Mon, 31 Mar 2008
Today's topic for discussion is:
Sun, 30 Mar 2008
Spring Cleaning
| After a much-needed Spring Cleaning, I now have less junk in my possession than at any point in the past 10 years. |
Opening Eve '08
It's time to start the season again. Opening Day is tomorrow, but the Braves and Nationals get the Sunday Night game tonight. Here's to stomping some Nats. |
Today's topic for discussion is:
Sat, 29 Mar 2008
Today's topic for discussion is:
| It's Saturday. Do you know where your beer is? |
Fri, 28 Mar 2008
Today's topic for discussion is:
Thu, 27 Mar 2008
Today's topic for discussion is:
| Favorite 'dinner' bread: Roll, Biscuit, Roti, Pita, Baguette, or Tortilla? |
An Atlanta Marathon? Believe it!
This Sunday, @ 7am, there will be a combined marathon/half-marathon, running a loop from Centennial Olympic Park to Decatur, and back. Here's the map. (PDF).
This is going to be worth waking up (or staying up) to go see. |
Wed, 26 Mar 2008
Knowing is Half the Battle
| It's that time of year again: Creative Loafing's 2008 Urban Explorer Handbook is in circulation. This is required reading for any trip to Atlanta. |
A Medical Museum for Atlanta?
AJC is reporting that Atlanta (home of your friendly neighborhood Centers for Disease Control) is being considered to be a home for the National Health Museum.
Since the chairman of the museum board lives here, it follows that we'll be a prime candidate for the museum's eventual location. My only question is how many millions of dollars in local and state tax breaks will a healthcare museum get, while Grady twists in the breeze? I'll put the over/under at $12 million. |
Today's topic for discussion is:
Tue, 25 Mar 2008
Slacking Off
Did I say I was going to implement tags? That was a bit of a misunderstanding. What I really meant was "I'm going to look at ways to implement tags for 6 months, and fail to grok any elegant method of doing so."
Besides, I'm rehashing Java and finally picking up Erlang. Tags take a back seat for now. |
Today's topic for discussion is:
| Favorite 'breakfast' bread: Bagel, Biscuit, Toast, or English Muffin? |
Mon, 24 Mar 2008
Fighting the Power
| Apparently, news stations can't use NCAA Tournament highlights in their broadcasts. Such is the life in this nascent cyberpunk age.
Enter:
North Carolina NBC affiliate Penn Holderness, sports anchor, defender of freedom.
Watch this clip while you can, before it gets pulled, because advertisers don't like this kind of shit. |
Today's topic for discussion is:
| We have left Flu Season behind us, and now stride headlong into Pollen Season. |
Sun, 23 Mar 2008
Back up the Truck
I have so much stuff running through my brain lately, it's all logjammed into a pile of cubism. So, in no particular order, braindump commences.
- My 'remix' of Sen. Obama's 'race relations' speech is up. I'm still digesting a few particulars of this speech.
- I'm starting to check out Google's 'android' mobile device platform. It'll be very interesting to see if this software platform actually makes it into the market on the 'open' 700Mhz bands. The presence of Java worries me; if their VM (or the one they've borrowed) is actually that efficient, that VM should be running just about everywhere. In either case, it's a Linux kernel underneath, so if the app. layer fails, there's plenty of opportunity to rebuild.
- In the 'garden', the oregano has exploded over the past two weeks; I blame the worms I dropped in the pots. Both oregano and parsley will be harvested for salad, shortly.
- Gold hit $1000, and promptly dropped back to $900 after the recent Fed actions. This looks like the start of a buying opportunity. I'm also scoping out agricultural commodity ETFs , but those are all futures-based.
- On the gaming front: I finally, to the shock of my playgroup, fielded a deck with cards that were printend within the past year or so. Shocking! After wielding the power of some of these cards (can you say 'broken'?), I'm going to have to reevaluate my deckbuilding strategy. Simply put, if one minion, without help from your deck, can hold off another player, your game has leverage issues.
- I actually
doodled on filled out an NCAA hoops bracket this year, if I actually hit more than half my picks, I'll be shocked.
- The big FCC auction went off, with absolutely no real surprises. AT&T and Verizon claim the bandwidth, and the slow undeath of the Internet will continue unabated. Thanks go to Kevin Martin and the other two cronies for making this possible.
- Opening Day is a week from tomorrow. I will celebrate by attending training in the exurbs for two weeks. With the advent of baseball season, it's time to look at the Braves; that closer look will come next weekend.
