work hard to maintain my membership in), and the loss will dwarf any gain I ever saw in his tax cuts.

The flippant flopping that I’ve been witnessing has been astonishing. After working so hard to save the institution of marriage from the gays who would destroy it, Republicans now seem to be working to destroy it themselves. Listening to Tony Snow this morning, he asserted that Terri was not Michael’s wife because he’d taken up with another woman, with whom he had lived, had kids, found comfort, and if that’s not marriage then what is.

sorry, I’ve been trying to keep out of the political arena since I’m not that good at it. But this seems a bit messed up: Iraqis are voting in the first free elections in half a century as mortar and suicide attacks rattle polling booths in Baghdad and beyond..(CNN news) I totally agree that free elections are a good thing, but doesn’t it seem just a bit messed up that there are mortar and suicide attacks?

It’s been a long time. It’s weird. Lately I’ve been reading a lot more than writing. Pulled down some good books, though, including Sometimes a Great Notion and The Miracle of Castille di Sangro. Both are fantastic, the first being a fairly Objectivist (yuck) tale of the Stamper family doing what they’ve got to do, logging the Oregon forests despite the rest of town being on strike. It’s got a lot of powerful themes, largely dealing with hardship and revenge, leading to perseverance.

Read what I have to say to Wild Oats below. Fred Meyer is a fine name for a store.

It was some time ago that you purchased Nature’s from the local owners. good choice, great job! Nature’s continued to maintain the same level of service and similar pricing to when it was run locally. I remember an evening some years ago, going over my credit card bill and seeing a charge to ‘Wild Oats’. My first thought was that my card number had been stolen and somebody was using it for internet pr0n.

This is from an email conversation I’m having with a buddy of mine. His side is very interesting as well, but I haven’t asked him for permission to post. So this is just me. We’re chatting about what the left needs to do in order to overcome the religious right juggernaut in the future. My thing about the religious right is that it is a self-perpetuating system. Like a whirlpool, it may not have a large impact quickly, but once ensconced, few escape.

As opposed as I was to so many of prezzo’s actions over the last four years, I feel that the best way to come through the disappointment of the election is to pull out a clean. Not a pessimistic slate. And not totally clean, but to treat this like a new day. Bush’s words make him sound like he’s going to try, but they have before. Perhaps he’s embracing the ‘centrist’ as I’ve heard it said on the strong right talk shows: religious right.

It’s over. And not much good came out of it. W won the presidency, apparently fair and square. That’s what the people wanted, I guess. So now begins the great experiment. Four years of the same group with significantly less opposition, probably 1-2 supreme court nomination (maybe more….shiver). He now has the popular vote and the electoral vote, so he doesn’t feel obligated to play the middle like he did so well over the last four years, and his career politicking is done, all he is concerned with for next election is getting his brother in there.

Another reason to vote no on 36 (for non-Oregonians, 36 basically modifies the Oregon Constitution to explicitly state that marriage is between a man and a woman). One may enter Mary’s Club from El Grillo (which means the grillo) if one is 21 or over or accompanied by a spouse who is of legal age. Thus speaketh the sign. True story…but seriously, this measure is quite possible the one in which I have heard the least rational arguments for in my entire life.

It was amazing…I watched a bit of the GOP convention, and it reminded me of an Amway convention. It was amazing, people applauding this talk of dreams and amazing wealth. They happily pay too much for the same old crap.

I’m in class the last few days and tomorrow (or today, dunno). So, it’s been quiet, but here’s a nice passage from the book I’m reading now, something nice to think on, it’s from The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller. If we could just eliminate newspapers a great advance would be made, I am sure of it. Newspapers engender lies, hatred, greed, envy, suspicion, fear, malice. We don’t need truth as it is dished up to us in the daily papers.

…for the Nobel Peace Prize! On the off chance that Moore is able to battle through Disney’s stonewalling and get his film released enough, but not too much for our brief cultural memories, before the November elections, and Bush is somehow defeated, and the film is linked to said defeat, I can see now that Michael Moore will be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize. All the more so considering the hurdles he’ll have to clear now.

Don’t recall where I got this link, it was up on my browser when I came into work this morning, but it’s a pretty interesting and dark observation on the state of the housing market and its relation to the economy. I hope that the fears are exagerated, but there’s no telling. I wonder what a bubble burst in the housing market would do to the Pearl District and proposed Macadam development projects?

