Cranky-D

I don’t watch television as it is delivered because commercials drive me insane. Instead, I tend to avail myself of alternate delivery systems for teevee which allow me to watch the shows on my fantabulous 30in widescreen computer monitor (which, by the way, I ended up buying from my former employer because I really couldn’t give it up). So I am right now watching the CSI NY from last week(I guess) and they have car racing in the show, which is great because I like cars and machinery in general. However, they came up with this insanely ridiculous idea of a “Velocity Injection Chamber” which somehow stores the kinetic energy from braking and allows you to re-apply it to the wheels at some later time.

As I said on teh twitter, what a load of horseshit. First of all, braking converts the kinetic energy of the vehicle into heat, which is then dissipated to the surrounding air. Storing heat is really quite difficult. If you wanted a direct conversion, you would need a good way to store the heat energy in some other form and then re-apply it later. Good luck with that. Now, it’s possible to use the kinetic energy to power a generator and then store the energy electrically, and indeed hybrid cars do that to a greater or lesser extent to re-charge the batteries. That would not work on a race car.

Whatever. It did give me a huge laugh, which is always welcome. However, it should also serve as a reminder that they crap you see on teevee is often completely insane and unworkable. Most writers don’t know a whole lot about anything. Keep a skeptical mind.

Why does anyone think that government work is good? The fact is, if you work for the government, the money that pays for your wages has to come from people who do not work for the government. This is not hard to figure out out. The government earns no revenue that doesn’t come from taxes. The private sector earns revenue that comes from people.

All of the stimulus jobs, such as they are, are in the public sector. That means that they are not sustainable without more tax revenue. What I want is real susainable jobs, which means jobs that will survive a government influx of cashl, or a lack thereof.

Eh, well. It’s late (or early) and we are all doomed. It’s all over, kids. I hope you have lots of ammo and firesticks.

I’ve been getting back to my roots, as it were, since I’ve been unemployed. I have been a long-time fan of the Perry Mason teevee series, and have seen them all many times. However, I have probably never seen them as originally broadcast as they were about 52 minutes long and most of the time you are lucky to get 45 minutes of them on the telly. However, if you know where to look, you can get them for “free.” Yes, I’m a bad boy. If streaming video actually worked as promised I would just watch them on the CBS website, where they are all available for free, but streaming video still bites the big one as far as quality goes. I cannot abide hiccups in the delivery.

Anyway, I just queued up an episode, and I knew who the killer was within about 20 seconds. I paused it to write this. It’s really more about the process to me, since I usually recall the killer soon enough. I am hardly ever surprised any more. Still, it’s a lot of fun.

I’m that way with Star Trek: The Original Series as well. I can name the episode from watching the teaser. Yet somehow, I forget if I’ve taken my asthma medicine for any given morning. Early onset alzheimer’s, or just normal forgetfulness? Your call.

Why does anyone call it reverse racism? It’s just racism. Pure and simple.

Just some rambling. Don’t mean nothing.

I’ve just finished my month with my job, and got my hours in. My boss decided that he wanted quantity and not quality in my work, and I can always conform if I have to. The fact that I had to let go of my standards for quality at the same time is a loss that will not be noted in his book.

Anyway, I’ve been celebrating with a bottle of Tillamor Dew Irish Whiskey. I had forgotten how great the buzz is on that stuff. Smooth. It’s weird how different alcohol delivery systems can change the effect.

I’m watching a Glenn Beck show. I have come to the conclusion that he is kind of a crank, but he’s my kind of crank. He is over the top in his judgements. He just interviewed a former head of the IRS. I find it hard to hate them because they found that I had overpaid recently (I totally forgot an estimated tax payment of $1100 when I did my taxes) and they sent me all my money back. I had a nice surprise. I don’t hate the IRS as much as I dislike Congress, the Senate, and the President for taxing the fuck out of me.

Anyway, Glenn is over the top. Like I think I said. However, he’s not all that far away from my thinking. He is a strict constructionist on the Constitution. As I am.

So, I guess I’m saying that these “crazies” are over the top but still pretty much saying what I think.