- The Hawks are making a legitimate playoff run! This is crazy. After watching the 40-point (ok, it seemed that way) loss to the Lakers, I need to see at least one better game before season's end.
- Hey, remember that whole "Drought" thing that's still going on? Yep, expect to hear increasing noise by Friday, as we aren't expected to receive any rain until next weekend. Twice-weekly showers, indeed.
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Today's topic for discussion is:
| It's looking like good park-walking weather today. |
Sat, 22 Mar 2008
Today's topic for discussion is:
Fri, 21 Mar 2008
Today's topic for discussion is:
| Feel the Butthurt. [I don't know which is funnier, the butthurt itself, or the reprinting in Seattle's paper.] |
Thu, 20 Mar 2008
The Months: March
March is the month when the cold makes its last bid for posession,
lunging in bursts and digging in with the ragged claws
to every nook and cranny it can find--
inflicting its chill on the unwary and unsuspecting,
and rending asunder those foolish enough to oppose it.
The Sun will not be dissuaded,
nor will the plants who cast their blooms to the faltering winter,
nor will the people who cast their shadows on gray fields,
nor will the storms who cast their marks on the land,
all taunting the cold with promises of life sprung anew. |
Today's topic for discussion is:
Wed, 19 Mar 2008
A Call for Sammich Power
| We're finally getting a nice, steady rain for the better part of a day. I'm hungry, the current project is moving toward test, and I'll probably go see hockey tonight and check out some tornado cleanup (if downtown is open, that is). Time for a sandwich. |
WA update
| These guys are churning out posts daily, it seems. My WA now stands at .433. ;)
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Today's topic for discussion is:
| How the hell can people wake up drunk, and start their day with a drink? |
Missing the Mark
It seems the 'nutty preacher' problem is quite a bit larger than I'd mentioned earlier. MSNBC's First Read (one of the better online pseudo-blogs, IMO) has the transcript of Sen. Obama's speech on race.
My initial take:
- Good on Sen. Obama for taking a direct approach for his 'nutty pastor' problem.
- By including campaign talking points and themes, he constrains this speech to the boundaries of the campaign, when the speech itself describes the racial divides as transcending election cycles. As such, I think we've missed an opportunity to open a new chapter of history. Actually, it looks like the campaign points were bolted onto an otherwise completed speech.
- There is one vital component missing from the portions of this speech that pertain to Mr. Wright, and that is the telling of historical disagreements between the two. It's one thing to say "I don't agree", and quite another to say "...and I told him so."
As such, I think it's worthy to remove the talking points, and post a modified text. I'll do that in the coming days. |
Redefining the "Target-Rich Environment"
It looks like this is going to be a fun year: Insider Advantage reports that federal investigations into Georgia corruption have been ongoing for quite some time.
This will be quite interesting to see who gets canned; first up is Rep. Ron Sailor, for laundering $375k in shilled "drug" money. Given our current administration's penchant for flipping state-level politicians (and firing U.S. Attorneys that don't act as accomplices), I have doubts that we'll find out how much Mark Taylor has been paid for spiking our last governor's race.
If we only end up bagging some fake churches, then that's better than nothing. And, if DOJ ends up only raiding Atlanta's power structure, we'll know it's just a power grab. That being said, if most of that structure is dismantled in a hail of criminal charges, the city will actually have a chance to improve itself. So it appears our goal for this election year is to find replacements that do not merely serve the enemy.
Then again, if these investigations actually seek out real corruption, then we'll have ourselves a party. Here's to hoping for a truckload of convictions and guilty pleas.
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Tue, 18 Mar 2008
The Bigoted Reality of Political Parties
There's so much garbage flapping around these days, it isn't even funny. Bored media, deadlocked Democrat party, two of the most...Oh, look! A hooker! And, she isn't even missing! ZOMGWTFBBQ11!211
In the middle of all this, has been the exchange of prejudice, outrage, and more prejudice that I really come to expect from what is still a demographically-driven primary cycle.
Let's review the recent episodes:
- Geraldine Ferraro, with the "Obama's only where he's at because he's black" opinion. She's nominally correct. A sizable-enough bulk of Obama's support is African-American, to make a difference in this nomination. What Ferraro doesn't mention, is that the Obama candidacy has decapitated the "black vote", by removing the body from its head. Also, Sen. Clinton's campaign has shot itself in the foot on a near daily basis, and has only fueled Obama's post-Iowa performance.
- Michelle Obama, with the "For the first time, I'm proud of my country" line. Can I judge correctness? All this says is that Mrs. Obama isn't a moron. Who, other than our taliban, are proud of our country anymore? As such, the subsequent retraction was more bs than the original statement.
