flowchart { Flowchart of a Nerd's lovelife

And you're even more of a nerd if you can follow it.

nerd/politics { Candidates w/ Monster Manual Entries

Saw this on boingboing. Brilliant.

John McCain (Demon Prince of Republicans.) (Lesser God.)

FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO APPEARING: 1
ARMOUR CLASS: -7
MOVE: 3" (72" per flight sector on the campaign jet)
HIT DICE: 200 hit points (But first you have to defeat 4d8 Secret Service Agents)
% IN LAIR: 0%
TREASURE TYPE: All your NATO base are belong to us!
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: Invades Iran. Takes 100d20 casualties in first strike while inflicting 20 x 100d20 civilian casualties. Followed by war of attrition, economic collapse, recrimination.
SPECIAL ATTACKS: 5% chance of 30,000 Megaton nuclear first strike on Upper Volta.
SPECIAL DEFENSES: +3 or better weapon to hit. In event of combat, 20% chance of heart attack per round, followed by the swearing in of President Santorum. You wouldn't want that, would you?)
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 80% (10% vs. mind control spells by Cheney.)
INTELLIGENCE: Normal.
CHARISMA: 12 (16 to neocons)
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic evil if under control of Cheney; otherwise Chaotic neutral.
SIZE: M
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: X/29,950* (* for impeachment)

A huge, ancient, carnivorous dinosaur from the swamps at the heart of Republican country, not unlike Godzilla in appearance and wrinkled integument, McCain has seen better years. Nevertheless he can breathe fire and threaten to stomp flat the capital city of any country that Fox News disapproves of with the best of them.

The biggest danger in facing off against a McCain is that he might be under the mind control of the Svengali-like Cheney, Prince of Darkness. In this case, he is likely to be lethally aggressive and even more unpredictable than usual.

election { Going Low, Going Negative, part 2

Found another distasteful campaign ad:

election { Going Low, Going Negative

The thing I hate most in elections, is the negative mud slinging. This tactic was refined and taken to new heights by the campaign strategies of Karl Rove for Bush in 2000 (a good example was the push polling saying McCain had a "black baby" in South Carolina).

I'm a little disappointed that Hillary is using this, below is a campaign ad that was used in Texas and Ohio before the race:



Its a Fear ad, much like the one from Defense of Democracies. Meant to scare us and tap into that primal emotion.

The Obama campaign hasn't used fear ads, instead going for more of a sympathy tactic. However, supporters have gone negative, and directly against her, such as in this non-endorsed supporter ad:



I wish both sides would not go negative. I wish there was a way candidates could counter each other and maintain an honest, fair, and sportsmanlike race. Facts seem to not matter much anymore and they are hard to weed out of the noise or find in a raw, unbiased format.

Going negative foremost is childish. To those who don't support you, it deepens their anger and disgust. For those who do support you, or believe the ads/remarks, it can create false impressions of the other candidate. Either way it creates an unnecessary tension at best, and a complete split where either side will not listen to the other at worst (the scorched earth approach).

Personally I support Obama, but I could live with Clinton (at the moment). I get a lot of flak from people (which is good, it sparks good healthy debate) because I support a candidate who "lacks experience." But I keep going back to, in my mind, that this lack of experience, to me, is not a detriment. I want change. I don't want someone who come from the inside (even though Obama does) who wants to maintain the status quo. The status quo is so broken I want outside of the box thought and input. I want someone not biased by years of being in that toxic environment. You want a competent President yes (although we haven't had one since 2000), but you also want a charismatic President. Someone who can energize and inspire. That trait does not come from experience, you either have it or you don't. I don't want change for the sake of change either, but change is needed.

P.S. If anyone can link Obama endorsed, anti-Clinton ads similar to Clinton's '3AM' ad, let me know. And yes I am aware that by not asking his supporters to stop going negative, Obama is passively supporting it.

casual_friday { In Memorium of Gary Gygax

Dead Alewives (8bit)

musings { A Day in the Office

Tea bags pile up in the cap of my tea cup the way butts accumulate in the ash tray of a chain smoker. Its been a three bag day. The caffeine flows through my veins like electricity, clouding the mind, making things hard to focus on. Its Thursday. Usually a day of 4 hours of meetings. Today was cut short.