Just listening to the radio (sirius streaming….yeah!) and the DJ (Madison) mentioned a couple ‘…of the year’ awards from some organization or other. The first: Michael and Janet J. being the most foolish. The second, the Story of the Year: Martha Stewart. What? Didn’t we instigate a war? It seems like 2003 was a pretty huge year for ‘stories’ and while Martha was there with her sunglasses on, it certainly wasn’t the story of the year.

A small Vermont resort town is move to New Hampshire instead, according to Silt, who mentions various other scenarios involving other cities and states. Makes me wonder what would happen if Portland started talking of this, and moving to Washington. It seems like everyone would be happier.

I’ve found that I pretty much enjoy the classic plays best when I know what’s going to happen already, and am able to ride the elegantly structured language to the conclusion. Yesterday I listened to Victor Balk on Portland’s 860. His show was entirely about a question asked of John Kerry, “Do you believe God is on the United State’s side?” The answer, I never heard from Kerry’s mouth, merely Vic’s weasle-like paraphrasing, so I won’t comment on it now.

In a landmark announcement today, prezzo announced plans to move forward with his intentions of ramming through a new constitutional amendment. While the text of the amendment remains unclear, the its substance has been well-communicated. Disturbed after shopping at Bloomingdale’s Country Annex and noticing that the right and left boot salt and pepper shakers were available separately, prezzo declared that he needed to protect “Meals from changing forever” and that “for millenia wars have been fought over spices, so that they could accompany common iodized table salt, and now some renegade trinket manufacturers and merchants are presuming to arbitrarily change the nature of America’s most fundamental family-time.

So, the land is abuzz with talk of Nader running. Sure, I don’t like the fact that he might take votes from some undetermined Demo candidate, and I’m pretty sure that he can’t win on his own, and I really strongly think that prezzo has to lose or we’re in a lot of trouble. The rest of the world may be able to forgive us as long as they know that 1) we never really elected him and 2) when we realized how bad he was, we voted him out…but if he’s elected for sure this time, then there’s going to be little turning back.

It seems to me that there should be regulations to precent this kind of thing. Comcast should not own Disney, Disney should not own Comcast, and they shouldn’t merge either. Disney’s sphere of influence is too great already. The genius of the separate spheres of influence placed in out government need to be implemented in the business world. Instead, in a brilliant maneuver, the corporate world has been dismantling the safeguards in the government.

Checked out the Trib’s headline today, and stopped well short of reading the article: “Porn and Handcuffs found at PU suspect’s house”. Stop the presses. Who ever considered that this is front page material? (btw, the quote is close, but it’s from memory so might be off). It’s like that nabbed it from the Onion’s throw-away bin. While not everyone has handcuffs and/or pr0n at their house, I hardly think that that’s any more newsworthy than if ‘Sheed (bye-bye, baby) had gout.

I was too conflicted on Measure 30. I support all of the great things that our tax money goes to, and was quite against (still am!) prezzo’s ludicrous tax cuts. More irresponsible than ludicrous. But, I’ve voted for this tax and that and bonds and said yes, and all the while, rural Oregon is voting them down and causing havock in Salem and generally making things worse than they need to be.

Calpundit expresses so clearly this concept that I’ve been trying to verbalize, about how the middle class is fundamental to the economy, and job growth there is the true indicator. He only hints at (in this article) the wanton destruction by prezzo of the middle class in his tax cuts and elimination of goverment services and regulation. I believe that the middle class is largely driven by the existence of goverment jobs…perhaps not driven, but anchored.

just had to get that out I guess…been feeling all wadded up. As far as I’m concerned there are two things that win two-party elections: winning the fence sitters and motivationg your voters. Quick look at those. Sitters on the fence, they’re out there, but who’s winning them? I’d say that with the unified propaganda machine, GWB is the clear winner now. Nobody’s questioning Bush, so there must be nothing wrong…the economy’s ‘good’ unless you look at the numbers, the war’s ‘good’ according to their revisionism and propaganda, tax cuts are good, and the Dems haven’t posed a unified front…prezzo gets Everything He Wants.

new (to me) oregon blog, Hasservision. It’s better to write about such things than why Dean tanked, how even though I gave him money he totally lost my interest, possible an act contributed to by the A-holeness of Joe L. who sucks and should shovel sh!t at the Bush ranch. But it looks like a good time over at H.vision, so go check it out. Exhausted and defeated I managed a chuckle out of some of his stuff, which is tough for me right now…my body feels as botoxed as Kerry’s upper face looks.