- Jeremiah Wright, with the "Jesus was a black guy in a white country" sermon. Great, so Sen. Obama shares a fruitbat preacher problem with Sen. McCain. I'd like to see if any of these congregations retain their tax-exempt status.
The large difference between Clinton's and Obama's race-baiting is the former uses the practice to spin a threatening backdrop for their campaign, while the latter incorporates the practice as part of their message of hope. It goes back to that "yin-yang of political bullshit" theme that has repeated in this election, and the "competing schools of socialism" I've mentioned in earlier posts.
On the side: it seems both candidates have been caught by time-shifting -- Ferraro's comments were made prior to Clinton's "comeback" in Texas and Ohio, and only made noise afterward. Wright's sermon was made early in Obama's candidacy, and were replayed, in response to the Ferraro episode.
The underlying truth is that political factions, particularly nowadays, are defined as much by 'them' as by 'us'. As such, factions will incorporate race as just another perforated line from which to separate people into camps of "friendly" and "others". This election season is no different.
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Today's topic for discussion is:
Mon, 17 Mar 2008
Slogging Along
| There's nothing quite like finding an atrocious bug while testing your own modifications to existing code. Especially when the bug has been delaying your testing cycle. |
Today's topic for discussion is:
| Favorite medium: Acrylic, Inks, Oil, Pencils, Watercolor? |
Sun, 16 Mar 2008
Third Time's a Charm
Last month: twister lifts before reaching Atlanta, drops down again once it left town.
2 weeks ago: twister-bearing stormes disorganize before reaching Atlanta.
Friday: An isolated thunderstorm reaches Atlanta from the Northwest, and proceeds to drop a twister inside the perimeter. It wrecks everything on an E/SE line, centered on downtown. Go figure. |
Today's topic for discussion is:
| If the human population was reduced to 20% of its current total, what fragments of civilization will remain? |
Fri, 14 Mar 2008
Today's topic for discussion is:
| The more I look at threading, it seems that the practice is more of a crutch than anything else; some form of precipitate made necessary by the dense clouds of bloat that form around a system. |
Grunting Swine of the Week
"I don.t think any consumer ought to be complaining about the price of bread when they.re willing to pay four dollars for a gallon of water..
Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), defending those hard-earned corn subsidies.
That's the kind of bullshit response that makes me wonder how much kickback this guy is receiving, besides his Senate seat. |
Thu, 13 Mar 2008
What's your WA?
The "Stuff People Like" sites [e.g.:
Stuff White People Like and
Stuff Educated Black People Like
]
are that rare position of being simultaneously (a) highly witty and (b) required reading, for the comments as much as the posts.
So, it's time to play the home game...just how white am I?
Qualifications made, where applicable;
The funniest part is where I scoop them with one more thing white people like: useless stats. :D
Introducing: Whiteness Average. My WA == .436 (38/87). |
Today's topic for discussion is:
| On behalf of the 1st-level magic user that didn't survive long enough to get an alignment (or a name); Fubaran, the chaotic-neutral fighter-thief who, dracolich sword in hand, balanced good and evil by killing them both with judo-esque style; and the mysterious ranger named Barty, who went through more lives than a litter of cats: R.I.P., Gary Gygax. |
Wed, 12 Mar 2008
De-Spin: Three Down, several to go.
I'm still somewhat shocked by the news of Governor Eliot Spitzer's busting. Apparently, the governor is as shocked as we are, because he hasn't resigned yet took a few days to resign. Some notes:
First, the argument that Gov. Spitzer is a hypocrite for renting hookers while making a career of fighting corruption, is off-base. Given the particular "Justice" Department levying the investigation, I think the 'hypocrisy' argument is itself hypocritical.
Specifically, this type of statement falsely equates the crime of renting hookers with the financial crimes and bribery that Spitzer came to power on. The difference between the two should be completely obvious, but I'll state it for the slow: Anyone can rent a hooker, at a price corresponding to their wealth and ego. Only the largely-capitalized and well-connected can corrupt governments, and twist and subvert the laws of finance, all at the expense of market integrity. To equate such crimes of trust with prostitution is to speak a damn lie.
