July 2004 Archives

High school alum and friend of mine, Michael Thrush, is running an art show, and had some of his work has been posted online.

Way to go Mike. Good luck with the show.

In recent news, SCO, the company that's trying to sue their way into liquidity has tried to register the trademark "Unix Systems Laboratories", I'm guessing in an attempt to further confuse the issue. Anyways...this is similar in intent to when Phillip Morris became Altria and Gator became Claria.

Companies try to hide their previous evils through a name change. Similar to when a murderer changes his name and leaves town to avoid noteriety.

Well, thanks to my continued rabid distaste for Claria, I've gotten noticed, and someone posted a link to me on Slashdot.

Here's hoping they don't blow my bandwidth limit. :)

Welcome slashdotters!

Police in Osh Kosh, Wisconsin have started confiscating guns from citizens, going door to door and demanding people's firearms.

Apparently, there was a shooting of a police officer in Osh Kosh, and he was injured, so the police have decided to seize all guns from all residents to test them to see if they were the gun used in the shooting.

This is all going on without a clear warrant stating who's guns may be taken, and is clearly unconstitutional and just plain wrong. This is akin to the police taking away all of the cars in a neighborhood because someone's kid got hurt in a hit and run. They can't just take your private property and hold onto it because they think there's a chance it was used in a crime.

They need clear reasons to take someone's property and a warrant signed by a judge.

I personally hope the ACLU, the NRA, and the Gun Owners of America, along with the Cato Institute and other civil libertarians climb so far up the police chief's ass that he'll crap lawyer's business cards for a month.

gurlila: /ger-lihl-ah/ an angry and militant feminist that refuses to shave, revels in being pushy, noisy, and typically likes to throw her weight around.

I have seen my life's ambition, and this is it.

I will compete in the Hemingway look-a-like contest, run with the bulls, arm wrestle, and finally pay tribute to one of my heroes. I'm ready now! Sign me up. I already look like him, let's have a go at it.

A reader posted this story which says that the Rubberband Man is coming back for a new round of commercials for the back-to-school sales.

Eddie Steeples, the actor from the first commercial, is doing this next set as well.

Most of my friends are probably wondering why I care so much, but I am a sucker for good advertising, and my blog has turned up a small group of people that feel like I do that the original commercial is awesome.

Someone let me know when they see the new ad and post a link to it.

In case you wanted further proof that Claria is the bottom of the barrel ethically, the New York Times pulled ads for Claria once they realized who Claria is and what they do.

They also called Claria a "parasite".

They're nothing but dirty spyware makers, and they want all your private information without your consent so they can sell your information (again, without your consent) to other companies that will then bombard you with spam and junk mail, trying to sell you things you don't need.

Why does Claria continue to think that your information is their's to barter? Because they're scum.

Can someone explain to me why Nader's running? Isn't this just some vanity campaign that he's engaged in?

Seriously, to all of you greens out there, I'll go dig up Karl Marx and we'll put him on the ballot, and you can vote for who you really want to have in office.

Speaking of Marxists and Communists, I have to say that I'm very disappointed with the Communist Party in America. #1, they have a commerce division on their website. That's right, you can buy stuff from the Communists. How a Communist can engage in commerce is beyond me, but hey, it's their hypocrisy not mine. Secondly, I contacted them and asked them to send me one of their swell coffee mugs but they never responded. As a member of the proletariat, don't I deserve to have one of these mugs, just like anyone else? Doesn't the Communist Party core philosophy dictate that as long as I can demand it, I should have it? I mean, they clamor to have my wages and give it to other people, and to take away my private property from me. Why can't I at least have a stinking mug?

Oh well.

• In Michigan, during a gas main leak, the police and firefighters searched a man's basement without a warrant. Why? Because he had a "stripper's pole" and handcuffs in his basement. Let's ignore the fact that they were risking their life during a gas leak and ask ourselves...since when is it illegal to be kinky? If the man's got some mojo and found some willing playmates to join him in his basement o' fun, who cares? Apparently the police do.
• The police in Florida have asked Javier and Bubba, your local cable men to use their keen powers of observation and ability to discern criminal activity to watch for, and report suspicious items in people's homes. Excuse me if I'm wrong, but does it make sense to ask the man that will take a $10 to give you the movie channels for free to watch out for criminals? And by what rights? Didn't the Stasi in East Germany run a citizen spying network? Is that who we'd like to imitate?
• Kansas City, Missouri police are setting up checkpoints around the city, but not to stop drunk driving. They're stopping motorists to check their drivers licenses. They're justification for doing so is that it catches criminals. Good to know that the end justifies the means. Can you say "Unconstitutional"?
• A doctor in Harrisburg, PA (my kind of hometown) asked the PA DOT to revoke a patient's driver's license because he admitted that he drank a six-pack a night. The patient has only one DUI conviction, more than 20 years ago, and is otherwise an upstanding citizen and honest worker. What right do they have to take away his license without cause?

