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Click here to comment on the August --> September 2003 Journal. [] comments so far.Rceently there has been tihs thnig giong arnoud aobut how the odrer of ltetres in a wrod hradly mrattes at all. This tinhg, sopupsedly from Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, syas that only the fsirt and lsat leteter has to be in plcae for anonye to be albe to raed the dcomuent. It's an ientrstieng "aacdemic" ieda but I cna't fnid any siold lgeitaimcy to it. Waht do you thnik?
Last night I went out with Dave B again on a Gluttonous adventure. I showed up at Pub 199 at 6, he was there a few minutes later. Right up at the top of the menu (I don't know how we missed it last time) was the trypic of steamed clams special, steak special, and lobster special. I opened with 2 dozen steamed clams and a beer. We moved on to lobster and a potato.... and more beer. Then we had dinner: more beer (of course) grilled cheese, grilled cheese with tomato and another potato. My tummy hurts. Gluttony is good. :-)
I stole the color scheme from http://inipi.org/ today. What do you think? It's the one with the dark brown background and yellow text. If you haven't seen it yet, reload this page a couple times. It's on a randomizer with 2 other color schemes.
PS. Mu ha ha!
I wrote to a friend today the following:
We were talking before about what the heck we should each do for a living... I wanted to give you hopeful news and say that I've been being "The Computer Guy" with moderate success for the last couple months. I go to people's homes and help them with their computer problems. Little things and large things alike. And gosh darn it, I think I'm good at it! There's a big teaching component to it, showing people how to do things and helping them help themselves. I think this could really be something.
I lifted this Shockwave movie from Slapdash.com. Click on the image for the movie
Thanks Melissa for pointing it out to me!
This weekend I went up to Boston... and then on to New Hampshire with Trav to go see the New Hampshire Gathering of Scottish Clans. It was great. All the clans had booths set up, there was some fantastic traditional and modern Scottish music and the food was good (we had haggis!). But the most important part of the day was seeing people throw things that shouldn't be thrown.
The amateur contest was infinitely more fun to watch than the pros. First, because we got to stand much closer than on the grand parade grounds. Second, because it's more fun to root for a local guy who is throwing stuff because it's fun instead of a hired professional stuff-thrower. Third, and most importantly, when they were throwing the 28 lb weight, we were told to watch out; an errant throw could come our way and kill us. How cool is THAT?
Mike Z (from the Boston area) making one of his field-record-breaking throws.
The Crazy Lawsuit Contest! The contestants throw a 28 lb weight straight up
into the air as high as possible over a bar. Of course, what goes up...
I figured that a tosser only loses his step 1 in 10 times after throwing... and
the weight would only actually hit an unawares contestant 1 time in 10... So
that's only a 1 in a hundred chance of sqwish-age! I'm pretty sure Mike Z won
this one too, throwing 17'! Imagine throwing a 5 gallon water bottle up onto
your home's 2nd story roof!!
Mike Z (again... the other contestants' photos didn't come out as well, sorry) throwing a 28 lb weight at us. He won this event too.
Trav and I just before getting our haggis puffs. Good times! The taste reminded me of cappaletti, actually; I think it was the allspice.
A friend of mine, "Joe" (not his name) told me a good story about
how he collected a debt owed to him. He says that he has a lot more of these
kinds of stories too. I'd certainly like to hear some of them.
He called up a guy that owed him a sizable amount of money for a business debt,
something like $10,000. He had owed Joe this money for a year or so. But the guy
said definitively, "Sorry, I don't have the money for you. I can't pay you
right now." Joe felt that he had been waiting long enough and wanted this
debt settled. So Joe told him that if he couldn't pay, he'd have to talk with
his partner about the matter. Joe went out on the street outside of where the
guy was working and ran across a very large, scary looking black guy. Joe held
up his arms for me, showing me how big this guys shoulders were and how long his
arms were. This guy was big and ugly and scary. Joe ripped a $50 bill in half
and handed one half of the bill to this big guy. He said simply, "I'd like
you to go pick up a check from an acquaintance of mine. If you get me the check,
I'll give you the other half of this bill. If you don't come back with the
check, I'll still give you $20 for your trouble.