The correct argument is that if Gov. Spitzer used his caseload to select, protect, and/or pay his preferred pimps, then he's a hypocrite and/or racketeer. Otherwise, he's just another guy who rents hookers. That's right: prosecuting prostitution rings as Attorney General is not enough to establish hypocricy here. Directing and coordinating prosecutions is an Attorney General's job, as far as I can tell. Corruption must involve abuse of one's position, and as I've just mentioned, anyone can rent a hooker. Position
Sara brings up a great angle among many: what if this results from an agreement between the married couple? Kind of remote, but until we get a full explanation, it's just as viable a reason as "he's a tool."
Then, there's the reason this whole thing got started: The money trail. Playing shell games with bank accounts is just silly; it's like swimming in a fishbowl. To me, this aspect indicates that Spitzer was hiding his activities from his wife, as well as everyone else.
Also, for a career prosecutor to use this method of payment, for as long as has been alleged, indicates complicity and/or betrayal, on the part of officials at the bank in question. Or maybe, it was a new hire who didn't know the difference?
While not official yet, I think we can flag Eliot Spitzer as the third Democrat governor run out of office by the pack of taliban currently infesting the White House. At least this time, there may be actual crime involved. Why do I say this? Who are the other 9 clients mentioned in the Emperors Club case? Who are the other clients whose accounts are involved with this ring? Not a word. The decision to drop all this information in public, without an indictment, and without a single word about the other johns, speaks volumes about the intent here.
Update: Maher gets it right. |
Today's topic for discussion is:
Tue, 11 Mar 2008
Today's topic for discussion is:
| Plague and Taxes go together like peanut butter and chocolate. |
Mon, 10 Mar 2008
Google and the AP
There's a good post over on Bernaise Source,which describes the relationship between Associated Press and Google (specifically, Google News). The pivotal quote:It is easy to forget that AP is in fact the product of an Internet precursor -- the telegraph. |
A Side so Dark ...
[originally posted 3/8]
Throughout this primary season, one of Senator Clinton's major themes has been Senator Obama's lack of experience (which I've commented on earlier). Yet the Clinton campaign have not made a synthesis argument, along the lines of "A Clinton Presidency will offer Senator Obama the platform (i.e., a cabinet position) from which he can earn much-needed experience required to run this country WHEN I LEAVE OFFICE IN 2012 OR 2016."
The lack of such an argument, particularly in the face of voter hysteria at the mention of a Presidential ticket combining the two candidates, indicates a rejection by the Party Core of this movement that has propelled Obama into a position of challenging (and leading, at this writing) Clinton for the nomination.
The silence also reflects a disregard for constructs such as term limits and, well, a betrayal of intent of the party. The Democrat party is "democratic" in name only, in other words.
I expect little else from the American School, but it's still surprising to see such an obvious position go unclaimed.
Update: Apparently, this angle is now being tossed around, without the implied possibility of 12-16 years of Democratic White House. I think this argument will carry much more resonance within the party than the voters, but I think that by waiting this long to acknowlege the possibility, the Clinton campaign has minimized the argument's effect. |
Darkness Falls in South America
The only time Hugo "Snowball" Chavez shuts his mouth is when he gets what he wants, and sometimes not even then. So this past weekend's events and agreement can only be viewed as depressing proof of a South American Socialist Bloc, and Columbia's capitulation to that Bloc allows the Reds free reign to conquer the continent and Central America at their leisure.
Let's look at the map:
Let's see...Columbia struck within Ecuador, to the south. In doing so, Columbia meddled squarely in Venezuela's drug and weapons smuggling operations, and revealed FARC to be a common bus between the various members of the Bloc. Venezuela immediately organized with proxy state Ecuador, presenting Columbia with the prospect of multi-front warfare against both Venezuela (North and NorthEast) and Ecuador (Southwest), who both coordinate with FARC rebels to disrupt operations within Columbia.
So, Columbia has signed the terms of surrender before the war even started. They will have to fight the combined forces of Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Bolivia (don't forget Little Evo) through FARC, which gets free reign amongst the Bloc members. Within this arrangement, FARC is supplied, protected, and free to topple the Columbian government at FARC's leisure.
I very much hope the intelligence gathered from the two recent FARC killings makes public light; however, I fear that same intelligence prompted the agreement in the first place.
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Today's topic for discussion is:
Sun, 09 Mar 2008
Today's topic for discussion is:
Sat, 08 Mar 2008
A Different Kind of Breakfast
| I woke up with somewhat of a cold this morning, so I tried eating a garlic clove. Yeah, it worked, in much the same way that kicking a wall cures a headache. I might get the taste out of my mouth by Monday. |
Today's topic for discussion is:
| I started the evening with symphony, filled in some time with house music and good beer, and ended the evening watching douchebags and cleavage gyrate to the same "dance music" that's been playing for 20 years. Some people might say that's screwed up, but 'round here, we call it Friday. |
Fri, 07 Mar 2008
Ah, Humor.
