Category: Serious Stuff

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Cooking With Code Serious Stuff

Put your face in the book

Ark the herald...If you’re on Facebook, you may have noticed that I’ve been gradually deleting the photo albums and videos I’ve had posted on there forever. I probably had close to a thousand pictures on there, from various gaming and other events, birthdays, visits to the zoo, all sorts of fun stuff like that. I’ve been taking all of it down.

With the frequency and vague wording with which Facebook changes its privacy policies, I’ve decided that it can’t be trusted. … Read more

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Serious Stuff

Mars, bringer of WOW

Displaying curiosityPonder this for a moment.

From a distance of a few hundred million kilometers vs. the distance from NYC to London, there will be less of a delay in seeing whether or not the new Mars rover lands safely than in seeing the Olympics in the United States (which are delayed by hours).

In both cases, it’s a hell of a long time to wait to see who won.

My money’s on Curiosity.… Read more

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Serious Stuff

Boom

A hundred years ago today, the most powerful volcanic eruption of the 20th century took place on the Alaskan peninsula. Actually, it was probably the biggest eruption for a hundred years either side of June 6th, 1912. And what did it leave?

Novarupta
Photo: Pavel Izbekov, Alaska Volcano Observatory / University of Alaska Fairbanks, Geophysical Institute

A molehill instead of a mountain. … Read more

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Serious Stuff

Sometimes I get the feeling that I won’t be on this planet for very long…

Tinfoil hats

“…I really like it here, I’m quite attached to it, I hope I’m wrong.” – Ben Folds, “Don’t Change Your Plans For Me”

Part of me wants to laugh this one off. Part of me knows better. I’m sure nearly everyone here has heard of the NSA’s enormous Utah data center, though the details are necessarily vague. According to Wired:

…it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.

Obviously no mere body of representatives elected by the people was going to stop this, right? 😆 But now we have a better idea of what they’ll be looking for and listening to. … Read more

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Funny Stuff Serious Stuff

Wait until you hear what I did with my other organs

I just got home from the local polling place. Ah, the things you hear folks say – “wow, his name doesn’t even SOUND American!”… really? You think all “American” surnames originated on this continent? Didn’t do well in history, did you, buddy?

Anyway, I would love to tell you that I voted with my head, my heart and my conscience, but I have to come clean on this… … Read more

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Serious Stuff

Just a reminder to elected representatives…

Small talkYou work for us.

Here’s the thing: with a lot of the public, your chances of re-election are only as good as the last thing you do to honk everyone off before the next election.

Some of us are watching a bit more closely. Your chances of re-election are only as good as what you do that erodes our freedom. We’re the ones who call and write (and can gauge, from the responses to those contacts, whether or not what we’re saying is being taken on board).

Some of you aren’t even the people I voted in to office. But I nevertheless recognize you as the rightfully elected representative of the majority, and deal with you politely and professionally as such. I’ve got a lot of time on my hands, so I’ve become a bit of a lobbyist with no budget and no portfolio. (By the way, that’s the only kind of lobbyist there should be.) Perhaps naively, I never completely give up faith that I can make a cohesive and persuasive argument and chance your mind, thus contributing in my own small way toward changing your votes.

But hey, while we’re on the subject of votes, here’s the thing. You can be voted out of office. I’m keeping a running tally on how you’re voting on stuff. I’m making sure other people know about it. I have about an even chance of casting my own vote in a few months and replacing you with someone I do want in office.

I also have about an even chance of being outvoted too. That’s the great thing about how this country works.

But I have no chance of being voted out myself. I’ll still be here, whether you’re in office or not. Whether it’s someone who I feel is more in line with my values and concerns, or whether it’s you, I’ll still be in touch. I won’t shut up. I’m your constituent, term limit: [not applicable].