Joe pointed the big guy in the right direction and waited. Low and behold, 20
minutes later, Joe's "partner" came out with a check! Of course, Joe
didn't actually think that the check would be good. But he figured it would
offer sizable proof to a judge that the money really was owed to Joe. But low
and behold, the check didn't bounce! The debt was settled!
The moral of the story is that physical intimidation -can- work. It is just one
more tool in the debt collectors belt.
Joe told this story in light of Richard Grasso's $140 million dollar compensation package... We were thinking that sometimes the legal system's jail-threat has to be coupled with the even more real threat of physical violence to keep people from doing really really mean/stupid/awful things... It's just a thought.
A month and a half ago, I called MCI and switched to a new phone plan,
cutting our phone bill by about 1/3 and gaining Caller ID and 3-way calling.
Only... it didn't happen. We waited and waited and nothing happened. So I called
them up and they said that there was a problem with verifying the service
change. What the frig? I had spoken to the "independent third party
verification" lady. I did my part but MCI never 
bothered
to tell me by mail or phone that there was a problem. I had to start all over.
Hurumph. So I hurrumphed right over to Verizon on the 15th. After 25 minutes on
the phone with them, I had them for local, regional and long distance, caller
ID, 3-way, and speed dial. At Verizon's recommendation, I called MCI back to
tell them that I was switching my service away from them. The MCI lady didn't
know what to do with such information so we just left it at that. A day goes by
and I see that our phone is now showing Caller ID info and we have voicemail
:-). Of course, I don't know how to access the voicemail... but we're going to
get a letter from Verizon real soon saying how to use this new fangled
telephonic appliance, right? Well, this morning I got tired of all our calls
falling into the black hole of voicemail so I called Verizon to ask what to do.
(before I called, I scoured the Verizon web site for instructions, but
they didn't work). The nice lady at Verizon tells me that we don't have
voicemail. [furrow brow here]. "Huh? I left a message to myself just
yesterday." She looks further and finds out that we don't have ANY Verizon
services. All our services were switched to MCI yesterday. MCI slammed me! The
most bothersome part about it being that our Verizon voicemail got shut off
because of it, losing all those voicemails. Jerks.
So I switched to the Verizon Freedom plan and put a PIC freeze and local freeze on our provider. Unlimited calling anywhere in the US for $55/month (+$8 taxes). And I'm gonna use it. I'm gonna talk your ears off!
And in a related story, I was talking to my dad about low phone rates. He says that he's seen the P&L sheets of all these phone companies and they can't keep lowering phone rates or they're going to (keep) going out of business. I argued that, as a consumer, that wasn't my problem; It's my duty to find the lowest rate with service I like. We're both right.
I've been looking for items related to my grandfather's businesses for a couple years now. I found the first item completely by happenstance. I did a search on eBay for "Ferranti" and BAM, there was a bottle! I wrote the following email to Brian at Brian's Breweriana.com. Maybe posting this request to the internet will help. If you've got any info about such memorabilia, I'd love it if you contacted me!
Hi I just found your site at the recommendation of an
acquaintance.
I've been searching high and low for breweriana from some of my grandfather's
companies. It would make me so happy if you came across anything of his. A few
years ago, I found a glass bottle shaped like the old Coca-Cola bottle reading
"Ferranti Bottling Company" and a promotional bottle opener reading
the same thing.
I'm looking for anything from:
All companies were based in or around Scranton or Pittston, PA
Ferranti Brothers Bottling Company - some time after 1946
Yankee Brewing Co. of Pittston - owner from 1942 until at least 1946
Yankee Premium Pilsener (sic) Beer -
Made by YBC
Old Stock Yankee Ale - Made by YBC
Lackawanna Beer and Ale Corp - owner 1935-1942
City Bottling Co. - owner 1923-1935
Ferranti Bros. Trucking Co. - owner 1930-1935
Here, let me show you an excerpt from the Italian Who's Who in 1946 to give you
a better idea.
Ferranti, Ernest
Brewer. Born in Jessup, Pa. June 11, 1907, the son of Mario and Regina (Becchetti)
Ferranti, natives of Gubbio, Italy. Catholic. Democrat. Married Ida Weston,
1931. Three children: Dorothy, Marlene and Ernestine. Graduate of Jessup High
School, 1923. President and owner since 1942, Yankee Brewing Co. of Pittston,
manufacturers of Yankee Premium Pilsener Beer and Old Stock Yankee Ale.
