All posts by rbowen

My daughter is a hacker

Disclaimer: For those of you who are not already familiar with this fact, you should know that the media consistently misuses the term “hacker.” A hacker is someone who enjoys tinkering (usually with technology), experimenting, and playing. What the media refers to as “hackers” are more accurately referred to as “crackers”, which are folks that maliciously try to break in where they are not wanted. This has been a public service message.

So, this morning, while I was in the shower, my daughter discovered how to change all of my desktop settings on Enlightenment. She was very pleased with herself for this discovery. I tried very hard not to dampen her spirits.

So, now, she has her own login. And although she does not (yet) know the password, this is a frightening new step in her path of hackerness. She has set her own desktop background. She has customized the menus.

At least she’s not destroying my desktop settings any more. And I don’t *think* she can do any major damage.

On the other hand, perhaps I should put her account in some kind of chroot jail, or get her her own computer …

Rush Limbaugh

lI may have mentioned, I’ve been listening to Rush Limbaugh, in an attempt to understand what people see in him, why people listen to him, and whether he actually has anything to say.

Well, I listened again today. I tried not to, but, you know, it’s kinda like a train wreck. It’s so hard to look away.

In today’s demonstration of intellectual prowess, he “proved” that “the liberals” were wrong about the war by comparing how long things took. For example, it took less time to take Iraq than for Hillary Clinton to find missing legal documents. This, clearly, proves the the war was goodness and light, and that Hillary Clinton is evil. Clearly. I mean, how can you miss it?

Then, he went on to talk about how wrong “the liberals” were about the economy, by reading a New York Times op-ed piece by some well-know liberal I’d never heard of, and agreeing with every point that was made in the article, calling most of them patently obvious. I wasn’t clear how this proved that the guy was wrong. Perhaps it means that “they” are only right when it’s obvious? I dunno.

So, again, I find myself wondering, and coming down to two possibilities. Either Mr Limbaugh thinks that his audience is monumentally stupid, or he himself is monumentally stupid. When he says that Liberal Q said something which, clearly, only someone suffering from massive head trauma would actually say, I must conclude that either the “quotation” is taken grossly out of context, or that he made it up entirely. Yet, he’s still got a high-rated radio show, 13 years on. I suppose there’s a lot of evidence for the theory that his listeners are idiots. After all, they _voluntarily_ call themselves “ditto-heads”, indicating that they never had an original thought of their own, but only spout what they hear him saying. They do *know* what “ditto” means, right? (Maybe not.)

And yet, so many of my very intelligent friends listen to him, and support the things that he says, that, surely, I must be missing something. Or he’s a very effective con artist. Or, after listening to him for long enough, you stop hearing the logical falacies that are behind most of his claims.

Or maybe I’m just a liberal. 😉

I guess what I need to do is, some time, sit down with one of these friends and listen to a recording of the show, so that we can pause it and discuss it. This sounds like a very interesting conversation.

Meanwhile, I think that I might just make a New Years resolution not to listen to him any more, since he just annoys me.

Helpful hint to spammers

Dear spammers,

Here’s a helpful tip.

If you have to misspell your product’s name in order to get it into my inbox, this should be a clue that I DON’T WANT IT!

I do not want your V@|1um or your X(a)n@x.

I do not want to 3nl@rge my |ips or my p3n1s, and I do not want to c|3@n my c0|0n.

Is that clear?

Cooking stuff

I got amazing gifts for Christmas. Cooking stuff.

I got a fabulous stock pot in which I can cook a whole cow.

I got a George Foreman grill which I’ve already used twice and I think is one of the nicest Christmas presents I’ve ever received. The ability to grill meat without having to actually have a “real” grill is wonderful. And the ease of use and cleanup is just fantastic.

And I got a rice cooker, which I have also used twice. And let me tell you, in case you don’t know. Instant rice is not nearly the same thing as real rice. It’s a completely different thing. I don’t know what they do to instant rice to de-flavor it, and I’m not sure I want to know, but here’s one clue. Real rice has actual flavor. Imagine that. Not just fluffy filler.

