musings { spring

I read Knight of Nothing's post about how busy he is and it made me reflect about my own situation. I'm busy as hell as well. But then again I've been 'go' since about six months after starting my job here in Rochester. Upon deeper reflection, I've been busy for as long as I've been an 'adult'. The last nine months especially have been busier than usual. DST patching was a stone-cold bitch. Now that it is over, the deluge of projects that backed up behind it have released. Everyone's trying to get things in both before the summer, when the budget traditionally starts to get sliced and in case the rumored code freeze happens. The nice thing is your mind can only process so much, it varies by person, but you reach that certain point where adding one more thing to the pile isn't any worse from a workload perspective or mental health one either. Its just another voice in a chorus of people who want your time, resources, advice, etc.

I've also ramped my personal life up quite a bit, which I need to watch to make sure I don't over-commit. But that is always a see-saw, I'm either bored off my ass with nothing to do, or missed chances, or I have too many things I want to do all at once. I think this is why I make my weekends Sacrosanct, or try to, I'm bad at it. Someday perhaps I will find that balance.

There are quite a few things I want to do this year:

*learn bass guitar, this has been one of those 12 year plans
*get my Nox D&D campaign setting fleshed out enough to run players through at least one adventure
*clear out a large majority of my 'to-read' bookshelf
*write more, especially creative writing and possibly philosophical shit, good shit
*go back to school and start picking off those classes toward my graduation
*see Europe
*get through 1/2 of my 90 deep Netflix queue
*decaffeinate (working on this, so far I've only had 3 caffeinated cups of coffee in the last 3 weeks), not completely, just enough to sleep better
*lose 10 pounds (I set a goal for 20 last year, but only accomplished 5) or fight into an old 'goal' pair of pants I have, whichever comes first, if 10 pounds is reached, I'll try for 20
*fish at least once per week, I almost accomplished this last year
*clean out the garage and reduce what I have in general by about 20%
*get a new car (my Saturn laser chicken is starting to show its age)
*start a book club for sci-fi

I hope I can make these happen with a work schedule that promises to be 45-65 hours/week at points. There's also politics. But following politics and news have been what I've sacrificed lately. I play WoW, and have a new set of friends there, I also try to integrate that into my life too. I know I play a little more than I have time for, but, its what I want to do right now at this point in my life. I'm probably addicted, but I've played video games I know the signs for when too much is enough and to tone it down.

politics { RIAA shill to run DNC Public Affairs

As reported in this article on boingboing.

Today, Jenni Engebretsen was named "Deputy CEO for Public Affairs," for the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Denver -- but she is better known as the Director of Communications for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The RIAA is the most hated "company" in America, according to a recent poll on the Consumerist. The RIAA's campaign of suing thousands of American music lovers has been the single biggest PR disaster in recent industrial history -- which is why Engebretsen's employer beat out Halliburton, Blackwater and Wal-Mart for the coveted "Worst Company" slot.

Feel free to furrow your brow and growl "GRRRRR" at the DNC. Its ok. They need it sometimes as much as the RNC.

politics { 18 1/2 minutes of tape

FIVE MILLION E-MAILS

Yeah, Nixonesque America is back and boy is it popular.

How many more crimes will these people be allowed to commit before they are removed from positions of power? Any one of the major scandals that this administration seems to have been part of would have earned the lot of them a prison cell. Almost every day there is a new one.

If this criminal syndicate in the executive branch is not brought to answer for their total failure to live up to any standards of justice and accountability, then it won't matter what happens in 2008, because the government will have revealed itself as so fundamentally broken so as to not be salvageable.

This culture of corruption sickens me. These men and women are sociopaths, and way outside the standards of acceptable behavior.

in memoriam { Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

"There were one quadrillion nations in the Universe, but the nation Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout belonged to was the only one with a national anthem which was gibberish sprinkled with question marks." - 'Breakfast of Champions'

His humor and humanism will be missed.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
1922-11-11 to 2007-04-11

.

politics { can someone help me understand this?

I'm not sure if my minds not working today or what, but I can't seem to wrap my head around this article in the NYTimes.

So...if I read this right, a federal panel played down results from experts that there was little voter fraud, which upsets the Administration, because they all want us to have ID cards, which are meant to intimidate people from voting, disenfranchise the lefties, exclude minorities and amount to what would be a new poll tax of sorts because a lot of Republican law makers want the ID card tied to Driver's Licenses. Basically, the problem is that a federal panel is omitting or downplaying findings that don't match the agenda of their Republican overlords right?