via Slashdot, Yahoo has an article reporting about companies moving jobs overseas. This is nothing new. It is scary though. As executives demand higher and higher salaries, those on the bottom get axed and replaced by cheap foreign labor. This is a scary trend that needs to be regulated. The lobbyist arguments that the problem is that tech workers are not willing to work for the low wages, and that makes moving the jobs overseas okay is simply not valid.

alright, I’m tossing the towel in, so I can use it to dry off, or something else. Maybe I’ll start rat tailing people in the arses with it. But hanging onto it at the edge of the ring is senseless. I’m giving up on the Dems for now. Really. No more money, no more time, no more, ‘you can do it, guys.’ I’m done. The infighting is ridiculous. Liebermans’s spider-hole comments about Dean, this is asinine.

I love how the right-wingers bash the liberal Hollywood actor set, but as soon as they identify a right wind spokesmodel, they hype them as much as possible and make them their poster-child (and governor, or president).

An interesting little rant from Kim du Toit on The pussification of men. While I don’t agree with much of what he says (particularly tying with politics and such), some of it is actually pretty well stated, if not bigotted and harsh, but oh well, I think that’s much of his point. via Seething.

“Hey, what’re y’all doin’ in the bike lane for?” I commute on bike. I’m not die-hard…I’ll drive in if I feel like it. The number 2 in the title suggests that I’ve talked about this before. Well, I have, and my basic point was don’t be a jerk, it’s not necessary, they’re not out to get you. But then sometimes I ride, and as nice as it is to be on a bike, some guys just wreck it.

I just reponded to an evite, and after I submitted the site redirected me to an ad (“brought to you by our sponser”). The funny thing was that just an image came up (HP, somethin somethin), but on the sidebar in poorly wrapped text was a demand that I obtain the latest Flash (not available for my Sun box, nor my Linux box, btw) in order to experience their ad. This seemed ludicrous.

I used to be really into professional wrestling. The strong guys doing crazy, pretty realistic, wrestling moves in the air, or spinning them over their back, with figure four leglocks and chairs and sleeper holds, it was dazzling. And then they discovered politics, and that was fun, who’s on whose side, which manager is slipping a roll of quarters in, is The Macho Man good or evil, what about the Four Horsemen and their constuents.

Crafty Girlie links to a craigs list post about a vegan cat rescuer who is looking for a new home for the cat. The requirement: the home must be vegan and willing to feed the cat a vegan diet. This is absolutely ludicrous. A cat would never choose a vegan diet over a comparably non-rancid carniverous one, because that is what they have evolved to consume. Meat contains the nutrients, microorgganisms, proteins, and enzymes that they need to survive in a healthy manner.

Does anyone have any idea what the heck is up with all these spams that have zero intelligible content, in any language for all I can tell. Spam me, that sucks, but now you’re just wasting. I suppose at least they’re not sending l3wd pictures to children. I hate all spammers.

An interesting article on the widely varied conditions of two schools in Iraq. I think that what we learn from this is a reminder of the liberal stance from the VERY BEGINNING of this fiasco. And this is something that is being twisted once again by the lying Bush administration. That we wanted the war to go through the proper channels. Or not at all. But the mad rush, the insanely driven mad rush to shove this war down everyone’s throats using FALSE evidence (which was considered suspect from the first…so don’t act innocent and blame bad intelligence, if I was suspicious, you HAVE to be!

I hear that Dignity Village submitted a proposal to the city of Portland today regarding a 10-year extension to whatever they already had. I heard this on the Victor Bach show, one of the most appalling pieces of talk radio I know. However, this is one of the very few issues on which I’ve had some agreement with Victor Bach…something which a say with a sense of shame after hearing his disgusting abortion stance yesterday.

Okay. I’m getting pretty frickin sick and tired of the conservative comments on liberal concerns on Arnold S. Bill Clinton has nothing to do with it. He engaged in consensual whatever with a consensual person and that’s that. End of story, except that he then went on and lied about it, which was wrong, and messed up, and a very bad decision that can and will and does reflect poorly upon him.

Listening to talk radio the other evening and there was mention of a checker strike in Los Angeles. I’m not totally aware of the details, but that’s not the point. There was a brief interview with an ordinary Joe (Jane, actually), who supported the strike. The interview went something like this: “Do you support the checker strike?”. “Oh, yes, definitely, my heart goes out to them.” “Would you cross the picket line?

