They're all liars

Pretty good article in the post today clarifying a number of exaggerations made on both sides: A Primer for Tonight's First Debate (washingtonpost.com)

Register to vote

Voter Registration Form for anyone who has not registered yet. Apologies to anyone not in VA... It's probably not that hard to find for your state. -j.

Changing civilian aerospace history

Space Ship One Lands!!

Safety first

Ok, so the kiddies next door are pretty friendly. They usually say hi to me if they see me coming home or leaving for work or whatever. So, last week some time, I was walking out to my car and one of the girls says hello. So I say hi back. She tells me she has a baby in her backpack. Then, she asks if I'm walking today. I tell her just to my car. I parked down the street, so that's where I was headed. So she asks if I'm going to cross the street? Yes, but it's not far. "Ok. Be careful." Safety first. Even the kiddies next door know that. The ones playing with matches and lighting fireworks unsupervised. But they know to look both ways before crossing the street.

Things I learned growing up:

Look both ways before crossing the street.
Hold hands when crossing the street.
Don't talk to strangers; they might try to kidnap you and then sell you for parts.
Don't play in the street; you might get hit by a car.
Waft, don't sniff/inhale.
Let someone know where you are going and when you are planning to return. If no one is around, leave a note.
Don't sit too close to the television. You'll go blind.
Watching too much tv will make your brain turn to mush.
Don't play with beebee guns. You'll put an eye out.
Don't play with sharp objects. You might hurt yourself.
Driving is a full time job. Watch the road. Hands at 3 and 9 (no longer 10 and 2, due to air bags).
Do not speed in residential areas. Kids these days... they play in the streets and you're the one who'll get in trouble if you hit one of them. Kids aren't accountable for anything these days.
If you get something new, you should share it with your friends.

That's all I can think of for now. :) -j.

Baltimore

Spent the day in Baltimore yesterday with ITP, Ted, and NN. Went to The Maryland Historical Society Museum, Edgar Allen Poe's grave, Hollywood Diner, Maryland Science Center to watch a couple IMAX films (Sacred Planet, Hubble & Jane Goodall), then off to the Aquarium to see the new dolphin show! Woo! Brief stop at Barnes & Noble before heading back. Spending today reading then helping Jackee move. That's about it. :) -J.

oh oh! oh! ohOh!

I did it! I found the doober to download the stuff that I needed and then there were all these magical new extensions to sync my address book and mail. Woo! Thanks to google, the internet, mozilla, and readers like you. I can play with my visor again. So exciting. Now I can download new mp3s instead of listening to the same ones I've been listening to for the last 2 years. So exciting. So much for going to bed early though. Oh well. Well worth it. :) -J.

Things that are new to me

For those not in the know:


New Firefox out. Been using it for a few days. There are a couple immediately noticeable changes, but maybe I don't do enough to notice the tweaks they've made. Still liking it though.

I also installed the new Thunderbird. I had been holding out because I wanted to transfer all the stuff from my old computer over and get my visor all synched and everything. And, well, as it turns out, I'm lazy. So, forget all the good intentions. I just went ahead and installed because I had heard so many good things about it. So fancy cool and stuff. Emails sorted by threads, built in spam filter in addition to rules-y stuff, mouse gestures... I'm very pleased thus far.

Gilmore Girls season 5 premiere last night. Very disappointed in Rory. Still. Will she never learn? I understand she made a mistake. But come on. Get a clue. Repeating a mistake means that you haven't learned and not learning is for stupid people. But in happier news, Luke and Lorelei! :) :)

I think that's all. Going to try to get to sleep early tonight. Tomorrow is the new Friday. Or something. :) -J.

LOTD: Football Fans for Truth - The sad part about this is that it isn't a joke. I thought these guys were making fun of the Republicans picking on Kerry. But they're serious. These are gung-ho sports fans supporting Bush. A ... um... unique way of expressing their opinion. We'll just leave it at that.

QOTD: "It's cute when you try to use big people things... like doors."

Mathman... mathman... all multiples of 5

Just because Sonny brought up Cauchy in his update today:

Why did the mathematician name his dog Cauchy?
Because he left a residue at every pole.

Mm... monies...

Do you want to make more money? Sure, we all do. So, I've been keeping this blog up for about a year and a half now. I don't do it to make money because, well, it would take the fun out of it. Not to mention the fact that I would need a larger following than my family and people who read because I blog-stalk them. But happening across money because of the blog is kind of fun. Over the last few weeks, I have had a couple of such opportunities. The count so far: $12.76. I've made an undisclosed amount from the google ads (I'm not supposed to say) and $10 from an ING referral. Strange thing... Some dude emailed me a couple weeks ago asking for a referral. Said he found me through feedster. Yay blogs and blog-stalkers! Hehe... I'm still down all the registration and hosting fees, but that's ok because I would have paid them anyway. This is like finding a quarter on the ground. But instead, I found 51 quarters and a heads-up penny. Woo! :) -J.