So the SciFi channel is no stating that the "documentary" they made, "The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan" is all a hoax, and that Night himself helped make it.

I think that was fairly clear throughout the entire thing, but some people still believe that it's real and that the SciFi channel is trying to keep Shyamalan happy.

Who cares? It was great fun.

Heather and I just got done watching "The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan" on the SciFi channel.

What a fantastic way to spend an evening.

If you're not familiar, a SciFi crew was given access to the set of "The Village", Night's new movie coming out next week, and were told to do a straightforward interview. In the process of their filming, they uncovered a secret in Night's past.

The scuttlebutt around this movie is that it's fake and that Night's people are just saying it's fake to hide the truth. I really don't care either way. It was just fun to watch.

I'm sure they'll run it again, and if you're a fan of his movies, you need to watch this documentary. It's worth the time.

EFF has a write-up about the INDUCE Act, which is an act introduced by Orrin Hatch and the other Senators on the RIAA payroll to allow record labels to sue companies if they even so much as provided an environment where music or movie piracy might occur.

So, BitTorrent's developers made a network to allow people to download software easier? Could be sued. Apple sells the iPod? Could be sued. Hell, even hard drive manufacturers and makers of CD-Rs could be sued.

Back in the 1980's, the movie studios tried to stop VCRs from coming out, claiming that their introduction would ruin the movie industry, driving people out of work, and would cause skyrocketing piracy.

Obviously, it didn't happen, and the Courts and Congress refused to act on the Movie Studio demands, preferring instead to let the free market handle the issue. Now it is a different time, and odds are, this bill will get passed unless you talk to your senators and express your discontent.

More information can be found here.

My boss recently approved a liberal work-at-home policy. It basically works like this: if you have the equipment, and your duties can be done at home, and your project manager doesn't object, you can work from home. Just holler at him and schedule the days. If that means you want to work all week from home for a week, do it. If that means Friday, work from home Friday.

That's some serious goodness.

btw, if you'd like to work for a software company, and you're looking for that kind of goodness, we're still hiring. Ping me if you're interested.

I was excited when I saw that Rich Piotrowski was running for U.S. Congress, because I thought he might be my senator, but I'm on that line between his district and mine. Too bad.

He's a good decent fellow, free thinking, honest, and of course, a libertarian. If you live in the 15th district, and you're looking for real change, and real honesty, vote for Rich. Or, you could just stick with the same old status quo and pay through the nose for government that's profligate and intrusive. The choice is yours.

The death of Mike's mom, (my second mom), another family member falling ill to heart disease, and my own creeping pain in my knees and ankles convinced me that it was time to start losing weight seriously. I want to be around to see my kid's kids, and it's very important to me.

I don't know if you've experienced this, but while I was at the gym tonight, I caught sight of myself in the mirror and was shocked at what I saw. I really looked awful. I can't believe I let myself go this bad, and gained this much weight. I think that when you start exercising, you finally can look at yourself honestly and recognize what you look like.

All this time I avoided the scale and the mirror and just attributed my tightening jeans to my poor laundry skills, but I've put on a lot of weight.

I stood there for a minute, in front of the mirror, and thought "Take a good look. You don't ever want to be this man again".

I for one, am glad. I for one, am ecstatic, that this has finally happened: W Ketchup, the only truly Republican Ketchup in the world. I always felt a little guilty that I was sending a mixed message to my kids when I would sit down to eat a good American meal, and cover my freedom fries with Heinz ketchup. Would they understand that it was necessity that drove me to do that? You can't have good old American foods off the grill WITHOUT ketchup, now can you? Why, that would be un-American. But then the neighbors started asking questions: "How could I support Dubya while I give money to John Kerry?"

It almost looked like I was going to have to give up ketchup altogether for the cause, but thank God for capitalism, someone has saved me from my condiment-less hell. That's right, W Ketchup is the ketchup for me.

Now, if only they'll hurry up with the mustard.