Production capacity, 150,000 barrels a year. Average production, 90,000 barrels
a year. Past president, Lackawanna Beer and Ale Corp. (brewers), 1935-1942. Past
owner, City Bottling Co., manufacturers of carbonated beverages 1923-1935 and of
Ferranti Bros. Trucking Co., 1930-1935. Member Fox Hill Country Club; Scranton
Club; Elks; Kiwanis; Scranton Chamber of Commerce; National Small Brewers Ass'n;
etc. Home: 203 Grassy Ave., Jessup, Pa. Office: Main and New Streets, Pittston,
Pa.
Have a great day!
Lee Sonko
Saturday I took my Technology Education test. I kicked its butt. The only questions I had any trouble at all with were things like, "What magazine is devoted to technology education teaching? A) Teachers Technology, B) The Education Teacher, C) Technology and Teachering Journal, or D) Technological Teaching and the Educational Teaching Paradigm Curriculum Journal for Professionals?" I took an educated guess that it wasn't D.
The results come back in about 4 weeks. Now I've got to figure how I can parlay that into a job or entry into a Masters program. <finger crossing> I'm hoping... </finger crossing>
Here's a little foray into evolutionary biology...
In a radio interview I heard recently, Julian Paul Keenan, the author of "The Face in the Mirror: The Search for the Origins of Consciousness" says that the main benefit of self-awareness from an evolutionary standpoint is deception. Having self-awareness allows you to deceive others. A secondary benefit is empathy but deception helps you get ahead a heck of a lot better than empathy does.
Think about that one for a while. The implications are sure to intrigue, disgust and stimulate you.
I went on a little vacation to upstate NY with some friends two weekends ago, starting Friday the 5th. It was a really nice trip.
It started out right. As I pulled out of The Valley, I heard this Chris Smither song on the radio..
I got ba-na-na, watermelon, peaches by the pound,
Sweet corn, mirleton, mo' better than in town,
I got okra, enough to choke ya,
Beans of every kind,
If hungry is what's eatin' you
I'll sell you peace of mind,
But this ain't what you came to hear me say,
And I hate to disappoint you,
But I got no love today,
I got no love today,
I got no love today,
No love today
Just the right tone to start me fresh. You see... well, in reading my journal you may have noticed that you haven't seen anything about any personal relationships that I've been in. That's because I haven't been in any since Cha. I've been relationship-free since I broke up with Cha Cha in October.. To make a long story (and yes, it really is a long story... like a 30 minute tell) short: she told me she had brain cancer when we met. She was a great, fun, interesting, smart person except for the part about how she was going to die in 3 months. Some 2 years later, I hadn't once been in the same room with her and a diagnosing oncologist... well, except for Cha herself, since she is a well-respected oncologist. And that wasn't for lack of trying. I asked her straight-out and she refused to give me the names of any of her doctors, proving well enough to me that she never really did have cancer. Wonk.
So.... I got no love today... got no... love today.
So I went on a getaway, played in a kiddie pool, flew my plane over water (flying "without a net" for the first time!), played with old and new friends, and just had a great time. I even met a girl!
Then, on my first day back, I worked 4 jobs and made as much money in my own business as in any day I had worked for the man. THAT felt good. I'm not averaging a reasonable wage yet. But I'm getting there! There's good karma flowing around me. But I'm going to stop thinking about that because the best way to keep karma flowing is to not think about it.
When I was in upstate NY, that girl I met asked me, "What are you doing next weekend?" I thought for a few moments. I struggled to remember... I had something planned but I couldn't think of what it was! I stammered out an, "Umm, I don't know. I think I... I don't remember but I might have something important." She asked, "Would you like to come to Cappy's housewarming party next weekend?" I smiled, "Oh yea that's what I had planned!" The world is WAYYY too small. We had just met but were going to the same party some 300 miles distant in a week's time! Of course I also had the Technology Education test on Saturday morning but that was just an aside. (and she wasn't going to that! That would have been beyond weird).