For instance, if you call our president a fascist, well, I would answer that he might not be one, but the fact is that fascism is connected to government direction (not ownership, just control) of industry, and we have the Obama administration in charge of GM, so I’m not sure what’s going on. Oh, wait, I am sure.

Anyway, like I said at the beginning, I have a buzz going, in celebration of hitting my hours for the month, and I plan on keeping it going. I plan on playing video games all weekend.

Rock on.

Update: Tillamor Dew? Smoooooth.

The following is from an Obama/Biden policy statement found here.

Address Gun Violence in Cities: As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn’t have them. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.

You know what “commensense” means? It means a way to incrementally take away guns.

The guns on foreign battlefields are fully automatic weapons (otherwise known as “Assult Weapons”). If you want to purchase such a weapon, you have to pay a high price. First of all, they are available only in limited numbers, and are thus expensive. Second, you must pass an FBI background check to own one. The “Assult Weapons” ban actually refers to semi-automatic versions of such weapons. They are no more dangerous than any other rifle. In the hands of a law-abiding citizen (the only person who would obey such a ban) they are the same as any other rifle. In the hands of a criminal, they are dangerous, just like any other gun in the hands of a criminal.

“Assault weapons” only account for a fraction of the crimes in which a gun is involved, something less than 1 percent I believe. Therefore, such bans mostly effect law-abiding citizens. The fact that taking away guns from honest citizens raises the crime rate in general is also something ignored by many of our representatives. Of course, they think that crime is not a people problem but a gun/knife/baseball bat problem. I find it impossible to understand how they reach such conclusions, but that’s because my brain is actually fully functional and I don’t like depriving rights from my fellow citizens. Also, while I have a huge ego, I still believe in my heart of hearts that I really don’t know what’s best for anyone other than myself. I would make a bad philosopher-king. A good portion of our representatives think of themselves in a much more elevated manner.

Of course, I don’t own any guns, so I guess it really doesn’t matter to me. But I worry about other people’s rights. We need to keep an eye on our new president-elect lest he stray from the path.

Update: they have since removed all the content from that page. There is a google cache of the page as it used to be. I found out about the change at Ace’s blog.

It isn’t too much of a surprise that Palin is under fire. What can be surprising is the viciousness of the attacks.

We will take them in order. The very first thing that was thrown out there is Palin should be staying home and taking care of her kids, especially the “sick” one. Her youngest has Down’s syndrome. I don’t consider that to be sick. It is a condition whose effects can vary quite widely among those who have it. I will not make excuses, however. I have no idea what I would do if faced with the situation she and her husband were faced with. Right now I think I would be very pragmatic and terminate the pregnancy. I don’t think that makes me a good person. In fact, it may very well make me a bad person. But I do believe that it would be between me, my woman, and G-d, and no one else. Sarah and her husband decided to have the baby and live with what came. I cannot help but admire her for it. If things work out, they will have a happy boy who loves life and can do stuff for himself just fine, as happens so many times already.

The second big thing is the announcement that Sarah’s oldest daughter is pregnant. She is going to carry the child to term, and she will marry the father. I know that people out there are slapping the “Hypocrisy” label on the whole event and just getting their jollies by ragging on the family about this. They are misguided in many ways. First of all, Sarah Palin has a stated position that she is a “Feminist for Life” or something like that. Translated it means she is a feminist who believes that aborting babies is wrong. However, I see no evidence that she is forcing her daughter to carry her child to term. I would guess that Sarah and Todd talked to their daughter about the options and the daughter decided to have the baby. It’s funny how the left will always applaud an abortion, but thing that when the daughter decides she will keep the baby, the left decides that she was “forced into it.” I highly doubt that is true. I have relatives who live in Alaska, and I know the Alaska spirit. They are fiercely independent; I cannot see the daughter being forced into this at all.

They have a tough road ahead. Getting married young often results in divorce. However, I may be an oddball in that I don’t think that getting married because there is a baby on the way is a bad reason to get married. I assume there are other factors, and that if Bristol decided that her boyfriend would not be a good father or husband she would kick him loose and her mother and father would still be okay.