Now that John Kerry has picked his running mate, John Edwards, he has begun to ramp up his presence in the media, trying to reach out to the voters who know (and like) him least. There is an ad that's currently running in my area showing Kerry talking to a group of mostly old men and housewives, advocating the notion that health care should be a right for all Americans because we're "the richest country in the world". They hang on every word, and nod in almost hypnotic agreement with him "Yes master, socialism is good".

I don't agree that health care is a right, nor do I feel that it's the responsibility of the government to legislate health care, and I really don't feel that it is my responsibility to pay for other people's medical services. I have enough issues in my own family to deal with, I shouldn't have to pay for someone elses.

This stand on health care is similar to many of the other issues that Kerry believes in: more government, higher taxes, less civil liberties for you and me.

But as I've dug a little deeper, and people have talked to me, I find something even more disturbing: the radical activism practiced by Theresa Heinz, John Kerry's wife. Her flip-flop from the wife of Republican H. John Heinz III, to full-blooded socialist is startling.

Some estimates say that she's donated $4 million to the Tides Foundation, an organization that promotes "positive social change". If you dig deeper on their site you find out that that means limiting, or completely banning handguns, increasing the minimum wage to a so-called "living wage" (who pays for that?), "combatting gentrification" (which is a fancy way of saying, stopping development and renewal in the inner city), "promoting environmental justice" (which they say they do by exposing the abuses wrought by industry, but it never mentions whether they discuss the positive benefits brought into towns by these companies), etc.

The Tides Foundation platform is, in its entirety, take from the middle-class and the rich, and give it all to the "politically correct" "protected classes", and radical programs that you can find.

If you're a lesbian transgender pregnant low-income latina from the inner-city involved in an indigenous drum and music arts project to protest the creation of good jobs by big industry, then the Tides Foundation would like to help you.

If you're just plain vanilla white folk, living in a shotgun shack on the side of a hill in the Appalachians, preserving early American culture, music, and religion, they don't give a shit about you. You're not the culture they wish to preserve.

To think that we might have a first lady who's politics make Hillary Clinton's look conservative scares the hell out of me. It should scare you too. Big government doesn't just appear out of nowhere and operate without affecting the world around it. The larger government gets, and the more it attempts to regulate, the less freedoms you have, the more it costs you in the end.

Most often, the liberties that are taken away from us when a "progressive" (didn't Eugene Debbs and the other Socialists call themselves progressives?) takes control is economic freedoms. More taxes, a mandatory higher minimum wage to something called a "living wage", tight controls on businesses (for example, in France, it's illegal for a store owner to have a sale, without first consulting with the government, and then, all of your competitors in that are are required to have a sale as well, so as to not unjustly harm their economic well-being. Your prices must be in lock-step with all of your competitors), and government run heavy industry. All of these actions make prices go up, and that cost has to go somewhere. You either pay for it upfront, at the store, or on the tail end, in taxes.

Do you really want to support a government that's going to take most of your money on the assertion that they know better how to manage it for you?

Jesus, this year feels like I've I'm standing between a steamroller and bulldozer, and one of them's going to crush me, we just don't know which one yet. Thank God there's a better choice.

Dear God, sorry to disturb you, but... I feel that I should be heard loud and clear. We all need a big reduction in amount of tears
"Dear God" - XTC

I remember the times after my father died. I was still in high school, and I was in a lot of pain. My mom and I were both distant from each other, more distant than we had ever been before.

I met a guy a grade below me named Mike, who acted like as much of an outsider as I felt. He had moved to Mechanicsburg from Massachusetts and could not have stood out more. More importantly though, he liked the same things I did: Shakespeare, Monty Python, Sonic Youth, potato tennis. It was bound to be friendship from the start.

Mike filled a part of the emptiness in my heart, and I was glad for his friendship. I loved him dearly like a brother. It wasn't long until I was hanging out at his house. His parents had a fabulous collection of old vinyl records and a working record player and we would get together with friends and play the Rolling Stones or Iron Butterfly and play hacky-sack. We'd assemble in Mike's basement and pretend to be a band clattering on old drums and second-hand electric guitars. We'd go outside in the dark of Mike's driveway and smoke cigars. We'd sit on his couch and watch anime and eat cherry pies and drink Mt. Dew.

During that time spent at Mike's house, Mike's house felt like a second home to me. I got to know Mike's mom and dad, and they were surrogate parents to me. While my mom was busy with work and her own mourning, I became an addition to Mike's family, so that Mike's mom called me "Son #2", and I called her "Mom 2". She would hug me everytime she saw me, and ask me how I was doing, and how school was going.

They always treated me well, fed me, let me hang out at odd hours, and made me feel welcome. I loved them as much as I loved Mike, and I feel that it was their love and acceptance that, in part, kept me steady for many years.

