| Heretical |
[05 Mar 2008|10:42pm] |
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You know, the Zune music software for Windows is actually damned good. Much better than iTunes, which has never acted like a native Windows app ... and is a huge resource hog.
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| I hate people, part 319 |
[06 Aug 2007|10:57pm] |
"State traffic engineers would close lanes on the bridge for the inspections, and most of the time the lane closures were from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The snooper arms could operate from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. That put inspectors under continual pressure to finish work before the evening rush hour, said one of three experts.
When the lanes were closed, it was not uncommon for inspectors to be the target of insults -- even thrown objects -- from inconvenienced motorists."
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| Thought I'd share |
[08 Jun 2007|04:26pm] |
A reponse my friend at to bartcop.com:
"What words can I use to make people see the difference between real and fake options?
Tell me why people who want a president who's not on the ballot don't get it..
Tell me how to get a message to the dreamers who are waiting for a White Knight to
scoop them up and deliver then to Nirvana or Valhallah or the Invisible Cloud Kingdom."
Well, first of all, a lot of us aren't Democrats. The Democratic party represents my views only a bit more competently than the Republican party does. I'm an anarchist, I believe that capitalism is destructive and abusive, I believe that voting is an ineffective means of creating social change when the ballots are rigged and the mass media is filled with propaganda.
You never answered my question before -- at what point do you stop voting Democratic? When the only difference between the Ds and Rs is in whether they imprison in a dark cell for 30 years (D) or immediately execute (R) those suspected of political or social crimes against the state? This is where we're heading as both parties keep lurching to the right.
I will further ask -- why should I vote for someone I don't support, when doing so will simply perpetuate the policies that are killing millions per year (toxins in our air, water, homes and food) and give aid and comfort to those who are destroying the capacity of this planet to support life?
The invisible cloud kingdom is filled with people who believe that voting for a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President will end the war for control over middle eastern oil.
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| This is cool |
[18 Mar 2007|05:57pm] |
I saw a mink today, slinky slinky slinky through the trees.
There's a beaver dam 300 feet from my house, they're knocking over lots of trees ... in the other direction.
The cats are fascinated by the snow falling and leaves blowing right now. stare stare stare stare stare.
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| $1.99 gas |
[19 Jan 2007|09:34pm] |
Isn't it amazing how gas prices drop when the Democrats are in control of one or more branches of Congress?
The same thing happened when Jeffords switched.
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| Hey Macheads |
[21 Dec 2006|08:32am] |
My mail program has about 23,000 messages in it. It is no longer effectively searching through deleted emails, rendering the archive useless. When I try to delete more than a days' worth of old emails, it locks up on me.
Is there a way to delete, say, 6 months worth of emails and make the program respond to search queries in the deleted folder again?
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| An Interlude |
[02 Dec 2006|10:32am] |
Yay furniture! Erik needs furniture!
I'm also thinking of an ambitious book idea, an exploration of several themes (education, religion, law, group conflict) and how they've affected us lil' human critters over the past few thousand years. The premise is that it is difficult to understand the society we're in, and how to change this for the better, without a clearer understanding of the social conditions under which our species evolved. As it stands now, most accounts of human society begin around 2,000 BC. Studies of societies from before that time tend to assume we have little to learn from primitive cultures.
I went down this road after reading a blog post from some liberal exclaiming the importance of Hammurabi's Code in defining law as being applicable to everyone, from ruler to peon, and how 'those evil Republicans' were pissing on 3,000 years of history. I had some fun playing with the idea of rulers of early city-states rising to power, then making a gesture to history by declaring that 'all people are equal' ... and then enforcing those laws against their political allies.
This sort of myth is common -- the belief that laws and constitutions are created 'for the people', and that the increasingly complex regulation of social behavior by public and private agencies is done for the betterment of society. Laws are generally created to protect property owners, and to ease the exercize of power ... in other words, the Recording industry of America writes copyright laws, and human resource managers write codes of workplace conduct. In doing so, they serve interests other than idealism.
Why is this relevant or interesting? The increasing complexity of these laws is altering the social relations of humanity. As our society is currently on an unsustainable path of resource use, and we seem intent on jailing more and more people, it is fair to say that our laws are not working very well. It is therefore useful to look at how past human societies created and enforced their laws -- as the human societies which had systems of law which were unworkable did not survive. Natural selection works on a cultural, as well as a genetic level.
This kind of analysis does not mean that humans should return to small tribal groups, any more than a criticism of factory farms necessitates a return to hunter-gatherer practices. I'm simply interested to explore the idea of how humans managed to educate, feed and police themselves over multiple generations ... and do so competently enough to survive and reproduce. This is a feat that we will be incapable of in 2-3 generations if current trends continue.
This is a complex idea to wrap my head around, which is why it needs to be fleshed out in a larger form than a few blog posts.
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| An Ode to Househunting |
[22 May 2006|03:31pm] |
Shit, I hate this part. The make-an-offer-and-wait-for-the-reaction part. Shit shit shit shit shit shit.
Shit! :)
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| Floating around the Internet |
[07 Mar 2006|09:10am] |
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"I just realized that those nuts in South Dakota might be having an unanticipated effect. I am working today and this guy said to me over lunch, "I can't believe that these people are really serious." He's a bit of a putz and he admitted that he'd believed women were exaggerating the threat. I said "I hope you're ready to be daddies, boys. Last time abortion was illegal they didn't have DNA testing" and they all looked stunned."
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| Roy Moore Poetry Slam |
[10 Oct 2005|04:16pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 silly |
] |
We've voted in a government
that's rotting at the core,
Appointing Godless Judges
who throw reason out the door.
Too soft to place a killer
in a well-deserved tomb,
But brave enough to kill a baby
before he leaves the womb.
You think that God's not angry,
that our land's a moral slum?
How much longer will He wait
before His judgment comes?
Go Roy!
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shaesin's journal