I do think voter fraud of any kind should be researched and investigated (though I wish they would open the books back up farther than 2006, say to oh, 2000). But in the possible solutions, I think a voter ID system is bad, and not merely because of the Orwellian implications of Big Brother tracking you, but for many of the reasons the Democrats cite as opposition to such a law. I remember the first time I voted, it was a scary and nervous affair. I was a part of something bigger than myself. I didn't know how to register, but I looked up what I needed to vote and took those things with me to the polling place. The people running the place were very friendly and encouraging and helped me get registered and I cast my ballot. What an awesome feeling it was to feel I tried to make a difference. That was 1998. In 2000, that feeling turned to ashes in my mouth. I voted in my first Presidential election...and no one won. Florida was a clusterfuck. Rumors and accusations of tampering were flying everywhere. The Supreme Court crowned a new Empero...I mean President. I was horrified. Then 2002 happened. For MN it was another clusterfuck. Wellstone, the beloved, was killed tragically very shortly before the elections. Conspiracy theorists cried foul. The DFL had to scramble to get another candidate. A poorly chosen speech at the funeral of Wellstone painted a perception that soured voters and the ass-hat Coleman was elected. 2004 came around, I caucused for the first time. Once again renewed and energized in the political process and the in-your-face, hardcore, full-frontal politics that is MN DFL caucuses. But again, rumors of shenanigans at the polls. 4 hour+ lines to vote due to 'shortages' and 'breakdowns' of voting equipment, in some of the most populous precincts (as well as ones that had high minority and/or liberal populations). Ohio became the clusterfuck, due again to a morally corrupt Secretary of State. Electronic voting machines replaced paper ballots, many of which left no paper trail, were easily hackable and rumors persisted of malfunctions causing incorrect votes to be cast for wrong candidates. UN Inspectors were invited to oversee elections in some places (something that used to happen in other places and you only read about them in newspapers or heard about it on the TV or radio). 2006 happened, things were better. Things went smoother. Rumors of clusterfuckage and shenanigans still happened, as they always do, but they were lesser, less general. 2008 will be a circus, if the previews we're seeing now are any indication.

Republicans have been calling for a National ID Card for sometime. I can't help but feel this is another case, like immigration issues or gay marriage, where if there is no clear or existent enemy, make one and start the spinning and manufacture one. I would like to find out specifically where they incidents of 'intimidation' happened and know if they were in more liberal or progressive portions of Red States (or even Red portions of Blue States). I heard about incidents of intimidation, especially against minorities in Florida, which is a Red State, whose Governor at the time is the brother to the President.

I remember the first time I voted, and had their been someone requiring I get an ID card /ahead/ of time or who had subjected me to any kind of intimidation, I doubt I would have voted then, or ever again.

weather { snow

I haven't seen snow this late in April in Minnesota since I was a junior in High School (so since 1992). Isn't it funny how dates like 1992 now sound old-timey?

frustration { a decade of resistance

and the Twin's ballpark deal is almost a reality.

This really bothers me. I've been involved in one form or another (from letter writing, caucusing, moral support, etc.) from stopping the Twin's from getting this ball park. Over 10 years of fighting it. People in both St. Paul and Minneapolis. For naught. The Hennepin County council cut a deal with the Twins. Now they will take the land for the stadium by force (condemnation and imminent domain) if need be, and the poeple of Hennepin County get a nice tax to pay for it, while the Twin's will contribute more than any plan in the past has required them to do, but still they are getting damn near a free ride on the backs of the tax payers.

music/culture { a little music on the way to work

A fascinating piece in the WaPo.

One of the finest classical musicians of his age dons street clothes and plays some of the most beautiful music ever written on a multimillion dollar Stradivarius violin in the Metro station in Washington during the morning commute.

An interesting experiment in human nature with an outcome you might not expect.

This one is worth a read.

language { Languacide

...or 'Those words had letters back home!'

After reading this superb post on 20 Sided while looking for the next installment of 'DM of the Rings' I had to laugh. And laugh hard.

I play MMOs, so I am subjected to this almost daily. People who, while not necessarily illiterate, are too lazy 2 typ al teh lettrz. But this phenomena is not limited to the written word, no, it occurs in everyday speech, usually among members of the younger type. For evidence I offer up an older post regarding a conversation I heard in a public square.

I must be getting older and more curmudgeonly, because I find myself relying more and more on sites like http://www.urbandictionary.com just to figure out what the hell people are saying. Thankfully it also has MMO-enese, so I can decipher stuff like:

Hey n00bz! L2P bitches. We need some AOE skillz dropped on the mobs SE of TM near DG and west of AH. We also need some DOTS dropped for max DPS kk? If someone doesn't get this shit going right now its -50 DKPs to all you bitches!