It just crossed my mind that we’re pretty lucky to live in a place, and amongst items, that are not widely varying in their pH. It would really stink to be perpetually burned and worse by acids and bases in our homes and around town. Sure, they’d generally reduce each other to salts and gases, but that’s not my point, nor does it change the fact that I’m really happy to live in a chemically neutral environment.

I like bumper stickers. Some say some very witty things, some are wise, and some just piss me off. There are two that have bugged me for a long time, and I think I’ve finally gotten it. You see, while I like bumper stickers, I don’t necessarily approve of the pithy sayings on them just because they’re catchy…I like to apply a bit of critical thought to them. The first, ‘Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they’re open,’ is a load of hoohaa to me.

The albatross sent me a depressing link about a first-time teacher’s summer school experience. Ouch, what a panful experience she describes, an intellectual woman of experience wanting to give something to the community (symbiotically, she admits), who is thrust into a classroom of students who just don’t want to learn. They have their reasons, and you can’t hate (most of) them for it, as so many have horrible home lives, but she has to battle so many sides her job is nearly impossible.

I know that you’re cool, and you have the moral high ground over all those gas-guzzling pricks. I know that you pedal away, and you’re a target to all those steel dragons. I know that pedestrians don’t notice you and step into your way. Sometimes other bicyclists do things to piss you off as well. Know what? Quit being an asshole. I bicycle to work myself, but seeing some of these jerks on their bikes, it’s no wonder that relations with vehicles are somewhat strained.

Thus speaketh Ann Coulter of Saddam Hussein. Well, the rest of her article is a bit meatier that than but holy crap, what a bunch of antagonistic flag-waving, divisive drivel. This lady really sucks. I hadn’t really read much by her to this point and if this represents the quality of her work, how the hell did she ever get out of Denny’s or wherever she crawled out of. The sad thing is is that this represents a fair quantity of the conservative talk-show/newswriter tone—some ornery, overconfident righty who spews very contrary conclusions out of unrelated evidence.

So, I’m a bit upset with Powell’s Books lately. They have a mountain of freakin books, a city even, yet three of the last four books that I’ve gone there looking for (actually maybe more) have been out of stock. What is particularly frustrating is that I see by the website that they are located in this warehouse or that. What are sixteen copies of Parasite Rex and ten copies of the armchair economist doing in warehouses when they are popular books that are not available in your flagship store?

What the heck are the leading Republicans trying to accomplish? Utter destruction of this nation? The creation of a slave nation? Or are they simply so utterly corrupt that they do the bidding of the corporate leaders? It has become so utterly clear to me that deregulation of power and media are not just bad ideas, but horrible, disastrous ones, that I cannot comprehend how they could even suggest it. The effects of deregulation have made themselves totally clear in California, New York, Brazil, and in the media as quality gets worse, news coverage thins, commercials become more prevalent, and reporting more biased.

It’s amazing, the spin that can be put onto an observation. With the ‘just sixteen little words’ stance, the right-wing spin has been that ‘oh, how can you point to those sixteen words and say that we went to war based on them?’ It’s really frustrating to see people gettting sucked into the sixteen words argument, because that’s not what it’s about at all. This particular statement is more a fulcrum than a lever.

Wal-Mart is one of my most hated corporate entities. They drive local business out, create horrible jobs, and are an eyesore and blight. Shopping there makes a person pasty. In compter-fake-internetland a DOS is a denial of service attack, in which a hax0r does something to make a server unusable by others for a period of time, generally without actually cracking the system. The other day, while munching on tacos at Cha!

There’s been a fair amount of talk about gay rights of late. Here’s a little bit to help clear up all the misconceptions. It’s ok. The operative word in ‘gay people’ is people. Let them get married. I’m sure that they’ve thought about what they’re doing at least as much as heteros are expected to. The ZPG people should be thrilled. Don’t worry about the gym lockers. They don’t really care that much, and if it’s that important to you, bronze it.

A nice BBQ, grill, ribs, chicken, clinking glasses, friends, good times. The scene pans out slowly, some casual conversation, check the food. Panning further still, a door, mosquito netting, it’s all indoors. A cool friendly female voice asks, “West Nile virus keeping you indoors?” Buy Off. A nod to the Bush administration’s fear-driven marketing campaign for the war. This tactic is very powerful, subtle, and pervasive. Television exists to sell ads.

