Tag Archives: random

ISSN’s

Ken wants to know who’d be interested in donating time to get ISSNs approved.

Well, I had thought briefly about getting an ISSN, since I knew at least that it could be done, but after seeing Ken’s various mentions of it, I had concluded that it probably wasn’t worth the time.

Yeah, I’d be interested in spending a few of my blog-reading hours providing feecback to the LOC in order to get ISSNs approved. Might even read some interesting stuff in the process.

For those of you who read this, but don’t usually read Ken’s stuff, first of all, you should, but go read his idea about ISSNs.

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.

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?

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.

Time Cube

Many thanks to Dave Barry for pointing me to the Time Cube web site. I no longer have to live in ignorance and stupidity.

Now … what is he talking about?

[[ Due to the unrelenting drivel posted in the comments of this article, and the refusal of people to leave me alone and take their mindless hogwash elsewhere, I’ve just gone ahead and closed further comments on this thread. In case you missed it, I was *MOCKING* the absurdity of the site, not encouraging people to debate and discuss it as though it was actually a serious scientific theory.

Geez, folks, it’s not about being closed minded, it’s about opening your eyes when the sun comes up in the morning. Serious scientific theories must mesh with *reality* in order to be taken seriously. As Albert Einstein observed, no amount of experimentation can prove me right, but one experiment can prove me wrong.

Please take your foolish commentary elsewhere. Thanks. ]]

Dayton ATs

Nathan told me that I should get Dayton tires, so I did. Now I don’t feel like I’m going to slide off the road into a ditch every time I go around a corner. I figure, by the time I get my Jeep paid off, I’ll have replaced all the bits.

Letter from the student loan company

I was just whining the other day about how, every time there is some unexpected income, an unexpected expense springs up to absorb it. And that perhaps I should try really hard to think of it the other way around.

Well, today when I got home, I received an envelope from my student loan company, ACS.

Letters from the student loan office are *never* good news.

So, with much trepidation, I opened it up and read:

The enclosed check is a reimbursement for overpayment of your student loan.

So, not only did the enclosed check represent a nice little amount (about 1.5 payments, actually) this means that my student loan is paid off entirely. And this was completely unexpected. So I’ll have an extra $X every month that I was not planning on.

Pretty nifty.

File persimmons

I just got email on an Apache mailing list with a subject of “Permissions”. At the same time, I got email to a food mailing list with a subject of “Persimmons”

Getting back into the swing

I’m finding it very hard to get back into the swing of things after ApacheCon. Being at ApacheCon, and, in particular, helping make the conference happen, I felt that I was part of something that really matters. Additionally, being part of the ASF makes me feel that I’m part of something that matters – some that makes a really significant difference in the world as a whole.

So, now I’m back at work, doing things that have very little significance outside of the moment. Someone couldn’t check their email. Someone couldn’t get to their network file share. Someone needed to install a Microsoft security patch. *yawn*

I mean, it pays the bills and all

So I need to persuade some local company that there’s a real value in employing an open source developer, to work on things that matter. Hey, it worked for Ticket Master …