Wishlist

Since we all agreed to make one to make life easier, here's mine:

Austin Powers Collection - Blu-ray
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - Blu-ray (Avail Dec 16)
Planet Terror - Blu-ray (Avail Dec 16)
Interview With the Vampire - Blu-ray
Signs - Blu-ray

Moshi Voice Activated Alarm Clock
Titanium Spork
Original Ring Thing (size 11)

How Do You Avoid Making Good On Your Promise Of Free Dr. Pepper?

Simple really.

If you're Dr. Pepper, you simply make sure your website cannot handle the traffic and is basically inaccessible during the 24 hour promotion. Pretty clever actually.

Fail Blog / Engrish Funny

So I have to share my 2 new favorite sites.

Fail Blog

Engrish Funny

You're welcome.

I Think I Have A Disorder

After my panic attack, or whatever the heck it was, I began doing a lot of reading up on similar and related psychological disorders.
I can say that since the panic attack I have become obsessed with thinking something worse is wrong with me. When I'm distracted on work or talking to someone or watching TV, etc. I feel just fine, but when I'm alone with just myself and my hyperactive mind, I become obsessed with checking my heart rate, checking my pulse, breathing deeply and/or coughing to see if anything feels different, checking my temperature and on and on and on. The process of doing this does cause me to stress out, and my heart rate increases from normal (around 80 to 100) when I start checking all this junk to about 120 (slightly above normal resting). Once the obsessive behavior diminishes and my stress level lowers, it goes back to normal. I have actually made my pectoral muscle quite sore over the last week from constantly feeling my heartbeat.
The thing I realized in finally consciously observing this behavior in myself is that this is not an isolated incident. I have frequently self-diagnosed myself with all kinds of issues and then obsessed over them when they were in fact non existent to begin with based off of a simply muscle ache, an upset stomach, a twitch, and on and on.
I was first thinking generalized anxiety disorder seemed to cover most of my behavior, but I think hypochondriasis seems to be the top contender. I guess it might be a combination of both. Heck, for all I know that self diagnosis could be me doing the same exact thing I was describing above.
I can say however that discovering these patterns and behaviors in myself and reading up on these disorders and reading the symptoms and causes has made me breathe a huge sigh of relief that its something that can actually be identified. Reading about them kind of gave me a light bulb moment about myself.

The New Enterprise

Here it is:(Click to enlarge)

After months, nay, years of anticipation, JJ Abrams finally released a picture of the new NCC-1701 as re imagined in his new take on Trek. I personally think this new design is beautiful. Classic Trek purists and canon cops the world over are shitting themselves and frothing savagely at the mouth at this 'abomination' which has "raped their childhood" (actual quote) which I am finding quite amusing. For people who have embraced the essence of Star Trek, one large part of which is open mindedness, acceptance of change and evolution, they sure are screaming from their mom's basement about how angry this change makes them and already writing the new film off as garbage.
To me, the thing doesn't really even look all that different! The lower half has been streamlined and given a more modern look, but overall, I think most non fans, which in large part is the target audience of this new movie (fresh blood), will see it as simply the Enterprise, but not like the old one which looks like it was made from paper plates, spray-painted paper towel and toilet paper cardboard tubes and popsicle sticks.This version is what the purists want on the screen. I think if they did that, the entire movie would be a laughing stock. That design is from the 60's, and I don't see how anyone living in 2008 can think a design from 45 years ago can be a true and current vision of our future.
Heck, even the designers of that tube-and-saucer concoction changed it up as soon as they were able to get a movie budget which would allow it.

Panic Attacks: Like Death But Without The Death

So early last week I had my first real clinical panic attack. Not like a 'OMG Panic attack! LOLZ!' but more like 'Holy Shit I think I'm having a heart attack and I'm going to die!'

To be honest, I at first thought that it was some kind of heart attack, and I remember thinking how sad it would be for that to happen at only 27. After it passed, I got online and pretty much every symptom of a panic attack that one can exhibit, I had experienced.
Heart feels like it stopped, then heart was racing, flush, then burning up, sweating, can barely move, everything feels like a dream and in slow motion, electricity shooting all through my body, tingling all over.
I even had a nagging involuntarily spasming eyelid muscle 2 days prior, which apparently is a precursor.

While the initial attack was brought on seemingly at random, I found out in research that the first attack can set up a kind of positive feedback loop where one gets so worried about having another panic attack that they work themselves up into having another one. I can indeed agree with this, as anytime afterwards that I've had the slightest tingling in my extremities, felt flush, had an elevated heart rate ( even when warranted, like from physical activity) or felt kind of out of it, I freak out and think I might be starting to have another one.

The truth is, I would prefer to go to the doctor to make sure for a fact that that's all I experienced, even if just for peace of mind, but being broke and health insurance-less kind of makes that cost prohibitive.
Even if it was only a panic attack, it served as a sort of wake up call that I need to start taking better care of myself. I've been trying to eat more fruits and vegetables, stay away from junk and fast food, take a multi vitamin and get more sleep.
I do know that both my mother and at least one sister have dealt with panic attacks that felt just like I described mine. My mom was even rushed to the hospital the first time thinking she was having a heart attack.

Here's to hoping it was just a one time thing.

Yes We Can

And Yes We Did.

I have to say, I found both Senator McCain's concession speech and President-Elect Obama's acceptance speech both very touching.
I think McCain seemed more like the McCain that many Republicans said they felt was missing throughout his campaign. I think if he had been as eloquent, kind and insightful throughout his campaign, things might have turned out differently for him. I am saddened by the behavior of his supporters at his gathering however, as I think it showed a tremendous amount of disrespect for Senator McCain that his speech was marred with boos and angry words at the mention of Barack Obama, and I think you could tell it was irritating and saddening McCain that his supporters were setting a bad example for his party.