Where the heck is reality heading these days? I try to keep up with it, stay in touch, and all, but sometimes reality just slips right past me. I’m not talking virtual reality or internet reality, or even fictional reality. I mean space/time/television reality. The one inside the glowing box that determines what much of America talks about when outside their cubicles. The tagline, ‘latest reality dating show’ or somesuch appeared inside my peoplenonmover the other day (during Amistad) and then proceeded to show some bizarroworld in which a couple follows clues inside a secret ‘diary’ a la Die Hard 3 to find out how much they hate each other or want to have sex but can’t because they’re on national realityvision.

I watched the second half of Amistad the other evening. It was pretty good…though it may have been better or worse if I’d seen the whole thing. The thing that got me was Morgan Freeman in the film. Looking serious or nodding approval with some pretty horrible chops. I don’t know that he had a line the whole time I watched, they just stuck him in there every now and then, much like the robot in Logan’s Run.

Orrin Hatch is a dangerous hypocrite. After declaring recently that copyright holders should be permitted to write code that will destroy the computer of someone improperly downloading copyrighted materials, he’s been caught using unlicensed copyrighted code on his virtual office (website). What a jerk. What he doesn’t understand is that it is actually difficult to unintentionally avoid using copyrighted material sometimes. Whether you’ve been hacked and some $cr!pt kiddi3 is downloading pr0n and disting photoshop from your box, or you happen to have a virtual in a server farm, or even if you’re just grabbing some software or tunes to try before you buy, some people may not even realize that they’re in violation.

ok. enough is enough. I’m feeling pretty neglected here, along with the hundreds of thousands of others. where the f!&k are the weapons and imminent demist that our president swore to the nation were there, learned of through advanced millitary intelligence. I’m totally friggin baffled. There are two amazing things to me here. Maybe three. The first is that this a-hole can just keep cruising along without so much as an f-ing shrug or nod that there is the slightest doubt of the existence of these munitions despite the capture not only of several high cards but most of the casino as well (mission accomplished…thought we’d bagged Harrah’s!

It’s been awhile I hope that nothing conspiratorial has befallen him, and that instead he is lying on a beach somewhere that takes only American Express.

Just thought of something…with all this WMD talk and the fact that they’re not being found. It doesn’t even matter, because I didn’t agree with the war to begin with (though with the fairly moderate stance that if you can get the UN to be down with it, I’ll go along ;), so the fact that the WMD’s don’t even exist when their words explicitly stated that a) they exist, b) they know where they are, and c) they’ll turn up quickly and easily should be evidence of shady motives to the rest of America.

Now the war is over and the reconstruction has begun. This is what all the corruption has been building up to. The emotional charge is less fiery now. The USA’s middle finger is still pointed at the rest of the world. Campaign contributors are realizing the value of their investments in reconstruction contracts and tax cuts. The Democrats are still holed up. We confuse victory for justification. Never forget the wrongness of this war.

Googlin around for info on the No Child Left Behind Act, I came across an interesting caveat mentioned by Mother Jones. If a military body requests a school for student contact information, they must furnish it. This is a huge violation of rights. While I was not significantly harrassed by recruiters, I know people who were, and these people would not stop…phone calls everyday, mailings, and now probably mass emailings. And what is next?

Had to add a new section to the blogroll over there for Phillip Greenspun. He was one of my earlier internet heroes (though losing points for embracing .NET) more for his outspoken views and concepts on usability and community-driven web sites than for the ArsDigita (now RedHat property…blech) software itself. Expect quality, though sometimes wordy and egotistical, opinions and banter.

This is a good little post about the work lives we are forcing on our teachers. Illustration of the huge inequities abounding for them, and the hurdles they need to overcome to do their job, one which might be considered important. I witnessed this in my own student teaching (I later decided that teachers are treated too badly here to actually get a job as one), with many teachers being moved from room to room, not having a home, nowhere to have a preparation period. Believe me, preparing classes and grading papers takes time, and that’s not even doing things like setting aside time to talk to kids in an effort to get through to them and pay attention to special needs. It is truly difficult to foster a positive learning environment like this. Teachers need props. The room is more than just a place with a ceiling and places to sit and write. It is a place for visual aids to be setup. For personalities to be expressed. To keep your lunch. My heart goes out to teachers.

All around, people are becoming more and more indignant about this war. It’s astounding, the way in which war supporters are taking arms against people who question or questioned it. The animosity towards France is pretty severe, elevating far beyond Freedom Fries and returning the Statue of Liberty. The positions that I find truly amazing are those that scorn the Iraqis as dirty cheating law-breaking fighters. What an arrogant, hypocritical stance this is.

