Rolling onward

Feetball watching today. After a sluggish start, the padded rugby squad got things moving and rolled to another victory. As did that other school in a state south of here. It's quite possible that the matter of whom is going where will be decided on the last game of the season. After feetball, sandwiches with the family and watching some of the Tigers get spanked. There have been attempts at work all of today, and I suppose I have the rewrit draft quasi-complete, but I'm going to go sit on this one until I go see the professor. Since I'm confused about what precisely I'm aiming for, I'm going to hope for a little guidance, or at least some clarification. Yes, that means that I've probably failed to grasp the assignment. Ah, well. This one's not due for a while. And I suspect it's supposed to be of a grander scale than what I have right now, but I'm not sure bigger is better in this case. More sources, sure, but not necessarily just adding paragraphs and paragraphs of text. Ah, well.

Terrorist Profiling, v. 2, entitled "Tangram". At least in this document, they admit to shortcoming of the current approaches. The grab for data that could easily be linked into "we know where you are at all times, thoughtcriminal" and the lack of anything that says "Yeah, we'll protect your privacy" makes people worried that it's in the design of the program to get that data eventually and use it in that fashion.

A novel way of getting around prostitution laws, at least for the moment, is to offer dolls for the boys to have sex with instead of girls. For a good portion of the customer base, I'd say that dolls would do.

I have a book that I want, want, want. It's a book full of library smut - full-frontal pictures of libraries and their collections. It might be available at Amazon, but here's a link to at least one seller (in the UK)

In the new wave of dormitory life, European architects are testing prototypes of cube dwelling in bulk. Each space is 8 ft square, and is a "micro-compact home". Something for living out in places where there isn't much for amenities. Assuming that one had a sufficient food supply, that would be rather interesting.

To meet the needs of deployment in combat areas, in addition to lowering standards, the military has decided to redeploy soldiers with PTSD. Yes, that's right. Putting troops that are potential dangers to themselves and others around them back into the combat situation. Real winning strategy there. Doesn't this say a lot about the validity of the war being fought? And with the Republicans running ads designed to scare people into voting for them, the party continues to only sink lower and lower in the moral eye. Take a read of After Pat's Birthday to be reminded why it's worth voting out all the people who approved of the suffering and torture that's been done in your name.

An atheist Buddhist (yes, it's possible) takes a stabbity-stab at the fanaticism of religion and to some degree why there aren't more atheists and agnostics out in the streets in I Got Your God Right Here. The piece is itself a reaction to a Reuters article that notes a new wave of atheist-minded books are hitting the markets. IHYGRH says that the climate is, and has been, really bad for being an atheist in America, because most people are religious in one way or another and viciously defend themselves when they feel threatened. Or some others go out on their own personal crusades, speaking for many. I linked to the study that said atheists were considered one of the most untrustworthy people in the country. Just because someone professes a belief in a deity doesn't make them trustworthy. For my example, I recommend James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Fred Phelps, and the like. They believe in God - not necessarily your God, but they believe nonetheless. Would you trust them?

Last thing is pretty silly. 10,000 Needles to protect a cell phone. That's a neat craft project. Perfect for needletime.

Tomorrow may be taken as a sanity day, then, just to keep me honest and re-energized. Probably wise to do so, anyway, and to not stress as much as I want to about this. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to that other writing thing that's been nagging after me for a couple weeks now...

And week's over.

No work actually done today. Although I don't really feel all that great even having taken a day off. That might be more due to the rain and the lack of enthusiasm for my work than anything. I can tell already that Okami's going to be a masterful game, though.

Nearly three-quarters of a polled 1,000 Americans say Congress is out of touch. Other poll statistics: A little more than half of those polled said the American Dream is impossible to achieve for some, and seventy-nine percent of those polled say that big business has too much influence on the White House. The American people are dissatisifed with the way things are being run. This may translate to a shift in the houses from one party to another, assuming everything happens without interference. In other political stuffs, it appears that the President's memory on "staying the course" may be a bit fuzzy.

I also keep seeing advertisements against a particular candidate that makes a play on words with his name by painting him as "shockingly liberal". To which I wonder: If being a liberal is such a shocking thing in this country, what does it say about us, where we are, and why people seem to enjoy the confines of the handbasket? I also thought it was a poor advertisement, too.

For some list-like pleasure, we're going to start with the 25 worst tech devices as listed by PC World, and then the 25 dumbest gaming moments. Some times, all you can do is shake your head and say "Thanks for trying." (Different kind of thanks for greyweirdo, whose list I pulled these from.) And from there, we can see that while some ideas still sucked badly, at least graphically, games have evolved significantly from earlier days.

In what might be a waste of a good pumpkin, a functional computer has been made inside a pumpkin shell. In better science, it appears that a new mouse species was discovered in Europe. So you can never necessarily say that you've discovered all the species on the planet, even in places where you don't find many at all.


( Chess Piece Meme )

I've been in a bit of a funk today. I normally like the rain, but I think it got to me today. Ah, well, shake it off for tomorrow, where I can feel like my life has purpose again.