Obama's speech was very touching, and seemed to have a bit of a somber note. Whether that was from the realization that he is now in charge of grabbing the wheel of this nation as it sloppily hugs a proverbial cliff in many regards, or because of dealing with the loss of his grandmother before she saw this momentous occasion I'm not sure, but it was a very well prepared speech. I think he conveyed a sense of community by saying this was our win, this was our nation.
In contrast to McCain's supporters, the attendees at the Obama celebration conveyed a sense of respect for McCain and his campaign when they were mentioned during his speech.

At the end of the day, I was proud to have both participated in and witnessed a truly historic day for our great nation.

Brainwashed Idiots: Confirmed

I have confirmed evidence that Republicans (at least the vocal online type) are idiots.
In an attempt to get many viewpoints, I regularly visit news organization's websites whether it's CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC. It's no secret that Fox points so far right they couldn't look left to save their lives, and I regularly look at their article's comment sections.
One particularly funny manufactured Anti-Obama article today was talking about how Obama asked 3 reporters who's newspapers endorsed McCain to not fly on his campaign jet anymore. The article does accurately state that it's because of additional staff needing room on the plane.

Now, here is the typical Republican commenter's post (excluding the racist comments or the ones calling him a terrorist)

Comment by steve mieczkowski October 31st, 2008 at 1:01 pm

Just another instance of the Thug Obama camp flexing thier muscles. WAKE UP AMERICA, this is what we have to look forward to if The Chosen One wins.

______________________________________________________________

Comment by Zeke October 31st, 2008 at 12:58 pm

Obama is obviously a tyrant in the making and this is just the start of it. This man can not be the next President of the US. If he can censor the media what do you think is next?

______________________________________________________________

Comment by Tasha October 31st, 2008 at 12:58 pm

ABSOLUTELY!! 100%!! A clear vision of what is to come if this “LIAR” is elected as our president. He will ban everything and ANYTHING that does not support his corrupt idealisms. WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!

_______________________________________________________________

Okay, so you get the idea. Multiply these comments by 500, pepper in racism, cries of communism, socialism, terrorism and religious intolerance and you pretty much get a sense of what the comments section on that article looks like.

This had me laughing my ass off. Why, you may ask?

It appears that none of the turd fergusons even bothered to read the article.

Being Fox biased, the title of the article was an Obama attack, as was most of the content, then at the end of the article, the last 2 sentences also say that John McCain has done the same thing to reporters on his plane in the past few days.

Oops! Silly Republicans. Were you saying those things about Obama, or McCain? Care to change your point? Care to clarify?

Fight | Unite

I've been listening to both Barack Obama and John McCain's speeches today, and here is a brief summary of both.

McCain:
"Fight! I'm a fighter! Lets fight! I'll fight for you! I'll fight you! Maverick! Fighting Mavericky Maverick! FIGHT FIGHT!"

Obama:
"Unite! Unite! There is no blue or red America. There is one America! Unity! Lets be as one! Unite!"

I have to say I like Obama's 'closing argument' speech more than McCains. His seems a bit... divisive.

An Honest Question

Let me start off by telling you about what I did this evening, because this question requires a bit of back story. I went to my parents to visit while my sisters Kristy and Kelly were there this weekend.
My sister Kristy and I went outside to look at my paint job on my car, since she didn't get to see the finished result when it was being painted (by her husbands body shop) since they left for vacation at the time. Upon seeing my Obama bumper sticker, she told me:

"I cant believe you have that man's bumper sticker on your car. I ought to rip that off."

Okay, now I was intrigued. I asked why she felt that way, and the answer floored me.
Apparently, her church regularly preaches to them that Obama is a Muslim terrorist, and the Antichrist. He's plotting to destroy America from the inside, planted by the Muslim extremists.
Yes, you heard me right. This is being preached by a church.

This raises a couple questions for me.
Number one, why on earth is this church taking it upon themselves to be spreading this kind of misinformation and slander?
The real question I want to ask I'll get to in a moment.
Needless to say, I tried my damnedest to convince her that the church was spreading propaganda, but I don't know how much damage I was able to undo.
Through this conversation, we eventually landed on my argument that even if Obama were a Muslim, what difference would that make. I made the point that America is made up of Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics and a whole colorful rainbow of creeds. What would be the problem with a little Muslim boy or girl who lives in the Unitest States wishing to grow up to be President someday?
The answer I got really made something in my head kind of click, and I can't really explain how it made me feel.

Because they would believe in a different god than her god, and that would be wrong.

Myself not being a person of religion, I don't know the answer to this, and I know most anyone who is reading this who knows me is not a person of any strong religious ties either, so I ask this in the hope that maybe some anonymous reader who is could answer it for me.

Does being loyal to a certain religion in this day and age make you intolerant of other religions?

I really want to know. Myself being agnostic I understand that there are many deities worshiped by many different groups, and thats okay. What I really do want to understand though is if being religious and dedicated to one group makes you see others as 'wrong', or if this is simply another product of the apparent radical approach that my sisters church takes in 'teaching' their congregation?

Why Do Republicans Think Every One Is Out To Get Them?

In other words, why are they such whiny little bitches? Such professional victims?

Heres some of the things I've read about recently:

Republicans are outraged at the joke from this weekend's Family Guy where Stewie was wearing a Nazi uniform and a McCain pin. The matter is amplified by the fact that it was their 'only fair and balanced news' Fox's network show.

John McCain is outraged that Barack Obama has raised over 600 million in private financing because he says that much money (which Obama earned fair and square after rejecting public financing which McCain took) will inevitably lead to corruption.

The Liberal Elite Media (CNN, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC... everything but Fox News) is out to get them, and they're outraged. They are 'in the tank' for Obama and it's part of a giant conspiracy to elect Obama.

Colin Powell has been transformed from a respected retired official to a 'pathetic worthless horrible man who's only backing Obama because they're both black'.