Thursday and Friday, go to bed early. Saturday morning 6am, go to Technology Education Test (actually, 6:35am... I got up late but made it in time). 11am, drive to phila in the driving rain. 1:20pm, arrive at her apartment. I had told her on the phone a few days earlier that if she could actually make a really good thick crusted peasant bread, I'd worship her. Well, I helped her make the bread... though I cringed several times at her technique: the dough was way too wet, it wasn't rising enough, it didn't seem to be kneaded properly. 25 minutes later, as I checked it in the oven, I began to ready my knees for some serious worship. When we ate it an hour later, I was in full worship-mode. Apparently, knowing too much about how bread "should" be baked can be a detriment to how to should be baked!
I'm only thinking about this now but she made that masterful breadness only 2 weeks after moving into her apartment. She barely has her bedroom set up but she pulled all the right ingredients and tools out of boxes to make that for me! That was a feat. And she did that for me [grin!].
There is more. Lots more but I'll write about it tomorrow.
The release date for Shaolin Soccer has been pushed back AGAIN. The original July 15th release date would have made it a great Summer flick. The revised August 15th release just barely made it in for the Summer crowd. When they switched it to September 15th, I got miffed. An Indian Summer kung foo/action/comedy? Maybe. Now Moviephone says It's being released December 26th. Boxing Day? What the frig? Shaolin Soccer plays off of the Matrix hype in a funny way. But since Matrix Reloaded sucked, Matrix-mania is fading pretty rapidly. Maybe they're trying to time it after Matrix Reloaded's November 5th release date. But Boxing Day? That's too late! I give up.
Jeez, I get excited about going to one movie in the theater in a year and look what happens. Hurumph.
But I -did- have a really really good weekend. I'll tell you about that soon. And heck, last weekend was really really good too. So what am I hurumphing at?
I just found this online at http://www.upcomingmovies.com/shaolinsoccer.html
Release Date Note: (7/19/02) This was originally scheduled to
open on April 5th, 2002, then, August 30th, 2002, and now sometime in the 1st
quarter of 2003. (8/16/02) This has been pushed back a little bit again, now to
April 11th, 2003. (1/31/03) Miramax has bumped this back another four months to
August 8th, 2003. That's 16 months after its first target date. (6/23/03)
Miramax has adjusted this movie a week, from August 8th to August 15th. (8/8/03)
Miramax has dumped their plans on giving this film a wide release, going with a
platform release starting on September 5th instead. As KungFuCinema.com reports,
this decision comes with the news that Miramax has decided to go with the
original dialogue (with subtitles) rather than doing an English dub. (9/2/03)
Miramax has decided not to release this film this week after all, with no word
now on when they might release it to the U.S. public. Might they now be
considering sending it direct-to-video? (9/4/03) Miramax is currently looking
for a new release date in the 4th quarter of 2003.
And this:
Title Note: (1/5/02) Known as "Shaolin Soccer" in Asia, Miramax is changing the title to "Kung Fu Soccer" for the USA release. (4/10/02) AICN reports that Miramax may have decided (rightly) to change the title back to Shaolin Soccer. (4/12/02) That site has received confirmation that the title has been changed back again. (6/27/02) Now the AICN site's owner, movie fan Harry Knowles is saying the title may be changed back to "Kung Fu Soccer" again. (7/19/02) Well, Miramax has submitted this film to the MPAA, and it was indeed with the "Shaolin Soccer" title.
And the worst part:
Running Time: 86 minutes (edited down from the 111 minutes of the Asian release)
Someone at Miramax needs a Boot to the Head! (click on this link and truly be enlightened!) Ti Kwan Leep r00ls.
Why do we send up 7 astronauts in the space shuttle? Why not send up 5 robots controlled by radio from the ground and 2 astronaut/robot-technicians? But of course I don't know what the heck those 7 astronauts do right now.
This reminds me of an important interview about remotely operated vehicles that I saw on Scientific American (Beneath the Sea: Into the Deep, Part I, May 14, 2002) with Bob Ballard:
ALAN ALDA (NARRATOR) In spite of the spectacular scientific
advances that have been made with the use of small manned submersibles like
Alvin, Ballard says we don't need subs like this any more. He came to that
conclusion right here on the Galapagos Rift.