And thats an example (fictional) of stuff /older/ gamers (read 20+, I'm ancient at 31, Avindair is venerable at 40). The under 18 (mentally as well as physically) just say stuff like this:

GAY! l2p n00b kthxbai

So everyone, please, chill. Slow down. Think about what you are saying before saying it. Those words you save may be your own. 'l337 sp333k' isn't cool, or cool sounding or cool to read. You're just making yourself sound like a dumbass. Or for those who might not understand...

L2S n00bz!

(L2S = Learn to Spell)

response { nerd

Over at EvilBobby, he sent the clip I had posted (Fear of Girls) to some friends overseas, who sent these clips back in response:

(caution the second clip has some NSFW material)








The language of nerd is universal...like math.

holiday { Zombie Jesus Day

Knight of Nothing's post about Easter made me reflect on my own feelings. I'm not (C|c)hristian. I haven't been since I was 11 years old and realized this isn't for me. Eventhough at a young age I was indoctrinated into the world of 'Jesus has risen' on Easter, it was always about the egg hunts, candy, and Grandma Ham for me.

About two years ago, the height of my zombie interest, I realized that the story of Christ's resurrection is plot for a zombie movie, so I started calling Easter, Zombie Jesus Day. I've always figured the tag line for the movie poster would be something like this:

Your lord has risen...and now he wants your BRAINS!

So Happy Belated Zombie Jesus Day to everyone.

casual_friday { Cubefarm News

Kindred spirit.

DandD { The Realm of Nox

After almost 12 years, I'm finally getting off my butt and starting to coalesce my ideas and thoughts into a campaign world that I will run the Nerdpod through. The is called 'Nox' (latin for night) and it is a dark and not so nice place. Here is a bit of fluff I've created for my players to give them a taste:

[From the journal of Inquisitor Ravenscliff, dated Autumnal Equinox,
2953 P1S/10 P2S, titled 'Chapter One: The First Sundering and the
Early Times]
---begin journal entry---
The world has grown dark, and not just from the lack of sunlight
caused by the funeral pyres. There is simply not much light left, or
hope that I can see. The world is...broken. I write these pages in
hopes that if there is a future, something of this time can be
remember, a lesson of the things that were, and why not to repeat
them.

First a brief history of how we've come to be here. The origins of
the world were thought to be once understood, but that knowledge is
lost. Lost in the First Sundering of the World. All we do know is of
the 'Great Empire of Man' that existed. There knowledge, from what
artifacts we have was great. Their mastery of the natural world and
arcane lore almost complete, greater even than the elves. From what
historians and theologians have pieced together, it was this mastery
that bred an arrogance, an arrogance that undid the world. In their
quest for ever more power they opened a portal to, elsewhere, and
unleashed an evil upon the world never before seen. Those that were
not corrupted, were destroyed. Those that were not destroyed went
feral, and almost all knowledge was lost. Only pieces and fragments
from that time remain. Kept in remote and secret locations. The
knowledge itself became worshiped as scripture. The keepers of the
secrets no longer able to understand what they keep. Cults of
Enlightenment formed and gathered followers, waging war on each other.
All except one, the Hermetics of Thelmorn, kept the knowledge and
over the centuries learned from it, piecing together and expanding
what they had, these monks formed the core of what would become the
Imperial Thatamurgists School.
Over time the evil, only referred to as the 'Dark Ones' were driven
back by a coalition of the Hermetics working with the Naturalists (a
Cult of Enlightenment focused on understanding through the Natural
World). Strength of arms was provided by the most powerful of the
Clans of Man, the Dokdar, who would later be the uniters and founders
of the Second Empire of Man. The Dokdar were the most advanced of the
feral tribes that were mankind following the Sundering. They were
forceful, but not cruel. Their rage tempered by the Enlightenment of
Hermetics and Naturalists with whom they had trade and contact. Sadly
much information from the Great Battle was lost in the 2nd Sundering
when the towers of the Thatamurgists were lost. From what fragments
we could recover and correlation with the disparate oral histories,
the battle was somewhat anti-climactic, the portal had actually sealed
itself shortly after events that was the First Sundering. The 'Dark
Ones' had decreased in power, and many had vanished. Only those that
were able to corrupt followers remained, and even then their heretical
ways resulted in the diminishment of their numbers. The coalition,
formed 500 years after the First Sundering were able to, rather easily
destroy what remained of the evil ones. In doing so they destroyed
the structure that was thought to be the portal. Using the heads of
the defeated 'Dark Ones' as icons of their victory the Dokdar, with
their charismatic leader Solimere, set forth on a crusade of
unification that would last for 100 years and result in the founding
of the Second Empire of Man.