The entertainment industry is out to get Republicans by all banding behind Barack Obama for some kind of large conspiracy.

Theres way more, but It's all getting mixed up in my head into a giant right wing hairball.

I hope they know they are making themselves look like gigantic crying babies. Ugly babies, too.

If you're ever bored, head on over to foxnews.com and read the comments on one of the several sure-to-be-there anti-Obama headlines. The conspiracy theories and whining is great for a chuckle. ;)

Check out this gem of a comment from "nosocialist" on the article about Obama's record campaign fund raising.

"Obama supporters please take off your blinders and see that we're not upset about the amount of money he raised. Surprised? Yes. The fact is that we know most of Obama's supporters are lower income, lower education level because they're voting for the handouts which leads us to believe that the money is coming from shady sources. That's all. Show us the list of donors is all we're asking. Feel free to keep sending in your $150 dollars, it's your welfare check to spend as you see fit."

Here's another goodie in the same article that has nothing to do with the content of the article, but is just spewing made up crack induced frothing. This one is from 'sausage30a'

Obama’s October Surprise: He is a citizen of Indonesia, and of the Islam Religion. At 10yrs of age, he went to Hawaii, and became a naturalized citizen, and was able to get a US Passport. He was registered under the name of Barry Sotero-Indonesian-Islam Religion/Date of Birth 1961. He attended primary school in Indonesia. One has to be a native born US citizen in order to be president. That’s why Arnold cannot run for President either. Why is the State Dept. not investigating this? Our community will not vote until Obama can produce his authenticated Birth Certificate with a raised seal on it. You can run for the Senate/Congress but not President. He needs to show us who he really is. This might be the “straw that broke the Islam Camel’s back. Why is the media not researching this? Do you want to be the cause of a major hysteria in this World? Katie Couric, Bob Shaeffer, why did you not ask this important Question? Where is Obama’s from? Tell us please. There might be DNA out there to prove he might not be a native born candidate, and possibly a reward for his captor. Was Larry Sinclair, his lover, part of this cover-up plan?

Mixed in between all these right wing circle jerks are more Republicans who have to audacity to say the Democrats are creating a divisive society by their comments and attitude during this election, completely ignoring the raving mad republican shit balls peppering down all around them. Stupid stupid Republican fuckers.

You know what assholes? I like to think I'm an open minded person who tries to see from multiple perspectives, but it's your divisive diarrhea mouthed comments that have divided me off from any desire to seek to understand your positions and ideas. At least for now.

I can safely say that after reading these and hundreds of similarly minded comments, my sticking to the Democratic ticket no matter what for as long as I am a citizen of this country has been galvanized. I wouldn't in a million years want to be on the same side as these paranoid, hate filled, close-minded anal warts.

Yeah, I know. responding in anger to anger and stupidity doesn't solve anything and lowers me to their level and makes me fall for their trap or whatever else other life lesson I can't think of right now, but I'm in an eye for an eye kind of mood right now.

Who Are These People?

I saw a video this morning that dissolved a small piece of my pride in being an American.
Before you watch this, keep in mind it's a report filed by Al Jazeera, a Middle Eastern media conglomerate who've had their fair share of controversy, but the people they're talking to are real Americans.



How much of America do you think the people in this video represent? I seriously felt a little ill.
How can this infected festering puss boil of dubmfuckery be fixed?
I'm seriously at a loss as to how you can fix stupidity. And if you can't fix it, how do you ensure that it doesn't get passed on to a new generation?

Republican Hatred (Theirs, not mine)

Okay.

So for all intents and purposes, I consider myself, at least for the time being, a political junkie. The TV is generally always tuned into CNN. I know the Right Wing consider everything other than Fox News evil-corporate-biased-liberal-devil-death-anti-
McCain-hate-media, but I see a lot more republican strategists, independents and non-partisan guests on CNN than I've ever seen on Fox 'News'. I also see CNN calling out Obama on issues just the same as McCain, but I digress.

What I really wanted to talk about was the ignorance of the people attending the Republican campaign trail. I've read and watched numerous reports over the past week of attendees at Sarah Palin rallies yelling gems directed at Barack Obama such as:
"Kill him!"
"Hang Him!"
"Terrorist!"
There was also the largely publicized video clip of a dumb old woman standing up and saying directly to John McCain that she was afraid of Obama because he was 'An Arab'. John respectfully snatched the microphone away and corrected her retardedness, but afterwards some journalists caught up with the woman who said she still believed he was 'An Arab' and he was "A Muslim because his father was a Muslim, so he has some Muslim in him"
Not only does this woman consider 'Muslim' - a religion, and 'Arab' - an ethnicity interchangeable, not only does she still believe these ethnicities/religions are true of Obama after being corrected by McCain himself, but she's mailed out hundreds of letters to people telling them this information, which she says she 'found at the library'.

Just Wow.

Now, I know. Go America. Christian Christian Rah Rah Rah! and all that, but I'm also disturbed by the fact that these psychopaths are automatically associating a religion and a race to evil. I feel really sad for Muslims and especially Arab Muslims living in the United States right now. What ever happened to the melting pot that was America? It seems the oil is having a hard time mixing with the water in this stoup (Thats for you Ryan).

I know that Democrats are seen more as the progressive and forward thinking bunch, and Republicans are seen as a more traditionalists and evangelicals, but what's with these Republicans carrying around so much misinformation and hatred. Is it just built into the Republican base, or is it being helped along by Sarah Palin, and to a degree John McCain's polarizing speeches they've been giving?

To be fair, I have not seen really any footage from a Biden or Obama campaign stop where all the outlandish spectacles of hate for the other party are on display, but is it because there really isn't any laughable insanity on the left side, or is all the media truly left-wing? Anderson Cooper said last night that they'd soon have cameras meandering around some Biden rallies to see if this shiteous behavior exists as prevalently as it does on the McCain campaign, but I'm having my doubts.