Today, I learned that Mike's mom passed away suddenly this holiday weekend. One minute alive and vibrant, spending the holiday with Mike and his wife, and then the next, snatched from her husband and children. Life can be cruel, the way it vanishes so quickly. I tried to speak some positive words when Mike told me. She got to see Mike graduate from college, and get married to a woman that's crazy about him, but those are hollow consolations in the face of the raw anguish Mike's feeling now.

I wish that I had some magic words to speak to ease the pain. I don't. I wish I could return her to life, and restore her to health, and give her back to her family. But I can't. I can't carry this burden for him. I can only be there for him, and listen to him, and cry with him when he mourns for her. I'll have to reach out to him at the holidays and make sure he's not too distraught. And maybe, maybe, I can now help him put the pieces of his life back together in the aftermath of sorrow, as they helped me.

Rest in peace, Mom 2. I'll miss you, and I'll try to help Mike as much as I can. I promise.

Fett's Vette.

I grabbed it this morning, and it's still looping through my headphones.

"My backpack's...got jets...Well, I'm Bobba the Fett. Well I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt to finance my vette"

If I could sweep my hands over the vast bulk of news articles, web sites, TV Shows, and other consumable media and change something today, I'd replace "4th of July" with "Independence Day".

Why? Because calling today by its date, and not its name hides something meaningful from us. It hides the heroic acts the founding fathers engaged in to assert our individual liberties in the face of tyranny. The publishing of the Declaration of Independence was enough to get them all charged with treason and hung. But instead of cowering in fear of the consequences, they stood, and spoke out loud these words which still have power today:

...We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government...

Our continued and growing use of the the name "4th of July" gives the day as little meaning as saying December 25th, November 11th, or February 14th. It's not the date that's important, but the actions we choose to commerate on this date that should give us a reason to celebrate. This is not just a party for a party's sake (though there's nothing wrong with that). This is a party for the memory of men who put everything on the line, including their lives, to stand up for what they believed.

So, if it's not too much, I ask that in the midst of barbeques and fireworks and family get-togethers, you stop, and reflect on the choices each of those men had when that put their name on the Declaration of Independence, and thank them for their willingness to risk everything for all our sakes. Remember them and their bravery, and be thankful.

Because if it were not for them, we probably would not be here now.

Those of you who know me know that I have been battling seizures for about 3 years now. They are always nocturnal seizures, but they seem to be related in some fashion to my history of panic attacks, night starts, night terrors, and other things that point to epilepsy: seeing moving lights over top of things around me (usually at night), weird recurring tastes in my mouth, etc.

When I had several seizures, I went to see neurologists, and all of them pointed to epilepsy, but I've resisted them. I don't want to think of myself as epileptic, and have to admit that I might be. More to the point, I don't want to lose my license, or my ability to drive, especially at night, but frankly, I just don't want to admit that I have epilepsy, because it feels like admitting that I might be broken some how.

Well, McKenna's suffering from night terrors right now, and I'm having many bad nights of sleep, having many night terrors of my own when I do fall asleep. Some nights I don't even want to fall asleep, but rather think it would be better to stay awake all night then close my eyes and disturb Heather and keep having these attacks.

This evening, I started poking around on the internet again, and I found this article which discusses something called "autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy", which, in the article, pretty much describes my own behavior, though the patient in the article's got a worse case than me.

I think I might be coming around to admitting that I do have epilepsy, and I need to treat it with medication, and, like the lady in the article, work on stress management. I do know that the times in my life when I was exercising and eating well and writing and my life seemed on track, I never had any issues. But the times when I've lost jobs, and now, having kids, and trying to figure out if we're going to move or not, it all puts a strain on my head, and something in there gets short-circuited, and boom, I have shitty nights.

I don't know. I'm going to make an appointment with a specialist at UPenn (yes, the same school that dickhead wrote me from, what can I say, it's a good hospital) and see if we can isolate this issue to indeed be "autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy", or close this course of inquiry altogether.

Pray for me tonight. I'm going to bed now, and I could use some restful sleep.

Thanks for your comment:

Move out of Philly. We don't want you here.

I'm, of course, not surprised that you refused to leave your name or your email address. Had this been New York, or Detroit, you would have had the balls to leave both. Instead, like a punk, you mutter some stupid comment and try to hide behind the internet.

Next time you want to say something, have the stones to actually include your name. Otherwise, little dog, run along, we have more important things to do here in the adult world.