I keep my headphones on at all times, to help with the illusion of privacy afforded in my small box, well slightly larger box than I had a few weeks ago. A white noise generator supposedly provides cover for phone conversations, however this is a myth. It only provides a low level slightly annoying over time hum.

Email has been quiet, almost too quiet.

The project plan in front of me continues to grow. I need to watch scope creep, easy to do with large projects.

Review of the news turns up that Jeff Healey died last week. Gygax this week, they say celebrities go in threes. I liked Jeff Healey.

Our contractor stops by, he took my 'Solaris Performance and Tools' book with him recently to a tech summit in Chicago, he had it signed by the author Jim Mauro. Sweet.

I read a story about a Marine who threw a live puppy off a cliff, and it was video taped. What the hell? I avoid trying to think deeper into this, it was on You Tube, but like the Saddam hanging, was removed relatively quickly. I don't feel the need to go look for this, I've traveled enough of the digital river that I've seen more than I probably should have, I don't need to see this.

Ribs tonight. Friends tonight. I look forward to both.

The movie '28 Weeks Later' sucks royal. And this is from a guy who likes cheesy zombie movies. '28 Days Later' was a great creepy movie, this was just a shitty sequel. The other movie we watched 'La Cirque Rouge' was an awesome cops and robbers French flick. One that oozed cool and is highly recommended to anyone.

The Presidential race remains a yawn fest. Obama/Clinton, either one. Perhaps I've grown too cynical to think either can actually help guide us out of this shitstorm in which we've become quagmired.

Time to go home.

musicvideos { Some Fatboy Slim to cheer things up

Been feeling blue, I think its the weather, these helped cheer me up.

'The Joker' (cuteness factor approaches red zone on this one)


'Right Here, Right Now' (Evolution illustrated)


'Weapon of Choice' (because you gotta love Christopher Walken)

in memoriam { Farewell Dungeon Master

Gary Gygax has died.

Update:

I guess I should add that I met Gary on a couple of occasions (Gen Con 18 and 20). He was nice enough to talk to me for a couple minutes while he was waiting for lunch in the Hyatt Regency in Millwaukee during GenCon 18. I was a young kid and he was just this nice guy who created a game which over my lifetime has given me thousands of hours of enjoyment, not to mention a love of fantasy, mythology, theatrics, and platonic solids. I still have a couple of the old first edition AD&D books that Gary autographed, although my signed Players Handbook was stolen at a Con. I never got the chance to play D&D with Gary (although I have played with Dave Arneson). He was one of the fathers of Role Playing Games, and his impact in both the PnP and video game industry was considerable.



(Gary, fourth from left)

tech { My compy died...

So I had to rebuild a new one.

I was never able to fully identify what was wrong with my old computer, but I suspect bad RAM, a failed power converter on the mobo, or a dead proc. The symptoms were that a random, the computer would lock up with a high pitched squeal in the headphones. At first I thought it was some kind of compatibility problem with the new (as of patch 2.3) sound engine in WoW and my Creative X-Fi sound card. But last Wendesday it locked, and in this situation, a reset would usually fix it, but this time, a reset caused the monitor to go into 'No Signal' mode and nothing happened anymore, no HDD spin up, speaker beep or anything. I was crushed. I built the computer back in 2002, it was my companion while I was house bound during my recovery from AML.

Well the computer is dead, long live the computer.

I put together a new system. Here is its specs:

Motherboard: Asus P5E Pro WS; LGA775, 1600/1333MHz FSB, 2xPCI-Ex16 slots, 1 PCI-X slot, 2 PCI slots, I'm an Intel man and after my first Asus mobo a few computers back, I'll be hard pressed to ever switch
Memory: Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 PC2 6400 4-4-4-12 CAS 2x1GB memory kit (soon to be 4GB)
Processor: Intel Core Duo 3.0GHz 4MB shared L2, E6850 Conroe
Video Card (new motherboard required a new video card): BFG Tech GeForce 8800GTS 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 SLI ready, I went nVidia even though I prefer ATI because this card received good benchmarks and most games now have been optimized for nVidia chipsets (which is sad)
PSU: 500W CoolMax M-500 ATX12V
Soundcard (only piece I carried over from the old system): Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Fatal1ty