My guess would be that the God fearin' folk who are afraid of anything that isn't white, cross wearing and in bed by 9PM are an integral part of the Republican party, and they're simply behaving as they normally do.
One ray of hope is that, at the moment Obama is enjoying a 10 point lead, and the number of registered Democrats in the United States outnumbers Republicans.
Slowly but surely, I think this nation is beginning to open it's minds and it's eyes.

What are your thoughts?

can you spot the cat?

Posted via Pixelpipe.

img_0005.jpg

Posted via Pixelpipe.

Vote For That One

My Thoughts on the 'Town Hall' style presidential candidate debate:

Obama spoke in terms and mannerisms which I think resonated more with 'joe six pack', unlike Sarah Palin, who's attempt at speakin' to the average American means droppin' the g's off every word. You betcha!

McCain seemed old (obviously), tired, and angry.

When McCain gave a big smile after cracking one of his lame jokes that no one laughed at, it scared the hell out of me.

I don't know how many times I heard McCain utter "My Friend", but I most certainly am not.

I don't care what context McCain meant it in, but calling Obama "That One" seemed akward and rude.

When McCain told an audience member that he (and many of the viewers) probably never heard of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, I thought that was rude. He acted as if he was assuming regular people had not heard of these companies. I felt talked down to.

There was a point when Obama stood up and started retaliating against some of the McCain mud slinging drivel when Ryan and I both were yelling at him to shut up and sit down. You could see his likability drop on the CNN voter meter thingies at that point. People don't like angriness, which McCain seemed to bring a lot of.

Overall, I think that Obama won the debate, unless you watch Fox News.

Sacred Right

(Just for clarification, while this post may mention ballot issues for specific states, it is neither about religion nor politics, but rather civil rights)
So I've been reading about issues on the CA. and AZ. ballots regarding gay marriage. In CA. 'they' want to overturn the recent allowance of gay marriage as well as legally nullify any recent same-sex marriages in the state.

In AZ. they have proposition 102 which would amend the AZ. Constitution to add that only marriage between a man and a woman could be legally valid and recognized in the state.

The argument that I most frequently read about in favor of these propositions is that (aside from the lack of practicing separation of church and state) marriage is a sacred right between a man and a woman and should not be extended to "alternative lifestyles".

I have a proposal that I think would help those people make their hetero-marriage sanctity even stronger. Ban divorce. If you enact a ban of divorce, it would be the ultimate commitment to showing me you hold marriage as a sacred right, and it would let me know you are serious when you say it is.

The sad truth is, half of all the supremely sacred heterosexual marriages in this country end in not-so-sacred divorces. Meanwhile, loving gay couples are not allowed to share the legal or spiritual benefits of marriage which many heterosexuals take for granted. This is not fair.

Lets pretend that gay marriage were allowed in the U.S. (like it is in most other countries). How would it hurt these opponents? I'm not going to murder them with my marriage license. I'm not going to rape them with my family health care option. Why do they care so much?

It baffles me.

Random Vitriol

My God Mediacom. You've been slowly raising my bill for several months (don't think I haven't noticed) and over the last 2 weeks your internet speed has become something akin to a dirty cat box. What the hell gives? And can I pretty please have more HD channels? I think the extra magical 15 dollars my bill has randomly gone up recently warrant at least that.

I think iTunes gets off on making me feel specialtarded. Would you really think setting it up so music put into a specific folder is automatically added to your iTunes music would be that difficult? Yeah, me either. But, after I spent 15 minutes trying, I gave up and went to File>Add File To Library. I am missing something blatantly obvious, right?

Take this poll.


I have a headache and I'm going to bed. LaAAAaaame.

Chevy Volt Toyota Prius

Take a look at this sleek and sexy piece of concept car unveiled a couple of years prior. This was the concept for the Chevy Volt, which promised to usher in a whole new era in electric car goodness.

Sexy aesthetics aside, the Volt promised to revolutionize the (mass produced) electric car by introducing a whole new set of rules for creating and using energy. You actually plug this one in for starters. The lithium ion battery delivers approximately 40 miles running only on that, which Chevy claims covers about 75% of commuters trips to and from work. After the battery is depleted, there is a small gas engine which does not drive the vehicle, but powers the electric engine.
Said engine will deliver somewhere in the vicinity of 300 miles on a tank of gas, and will average about 2 cents per gallon (Using $3.60 gas as a benchmark). Compared to the regular average for vehicles which is 12 cents, that seems pretty snazzy. Another interesting talking point is that it only sucks about as much energy from the grid as a refrigerator in a years time.
One thing that remains foggy is the price. Speculation puts it somewhere between 30 and 40 thousand bucks.
Now, the main reason I wanted to write about the Volt. I give you, the final production model unveiled this week:


Wait, what? I think if you told me this was the next refresh of the Toyota Prius, I'd buy it. I've nothing against the Prius, mind you, but this looks nary a shadow of its conceptual glory. What happened here? I know, I know. Concept cars always outshine their final production models, but this thing looks like a 3rd cousin of the concept car. Definitely not a direct offspring.


Eh. At any rate, look for them in 2010.

P.S. Heres a B.D.O.T.D. (Thats Blu-ray deal of the day) for those interested. Tower.com shows Iron Man as shipping within 12 hours when you order it. The movie is not set to be released on Blu-ray until September 30th. Tower has also been known to ship movies ahead of the scheduled release dates. I placed my order this morning. I'll let you know if it ships.

iVideo of iBubble

Tony, I know you asked about a picture, but as it turns out, glossy black plastic is hard to photograph:)

I have made this video instead:

iBlemish

I called the Apple iPhone number last week and they had me send in my iPhone. They replaced it with a new one which seems to be working, but has an ugly aesthetic flaw, a nice bubble looking thing molded into the back of the plastic backing next to the Apple logo. It's driving me nuts because I'm one of those people that freaks out when anything of mine gets a scratch or blemish. Oh well. I doubt they'd replace it again for this reason. I guess a working iPhone with an aesthetic flaw is better than a flawless one with buggy hardware/software, right?