I strongly recommend you listen to what I, and others who take the time to be actively involved in the process, have to say. Ignore us at your political peril.… Read more

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Serious Stuff

Company Man

Burly BrawlAs I sit here, secure in my stay-at-home-dad-hood, “decolorizing” and repurposing scans of arcade marquees I once owned so Little E can have coloring pages with Dig Dug characters on them, and continuing to send out applications for gigs that would allow me to bring in some money without sacrificing the stuff I do for my family by staying at home. No problem, right? It’s more of a tightrope walk than you think, since I’m currently the guy who does the dishes, laundry, cleaning, cooking, lawn work, homeschooling, and fighting like hell to make sure no one handling my son’s therapy is slacking off on their end of things. Throw even a part-time gig into the middle of that pond, and it’s going to make the kind of splash that washes me up on the shores of the living room sofa around bedtime. … Read more

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Critters Home Base Serious Stuff

A Saturday of ADVENTURE!

How you been doin’? Here’s a quick rundown of the things I’ve done today:

  1. Babel fishSat back, obeyed the rules and did nothing as Mrs. G and Little E fished in the mon & son fishing tournament at Carol Ann Cross Park. No fish were caught by this family on this day. Man, I wanted to jump in there and help… but the rules specifically forbade it. I just had to sit back and shut up. Now I’m jonesing to go fish rainbow trout on the White River. Just me, a boat, a rod, a reel, some bait, some lures, a hat big enough to keep the sun out of my eyes, some tunes, absolutely no cell phone signal whatsoever, no wi-fi, no nothing. If you don’t hear from me in a few days, I’m probably sleeping with the fishes. In a good way.
  2. Went to the Fort Smith Public Library for the used book sale and, just as we pulled into the parking lot, saw a wheelchair-bound woman zip down the access ramp, way too fast, and took a tumble out of her wheelchair when she hit the curb instead of the ramp across from her. She landed in the grassy divider and not concrete, which is a good thing, but that scared the hell out of me. Bet it didn’t do her any favors either. Me, a mail carrier and one of the library employees tried to help her up, but her daughter showed up in a panic and told us that either the fire department or EMS has to help her with that; we would’ve just injured her worse.
  3. Woofles McBarkleberry, Ph.DogAs if that wasn’t enough to draw a crowd, among the crowd were two big, friendly stray pit bulls roaming around in front of the library. I stopped and petted them for a bit until they moved on, mainly to keep them from freaking folks out. Since Xena and Gabby were crashed when we all left at the crack of dawn, these two were the friendliest dogs I saw all morning. They had very obvious dogfighting injuries, and yet they were all over me, stinky-breath dog kisses and all.

    Pit bulls aren’t bad dogs. Some pit bull owners, on the other hand, like whoever’s obviously keeping two injured fighting dogs around and letting mange eat them alive, are real pieces of shit. If not for the likely conflict of personalities with the existing canine security staff at my place, I might’ve taken them home. Great dogs. Didn’t ask for whatever’s happened to them. I couldn’t get them to stay long enough for animal control to show up. Good luck, pups. I want to find your ex-owner and keep him from ever breeding again (whether you read that to mean breeding dogs to fight or breeding more people like himself, you didn’t land too far from the truth). But I’ll settle for you two love-starved mutts finding a loving home.

    Sadly, the BS myth about pit bulls being four-legged killing machines across the board will probably prevent this from happening.

  4. Gargoyle gargling GershwinGot soaked in pit bull slobber right before walking in for the library book sale. Also, next stop after the book sale was my niece’s birthday party at Fuji Steakhouse. Woohoo! Uncle Earl showed up smelling like pit bull slobber! Happy birthday! 😆

Little E got a book about doggies at the book sale; I was sorely tempted by the big box of old Star Trek novels, but I passed. Perused the LPs and tapes to see if there were any out-of-print, not-released-on-anything-but-vinyl movie soundtracks (library and estate sales are awesome for finds like that). No dice, or someone got there before me. (You know, the one other soundtrack nut who lives in this area, if indeed there is one other.)

Next week is the “mostly non-fiction sale.” As the former governor of California once said, “I’ll be back.” Hangin’ with my dawgs, no doubt.… Read more