Yet another day spent in interestingness - 28 October 2007

Today was spent doing what most of my Sundays are spent doing - shopping and cooking. I did find some very nice boots for my feet for when the rains come with a vengeance, but no hat, sadly. And nice gloves... but a bit expensive. Perhaps I will get a pair for the VEWPRF. Also, I find clothes shopping reprehensible, in that I can spend almost ninety dollars on three pairs of pants. They’d better last me a very long time for the money I’ve paid for them.

And I bought some books, too. With the books I already have, that should help bring my Ozy and Millie collection up to speed. But that’s pretty much it for this paycheck in terms of wanting to actually buy things for myself. I’ll have to put off my collection-restoring manga mania for another time. After all, my loans are now coming due. Which is also not good.

And there’s the dentist visits now, too. So money’s definitely going out. Sigh. I think I’m going to be staring wistfully at my bank account status for the next ten years...

Anyway, also tried out Compiz Fusion, the new window decoration and effects stuff, and it’s pretty whiz-bangy. Only problem is, it doesn’t really like my multiple-desktops thing. So we’ll see whether we stay with it or not. I think a solution can be found, though.

droewyn is seeking opinions on how much to potentially charge for an unused bridal mask. Those who are crafty or have the jeweler’s eye, go comment with your opinion on how much the mask is worth.

The Boston Red Sox won the Major League Baseball championship. After the first one in several years, easy to do again, I guess.

If one is innundated with mail that one does not wish to receive, services like The Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service or Catalog Choice may help to reduce your junk amounts.

Onward to the news.

We’ll start in Bizarro World, rather than just getting there eventually with a strange exchange of e-mail between a Salon Columnist and a Colonel in the United States Army, the first being an unsolicited diatribe supposedly from the Colonel to the columnist, questioning his research and ability. While seeking confirmation from the colonel that it is indeed a fake, there have been no definitive replies or analysis that indicates that this is the case. Perhaps a momentary fit of pique?

With slightly more armor on than the Colonel, lobsters made an escape en masse from a supermarket, to end up at an animal home. Where they may be taken care of, as opposed to getting lucky like the squirrel that gorged itself too much, becoming too fat to escape the feeder it was raiding. Said squirrel escaped when the owner of the feeder made a gap wide enough for the squirrel to make an exit with.

Staying in a bizarre would, evangelical voters continue to show cracks and fissures in their once-united front.

Diplomatic staff may have to fill posts in Iraq or be dismissed. Because people willingly volunteer for diplomatic relations and engagements in a zone where the chance of dying on any given day is pretty high.

Missile defense system's second test is successful. Waiting to see when and whether they do decide to go live with the system.

Bill Clinton gives a 9/11 theorist an earful, denying that the attacks were an inside job and taking offense even at the suggestion that they were. That someone is willing to interrupt a past President with material that is theoretically unrelated to his Presidency is in very poor taste. Plus, if it turns out to have been an inside job, we’ll only find out about it long after whatever effect was intended from it has come to pass. Kindly be silent and let the man speak.

If you’re one of the people who is under suspicion for starting fires that developed into the blazes that have been raging across California, you may want to take your chances with the Governator, who will probably only put you in jail, than with the people, who may decide that they’re not going to turn you in until after you’ve been cremated.

The winner for tonight’s SSRC quiche, while being sensible legally, is really stupid to do from any other standpoint, is Apple's legal department, sending back an "we don't accept unsolicited ideas" letter to a third grader sending in suggestions. As I said, makes sense legally, so that there aren’t any chances for suit later on, but really, Apple. I don’t think a third grader needs to be subjected tot he full legalese. Or at the very least, you could write a thank you for the letter, even if it was burnt the moment it contained unsolicited ideas.

Driftglass offers another neologism for the English lexicon - rashomonotheism, the realization that while you and another person start out with similar goals in mind, the way you each understand those goals is so different as to be alien. Kind of like how one decides whether to support Michigan or Ohio State, having family that rabidly supports one or the other.

Almost taking the winning entry of best thing seen today is a parody of "We Didn't Start the Fire" that neatly summarizes Internet fads from the last few years. Some of them I recognize, others not, some I have no intention of finding out about.

And our winner for tonight is Dragon Girl, a story on making sure that you get what you want, not what someone thinks you want, or tells you you want. Plus, it’s just got a really cool ending. Read it all the way through and enjoy it, please.

Oooog. Long day today - 29 October 2007

Long day today. Started by seeing the dentist, and got drilled ‘n filled on two of my teeth. Hooray. Two more yet to go, and this doesn’t excuse me from continuing good habits. Thank goodness for insurances.

An enjoyable thing to think about, although possibly only the Japanese can enjoy it - Sesame Street credit cards. Sokyoooot. Comparatively, Tim Burton-style Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy. Also sokyoooot, depending on your preferences.

Back here in America, Stephen Colbert continues to campaign in South Carolina, naming a sponsor for his campaign and immediately taking a ribbing from the Edwards campaign on it. Much more seriously, follow the money and see that those who criticize the current health care industry are still accepting large donations from them.