Lipstick on a Pig

You dumbass, fucking silly Republicans. I have not been as interested and involved in politics as I have been in the last year, so you may need to clue me in here.
Is the whole professional victim thing a usual Republican tactic, or is this their newest trick?
I am referring to 2 news articles which have been making the rounds over the past few days.

Firstly, Obama, speaking about John McCain and his voting the same as Bush 90% of the time made a reference to a phrase we all know and have probably used, "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.



To which the McSame camp began crying and screaming that this comment was a sexist remark somehow aimed at Sarah Palin. They called is outrageous and unprofessional and are demanding an apology. I don't know about you, but that comment in no way, shape, or form seemed aimed at Sarah Palin, and even if it had been, so what? The phrase is a commonly known and used phrase to symbolize false change, not promote sexism.

It gets better. John McCain back in October of last year used the same phrase in reference to Hillary Clinton's health care policies.



But WAIT. Its gets even BETTER!
Back in March of this year, Sarah Palin was asked what she thought about Hillary suggesting that she may have been treated differently as a female candidate. Here's what she had to say about it.



Oh, really? Mrs. Palin, I suggest you take your own advice and shut up about a comment Barack Obama made which had absolutely nothing to do with you in the first place.
I think this sexism claim by the Republican party is absolutely hilarious, especially when there's the video's of McCain and Palin to counter it plainly available for everyone to see. It seems to be they are trying to lure in undecided women voters who might feel the need to stand up for poor sister Palin, victim of sexism. I hope the women (and men) of this country can see through this ridiculous game the Republicans are playing. They also throw the sexism card out like a safety net any time anyone questions anything about Sarah Palin.

The second bit of Republicrap is involving Oprah.
Yes, she has clearly been a visible supporter of Barack Obama, but he's not been on her show since before announcing his candidacy for president.
Once he made the announcment public, Oprah stated she would not have any candidates or their VP's on her show until after the elections.
Well, because Sarah Palin is a woman, and because Oprah's key demographic is obviously women, a bunch of Republicans think Sarah Palin needs to be on the Oprah Winfrey show. Oprah has reminded everyone that she is not going to have Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, John McCain, Cindy McCain, or Sarah Palin on the show until after the elections. This has infuriated a section of Republican women and organizations enough to boycott Oprah's show for 'showing favoritism', when she clearly layed down the rules about not having any candidates on her show long before anyone outside of Alaska knew who Sarah Palin was.
They are trying to paint a picture that because she is a Barack Obama supporter, she is unwilling to have Sarah Palin on her show, clearly not paying attention to her rule stated above.

While there are a (very)few issues where I do side with the Republicans, on the vast majority of issues I do agree with the Democrats. I've lately been trying to keep an open mind about both the donkey and the elephant and not be one sided just for the sake of being on a side, but the displays above just make me feel like throwing up in my mouth a little.

Thinking About Proton Collision Gives Me A Large Hadron

Tony - Yeah, I read that the first test was only protons going one way.

I have been reading people's reactions to the news on abcnews.com's article about the powering up of the collider and how the world didn't end. It's interesting to hear people's intriguing thoughts, and also hear how retarded abstract some people's thinking is on the matter. Here are a few gems:

Most of the technology that we take for granted today is a result of people who have ideals and who are curious about the world around them. Lets not forget that they are responsible for dragging us out from the dark ages and allot of people are still mad about that because they see it as going against the will of god. Like what do they know what is the will of god. From some book written by a bunch of credulous goat herders. We would not be were we are if it were not for these evil scientists and their heretical blasphemous scientific endeavors. With out them there would be no space programs, industrial revolutions much less the military industrial complexes. We would still be burning witches and lamenting over our state of poverty. But hey those were the good ol days of old time religion.

Posted by:
redneckthinker 11:27 AM

Mark As Violation

People are dying every day of cancer and AIDS and THIS is where we aim our focus?

Posted by:
Casabby2 11:02 AM

Mark As Violation

So what are they trying to say, do I need to start paying my bills again?

Posted by:
BD2266H 10:53 AM

Mark As Violation

I am amazed at why religion comes into play with this at all!!!It really shows that people who don't have science eduaction are afraid of things they don't know anything about, keep it up, its amazing.This isn't going to create a black hole, do you even know what that is? Its going to help explain nonelectromagneitc interactions for the standard model of particle physics. Maybe people are just offended that the Higgs Boson is nicknamed the "God Particle".

Posted by:
wastememphis 10:49 AM

Mark As Violation

You people are missing the point. When the machine is really fired up it may swallow the planet...or we can just wait for Palin/McSame to do the same thing.

Posted by:
mych201 10:34 AM

Mark As Violation

The farther we push forward into science, the more I'm convinced God is just some fat kid with an ant farm and a magnifying glass.

Posted by:
turtlemouth 9:17 AM

Mark As Violation

I almost wish that it would've blown up and sucked up thousands of people into it. Then, maybe scientists would learn their lesson that spending $8 Billions dollars on a pretentious ego-stroking project would be better spent on the hungry and poor in our world. In fact, look how much NASA spends per year on sending their toys into space. That money could be better prioritized as well even if only to lower tax payer dollars.

Posted by:
fastrivers 8:46 AM

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fastrivers - The last of these "pretentious ego-stroking" accelerators resulted in the creation of the internet that you are now using as a medium to rip on these big "wastes" of tax dollars. Go back to your cave...