Wow, active day today. Well, my buddy Sean has started blogging also, so welcome aboard man. In one of his latest articles, he explores some controversial ideas about whether or not it is logically and morally consistent to support the troops and the war in this case, and I’m not speaking of the correct yet vaporous ‘Support our troops, bring ’em home’ slogans. He raises some valid but incomplete points on this.

We are pretty certainly going to war very soon. Saddam has blatantly refused to do any disarming per GWB’s requests entirely whatsoever and the weapons inspectors are over there with their abacus counting the number of nukes in Iraq because they’ve run out of fingers and toes, so it’s perfectly reasonable that we demolish their sorry asses, and hopefully take a pretty good chunk of their culture and history with them, not to mention a pretty good haul of oil.

I came very close to being one of the teachers suffering through the current abuses of our state. Earned my MAT in 1999 from one of the most bizarro places I’ve ever spent a year, George Fox University. I had little idea of wtf I was getting into, recently out of one of Portland’s small liberal arts colleges. Oddly enough, at that time I decided that teachers here (don’t get me wrong, they’re treated bad everywhere to my knowledge) are treated too badly, and decided to geek out instead.

I’ve written a few anti-war on Iraq articles, but haven’t really talked about my position. I am somewhat torn on this issue, as I can imagine circumstances in which I could believe that war is a good idea herenow.

My strongest argument against the war is that I really don’t trust the people who are pushing us straight into it. The antics of Bush and Cheney are well-documented (where they haven’t been able to suppress the records from their employers, the public). These men have been players in a world I cannot conceive. Try to imagine calling the Minister of Public Works and Services of Argentina and gently suggesting that you and your father, the President of the United States, feel that it would be a good idea to award a multi-million dollar pipeline deal to Enron.

I need to review another beer. But not tonite. I hear about globalization, and I hear about the economy. The economy is bad. So why does it seem like a good idea to move all of our good jobs offshore. Why do we shop at places like Wal*Mart, where we transform the self-respecting film store owner into Robin William One Hour Photo man? Wal*Mart sucks the life out of your town.

SUVs are everywhere. They are particularly popular amongst those who live here in the Pacific Northwest, many of whom live fantasies that they are Ford Tough or Like a friggin Rock. This issue points to a theme that I will be iterating and building upon for some time. It is not okay to do what you want when you want. You should not be as rich as you can possible be.

Finally we know what the Homeland Security Office has been up to, other than phoning in orange alerts whenever we need a new bill passed or one of the warmonger elite need to get some pep for the war (like just after Colin Powell pitched his war). They’ve been learning about the internet. Here’s the stop, drop, and roll for a new millenium. The warnings and admonishments have been a great boom to Wal*Mart, as their customers stack duct tape and Hefty Bags on top of their Doritos and Ding Dongs, which should preserve them through a nuclear winter.

I just cannot keep up with all the bad things that are happening right now. It’s really amazing. We’ve spiralled from a crappy biased dirty election to piss-poor economy and massive layoffs to terrorism to corporate scandal (involving so much political inbreeding it’s awe inspiring) to undeclared undefined wars to undeclared defined wars. And that’s just nationally. Here in Oregon, we’re busy screwing ourselves right and left. The whole Measure 28 failure is a fiasco.

It truly does. Once again. In bold. Portland Radio Sucks. Bigtime. I could stop this story right here, and probably have said all that I need to, but then what would be the fun in that? I am just freakin’ so sick and tired of all the damn commercials and the stupid DJ’s mackin on strippers for 47 minutes out of each hour. And the three songs that I do hear…if my timing was good and I get to hear any on my commute…are the same ones by the same ‘artists’, rotating between Rage Against the Machine, tool, System of A Down, Korn (sorry deep guys can’t do that kewl ‘K’ thing they do), with maybe a bit of Metallica blended in.

Marriage. Topping the list of What’s Hot right now. Fox is premiering several new blockbuster mega-hypo shows where the winners and losers get married to each other, themselves, and total strangers. Not to mention the past classics like marrying millionaire monkeys and throwing turtles at wed-shops in vegas. And ThankYou Joe (Evan). It’s freakin bizzarro to me, the trend. Now that the concept of marriage has been totally despoiled by the likes of wadded up right-wing Family Values groupies pulling anti-gay anti-choice propaganda, and our (me being pretty solid Gen-X) parents’s generation treating them like Kleenex, snotted or no.