---end chapter---

politics { Is a Cheney in the bush worth one in the open?

What was he doing in the bushes? From very careful (and slightly drunken) analysis of the footage I can conclude only two things:

1) He is casting the 'imperious' spell and controlling Bush. Look closely at the muttering and the lack of blinking. Two requirements to effectively cast spells of control on someone. It must be a minor spell since I can't see any sacrificial creatures nearby...unless...oh no! What if the Iraq War is one giant source of unlimited power for the Dark Master???!!!??

2) He's a zombie. Note the drool and and fixation. The muttering looks a lot like 'braaaaaiiiiinnnsssss'.

humor { nerd

While on break today I re-found this gem of a link to a video clip while cleaning out old email:

science { its all relative

Very cool story link over on Omninerd: http://www.omninerd.com/2007/03/31/news/1204

It discusses a hypothesis by Dr. Vay using Special Relativity to reduce the time to simulate systems with multiple dimensions of scale (long/short) in both distance and time. Very cool stuff.

From the abstract:

Noninvariance of Space- and Time-Scale Ranges under a Lorentz Transformation and the Implications for the Study of Relativistic Interactions

J.-L. Vay
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

(Received 16 January 2007; published 30 March 2007)

We present an analysis which shows that the ranges of space and time scales spanned by a system are not invariant under Lorentz transformation. This implies the existence of a frame of reference which minimizes an aggregate measure of the range of space and time scales. Such a frame is derived, for example, for the following cases: free electron laser, laser-plasma accelerator, and particle beams interacting with electron clouds. The implications for experimental, theoretical, and numerical studies are discussed. The most immediate relevance is the reduction by orders of magnitude in computer simulation run times for such systems.

Omninerd's tiny overview said his first test reduced the compute time from a week down to 30 minutes. This could represent a great leap in scientific study in the field of physics if this catches on.

environment { put your money where your carbon is

http://carbonfund.org/site/pages/calculator/

From what I've been able to find out, this non-profit buys carbon emission rights and retires them.

http://carbonfund.org/site/pages/faq/

According to their calculator, Nerdwife and I generate 36.79 tons of CO2/year for our home life (didn't calculate our respective jobs, but I just guess that mine alone will generate enough carbon to plunge the world into a second dark age).

I'm considering donating. Its a first step. I'm also looking into ways to reduce our consumption and decrease our carbon dependence.

politics/humor { Terry Jone's Op-Ed from Guardian UK

Saw the link for this on EvilBobby, thought I would repost here.

Call that humiliation?


No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilised bunch

Terry Jones
Saturday March 31, 2007
The Guardian

I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this - allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world - have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God's sake, what's wrong with putting a bag over her head? That's what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it's hard to breathe. Then it's perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can't be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.

Article continues
It is also unacceptable that these British captives should be made to talk on television and say things that they may regret later. If the Iranians put duct tape over their mouths, like we do to our captives, they wouldn't be able to talk at all. Of course they'd probably find it even harder to breathe - especially with a bag over their head - but at least they wouldn't be humiliated.

And what's all this about allowing the captives to write letters home saying they are all right? It's time the Iranians fell into line with the rest of the civilised world: they should allow their captives the privacy of solitary confinement. That's one of the many privileges the US grants to its captives in Guantánamo Bay.

The true mark of a civilised country is that it doesn't rush into charging people whom it has arbitrarily arrested in places it's just invaded. The inmates of Guantánamo, for example, have been enjoying all the privacy they want for almost five years, and the first inmate has only just been charged. What a contrast to the disgraceful Iranian rush to parade their captives before the cameras!

What's more, it is clear that the Iranians are not giving their British prisoners any decent physical exercise. The US military make sure that their Iraqi captives enjoy PT. This takes the form of exciting "stress positions", which the captives are expected to hold for hours on end so as to improve their stomach and calf muscles. A common exercise is where they are made to stand on the balls of their feet and then squat so that their thighs are parallel to the ground. This creates intense pain and, finally, muscle failure. It's all good healthy fun and has the bonus that the captives will confess to anything to get out of it.

And this brings me to my final point. It is clear from her TV appearance that servicewoman Turney has been put under pressure. The newspapers have persuaded behavioural psychologists to examine the footage and they all conclude that she is "unhappy and stressed".