Today's topic for discussion is:
As heard in IRC:[01:32] < initself > Many earlier computer languages, such as Fortran and C, were designed to make efficient use of expensive computer hardware. In contrast, Perl is designed to make efficient use of expensive computer programmers." - |
Thu, 06 Mar 2008
Back Online.
Connection: restored. The neighbor's yard is still full of limbs, however. I'm trying to figure out what kind of rustic furniture I can make out of 12" logs.
In the meantime, I'm replacing the regular 'feet' picture with a random image selector. The selector will pull from a set of scaled images, most of which are pictures I've taken. |
Today's topic for discussion is:
| A petition to allow chickens to be raised in Durham. |
Tue, 04 Mar 2008
W00T!
| McCain has secured the nomination, Obama won Vermont and is winning early in Texas, and I am the proud owner of code that tests successfully. Time to go celebrate! |
Today's topic for discussion is:
| [petition] I CAN HAZ PUPPI NOW PLEEZ? |
Mon, 03 Mar 2008
A Sauceror is Me!
The past week saw the yin and yang of pasta saucery; Tuesday's meat sauce and Sunday's meatless, tomato-free, 'anti-sauc
e'.
First, the meat sauce. The idea: to refresh any flavors lost during canning and shelving, with small amounts of fresh h
erbs (ok, and to satisfy an onion kick). This turned out superbly, particularly after settling in the fridge overnight.
- 1 qt. of garden spaghetti sauce (canned last year)
- 1 lb. ground sirloin (92/8)
- pinch salt
- 2 cloves garlic,
- 6 stems of thyme
- 1 handful of oregano
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 1 handful of parsley
- 1/4 c. water
Strip thyme leaves from stems; chop all the herbs, onions and garlic. Brown and drain the beef; add the herbs, onion an
d garlic, cook for a few more minutes, then add the sauce and water. Simmer down to sauce-like consistency.
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And now, for the veggie sauce. This was inspired by Sunday's walk through the park, and I picked up the remaining ingredients on the way home. The mission: no
tomatoes, no meat; use of a leek was a target of opportunity.
- 1 acorn squash, peeled and de-seeded
- 2 red bell peppers
- 2 heads broccoli (or "baby broccoli"), chopped/separated
- 1 leek heart
- 1 or 2 stalks green garlic,
- 1/4 c. black olive
- 1/4 c. capers, rinsed.
- 3 cloves garlic, halved
- olive oil, as needed
- 1/4 c. oregano, thyme, parsley
- 1 iron skillet (12-14" ).
Preheat oven to 400. De-seed and slice the peppers; coat them with oil, roast them in a skillet, stirring/flipping once or twice, for 20 minuts. While the peppers roast: chop the squash,leek, and herbs, and slice the olives. Oil the garlic and squash, and add them to the skillet; continue roasting (15+ minutes), until signs of wilting and scorching appear.
Move skillet to the stove, medium-high heat. Stir in the herbs, cook while stirring until the squash is mostly tender. Stir in the olives and capers; continue cooking until the squash starting to lose shape. Serve over pasta, with or without Mozzerella. Note: the capers and olives will add all the salt you'd ever want to have from this dish.
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This was actually really good. Next time I try this, I will: use eggplant instead of squash; add more oregano and thyme; add something sweet, maybe honey, use fewer capers , and add them with the rest of the herbs.
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Updates
Between being very busy and very slack, I haven't kept up as much as usual. A couple of notes:
- Day of reckoning for Clinton campaign tomorrow. Stick a fork in that turkey, it's done. I'll have another look at what's happening, in a future post.
- Google is down and dropping; since I'm short, that's a good thing.
- The Dollar is tanking; not really a good thing, but with Silver hitting $20/oz. today, and Au/Ag ratio under 50, I'm not in bad shape.
- Plants are being set up; I'll post in detail next weekend (assuming I don't spend all weekend counting clouds and dogs again).
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A perfect Sunday:
| Seventy degrees and sunshine on March 2. It really doesn't get much better, actually. I ended up walking around the park for about 4 hours, and ended up only slightly sunburned. :-) |
A perfect Saturday:
| Play by Shakespeare, opera by Verdi, broadcast by public radio, spaghetti by me, beer by Dogfish Head, weather by Nature. |
Today's topic for discussion is:
| A petition to allow hedgehog ownership in Arizona. |