Afghanistan's president is publicly asking the United States and NATO forces to scale back on dropping bombs on his country. There’s also an interview with one of the coordinators and commanders of the bombing campaigns, saying that a lot of strikes get called off. The deaths of civilians, though, in the bombing campaigns are definitely something to avoid. It still sounds like that the military is stretched rather thin on ground troops. I wonder how much worse that has gotten since the surge began. Certain towns lost to the Taliban have been the site of fierce fighting, certainly, and have not been recaptured.

More generally, War and bombs are deadly things. Those who have been on the end of them, and lived to tell the tale have much to tell us about their viciousness. nagamasa offers an account of his/her encounter with a Hiroshima survivor.



Back stateside, tracking things is definitely the wave of the future, with GPS devices being used for anything from tracking stolen cash to enforcing a driving zone or wander zone for vehicles and people that will alert others when those being tracked are outside their boundaries. Coupled with cell phones that can be loaded or cut off at times that also have trackers in them, it’s thoroughly possible that someone could know where you are, all the time. Doesn’t that just scream “we trust you with some independence” to teenagers?

NASA unmanned drones are helping with the California fire fighting. And they’re broadcasting the data back in a much faster manner than the human pilots.

Up in space, an inspection today discovered metal shavings on the International Space Station, which could mean setbacks for new module deliveries and for power generation. The damage could be reparable, but it would also be good to figure out why those shavings are there in the first place.

Whet your knives and sharpen your appetites, and watch a guest poster with The General politely request to book a Satanist Club after-school activity after seeing that the West Valley School District allows a Christian after-school activity to take place there. The district itself is not sponsoring, nor assumes any responsibility for the Christian group, and it is happening after school, so it doesn’t necessarily run into case law grounds, but I sincerely hope they’re just as accommodating for the Pitchfork Club as they are for the Good News Club. Also, I note the start date. Halloween. How cute.

Something not cute at all is the way that a ban on religious content-filled flag-folding recitations is turned into an attack on the Christian roots of the flag-folding recitation. Excepting for one tiny problem. There is no religious content or additional special meaning in the folding of the flag. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nothing at all. Much like the “War on Christmas”, this one seems to have been made up out of whole cloth, and then somehow grafted on. If you would, however, like to create your own flag and establish meaning for it, you’re more than welcome to.

Something worthy of more serious discussion - are girls' Hallows Eve costumes too adult? Sex sells, sure, but do little girls really want to go flouncing about, and is it wise for costume manufacturers to make so many sexualized costumes? I’m sure that Pedo Bear approves, but isn’t that a bad thing? Of course, there is always the suggestion that the kids are merely emulating their parents/older friends and television/media role models, who are continuously getting more and more sexualized. Where to begin to restore innocence... if it can be restored? And if it should be restored, because I’m sure that there are people who think that exposing children to these things and the associated messages is a good thing (assuming the messages can be handled), or at least unavoidable.

Also worthy of discussion, but potentially also deserving of quiche, is Star Parker's utilization of Senator Obama's seeming contradiction on gay issues to say that there’s no reason for the ENDA to pass, nor that the Senator is doing anything that deserves the backlash that he has received for hiring an ’ex-gay’ gospel singer for his tour, one that claims that anyone can change to heterosexuality if they really want to. The ENDA reasoning is based, at least in part, on the gospel singer’s claim - if anyone can change to heterosexuality with effort and prayer, then giving homosexuals non-discrimination status is ‘special rights’. If it’s innate, of course, like one’s race, then that argument falls apart. Continuing, Parker chides the liberal base on wanting to fire someone from a campaign because he is “Christian and an advocate of traditional values”, at the same time advocating for a piece of legislation that would prevent those Christians from not hiring or firing employees that are probably in his mind, advocates for the homosexual agenda. (I think I misplaced my copy again.)

Senator Obama is being a Democrat, for certain - stalking the center line, hoping not to fall off while appealing enough to both sides of the spectrum to get himself elected. For the liberals that believe Democrats should be a real liberal party, this pandering to a religious conservative base is sickening. Thus, they’re within their ideological rights to raise hell that the Senator is not behaving like a liberal. Much like some people might be surprised at Ben Stein throwing the shocker.

Digby says the next election isn't about comparing oneself to G.W. Bush, but to Hillary Clinton, to the point where she thinks that Hillary is replacing W as the sitting president, and that the last eight years might end up being blamed on her, and not the shrub. Liberal Beagle says, in response, "Wate, wut?".

In technology, terabyte thumb drives may soon be within our grasp. Portable drives can always use more space. And if you want a sixteen billion pixel image of da Vinci's Last Supper, you might need all that space. Or if you want to carry some very artistic renders of computer-generated women.

Differing opinions on the matter of whether the world is ready for extraterrestrial life to make contact (or be revealed) - Paul Kimball says that we're not ready for it yet, and that there would be mass panics. Mac Tonnies, on the other hand, says even if we do panic, meeting ET might be the kick in the pants humanity needs to move forward.

And now, cute pictures of children in Halloween costumes in Harlem. And then The Endicott Studio, a place where myth, folklore, and fairy tales all say hello to each other and see how they work with our contemporary arts. Looks really good to read. Endicott Studio also maintains a blog. A sampling of what’s available in this issue is Spells of enchantment, which reminds us that “Once upon a time” is as much an incantation as an invocation.

Last for tonight is Zen Proverbs, so that one’s moment of enlightenment is not late in arriving.

Nor should one’s sleep.