You see, that’s how real families behave and love. It is not about any one person, it’s about everyone. The left does not get that because it’s always about them and no one else. At first I thought this was going to hurt Palin’s candidacy, but now I think it will bring forth a national dialog about real family values. It isn’t about how much money you give or get from the government, it’s about your family staying close and taking care of the people in it. Either way, I think their daughter and grandchild will be well taken care of an loved, and how much more can you ask? Except if you’re what passes for a “liberal” these days, and feel a driving need to have the state involved. I that case, it must make you seeth with anger.

I love it.

G-d help me, I’m actually watching race-walking. Because that is all that’s on right now olympics-wise.

I just finished watching the indoor volleyball game with the Americans and Russians. The Americans pulled it out in the end, and are going on to the match for the gold. They will at least get a silver at this point. Earlier this evening I saw the American men win the beach volleyball game. Both volleyball games were interesting because I wanted the U.S. to win. Otherwise, I really cannot see a reason to watch. I mean, it’s pretty exciting stuff and the scoring happens quickly so it’s good for people with short attention spans. Sort of. Because the games last a long time it seems.

Part of watching the olympics is deciding what it’s okay to watch. Now, women’s beach volleyball is always okay to watch because you have tall hard-bodied adult women running around with almost no clothes on. That is something I might watch even when it isn’t the olympics. In fact, I think I have. However, when watching “women’s” gymnastics, there is a problem. Because they are not women, they are girls. Usually attractive girls with nice bodies. The only way to survive that was to become temporarily gay and complain about the scoring (and I did complain, though in the end the individuals scoring came out right anyway) and bitch about how much of a catty nancy that one male gymnastics commenter is. Then, once they were over I was able to catch the beach volleyball stuff and return to my usual straight horndog mode. By that time, I was able to think that the sturdy little gymnastics girl named Shawn would make a nice daughter.

I watched the male gymnastics as well. Whatevs. They’re pretty impressive. However, they are also very small guys, so it isn’t a threat or anything. Not like wrestling; those guys could kill you.

Right now I know a few additional things. Jamaicans are really fast. Americans cannot pass a baton without dropping it. Race walking looks really really weird, and it also looks like you’d ruin your hips or something.

BTW, I also watch race-walking last night. I must be insane. Luckily, this is all over in a few days, and I can go back to watching other kinds of bad television. Yay for me.

Okay, I’m kind of at a loss here. I plan to start having regular content, but I really don’t do straight news analysis stuff and have no desire to do so at this time. I was going to start writing 100 word stories based on the topics suggested by the site, but it is apparently dead now. So, if you like, throw out some topic suggestions for that.

I figure on one 100 word story per day, an apropos of nothing post, and perhaps one other thing of some kind yet to be determined.

Probably should go to bed now, before Mr. Sun shows up. He’s due soon.

Update: 100-word story topics could be just a word that must be used, a situation that needs to be explored, stuff like that.

Jeff G. at protein wisdom has decided to take a break. As one of the guest bloggers from a few years ago (and I still have access), I will try to add my own weird take on things over there to keep the content going. If the spirit moves you, you might drop by to see if I have contributed anything. Or not, whichever. I admit that there is a lot more traffic there than here, which means that my ego gratification score is much higher there even when I get lackluster feedback.

The first time around I decided to expand on his memes. If you’re masochistic and curious, search the archives for my handle and you should get a good portion of my content there. This time, I plan to come up with my own memes, and rather than ape J.G., I will try to create something new.

Update: I just did a search over at PW and wow, I have written a lot over there. Some of it is actually mediocre.

Update II: If you’re interested in my weird short stories, read here, here, here,, here, and here, in order. They take the armadillo meme and run with it. I have no idea what J.G. thought about what I did to his character, he never said a word.

I just got home from my Monday night outing. I was approached by a young man at one of the train stations, asking me for money. I told him I wouldn’t give him any. He said something to the effect of, “You better make sure I’m not on the station where you get off.” Well, that pushed me over the edge just a tad. I approached him on the platform to let him know I wasn’t afraid. I entered the train in the exact same door he did. I told him that if he wanted things that way I would accomodate him. He apparently backed off, because he did not get off at my stop. My best friend, who I didnt’ think would get involved in my stupidity, let this guy know that there would be trouble. I really appreciated that.

I don’t like confrontations, but I know how this shit turns out. I was immediately in his face, but I gave him an out. I said that he could just walk away from it and that would be that. He did not get off the train when I did. Smart thinking on his part.