What is so appalling is the underhand way in which the Iranians have got her "unhappy and stressed". She shows no signs of electrocution or burn marks and there are no signs of beating on her face. This is unacceptable. If captives are to be put under duress, such as by forcing them into compromising sexual positions, or having electric shocks to their genitals, they should be photographed, as they were in Abu Ghraib. The photographs should then be circulated around the civilised world so that everyone can see exactly what has been going on.

As Stephen Glover pointed out in the Daily Mail, perhaps it would not be right to bomb Iran in retaliation for the humiliation of our servicemen, but clearly the Iranian people must be made to suffer - whether by beefing up sanctions, as the Mail suggests, or simply by getting President Bush to hurry up and invade, as he intends to anyway, and bring democracy and western values to the country, as he has in Iraq.

· Terry Jones is a film director, actor and Python
www.terry-jones.net

Cutting and poignant. I've been a long admirer of Terry Jones and his work (as well as that of many of the Python cast who've gone on to do other things). I think his framing of these atrocities in humor and sarcasm detract nothing from the seriousness of the points he is making. We (both the US and Britain) no longer have the moral high ground on anything, nor can we condemn others of human rights violations when we ourselves allow things like Guantanamo to happen.

quiz { Which Firefly/Serenity Character are you?

Saw this on Northern Misfit and had to try it.

Your results:
You are Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)

Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 70% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 65% Wash (Ship Pilot) 60% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 55% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 45% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 45% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 40% Alliance 35% River (Stowaway) 20% A Reaver (Cannibal) 15% Inara Serra (Companion) 15%

Honest and a defender of the innocent. You sometimes make mistakes in judgment but you are generally good and would protect your crew from harm.

Click here to take the Serenity Personality Quiz



Hmmm...I'm flattered but am I the leadership type?

musings { these dreams are made of this

I had a strange dream this morning. In reflections I think it is a mish-mash of my life with a warning in it. It was a short dream that happened between 9am and 10am this morning, during the time I refused to get up, because its Sunday damn it.

The dream started, I was on the bus riding into work, like any of the couple hundred days I've been doing it. It was spring and the day was gray. At a bus stop a girl gets on, she wearing a nurse's uniform and very pregnant. I recognize her. She was the redhead who was a few grades behind me who rode my bus back when I was in high school. Except now she is a woman (or what she looks like as a woman as my mind aged her) and a nurse. She was always mean and hateful. She sits next to me because for some reason now all the seats in the bus are full. I allow her to sit and say hi and ask her if she was who I thought she was (I knew her name in my dream but during the waking world I can't remember who she is). She says yes and we talk a little bit about what has happened since school She is pregnant and she does not know who the father is because she had never had a stable relationship that lasted for any amount of time. We ride the bus and it pulls up to our stop...Moos Tower at the U of MN. Which is not where I work, but in my dream is a place where I get off. We walk to Coffman union, it both is and isn't Coffman Union, its a cross of the U of MN student union and Augsburg College's union. She asks me if I would wait with her until she has to go to her appointment, I say yes. We walk up to the mezzanine level and find two chairs. Its cold so I share my coat with her. She falls asleep and shortly later I do, which is a first, I've never had dreams that I was sleeping in a dream before. I awake to the sound of two students picking on her. I both know and don't know these students the kind of, depending upon the angle shift between people I know. One of them shifted through a succession of guys I know, the greasy guy from student honor college, the fellow classmate accused of child molestation while babysitting, a motorhead who like El'Dorados. The other was a mish-mash of students from my CompSci class at the U of MN, the ones who were unwashed and had the social graces of young nerds. She was hurt by their comments and I defended her and drove them off. In school I hated this girl. But in my dream I defended her.

She left for her appointment and I was left alone on the mezzanine. I fall back asleep in my dream again. I awaken to two young but cute girls staring at me. They ask if I play D&D and I say yes and they squeal with girlish glee. One of them asks me to come over and look at her character sheet and give an opinion of whether it was a good character or not. I do while, her character sheet is pretty lame, and pre-generated. I turn around and her friend had moved my chair, and in its place she put a folding table on which they had various things for sale. They were all free D&D modules that were printed off the internet and sold for $10-$15 a piece. They were all crap. I was upset my chair, which was by a big window and was warm was moved. I felt duped. I was upset at the price of the gaming modules they were selling. I looked around for my chair. All around me the mezzanine level turned into a bazaar of sorts where college students were selling wares of all types. In dismay I decide to find the campus movie theater and see a movie. I go downstairs. Its suddenly night, the college students have cleared out and the lower level is full of people in suits, it looks like the lobby of a nice hotel, like the one we stayed in San Francisco. No one acknowledges my presence I go to the bell hop who looks at me with mild disgust.

I wake up before I can ask him where the movie theater is or what's playing.