The parts arrived last Friday. I was hoping to have the system rebuilt and re-installed before 9pm, in time for our Karazhan raid (which didn't happen because 1/3 the raid never showed up). The brain and CNS transplant went successfully and I was done at 8pm. The WinXP re-install was a pain, but it always is since I refused to go Vista, it mean about 3 hours of WinXP install, SP2 install, and about 900 patch updates. I then installed and updated the mobo, vid card, soundcard, and various drivers. I didn't have to play with the BIOS beyond setting up my boot devices, which is one thing I like about Asus mobos, jumperless, fully customizable settings from the BIOS. The biggest problem I've had was re-installing and re-importing my iTunes library. I install my iTunes onto a separate disk in a non-default location, which makes importing it a pain, but it can be done.

This computer is about 2 generations newer than my old one. I was going to upgrade it sometime this year anyway because graphics technology has moved from AGP to PCI-E, and my ATI X1650 was the last AGP video card I was going to buy.

Performance specs (anecdotal):

World of Warcraft (about the only game I play routinely):
Resolution (old/new): 1680x1050/1680x1050
Settings (old/new): Minimum Vid settings + high texture detail/Full Vid settings, all sliders maxed
Average FPS (old/new): 30/170
Average Latency (old/new): 120ms/120ms

Yeah, I'm averaging 120-170fps in most of the world. In Shattrath City, the main hub, most populated, worst performing area of the game for everyone, I used to get 7-17fps around the central area and banks, with my new system, the lowest I've seen was 70fps in the Scryer's bank. In instances I'm doing about 90-120fps. In battlegrounds (also low performing due constant updates from server) I'm averaging 80fps. It feels like a whole new game with the level of detail I've never played with before.

Sins of Solar Empire
Resolution: 1680x1050 (both old and new)
Settings (old/new): Minimum + ship detail = high/Full, all settings max
Average FPS: unknown/unknown, the game has no easy FPS meter

This game plays smooth as silk on maximum detail and environment settings. I even created a custom map with 500 planets, and there was no slow down or lag. I can now have the detail turned up to the level where planets are richly detailed as are the ships instead of vague geometric blobs with different colors.

This computer build should last me for years to come. I generally get 5 years or so of life out my home built computers and I picked this one so that it would last me another 5 years.

I <3 my new compy and I <3 Nerdwife who puts up with my tech addiction and understood my need to build a new computer.

season { Spring is near

I grew up with part of my life on a farm. I know what it means to be in sync with the clockwork of nature and life. Spring is life and renewal, fall is diminish and death, summer is activity, winter is rest. Spring is close and I welcome and look forward to it. I hope each year the world will be reborn anew. I wait for the coming of the green, and hope it will not become brown too early. Winter must have snow, and summer must have sun. Spring must have warmth and fall must have chill. This is how life should be according to my internal clock. This is how it has always been for me living a lifetime thus far in Minnesota. The year has four parts. Each leads to the next. Each make up a cycle of the year. We are entering a time of renewal and rebirth. The gray will pass and out will come the sun.

'Suvetar', Gjallarhorn (yes, I've posted this before, its a fitting song for spring)



translation:

Suvetar, fine matron
Arise to see the seeds
Raise the matron's corn
So that we may be spared pain

Manutar, matron of the Earth
Lift up the shoots from the ground
New shoots from the stumps
So that we may be spared pain

Feed us with honey-hearts
Give us honey-drink
Delicious honey-grass
On a blossoming knoll

You have shining silver
You have glistening gold

Rise up, O maiden
Black from the soil

Underground crone
Most ancient of Nature's daughters
Make the peat shoot forth
And the ground turn over

Underground crone
Most ancient of Nature's daughters
Lift up a thousand seedlings
To reward my efforts.

casual_friday { Lunar Eclipse from Feb 20, 2008

word { Sesquipedalian

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
ses·qui·pe·da·li·an /ˌsɛskwɪpɪˈdeɪliən, -ˈdeɪlyən/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ses-kwi-pi-dey-lee-uhn, -deyl-yuhn] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective Also, ses·quip·e·dal /sɛsˈkwɪpɪdl/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ses-kwip-i-dl] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation.
1. given to using long words.
2. (of a word) containing many syllables.
–noun
3. a sesquipedalian word.
[Origin: 1605–15; < L sésquipedālis measuring a foot and a half (see sesqui-, pedal) + -an]

local { Krispy Kreme leaves Minnesota

Krispy Kreme leaves Minnesota. I can't say this surprises me. The one that opened here in Rochester closed before a year even passed. Besides the slaughtering of the spellings of crispy and cream for the sake of a brand name, I found them distasteful because the donuts really were not that great a pastry. They were greasy. They were sickly sweet. The coffee they sold sucked. They're no Tim Horton's.