Maybe I’m wrong. I can understand if I am. However, this man threatened me. He thought he could get away with it. He didn’t. I won’t let that happen. Ever. Even though right now, my right arm is almost useless and could hardly back me in a fight. The nerve ending that fires the right shoulder muscle is dead, and I await its re-growth. And still, I wouldn’t be sorry to have taken that shit on.

I cannot figure out what’s wrong with boys/men these days. I think they don’t have fathers to teach them how to be men. I really wish I could help them. On the other hand, I don’t care much for the average person, so who cares?

Update: I wasn’t clear. The boy in question was white. The one man other than the rest who got how things were and talked with me about it was black. Just so you know.

Lately I have totally gone insane with geekiness. I bought a gamecube, ps2, advance sp, and a ds. I already had a regular advance, but the last time I went back to Southern California I bought the SP because I hated the incredibly dim screen on the advance. At first I thought that was a bad move, but as it turned out, the DS will not play game boy games and I have a lot of game boy games.

The DS is the latest purchase. It just arrived today. The gamecube is cool because I also bought the adapter off ebay that plays gameboy games on it. The ps2 is there because I wanted to play all the final fantasy games and they are mostly exclusive to the ps2. I also got the grand theft auto 3-pack. So I went from pretty far behind in console land (8-bit nintendo and sega genisis) to one step behind the curve. One step behind means the consoles are pretty damn cheap to buy.

The DS has a nice bright screen. I think I’ll use it a lot. If not, so what? If I use it just a little while, that pays for it. Plus there are a lot of new role-playing titles that will only be on DS. For some reason I really like those kinds of games. I will replay them just for fun. I play all four Dragon Warrior games on the 8-bit nintendo when I had my surgeries so long ago. They really helped pass the time and make me forget about my body which was not doing very well at the time.

I haven’t been getting much sleep, since I’m worried about my father. I’m constantly tired. I hope that goes away eventually.

My father is still in the hospital. Last Monday they cut him open again because he had a blood clot that the cardiologist was worried about. Now we found out that it was associated with an infection. My father is still under some kind of drug that keeps you out of it, but he comes out often enough that we know he is aware somewhat of what’s going on. He is on antibiotics to get rid of the lingering infection.

When we started this whole thing, we were told that the chance of complications was around 2%. That sounded like pretty good odds. What has happened since then seems to indicate that the complications estimate was really low. I am very displeased with how things have been going.

I am going there this Sunday. Less than four days from now I will be close enough to see what’s really going on.

Here’s one of my problems. Perhaps the biggest one I have, even before any woman telling me what to do. And that problem is anyone trying to pull the wool over my eyes. Never try to do that. I consider it an insult to my intelligence, and since I have a very high opinion of my own intellect, that is a major transgression. The doctors (priest-kings) think that what they say and do is gospel, and their priests (nurses) use appeals to authority to bolster their claims. This has been going on almost continuously since my father first started having problems the very night after his initial bypass surgery.

I got this same bullshit when I was in the hospital around 18 years ago. Actually, it was right around my 25th birthday. I had a surgeon who I didn’t know didn’t know what he was doing. He maneuvered me into his hospital so he could practice cutting on me. I know this because he screwed the surgery up and a year later I had to have another surgeon who really knew what he was doing fix the first guy’s mistake.

No, I didn’t sue. Perhaps I should have.

Anyway, I tend to not believe doctors all that much. In my opinion, they are technicians. They work totally in the realm of the law of averages. Statistics are their friend. They can never treat an individual because they can never know the stats of an individual.

They are the equivalent of auto mechanics. They see symptoms and they suggest fixes. However, anyone who has ever owned an old car knows how to keep that old car running. People as they age are just like those old cars. You can talk statistics, you can talk averages, but the only people who really know how to keep that old car running are those who are closest to it.

That’s why I will continue my sister’s advocacy when I get there, if necessary. I truly think that we know my father better than they do. And we know a lot of what it takes to keep him alive.

Too bad that college girl who dumped her newborn in the toilet didn’t just have it aborted a few weeks earlier. That way she wouldn’t be charged with murder.