Oh, and one more thing. Also a christmas present, but not this year. Long, long ago, perhaps 2 or 3 christmases ago, Moose gave me a bottle of hot seasoning sauce, which then sat for the last 2 or 3 years unused. Why? I dunno. I guess I forgot it, or didn’t realize what I was missing. Wowzers! That stuff is absolutely amazing! Where do I sign up to buy it wholesale?

Today’s caching

Today I found two, and hid one, geocache.

Found “Neither Hill Nor Dale”, which was an interesting hiding place. Actually, I looked at this spot when I went out there the first time, and could not figure out how it could be a cache hiding spot, but thought it would be neat if someone could figure out how.

Found “Graven Images” which is in a graveyard a few feet from a busy road in Lexington. It’s really quite sad, as it is unmaintained, and all of the headstones are in terrible condition. One grave reads only “In loving memory of”, which is sad and ironic at the same time. I’m inclined to do some research on this family, but I know, given my schedule, that I will never get around to it. The graves date to the 1880s, I think, although it’s rather hard to make out. So … not so very long ago, really.

I hid “Little red riding HOOD”, which, since it has not been approved yet, I won’t tell you where it is. But I got rather cut up with thorns in the process of hiding it.

Return of the King

Last night I saw Return of the King with Andy and Lizet.

Wow.

The battle scenes were just amazing. Shelob was horrifying. The Mumakil were absolutely mind-boggling. And Gollum was perhaps even more believable than in his earlier appearances.

It did go on a bit, running from 7:30 until 10:55.

I suppose I could go on and on about it, but I’m sure dozens of other people have already done so. I thoroughally enjoyed the experience, and I expect that I’ll watch it a number of times again.

Childermas

Today is Childermas, also known as Holy Innocents. Today we commemorate the killing of the 14,000 children under the age of 2 by King Herrod, in his attempt to kill the King of the Jews which he had been told about, but whose name he did not know.

By extension, today we also commemorate those innocents killed throughout the world, and througout history, for reasons beyond their understanding, and, often, beyond ours.

In recent years, it has also been a day when we commemorate those children who have been eliminated before their birth, for the convenience of their parents. I suppose that this day would be more greatly politicized if the people in question were aware of the Church calendar. For the most part, I suppose I’m grateful that they are not.

(Yeah, I know, politics and religion are supposed to be out of bounds here. Try to get over it.)

Oh, yeah, and today is considered to be a day of very bad luck in Scotland, and one would never travel today. In 1869, the Tay railroad bridge collapsed just as the Edinburgh train passed over it, killing all 200 people on board.

Matamorphosis

I’ve been listening to Hilary Duff’s new album Metamorphosis. Why? Well, because the little person wanted it, and I carried it down to the Jeep one day when I intended to take Vapor Trails.

It’s surprisingly good.

I was expecting it to be more what my cousin Bobby used to call “bubble gum music.” You know, for a dime you get a handful. They all taste the same. The flavor goes away after chewing for a few minutes.

So what I’m curious about is whether she is just the Voice, or if she has anything to do with the creative process. The lyrics are interesting. The music is not the typical shallow stuff that I’ve been hearing lately, but actually has some depth and layers to it. And she has a very good voice. And, of course, she’s certainly the kind of girl that I would have had a crush on 15 or 20 years ago.

A couple of the songs are the standard teeny-bop stuff. “So Yesterday”, ironically, is very reminiscent of another star-of-the-moment from yesterday. 1988, to be exact. Tiffany.

But others have clever lyrics, at least for the audience. “Why Not?” talks about being who you are, not what other people tell you to be.

You always dress in yellow
When you want to dress in gold
…
Why not
Take a crazy chance?

And others give an actual positive message to young girls, like “Little Voice” about her conscience telling her to stay away from a particular boy that she really likes, but who wants a little more than she thinks is right.

The little voice in my head won’t let me forget
The little voice in my head is never misled
All of this noice is what keeps me from making a mess
The little voice in my head just won’t let me get with you

…

I know I sound insane, like I’m playiong games,
Cause all I really want is you
But there are some things a girl won’t do

When there are so many “artists” out there spewing filth and vitriol, it’s great to see someone telling a good message, and being a positive role model for young girls.

Thanks, Hilary.