Here in Rochester, I chalked the closure up to the mistake of opening 1/2 block from a local (and outstanding) bakery, Daube's.

On a side note, last night KTTC, the local JV quality NBC affiliate, whose 10pm newcast I can't stop watching...its sooo bad...ran a 5minute equivalent of an infomercial because Starbuck's closed early for training of its employees on how to make a good cup of coffee. Well good for Starbuck's, but I guess I can't see how this is news. It smelled a helluva a lot like a paid commercial, sneaked into the newscast as news. But there was a nugget at the end, Starbucks will be closing 100 under-performing stores. Which is about time, I think they hit saturation point about 10 years ago. When we went to San Francisco in 2005, literally, there were areas of downtown San Fran where three of the four corners of the intersection had a Starbucks. It was obvious the reason they were so dense was they bought out or pushed out a local shop that was in that location previously.

P.S. KTTC, your 10pm newscast could improve greatly by getting rid of Tim Overlie. You made a vast improvement by getting rid of Betsy Singer and replacing her with Rachel Wick. (We ran into Betsy Singer one night going to a movie at Chateau, she was fronting some evangelical christian jesus-fest activity that involved a lot of screaming kids and a ball bin).

In politics, last night KTTC ran a commercial, and I really wish I could remember the name of the organization that paid for this, it had one of those innocent sounding names, yet the organization is pure evil type things like Americans for a Democratic Society.

UPDATE: Found it, the group is 'Defense of Democracies'. Here is the FUD ad. WARNING, this ad contains Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt as well as unhealthy amounts of Jingoism with no facts.




The commercial is a FUD piece saying the Senate had shown true leadership and concern for the safety of this country by voting FOR the new FISA bill (which is the bill the Bush Administration wants that include Telecom immunity), while the House ducked its responsibility and went on vacation. It showed a whole bunch of scary images and pro-American jingoism, terrorist bad bullshit common in these times thanks to the Bush Adminisration. The end put up Tim Walz's picture and contact information (which isn't on the YouTube version, and must have been added regionally for each member of Congress targeted) and urged people to call him and tell him to vote YES for security! Vote FOR the FISA bill (now with new and improved Telecom Immunity!). I won't go into why this ad is wrong on so many levels, as it makes me so enraged I get even more incoherent. But sufficed to say, the new FISA bill will not make us safer, the old FISA legislation (which had been updated) protects us and our civil liberties by requiring judicial oversight and review (even after the fact if time of the essence) and the new bill weakens civil liberties and expands the power of the Administrative Branch by weakening the checks and balances. The fact this ad could give no facts and only provide push-button emotional rhetoric should illustrate why everyone when they see something like this should, in the words of Buffalo Springfield, 'there's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear...stop children, what's the sound? Everybody look whats goin down...'

politics/tinfoil_hat? { NAU???

Hmmm, never heard of this. Tinfoil hat fodder or genuine threat?

politics { The Cottonwood Tragedy

StarTrib actually has a good article urging level headed thinking in
response to the accident that claimed the life of 4 children, instead of
the hate fueled divisional politics of the vigilantes (and certain
Republicans).

http://www.startribune.com/local/15927542.html

wtf { Lvl32 Citizen WTB civil liberities

Spo0kz could b3 inz my g@mez sn00ping my chatz omgwtfbbq!!!!1111!!!11!1one!!!

WP article.

casual_friday { How Did the Razor Find My Throat

Tom Waits - Alice

politics { America...

FUCK YEAH!



Pretty much our answer to everything.

Again, Jingoism != Patriotism

musings { "I believe in a thing called love..."

"I Believe in a Thing Called Love" - the Darkness

humor/tech { How not to suck on Internet Forums...in 8 bit

How To Behave On An Internet Forum