As always, Xkcd makes the case succinctly.
Month: January 2008
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Crappy Refrigerator is Gone!
A week or so ago, I alerted all of my email lists and livejournal communities, etc., that a Crappy Refrigerator in my garage was free for the taking. You just had to come and get it.
This fridge has a storied history of moves and uses, and finally ended up in my garage, gathering dust. I’d never plugged it in. I told the email lists that it was availabe until this Saturday, when I would be taking it to the dump.
I awoke on Saturday morning to go rent a truck for the refrigerator’s last ride and lo! An email is sitting in my box saying, “I’ll take it.”
Ethan and Jonathon came and got it. The Crappy Refrigerator lives to chill another day!
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I [Hate] Huckabee
South Carolina’s Republican primary was yesterday and I’m ecstatic that Huckabee lost. I’m less ecstatic that he came in second. Of all the viable Republican candidates, he’s the one I want to see nominated the least.
Of all the front running candidates, I don’t really care who gets put up by the Democrats, and I can live with Romney or McCain from the Republicans, but we don’t need another term by a bible-thumping god-whalloper. Remember, this guy wants to change the constitution to make it more like the bible. His interpretation of the bible, that is. He said:
I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that’s what we need to do, is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family.
Later on he clarified that this was having to do specifically with reproductive rights (abortion) and a ban-gay-marriage position (which puts the statemet right in line with the christian conservatie wing of the Republicans) but it’s the underlying assumption that deep-sixes him as a candidate in my mind. It is possible that I could vote for someone who is anti-gay-marriage and anti-reproductive-rights. Not likely, mind you, but possible, but that candidate would have to be coming at the issues from a direction other than, “’cause the bible tells us so.” I’m a skeptic, and a thinker, and I have significant problems with political people who demonstrate that they aren’t at least the second of those two.
My opinions regarding the race as of today: Nominate either Obama or Clinton from the dems and either Romney or McCain from the repubs and I’ll vote for any of them. If the race were running today with all the top candidates on the ballot, I’d probaby vote for McCain.
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"Don't Think, We'll Do it For You"
Plucked from the Bad Astronomer (who got it from somebody else) comes a video about how happiness can be found through not thinking.
No, I never feel this way when I have conversations with people.
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Tehachapi Loop
You learn something every day. First I saw this image (not the one above). It got me wondering about the railroad loop displayed. So I typed “Railroad Loop California” into Google and [poof] I found the Tehachapi Railroad Loop.
Pretty neat, if you like civil engineering or railroads or cool images.
I’m sure my friend Brian knows all about this as he’s a railroad geek.
Thanks to Airplane Journal for providing the image that heads this entry. Another victory for the Creative Commons! I could not have used this shot under full copyright without obtaining permission. The Creative Commons license provided it. Note that the image is licensed under the same CC terms as my blog. Share alike, people…
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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
We finally got around to watching the second hour of the Sarah Connor Chronicles. My initial impressions: Good enough to keep me watching for now, but not so good that I’ll weep if I miss an episode.
The highlight, of course, is Summer Glau kicking butt as the protector terminator. Unfortunately for Summer, she’s being pigeonholed as an actress. Admittedly, I say this having never seen her role in The 4400 or in The Unit, but watching TSCC, I can feel the ghost of Serenity and Firefly hovering in the background. Her character is almost identical, with slightly less psychotic tendencies.
Still, it’s fun to see her kick butt. I think I mentioned that.
The story is interesting, and they’ve thrown some plot points in that will need tidying up which should lend to a fun season.
Spoilers ahoy! (more…)
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MESSENGER Rocks the Solar System
The MESSENGER probe recently flew by Mercury. For all the details, go to the Bad Astronomy Blog, but I particularly like this image. It really makes me feel like I’m in a science fiction spacecraft, exploring new worlds.
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Snow in the South
It’s a huge deal when snow hits Atlanta. North Georgia gets its fair share, but not so much in the metro area.
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"Save me Plz"
Recent Escape Pod short strory, “Save me Plz” has been released as free fiction, accoring to SFSignal. It’s an interesting story. If you’re into gaming, or role playing, or both, I recommend reading it, or listening to the Escape Pod episode.
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Podcasting Music Angst
This is a call for assistance.
If you listen to the latest episode of Talking Traffic you will hear the sort of music that I’m looking for on my podcast.
I search now and then on magnatunes.com and the podsafe music network, but I have singularly failed in finding what I need.
Therefore, a Challenge! With a Reward! Find me a piece of music with similar qualities to the intro of the linked podcast, but without any vocals. It can be instrumental, Rock, electronic, whatever. It needs to be either for podcast purposes in particular, or availabe for licensing at a reasonable rate. If you need some other inspiration, for music that I think works well, listen to the intros to Escape Pod, or Mostly ITP.
The winner, judged solely by me, will be awarded a place for all eternity, resting in the audio archives of the internet, embalmed inside a podcast (as soon as I figure out how to record Skype).
The problem is that most of the podcast producers I listen to with cool music are music geeks. They’re always listening to different things in their spare time. Me, I’ve always been a top 40, greatest hits, what’s on the radio kind of person. This is why I call out to the interwave for help.
Bring on the music! I will await with open arms.