Posted by:
wolfmanman 9:03 AM

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duh ... of course it didn't work ... you can't recreate what God has done ... YES i'm one of those spiritual people that don't believe in this "stuff" (for lack of being able to use a more appropraite word) ...

Posted by:
lifesense08 8:40 AM

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What? The world did not end? What went wrong?

Posted by:
rustl28 8:20 AM

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Ooo! Ooo!! I've got a theory for the origin of the universe! It's really good! Check it out!...(clearing throat)...In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth...

Posted by:
musicman6500 8:19 AM

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Trying to recreate the start of the universe is impossible unless you are God. Big bang theory = zero, God = one. Nice try!

Posted by:
suzietip 7:25 AM

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It's a shame this wasn't done in the U.S. Again we fall down on the scientific front. Next we may very well have Palin/McCain (reverse order intentional)and we will truly be in the dark ages. Protons? Neutrons? gosh doesn't that go against the whole "from the rib of Adam" theory? Ahhh yes, isn't religion wonderful? To all the scientists out there, just say you are researching god, it will remove any barriers in place. That is how they sold television to the fanatics in Saudi Arabia. They told them that prayer could be broadcast. Too funny.

Posted by:
wirey-one 6:45 AM

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Some secrets of space are best left alone and not meant to be discovered.

Posted by:
thorin106 6:19 AM

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Kiss Your Candyass Goodbye

I guess the world will be ending in less than a day.
Thats right, the Large Hadron Collider goes online tomorrow. Oh noes!!
Can you believe they are actually receiving death threats from people afraid it will rip a hole in the fabric of space-time or open up an unstoppable black hole?

The most interesting thing I've read is that the LHC will be the first thing built by humans capable of creating time-travel. Therefore, when it is brought online, it will create the first jumping off point from future travelers to stop in and say hello. The theory says to expect visitors from the future shortly after starting up the machines. Causality be damned I guess. I hope none of the future visitors runs over their grandfather or anything.

Here's what I think will happen:
The Collider will be brought online and smash some particles together at 99.999% the speed of light. After which, some data about the event till be collected and analyzed, and we will learn more about the laws of physics and the creation of the universe.

But you know, black holes and such sound funner I guess.

Spore!

I didn't even realize Spore was out yet, but I just got an e-mail from EA games to remind me. How nice of them!
I think I might go pick it up today. I decided to look around on youtube at what some people have done with the creature creator, and sifting through all the penis and vagina creatures, I did find a few gems, like this creature, 'Rectal Exam'



Okay, this one owes is existence to the penis creatures who came before it, but I love the idea, and the title, 'Albino 2 legged elephant'

Time keeps on slipping/again

I know I've written about the phenomenon before, but I'm still always amazed at the apparent ability of time to speed up and slip by at an ever increasing pace. Things I 'need to do' or 'need to start doing' zip far beyond their deadline undone.
I think when you combine this with a lack of effort, it can create an evil concoction.
Take getting in shape for instance. This singular objective is a top-of-mind awareness for me. I literally am thinking about it constantly. I always make the best of plans to start exercising, start walking, start eating healthy, start a low carb diet again, and on and on.
The problem is implementing these actions. I set a time line and an objective, but the ideas never leave the start line and by the time I remember I haven't started, the goal is so far behind I set out to begin creating a new one, only to leave that one stranded in time as well. It's truly frustrating and I wish I knew how to change my paradigm to that of someone capable of achieving personal goals.
I was at a photoshoot today at JCMG and I was paying more attention to the camera screen than where I was walking. I ended up hitting my head on a nice jagged extension arm of a piece of equipment mounted from the ceiling. I'm not sure if it was a camera or a light, but either way it hurt. I fully expected blood to come running down my face, but luckily that didn't happen. What better place to have some kind of laceration than a medical facility though, right? Thankfully, I just have a knot and a headache.


Ryan was talking about the possibly impending Debbie Downer known as Gustav headed toward New Orleans and all its dumb people who don't know any better than to stay in parts of a city below sea level citizens, when he mentioned Tropical Storm Fay. When he said something about "Remnants of Fay", I had one of those moments when you just know you've stumbled upon a fantastic band name. If I could sing and/or play an insturment and knew some other people who could sing/play instruments, I'd totally call us "Remnants of Fay".

This

Is pretty much the funniest thing ever.
Infomercial queen Cathy Mitchell and Oscar nominated John C. Reilly together at last.

Update

Smack my bitch up, I was able to perform an update to iPhone firmware 2.0.2 without a complete brickification unlike the last 2 times I did this! Yay!

Thanks Tony n' Mike for your feedback. I guess I'll try reinstalling iTunes since the new firmware didn't fix any of the shit that I wrote about yesterday. I guess my question there is, if I uninstall iTunes, then re-download and install it, will I still have my backups and purchases and all that junk? Will that be tied into my iTunes account?

I would love to have a mac, but unfortunately I'm still paying off my Alienware, so that prospect is a ways off.
I have tried syncing to iTunes on my mac at work, but it seems that even using my iTunes account, it says I can't be syncing it to 2 computers or something. Like I said, iTunes is a piece of shit IMO, and I may have just gotten confused doing that.

P.S. Wanna hear something funny? The 2.0.2 update, which is thought to be one made to improve reception problems it seems many are having actually made my service indicator drop by 2 bars at home and work. Go figure.

Another iRant

I hate to write another iRant, but this time I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing these errors, and/or what I should do about them.

I want to start off by saying that words cannot express how horrible of a program I think iTunes is. I have used a lot of different programs across a whole gamut of categories in my time, and I dub iTunes the iCrappiest.

My latest woes involve Apps. It seems if I purchase an App from the App Store on my iPhone, theres a 50/50 chance it will never show up on iTunes once I sync, not even when I go to "Check For Purchases". So, I have some Apps that only exist on my iPhone, and some that are on both my iPhone and my iTunes. So much for backing everything up.

