I'm a nice guy, I guess.

So much so that I'll save damsels in distress by taking their umpiring shift, sacrificing a wander about the art fair to do so. Oh, well, there's always Friday... or tomorrow, if I wanted to get up. So I took a four-game shift tonight after begging for some money from one of the places that was handing it out. I'll know how well my begging went tomorrow.

Microsoft agrees to self-police and play more fair in the competitive environment. Coming hot on the heels of getting a beatdown from the European commission about anti-trust stuff, it's no wonder that Microsoft is trying to appease everyone, so that their bottom line doesn't suffer too greatly.

Weapons to protect oneself in office politics. Xacto-style shuriken - for decorative purpose only, don't use them as they're sharp and will hurt someone.

The President finally exercises his first veto - voting down the opening of new stem-cell research lines. You may direct all correspondence to: Mr. George W. Bush, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500. Remember, sending explosives or abrasive chemicals is a violation of federal post law. Sending a blistering invective about the stupidity of the decision is not. On a realistic scale, my SCIENCE!-following friends, how far back does Mr. Bush set progress with his decision?

Speaking of setting progress back, this image-sidebar-recommendation thing on corporal punishment suggests that in the Christian household, "smacking" can be applied as long as 15 mintues, if necessary. I'm sorry, I call that "child abuse" if it carries on for this long, regardless of the grievousness of the offense. Not to mention that physical punishment only works for so long. The other bullet points in this list are just as scary and authoritarian - they're designed to make a child cower in fear of their parents rather than to cuddle and confide in them. I wonder how many regularly "smacked" children end up in the care of social services. On a different tack, scary, scary, people who think atheists have no moral/ethical imperative to do good things. Among other things. Since when did belief in God become a critical component of knowing what's good and what's not? After all, science is not a faith, but it still produces things that are considered positive and negative, no god(s) necessary. (Although, if you want some gods, try Godchecker.com

Work schedules need to be more flexible - most of the workforce has 'social jet lag'. This is true - some days you just need to sleep in longer, regardless of what you did the night before.

Bloggers blocked in India to stop "extremism". Slippery slope here, people. Start sliding and you'll find it's very well greased.

Alien Ant Farm. No, not the band.

Last marks for tonight - A potential reason why people are so opposed to gay marriage, even when supportive of gay rights. A quest for a gender identity in a word where gender identity is becoming even more and more fluid, flexible, and flux. I wonder if it's really true - that the people who don't think of gays as abominations condemned by God or second-class citizens of some sort really are worried about losing what they probably consider their last bastion of "proper" gender identity. How do you respond to that in such a way that these people will embrace the fluidity and permit homosexuals to join the ranks of the married?

Wow, time went by quickly today.

Maybe it was that whole sleeping in thing. You never know, these days. Anyway, there's almost always a feast of the strange and odd around when I put up a post, and today is no exception. A personal anecdote today, however. As I was at work, an adult (or as near as I could tell) came up to the desk, pointed at our containers of mints and said "Give me one." I explained to her that they were prizes for signup for our teen reading game, and that she needed to sign someone up to get one. She said "Oh. Someone gave me one yesterday, and I gave it to a friend thinking I could get another one. Give me one." And then she reached into the box, without as much as a by-your-leave, took a box, and walked away. I was left with the distinct feeling that this person hadn't heard a word I had said at all, or ignored it so totally that, to her, I had said "Sure, have one." I'm flabbergasted by it, and wonder how such a thing could come to pass. After all, she responded when I said, "No, I'm sorry", so it couldn't have been deafness or inability to understand, but... gah. I don't get it. Did she just block me totally or what?

An article with the "smacking" guide posted earlier. To shed, perhaps, a little more light on the subject. Although, perhaps as a success story, it turns out that if you do beat your child regularly, impose a quadrillion rules on them and punish them for inconsequential things, then you too can raise a fine fundamentalist. How many other leaders of the movement to force Christianity on the rest have such checkered pasts.

Other weirdness aboundeth, specifically this extraordinarily medieval view on what witchcraft is, peppered with almost all of the common ignorant accusations. It would seem that either this person didn't do what they are exhorting others to do so, or the validity of their sources is seriously in question. (And, yes, that would include Torah and the Christian Foundational Writings.) Then again, with the government attempting to seize land to protect a giant cross built on it, and trying to block judges from ruling on the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance, perhaps "research" in this day and age is simply praying and waiting for a message from somewhere, be it God or otherwise. More people should start paying attention to the growing threat of Right-Wing "Christians", as I'm sure things have only gotten worse since they began.

An Open Letter to the Iraqi People: Amplify the scandals that happen to you. We might hear more of it at home, but it appears that FEMA is insisting on one of their representatives being present when people in their care talk to the press. Don't want anything bad to slip out now, do we? Nevermind that these days, you need to practically shout to get the media to notice, and then holding their attention is damn near impossible, as they have sound bites and short attention spans and pandering to the masses to take into account.

Inspirational RPG posters. Funny thing is, I get them. And I've only played one module in my life.

This achievement takes iron balls and a lot of skill - namely a 15-year-old with cerebral palsy swims across Lake Ontario, in a little over a day.

That's the workout for tonight. As always, a mess of stuff. None of it necessarily interesting or thought-provoking, but if you get something out of it, all the better.