I feel sorry for the poor little mouse, but he’s in the trap right now. I came home after a night out, and the trap sprung on one of my fuzzy friends. He is long dead.

It’s too bad. I wish I could do a catch an release, but these little guys will move in and take over. Best to end it now before they bring in their friends to the good life.

I will empty the trap tomorrow. I don’t feel like doing it now. So the body will remain in sutu until tomorrow pm.

I am home from a night of fun and boozing. This late, you have very few choices on what to watch. Right now I have an “Intervention” on about the son of one of the singers from “Three Dog Night.” Okay. I get it. The boy is overshadowed by the accomplishments of his father.

Get the fuck over it!

Yeah, that’s all I have for him. He’s a fucking pussy. My father kicks ass and I will never be the man he is. You know what? That’s fine. I can still be the best man I can be. I won’t be him but I can still be a force in the universe. And my father also acknowledges that I am the man I am.

Maybe that’s what’s missing. Maybe this guy needs his father to say that he means something. But first of all, he has to be willing to be something on his own.

I just saw this guys mom helping him to score.

Jesus Christ.

Now they’re all crying. Whatever.

I want to smack them all in the face.

I returned from a visit to Southern California yesterday at noon. This will be the first (hopefully) in a series of posts about how that visit went. In this post, I will concentrate on my sister’s cat.

Let us be blunt. Her cat does not like me. Her cat does not like anyone besides my sister, as far as I can tell. However, I took care of the cat for about ten days, since my sister left my father’s home to visit my other sister in Anchorage, Alaska. I would advertise the Bed and Breakfast my sister in Anchorage runs if it really mattered because I actually had traffic when my blog is listed as abandoned at truthlaidbear and if I didn’t want to remain mostly anonymous.

Anyway, the cat turned out to be needier than ever. The first day went fine. I squeezed out the tuna water from a can of chunk lite tuna (which I would never eat, given that I will only eat solid white albacore) and sprinkled the powder from her pain pill in the oily liquid. She consumed the result, and I threw away the tuna because I knew that the cat would never eat it and that we cannot start feeding other neighborhood critters because it wouldn’t be long before there were raccoons, opossums, and skunks hanging around at all hours waiting to be fed. I scooped out the cat box, renewed the dry food, and placed new “wet” food on a plate. That night, I turned out the light around 11 pm.

The next day, I think I gave her the tuna water at the appropriate time. However, I was informed of my lack of attention to the cat box when she left a deposit on the floor due to the fact that the cat box was too full. I cannot be sure if that day was the time I got the message, but I did get the message that the cat box must be cleaned multiple times in a day if the cat is to be happy. Other food and water requirements proceeded normally. However, that night she managed to cry at least 3 times, waking me and my father each time.

The next night, when I turned out the light, she cried very soon afterwards. So I turned the light on again, and it never was off again while my sister was away. Not that she didn’t cry again, but it seemed to lessen the problem.

I backslid after that, not feeding her at dawn like she’s used to, but whenever I felt like it, though I learned that I should feel like it sooner rather than later. By the way, lest you think I’m a cat hater, understand that this cat will not allow me to touch her at all, nor will she display the slightest deference to me. If she would just suck up a bit, I wouldn’t even bother to comment. However, she refuses to suck up at all.

I checked on that cat at least 6 times per day, and probably more. One thing I didn’t want to happen is that cat dying on my watch.

She makes me miss my brother’s cat, who only liked guys (though he would accept petting from a woman in a pinch) and who would flop for petting at the slightest provocation. He’s in kitty heaven now.

In the meantime, my sister’s cat, who we think is about 22 years old, is deaf as a post, arthritic, and as particular as she was 16 years ago when my sister decided to take her on. She lived through a brutal attack on her about a year ago by a cat who jumped through an open front door to attack her inside my father’s house, and while recovering from that suffered a stroke that left her with only one working leg at the time; she got better in increments, and can walk fine now, though her back legs can move a little funny sometimes. My sister fed the cat water off of various canned meats, like broth for a human, using a syringe of sorts to get the food down her throat and into her stomach, and the cat came back. My dad said recently that she has used up 17 of her 9 lives.