BOB BALLARD The turning moment for me was in a submarine just like this one,
when we found these unique life forms. And we were down on the bottom of the
Galapagos Rift, it was 1979, OK. And biologists had never seen these life forms
ever before, and we got them in the submarine and, a scientist by the name of
Holger Jannish, who just couldn't wait to see these creatures. He knew he was
going to be famous, just to be the first to see them biologically. And so we got
down there and they were right outside the window. And I was sitting over here
and I had brought down a new prototype camera system -- a digital camera system.
And I was looking at the animals and I looked up from my porthole and I looked
at Holger, and he had his back to the window. I said, "Holger, what are you
doing?" And he said, "I'm looking at the monitor."
ALAN ALDA That's amazing.
BOB BALLARD And I said, " Wait a minute, let me see if I got this right…
ALAN ALDA We came all the way down here…
BOB BALLARD We came all the way down here, and you turn your back to the window
-- and I went (snap)
To keep your data from being defaced and/or destroyed when logging on to the internet when using a Windows computer, you MUST have the following (this is a bare minimum, not what you "should" have) unless you want your computer to be taken over my the miscreants of the computer world:
You've got to install, configure and know (at least in general) how each of the program works so that it doesn't ruin your internet experience. This sucks. I remember when the internet was a happy, smiling place.
I just opened a new tube of Colgate toothpaste. I squeezed the tube.... and I squeezed the tube. Then I squeezed it some more. I looked in the hole to verify I was really going to get what I was expecting. It was on it's way... So I squeezed a bit more. And then something happened, toothpaste started coming out of the hole. I'd guess that this 8.2 ounce net weight container is 20% air.
Just about all single-serving yogurt containers hold about 20% less than they could. Go ahead and pick up a Yoplait container at the store. Flip it over and look at the underside. The bottom of the yogurt containing portion of the container is a full 1/4 of an inch recessed inside the packaging. This is obvious when the package is upside-down. But then it sits right-side-up on a table, the 6 oz Yoplait container looks to be the same size as the 8 oz Dannon container.
I was chatting with Dave B tonight. He reminded me of the great time the two of us had at Pub 199. Pub 199 has this permanent special... call it a specialty... $10 gets you either a lobster and potato or a steak and potato. So we sat down like the guys we are and ordered. The food was guy-good. Good steak. Good lobster. Good potato. Ugh! Ambiance: stuffed beavers, moose, bear, and a deer with Christmas lights in his antlers. Ugh, good! We sat, we ate, we talked, we enjoyed. After the meal, we sat and talked about the world. And then a funny thing happened. We were hungry again. So we ordered another meal. I just (just, ha!) had a heaping bowl of cheese fries. Dave had the other dinner special! All is well in the world.
After dinner, what did we do? We went to a diner for pie! And Dave only barely kept me... and us... from going in to a teen roller rink. He told me tonight, "We'd probably get put in the same cell." Ha!
I'm going away for the weekend, airplane in tow! Wee!
Bye!
I was passing by the TV in the kitchen a few minutes ago when I heard this guy on CNBC yelling at the camera, ranting about "disinflation". He had to yell because he had the New York Stock Exchange trading floor ambient room noise piped into his glassed-in cubby at full volume.
One or two of three things is true: 1) I'm dumb and/or stubborn for not accepting this term as it stands. 2) He's an idiot for using the term once, a fucking idiot for using it 3 times in one interview or 3) People that actually listen to this drivel are stupid.
Here's an idea of a blog viewer bookmarks. This will hold the place of
someone viewing a person's blog.
IE:
8-29-03 [click here to set the bookmark on this spot]
Today's entry blah blah
blah blah
8-28-03 [click here to set the bookmark on this spot]
Here's a new entry
8--27-03 [click here to set the bookmark on this spot]
Another entry in my blog
--------------
When you click on the link, the script sends a cookie to the person viewing the
blog. This cookie contains a #name with the exact location of where the viewer
clicked. The next time the viewer goes to this page, a script reads the cookie
and jumps down to the appropriate place in the blog.