Another annoying App problem is when I get the notice on my iPhone that an update is available to an app I have purchased and/or downloaded, this is often what happens when I open up App Store and tell it to download the update:
Strange, but okay, whatever. The only problem is, when I try to find the update once my iPhone is connected to my computer, iTunes shows there is no update for that program which my iPhone is telling me needs an update. This problem is only compounded when it is a program that will not show up in iTunes from the error I described before this one.

The last annoyance is this one:
(Click to enlarge)
This is an error I get SOME of the time when I attempt to sync the contents of my iPhone with iTunes. It says a whole plethora of programs could not 'install on the iPhone' because of an error.

All this shit I seem to be having to deal with involving iTunes/iPhone is really taking the fun out of owning an iPhone. So far, the simplicity factor of it all has been absolutely lost on me.

I have made up my mind that if this continues, or if I'm faced with another iNoyance to deal with, the precious iPhone is going to ebay-land. That really really sucks, but I cannot stand having to deal with constant problem after problem.

Does anyone know what may be causing all this AppCrapp? What should I do?

Worst. Service. Ever.

So it's no secret that the Taco Bell on Missouri Boulevard is a worthless sack of monkey balls, but check this faux pas out.

Ordered:
Combo with Mexican pizza, 2 taco's; supreme, and a Baja Blast Mountain Dew + a cheesy chicken melt.

Received: No Mexican pizza, 2 regular tacos, a regular Mountain Dew + a fajita steak melt.

On top of that I was not given a total at the drive through nor did I have my order confirmed (obviously).

I was pissed off enough to contact Taco Bell via their website, but I haven't heard anything back yet. They're probably all cracked out hippies at corporate HQ, too.

Dang Ole' Danggers in Slogans

I was playing with the Advertising Slogan Generator using the word 'dangger', and these are a few gems it randomly created:

Happiness is Dangger-Shaped.

Give the Dog a Dangger.

Half the Dangger, All the Taste.

You'll Look a Little Lovelier Each Day with Fabulous Pink Dangger.

It's That Dangger Feeling.

Does the Hard Dangger for You.

Mamma Mia, That'sa Spicy Dangger!

Double the Pleasure, Double the Dangger.

This Is Not Your Father's Dangger.

I am Stuck on Dangger, 'Cause Dangger's Stuck on Me.

Dude, You're Getting a Dangger!

I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Dangger.

Ribbed For Her Dangger.

I've Seen The Future, and It's Dangger-Shaped.

Nobody Better Lay a Finger on my Dangger.

Gotta Lotta Dangger.

Go On, Get Your Dangger Out.

My iPhone is a Sexy Brick

So I get home tonight and hook my iPhone up to my computer so I can update the firmware to the latest 2.0.1 which I read about today, and it's now just a sexy brick. I am stuck in some kind of infinite loop where it tries updating the firmware, then says there was some error and it needs to restore, then when I try to restore it throws up this message:

My iPhone has been rather crashy from the get-go, but this is just icing on the cake. I want to love it, but I dont think it likes me very much. I'm not sure what to do next. Do I take it back to AT&T? It's my only source of phone and now I cant use it.

Update:
After a few hours of trying over and over to get the restore to work in desperation, it finally took hold with a restore. Now, whenever I hook up my iPhone to my computer I'm presented with 2 options: Restore from backup or set up as a new phone. I can't get to any files or sync or anything. When I choose restore from backup, it starts the whole process again, only to take me back to the same damn screen with the 2 choices all over again. My only options being to set up as a new iPhone, I did that, but somehow it kept my e-mails and notes and settings, just got rid of my music and pictures. I seriously hate iTunes y'all. This has me pissed off enough to be considering returning my iPhone while I've still got my buyers remorse window.

Insult to Injury

Gee. Glad I paid for Super Duper OMG Fast shipping.
________________________________________________

AT&T – Out of Stock/Back Order Notification

Dear Kody Belshe,

Thank you for your recent order, we value and appreciate your business. Please be advised that one or more items in your order are currently out of stock and on backorder. We are working hard to fulfill your order as quickly as possible. The estimated shipping timeframe for each item is listed below. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause you and we appreciate your patience.

Order Number: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Check the status of your order at any time via our website by clicking here or by calling our automated phone system at 877-782-8870.

Item Name	Item Number	Quantity Ordered	Quantity Shipped	Quantity Back Ordered	Usually Ships In
Apple Iphone 16 Gb 3g Blk Phone	69114	1	0	1	5 to 7 days
Freight	88878	1	0	1	Special Order

AT&T = Whizbang Fizzledanggers (Updated)

(Lexy, that title was for you)

I can has iPhone? No.

Mike, in case you were wondering where I was this morning (I don't have your cell # saved for some reason, only home #), I got up at 4AM this morning and hopped online before I was going to get ready to go, and read on macrumors.com that good ole' AT&Taint aren't allowing current customers to get the iPhone today unless they qualify for the standard upgrade pricing.
Since I will have to pay the early upgrade price, I'm pretty for sure they don't want my business today. I'm sitting here right now (it's 5:30) trying to get confirmation of this, but several people have all said the same thing.

Thanks AT&T! It's not like I've been a customer for over 6 years and paid you thousands of dollars or anything. You go get those new customers. Go get 'em!

Update:
So, it turns out, you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet. While it turns out a lot of AT&T's were treating existing customers like cock monsters this morning, just as many were playing fair including the one here in Jefferson City. Unfortunately, they sold out of iPhone within an hour, as did most stores from what I hear. Talk about being unprepared (Or was the iPhone a bigger hit than anticipated?) Anyway, I signed up for the lame-ass direct fulfillment, which means one will be shipped to the AT&T store for me to pick up within a few days, and I even had to pay shipping. Balls, that sucks. At least I'm guaranteed one though.

Barack and Hillary, Sitting in a Tree...

