Feb 26 2006

New to Southern Idaho?

Tag: Uncategorizedmav @ 10:25 pm

Welcome to sunny (not really) Southern Idaho!

If you’re moving here from a “Liberal Haven” (including but not limited to California and most of the Northeast) you’ll not want to mention that in conversation, at least not until you’ve lived here long enough to be accepted, or you will be regarded with immediate suspicion. If you fuck up and mention it too early, you can usually counter the effect by mentioning one of these things:

  • you own a gun (and can describe it in detail)
  • you enjoy hunting or fishing (for the love of god, don’t mention any outdoor activities that don’t involve killing)
  • you are Mormon
  • you are a huge football fan
  • you own a vintage American muscle car or a Harley-Davidson

Extra points if 2 or more apply. If you’re planning on faking any one of these things, make sure you’re not going to half-ass it. When it comes to hunting, guns or Mormonism, native Idahoans can sense a faker even through a bourbon-addled drunken haze. It’s an inborn trait.

In addition, here are some facts you may found useful:
Continue reading “New to Southern Idaho?”


Feb 24 2006

And so it begins.

Tag: Uncategorizedmav @ 12:15 am

In case you’ve lived under a rock for the last year or so (Hi, Beta!), due to one retirement and one death the US Supreme Court has taken a serious turn for the conservative. What that basically means is, among other things, for the first time in a really, really long time, if Roe v. Wade has a very real chance to be overturned.

Today the South Dakota legislature aimed their rifle squarely at the controversial law. It is very likely that the South Dakotan governor will choose to pull the trigger.

Right-winger nutballs choose to restrict freedom, then claim that those who choose to object to the United States’ current foreign and domestic policy as anti-freedom. Welcome to America, the new home of doublethink.


Feb 22 2006

Engrish not so funny when you country being laughed at

Tag: Uncategorizedmav @ 4:18 pm

If you’ve got about 10 minutes to devote to something, and I mean actual concentration time, not “put it on the 2nd monitor and forget about it,” check out Ha Ha Ha America. It’s a short film that debuted this year at Sundance. It’s a bit under 10 minutes long and definitely captures right now, as far as world events go.

“We have big fun,
but now it time
close door on America.
While you busy
fighting war on fear,
China busy
taking all business
and all control
of world economy.
How war going?
Any luck killing fear?
Maybe bomb Anxiety first,
work way up to fear.”


Feb 14 2006

This whole ‘death’ thing has really got to fucking go already.

Tag: Uncategorizedmav @ 11:08 pm

Really. After last fucking horrible year, I’m not sure I can take anymore. But it doesn’t seem to be stopping. One of my favorite actors, Andreas Katsulas, died yesterday. He played a zillion different roles but will likely be remembered for one in particular:

Andreas

A screenwriter is nothing without actors, and Babylon 5 would have been worth so much less without his genius behind G’Kar. In memoriam, a few choice G’Kar quotes:

“Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead… how do you appologize to them?”

“If I take a lamp and shine it toward the wall, a bright spot will appear on the wall. The lamp is our search for truth… for understanding. Too often, we assume that the light on the wall is God, but the light is not the goal of the search, it is the result of the search. The more intense the search, the brighter the light on the wall. The brighter the light on the wall, the greater the sense of revelation upon seeing it. Similarly, someone who does not search - who does not bring a lantern - sees nothing. What we perceive as God is the by-product of our search for God. It may simply be an appreciation of the light… pure and unblemished… not understanding that it comes from us. Sometimes we stand in front of the light and assume that we are the center of the universe - God looks astonishingly like we do - or we turn to look at our shadow and assume that all is darkness. If we allow ourselves to get in the way, we defeat the purpose, which is to use the light of our search to illuminate the wall in all its beauty and in all its flaws; and in so doing, better understand the world around us.”

“The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements. Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest. ”

“It is said that the future is always born in pain. The history of war is the history of pain. If we are wise, what is born of that pain matures into the promise of a better world, because we learn that we can no longer afford the mistakes of the past.”

” The war we fight is not against powers and principalities – it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender.”

“I believe that when we leave a place a part of it goes with us and part of us remains. Go anywhere in these halls, when it is quiet and just listen. After a while you will hear the echoes of all of our conversations, every thought and word we’ve exchanged. Long after we are gone, our voices will linger in these walls for as long as this place remains. But I will admit that the part of me that going will very much miss the part of you that is staying. ”

I really want to watch Sleeping in Light now but it’s just too goddamn sad.


Feb 13 2006

Is Wal-Mart good for America?

Tag: Uncategorizedmav @ 8:46 pm

Just finished watching Frontline: Is Wal-Mart good for America? The answer for that may be self-evident but this particular quote, while not exactly eloquent, does lay it all out:

“If you want these low prices, then you go buy your products from Wal-Mart, but what does that actually do for this country? It’s putting people out of work, that’s what it’s doin’. And it’s lowering our standard of living. That’s the bottom line.” - Steve Ratcliffe.

He used to make TV sets for Thomson. Made $59,000 in his best year, plus benefits and retirement. Now he’s unemployed, thanks largely in part to Wal-Mart, who ‘encouraged’ Thomson Consumer Electronics to lower their prices or face removal from their shelves.

Joy of all joys, we’re getting a Wal-Mart here probably next year. I wonder how long it will take Fred Meyer to close. And I wonder what happens when Dell finally decides to outsource my job to somewhere else. I wonder what I’ll be doing.


Feb 12 2006

Maybe it’s a bit dated

Tag: Uncategorizedmav @ 11:21 pm

but this video makes me think of my job. (Warning: This guy swears like my blog.)


Feb 08 2006

Cooler than Minority Report

Tag: Uncategorizedmav @ 11:47 pm

Check this out: Some bunch of geniuses from NYU has invented a display that is way, way the fuck cooler than that funny looking light-tracking thing that Tom Cruise used in Minority Report. And yet the idea is really simplicity in itself: it’s a very quickly responding touch screen that tracks multiple input sources simultaneously. You’ve got to watch the damn video. It’s just too cool for words. (Dubbing Peace Orchestra over the top of it makes it that much cooler.)

Want to think of a way to make this immediately useful? Picture a giant management grid of servers and networking hardware plugged into this thing. Imagine interacting with the various management consoles on your gear from a touch-screen. Imagine moving around your network like this guy moves around maps.

(I’ll wait while you go clean up.)

And to top it off, the guy running the show posts that they are looking into possibly tracking what is touching the screen - like tracking individual fingers, so that your index finger and middle finger can do different tasks…

God, I wish I was this smart.