This kind of bookmarking is most appropriate for blogs that get very long. For
instance, someone that clears their blog once a month (like me)
Simple and elegant. Now somebody write it! All I ask for is an "Original
concept" byline.
My senator wrote back to me today (via email) about how he's co-sponsoring federal anti-spam legislation:
Dear Mr. Sonko,
Thank you for contacting me about spam. I appreciate hearing from you on this
issue.
The growth of the Internet and the increased use of e-mail have led to the
emergence of "spam," or electronic junk mail. Numerous marketers have
begun to send unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) over the Internet. Because
this marketing technique is easier and less costly than traditional direct
marketing techniques such as direct mail solicitations, e-mail accounts
worldwide have been deluged with this unsolicited correspondence.
Spam is not just a nuisance, but it can also bring consumers higher charges for
the Internet as service providers are forced to continually upgrade their
systems to handle the increased traffic. Spam filters built into MSN and Hotmail
servers, for example, block 2.4 billion messages a day. While proponents of UCE
insist it is a legitimate marketing technique that is protected by the First
Amendment, Congress should enact reasonable restrictions.
Although 35 States have anti-spam laws, there is no federal law specifically
concerning spam. Consequently, I have co-sponsored CAN-SPAM, the
"Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing
Act" (S. 877), which would do the following: create criminal penalties for
the transmission with knowledge and intent of spam messages with header
information that is materially false or misleading; prohibit deceptive subject
headings; require a functioning return address for the message recipient to
submit a request that he or she not receive future messages; require clear
identification that a message is an advertisement; and require that message
recipients have an opportunity to opt-out, and for the sender to provide a valid
physical mail address.
Please be assured that I will continue to support practical, sensible
regulations that reduce unwanted spam while taking the concerns of legitimate,
honest retailers into account.
Thanks again for contacting me.
Senator Frank Lautenberg
http://lautenberg.senate.gov/
Panther
Valley WineI designed a wine label for my father and his friends' wine. It looks pretty darn sharp! There were two people standing next to the golf bag on the right; dad didn't like them, so I rubbed them out! Mu hahah! I wield the power of Paint Shop Pro!
I've still got to get the quote by Franklin translated into French. No French wine maker would ever sink to placing non-French words on a bottle. Shara has promised to put her Francophile talents to work for me.
Check my Rants page.
From Kathyphrog:
This is strange.....
While sitting in a chair, make clockwise circles with your right foot.
While doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand.
Keep it up and read the end.....
...
Your foot will change direction... and be rotating counter clockwise. . .
Configuring it so it works just the way I want it. I spent almost 4 hours fiddling with UI-ish crap. But it's important so...
So I keep hearing that the USDA's food pyramid thingy and vitamin recommendations are "outdated". Everybody who knows anything about vitamins knows that the USDA is behind on the times... So being a person with some desire to do the right thing, I tried to find out what vitamins I SHOULD take.
Nobody friggin knows.
The best I could find is listed below.
http://www4.nas.edu/iom/iomhome.nsf/WFiles/webtablevitamins/$file/webtablevitamins.pdf
biotin 30 mcg ND
Choline 550 mg 3500
Folic Acid 400 mcg 1000
niacin 16 mg 35
Pantothenic Acid 5 mg ND
Riboflavin/B2 1.3 mg ND
Thiamin/B1 1.2 mg ND
A 900 mcg 3000
B6 1.3 mg 100
B12 2.4 mcg ND
C 90 mg 2000
D 5 mcg 50
E 15 mg 1000
K 120 mcg ND
http://www4.nas.edu/iom/iomhome.nsf/WFiles/Webtableminerals/$file/Webtableminerals.pdf
calcium 1000 mg 2500
chromium 35 mcg ND
copper 900 mcg 10,000
iodine 150 mcg 1,100
iron 8 mg 45
magnesium 400 mg 400
manganese 2.3 mg 11
molybdenum 45 mcg 2000
phosphorus 700 mg 4000
selenium 55 mcg 400
zinc 11 mg 40
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamins.html
vitamin A is 5,000 IU. no more than 10,000
vitamin C is 90 mg
folic acid, at least 400 micrograms (women only?)
vitamin B6 1.3 to 1.7 milligrams of
B12 is 6 micrograms
vitamin D is 5 micrograms
vitamin E 22-400 IU
vitamin K is 80 micrograms
I'm just going to keep taking Centrum. And when I start to feel sick, I'll take extra Vitamin C like my dad demands I do; At least it makes him feel better.