Ok. so I know that Barack and Hillary want to convey a sense of Unity, hence their campaigning together in Unity, N.H. today, but I think the image above, chosen as abcnews.com's headline photo almost looks like they're about to get a little too united. Anyone else agree?

I dunno. senator on senator action just doesn't do much for me.

Funny

So I was looking at treadmills/ellipticals/stationary bikes today online and I came across one that looked strikingly familiar. Anyone else see the resemblance?

On an unrelated note, you should go download the Spore Creature Creator.
Spore is a game thats been in production since forever ago and will be released this September, save for any additional delays. (There have been many thus far)
Creature creator lets you build animals, which you'll be able to use in the game once the full fledged version comes out. The creator is one of the most intelligent and intuitive programs I think I've ever used. The sheer level of customization is amazing. Spore allows you to grow a life form from single-cell all the way to advanced inter-stellar species, and is the brain child of Sim City and The Sims creator Will Wright, so this game is destined to be a mega hit.

Stop Me If You've Heard This One...

Okay.

So, a Rabbi and a Priest walk into a, er AT&T store. The Rabbi, we'll call him Schmuel purchased a new cell phone just 8 months ago, but really fricking wants a new iPhone 3G, the iPhone data plan, the whole schmear.

How much is the Rabbi going to have to pay to get his chachka? Will it turn out to be more of an expensive toy if AT&T acts like a ganef?

I don't know the punch line, because apparently neither does AT&T. If you believe that I've got some unicorn farts to sell you.

Here is a list of the most likely price points for the new iPhone:

Come On AT&T. The cat's out of the bag already! Give us the frickin' deets!

I really want to know if the cost of getting an iPhone will be unacceptably high, or if it will be reasonable, but it seems no one at AT&T has a straight answer, though I've read several reports of reps saying about 5 different things. All this ambiguity about the finer details about the iPhone is leading to a lot of speculation and rumors.

Oh, and the Priest was eligible for a standard upgrade so he didn't have to worry about a thing.

Firefox: Do Not Want ?

So, firefox has been behaving like a real Turd Ferguson lately, which makes me sad.
I started using firefox regularly (At home) about a year ago when I started using a Mac at work.
The only real problem I've had with it is it's frequent loading of 'nothing' pages. In other words, you click a bookmark or click a link and it takes you to a blank page. After that, you cant go anywhere without exiting the program and re-opening. Sometimes, even that doesn't work and you have to reboot the computer. Annoying as piss, but forgivable as it doesn't happen with every use. I'd peg it at about 25% of the time.
Well, yesterday Firefox decided to pull a new rabbit out of it's hat. Now, when I open it, all of my bookmarks, all of my plugins, skins, etc. are gone and it loads the whole "Welcome to Firefox, First Time User!!!!" welcome page bullshit. The first time it did that, and I though I'd lost all of my bookmarks, I was pissed. I learned where to recover them from a temporary backup thing that firefox creates daily, and thankfully that worked, but now I have to go through this process every time I start the fucking program. I've got the latest version, and I hadn't changed anything when this little gem of a problem flared up. Anyone got any ideas?
I certainly don't want to have to start using IE again, since its basically crap. Has anyone used Safari for PC? Does it work well?
I got my new camera this week. There is a ton of features and crap to try to learn on it, and I've barely started. I have pretty much just kept it on manual and been playing around with the aperture/ISO/shutter speed/focus settings so that I can get better at understanding what settings work best in what conditions.
Below are a few shots I've taken. They aren't anything 'thought out' in regards to composition, just seeing how the manual controls work and testing out the color correctness.

Fujifilm FinePix S100FS, You're so Dreamy

I finally pulled the trigger on a camera tonight.
(Tony, this one may interest you if you are still undecided on what to get.)

I was torn between getting another Point & Shoot and a DSLR. I think I've kind of outgrown the whole P&S stuff, and have been learning about apertures and f-stops and composition and all that fun stuff, yet I didn't know if a DSLR was worth me investing in, simply because it might be more than what I need, and I certainly wouldn't be able to afford many lenses, nor would I want to lug them around.

I think I found the best of both worlds. The Fuji FinePix S100fs (Go ahead, say that 10 times fast)

This is a new camera on the market, and it's designed for people in just the dilemma I was in.
The body is very much modeled after a DSLR, and the lens is capable of a 28mm all the way to a whopping 400mm (14.3x) zoom. In DSLR terms, this is typically at least 2 separate lenses.

The 11.1 megapixel CCD sensor is different than regular point and shoots, being that it's much larger. Thats the big problem with P&S's, the small sensor gets crammed with megapixels and leads to high noise as you move up the ISO brackets, and can lead also to high artifacting in images. The S100fs has a sensor similar to DSLR's, and avoids this problem altogether.

This camera is equipped with full manual controls, as well as some presets, and has something unique to FujiFilm called 'film simulation'. These settings recreate images that mimic what you'd get using different types of film made by Fuji.

Some other key points are the ability to use the LCD or an optical(electronic) viewfinder, the LCD swivels for taking images at abstract angles, XD, SD, and SD-HC cards are supported, and RAW and JPEG image settings.

After reading a lot of reviews the only negative I could find is that images in bright sunlight with a dark contrasted subject can cause some noticeable chromatic aberrations (That purple outline between bright and dark contrast. CA is actually possible on any and all digital cameras, even the top tier DSLR's, but its easier for it to happen with the S100fs. Fortunately, should an image come out with this problem, there is a Lens Correction tool in photoshop which can fix it, as well as other dedicated CA touch up programs.

One other nifty toy I got to go along with it was a new SD-HC 8 gig card. That itself is not very cool, but the card has a slide out compact USB connector, so you can get photos on any computer with just the SD card. You can also use the SD card as a thumb drive.

Once I get the new gear and have a chance to play with it, I'll put up a review.