So we have a contradiction in that this cat has a strong will to live, but is a one-woman cat. If a cat can be stubborn and willful, this cat fits the bill. I don’t mind taking care of her, really, but damn, she could be a bit more appreciative and not wake me up whining every damn night.

Naturally, I have washed my hands of the cat yet again. However, I know I will be back in that house, my sister will be gone, and that cat will still be there.

Alive. Complaining. Needy.

Such is life.

Apparently, according to the robot chicken creators, if you don’t have a leftist viewpoint you’re an idiot.

While I’m not surprised, I am disappointed. Simplistic world views are idiotic.

Eh, whatever. Most of the time it’s funny. I rarely let he political viewpoints of entertainers effect my opinion of their output. Still, once someone admits to having a non-thinking world view it makes it easier for me to denounce all of their output.

Time to crash, I think. Whether I’ll freshen just one more time before is a matter for debate.

Just a quick take. Can someone explain to me why we cannot be armed with swords and knives any more, beyond a certain blade length? “Arms” used to mean, and meant when the Constitution was written, both guns and edged weapons.

I want to be able to carry a sword as well as a gun. I think having a sword hanging from your belt or strapped to your back would be a great deterrent. It would let everyone know you won’t be a pussy when someone tries to take your hard-earned money.

The only downside is irresponsible behavior, and people like that will carry weapons no matter what the law says you can do.

Just wanted to lay out an update on the new machine. As it turns out, it’s much easier to read the screen at full brightness than it is at whatever the default brightness is when the laptop is on battery power. As soon as I plugged it in, I was able to read the screen just fine. I tried again today when I was transferring some more files and everything was fine, even at more than sitting on the lap distance. So, I’m probably good for a few more years on this purchase before I won’t be able to read the screen when it sits on my lap.

Been watching robot chicken, which I admit didn’t appeal that much to me before because it was hard to find when it’s on. They are running a marathon, part of which is a solid half-hour (or twenty minutes in reality) of Star Wars parody officially approved by The Bearded One himself, George Lucas. He even leant his voice to one of the bits. That sort of mitigates what he has done to the franchise. And yet, it doesn’t.

Anyway, back to work. I have to crank out some output in the next few days since I have a phone meeting on Friday. I have already set up my laptop to run Matlab and I put all the relevant data on the drive. Though I ran the original experiments on a linux box, I expect that I can make the code run under Windoze.

My supervisor/former advisor said he would help with an outline for the Friday phone meeting, but I think I’ve dragged my feet too much in the interim so I will probably be on my own. I’ve spent more time getting ready to leave on Wednesday than I have doing work that needs to be done. If you know me, you know that there is plenty of crap that needs to be burned to disk floating around. That takes time. My friend here has already volunteered to ride herd on my operation when I’m gone. That helps.

It will be nice to go back to San Diego. I don’t think I call it home any more. My home is where I am now. I prefer the laws I live with here to those in California. Still, my father is there, and I like to see him as often as possible. My plan is to return two more times this year, and now that I have the laptop computer I can get all the work done I could do at home. In fact, I have fewer distractions in San Diego than I have here.

Work is where you find it. I have a promise that I will get two month’s warning of impending loss of job, which I think is very fair. I haven’t reciprocated on that, but I plan to. However, when I gave out my quote on this project, I said I would work “cheap” only until December. I’m a bit at a loss on what to do about that, since I have the feeling that I won’t get more money until I demand it, but then again, the money may not be there to pay me.

However, I’m feeling confident. Apparently, I’m doing a pretty good job, and I’ve generated some buzz about my abilities. That kind of thing surprises me (thank you auto spell check for finding the missing “r”) because I’m very down on my abilities. I saw Jim Cramer on Conan about a week ago and I couldn’t believe how down on himself he was. He reminded me of me. I can be both very down on my abilities and be overconfident at the same time. I blame it on being a Gemini, others might point to some kind of disorder. I can think that I’m great one moment and that I suck the next.

Otherwise, I’m normal. Okay, that’s a lie. I’m slightly out of my mind, but I’m okay with it.

This has gone on too long. I think I’ll freshen up my lowball and probably finish it off and crash. I’ve seen the Star Wars parody going on three times now, and while it’s still funny, it’s not growing on me. Time to reset and get ready for tomorrow.