After months of working with committees , we're just about ready to launch the PVPOA's announcement-only mailing list. My real goal is to get a discussion mailing list going. We'll get there... baby-steps. Baby-steps.
from an exchange between TJIC and me.
>Mail is going wonky. Web page load times are way up. There
may be
>some sort of huge worm/virus attack going on as well, according to
>some reports.
I've gone to maybe 15 people's homes in the last 2 months to help them with
computers. NONE of these people had any idea what a firewall was or what Windows
Update was. Heck, I tried to make the analogy to my cousins that updating
Windows was like changing the oil in your car... getting it done is really easy
and you have to do it or you won't have a car for long. I got what amounted to a
blank stare from all of them, including the 17 and 15 year olds. I decided to
set their computers to automatically go to Windows Update and not even tell them
about it.
But then if I can convince these people to have their "oil changed" by
me, I can do well...
I think that one big reason people buy from repeat advertising is that they (consciously or unconsciously) hope that by buying the product, they'll stop being inundated with ads.
After seeing an ad for the Paypal credit card EVERY FRIGGING TIME I logged in to Paypal, I relented for the above reason. Of course, now I get ads for some other Paypal service instead.
So if I bought from all of those penis enlarging spammers, do you think they'd go away?
Today we have a poem in two parts. These emails were sent to me a few hours apart by the nice folks at VP-RX. Please pause between the two parts for maximum effect.
I
Gain 3+ inches in length
Stop premature ejaculation
Produce stronger erections
100% Safe to use, no side effects
Your partner will be astounded
Get VP-RX now!
II
VP-RX will take your sex life to new levels...Guaranteéd!
Your penís will grow up to 3 ínches
Your erectíons will be rock hard
Your sex drive will be supercharged
Your orgasms will be more intense
Your partner will be astounded
Clíck here to get VP-RXnow!
No more please
My interview at Informedia Group went very well. They'll get back to me at the beginning of next week.
Very nice.
Ad Hominem
Description of Ad Hominem [from this
site]
Translated from Latin to English, "Ad Hominem" means "against the
man" or "against the person."
An Ad Hominem is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is
rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person
presenting the claim or argument. Typically, this fallacy involves two steps.
First, an attack against the character of person making the claim, her
circumstances, or her actions is made (or the character, circumstances, or
actions of the person reporting the claim). Second, this attack is taken to be
evidence against the claim or argument the person in question is making (or
presenting). This type of "argument" has the following form:
1 Person A makes claim X.
2 Person B makes an attack on person A.
3 Therefore A's claim is false.
The reason why an Ad Hominem (of any kind) is a fallacy is that the character,
circumstances, or actions of a person do not (in most cases) have a bearing on
the truth or falsity of the claim being made (or the quality of the argument
being made).
Example of Ad Hominem
Bill: "I believe that abortion is morally wrong."
Dave: "Of course you would say that, you're a priest."
Bill: "What about the arguments I gave to support my position?"
Dave: "Those don't count. Like I said, you're a priest, so you have to say
that abortion is wrong. Further, you are just a lackey to the Pope, so I can't
believe what you say."
I applied for a job at my sister's company. They make templated websites for real estate agents. I'd likely be some sort of tech support / client engineer guy. It felt nice when my sister told me they said I was probably overqualified. I'll have an interview soon.
I saw this story on power-assist@yahoogroups
I commute daily (only a few miles)from my home to my job with
the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in Olympia Washington. I got into
an Ebike (2000 Currie USPD) mainly because I sweat even thinking about exercise
and didn't want to get to work sweaty. At the headquarters building where I work
on the State Capitol Campus, there are many dedicated bike commuters, some of
whom are lycra types, and many of whom are certainly "purists."
We have these nice bike cages at work inside which you can securely store your
bike. These cages hold about 15-20 bikes and are located in different areas
across the campus. You access them through an electronic keypad. One day, while
locking-up the bike and going through my shutdown routine in the bike cage, a
couple of dedicated purists came in to lock-up their bikes. While doing so, they
started glancing at my bike, snickering, and generally making fun of my nerdy
bike (and its owner). Although a little embarrassed, I took it in stride.
A few days later, while pulling the not-so-steep but long hill home, I spotted
one of the offenders up ahead in my sights. I can't tell you the pleasure I
experienced when I passed him while I was sitting and he standing. I came-up on
him and said (without panting, of course) "passing on the left" while
simultaneously ringing my little dainty and nerdy bell. He looked back over his
shoulder but I was already pretty much past him which made him do a double-take
of sorts. He looked shocked.
The next morning, while locking-up my bike in the bike cage, the guy I passed
came in with his bike. I didn't say a thing about the afternoon before. After he
locked-up his bike and was heading-out of the cage, he came over and said very
seriously and respectfully, "so...what kind of bike is that anyway?"
...
Cheers
Eric
These cards were made by an old classmate of mine. They depict the people that some think are the real perpetrators of war and destruction of late, George W. and company. I think they're pretty darn funny.
You've seen them before. Many times. That now infamous deck of
playing cards detailing the images and job descriptions of the "most
wanted" in the Iraqi leadership, according to the U.S. military.
Now you can have your own personal deck describing the truly scary people: the
members and facilitators of the George W. Bush Administration!
Every year around this time I become sad and wistful that I am, again, not going to Burning Man. I should go. I must go before I die. It is one of the shapes of perfection. I was going to put a Burning Man picture here, but there is no way that a single photo can do it justice. The BurningMan.com site does it up with over 4,000 photos.
:-)
I saw this thing on Tech TV... an episode of Secret, Strange & True.
God, Ghosts, and Magnets
Is religious experience merely an electronic impulse? "God, Ghosts, and
Magnets" asks this question. Some of the world's top neuroscientists have
found a link between a specific part of the brain and moments of religious
experience. If their theory about the brain is correct, faith and religious
experience may simply be an electromagnetic field in the brain.
This new science, neurotheology, began when scientists explored a condition
called "temporal lobe epilepsy." Epileptics often report profound
religious experiences. Scientists began to wonder: Could there be a connection
between the temporal lobes of the brain and divine revelation?
Neuroscientists began to examine the life stories of celebrated mystics,
including Joan of Arc, St. Paul, and the founder of the Seventh Day Adventist
Movement, Ellen White. They also monitored the brains of nuns as they sensed
unity with God and the brains of Buddhist monks as they achieve oneness with the
universe. All exhibited very similar patterns of brain activity.
Explore this controversial theory on TechTV's presentation of "God, Ghosts,
and Magnets."
I thought I got a lot of spam. I'm around 40 a day... A discussion on the ARL list about spam brought out one person that gets about 400 spams a day! Another found that their Earthlink Spaminator filters 1,800 messages a day! I'm not worthy!
Remember that ad I put in the Panther? (Journal 7-11-03) Well, it's working! The ad came out about 2 weeks ago and I've had a bunch of people call me, saying, "Help, Help! My computer/TV/cable modem/... is broken. Come fix it and I'll give you money!"
I have a pile of 20's and 50's sitting on my desk from the jobs I've been on. Real money from my real startup business! This has the makings for a real business! Wow!
Today's spam poetry make very interesting use of rhythm, playing with the form and pushing the reader's attention in exciting and edgy directions. I find that the author's use of nonstandard capitalization, spelling and punctuation allows drips and drops of the 'true' meaning of the piece through like a used canvas bag allows light through when held up to the sun.
From: Gina [gina9620e@usa.net]
Date: Mon 8/4/2003 11:03 PM
Subject: <<Are you Lee? OK, what can you tender to me?>>
suggest@50thKETXF8
How do you do Love pal.
Are you Lee? Okay, what can you bid to me? Nothing? ...
Anyway I want to propose you a 100% Free gift - permission to aduIt site.
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Happy wishes, your Nice assistant.
TJIC's Project SHERPA project sounds excellent. I really think he's got something there.
Balloon
FestivalThis month's top photo is of my niece Julia and I at the NJ
Festival of Ballooning on July 25th. It was really something to see!