QOTD: "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." -Noam Chomsky

LOTD: Project Gutenberg

NMNC

No Middle Name Club

So, my little cuz was having a run-in with her suite-mates trying to come up with a middle name for her. I've had the same problems in the past and so has my sister. I've known a few people without a middle name. But it seems as though the majority of people do have one and being different just won't cut it in this world. So this is my call to my two-named brethren out there. Anyone without a middle name is welcome to join. Free cake at the meetings! Join now! :) -J

Propaganda day

Heya people... Moveon, in conjunction with some other organizations, is holding a benefit concert to support Kerry. Scheduled to appear:

October 11, 2004 -- 7pm

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band*
R.E.M.
Pearl Jam
Dave Matthews Band
Dixie Chicks
James Taylor
Bonnie Raitt
John Mellencamp
Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds
Bright Eyes
Death Cab for Cutie
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals
Jurassic 5
My Morning Jacket
Keb' Mo'

Trying to get tickets, but having trouble. It doesn't say it's sold out, but can't find any tickets available. Anyway, I'll keep trying. There's a possibility they're releasing tickets periodically. Maybe to get more hype. Who knows. Anyway, let me know if you're interested. Have room for 2 more if I can manage to buy max number of tickets, or you can try and acquire tickets on your own.

On a side note, just to be fair... Musicians supporting Bush: Jessica Simpson, Ted Nugent, and Gene Simmons. Not to be judgmental (ok, completely being judgmental), but a couple of old guys and a stupid blonde? (Not saying that all blondes are stupid. But this one... the epitome of "giving blondes a bad name") Hooray for famous people.

Ok. That's all for tonight. I'm off! :) -J.

Adventures

Spent much o' ayeterday bein' lazy. There was t' whole mouse fiasco in t' afternoon. I went downstairs t' eat lunch and I went t' check on t' traps while me food was in t' microwave. T' me surprise, I found both mouse traps shut. So I brin' them into t' kitchen. They both still feel like they weigh about t' same amount, so I figured I either got two mice or none at all. I shook them, and didn't hear any bait port in them (honey-roasted peanuts), so I opened t' first trap. Empty. So, ok. They're both empty. I'll rebait and try again. Open t' second trap t' put bait in. THERE'S A MOUSE IN THERE! Take it down t' street a couple blocks away and open t' trap t' release it. Nothin'. Tip t' trap, tap it a bit. Nothin'. I know I saw somethin'. Put t' trap down, and look in from about a yard away (I'm very scared o' havin' t' mouse run out and jump on me face or somethin'. So, I really didn't want t' just hold it up t' me face and look in.) and I see a tail stickin' out this time. It won't come out. I didn't know if it was stuck or went t' Davy Jones' locker or what. I mean, why wouldn't it run away if given t' opportunity, starboard? Anyway, called me sis and she sent a lad over t' help me. Ahoy! yeah... so I shouldn't pander t' stereotypes, but whatever. After that, tried a kabob place in Old Towne Fairfax with ITP. Tasty food. Then back over to t' HOY to hang out at t' HOY and played games and such until early into today. Today: Football day. :) -J.

LOTD: How to talk like a pirate

QOTD:
How much does it cost a pirate to get a piercing? A buck an ear!

Why did the pirate go on vacation? He needed some AARRRRGGH and AARRRRGGH!

What's a pirate's favorite country? AARRRRGGHentina!

What do you call a pirate that skips class? Captain Hooky!

What Star Wars character is really a pirate? AARRRRGGH-2 D-2!

What's a pirate always looking for, even though it's right behind him? His booty!

What does a gourmet pirate add to his dinner? A gAARRRRGGHnish!

How much did the pirate pay for his peg leg and hook? An arm and a leg!

What's a pirate's second favorite mode of transportation? A cAARRRRGGH! (to which one member of the club replied, "So, um, what's a pirate's first favorite mode of transportation?" "A ship, duh.")

What kind of socks does a pirate wear? AARRRRGGHyle!

What has 8 arms and 8 legs? Eight pirates!

A pirate walks into a bar with this enormous steering wheel stuck down his pants. The bartender can't help but ask, "What's with the steering wheel?" "ARRRRGGH," the pirate answers, "it's drivin' me nuts."

Stolen from here

Gomez's farewell:

AHhh!! AHHhhh!!

Gomez has departed! Thanks to ITP, TB, and Jas for all their help. Getting me traps and helping to release the mousey. Hopefully, there are no more mouseys in the housey.

Talk like a pirate day

Arrr... It's that time of year again: Talk Like a Pirate Day. Tomorrow, that is. Just wanted to post up a reminder.

Saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow with ITP last night. I liked it muchly. Polly was excessively annoying, but I guess that was the character's purpose. Cute movie though. Very cool how they put everything together. :) -J.

LOTD: Talk Like a Pirate Day

QOTD: "Mark's mother in Seattle ... [left] the following message on his answering machine:
"Your uncle Ernie read the article and thought it was very funny. I don't know what's so funny about talking like a pirate, but I love you very much." "

Evolution? Dinosaurs? Tooth Fairy.

At the castle last night and I came to find out that my parents don't believe in evolution. Horses and Zebras? They couldn't possibly have originated from the same animal. I mean, zebras have stripes for goodness sakes. Really, what was I thinking? Then, this led to discussion about dinosaurs and museums... My father doesn't believe that dinosaurs really existed. It's like movies... They're put in museums for entertainment value. Nay. Museums are strictly for entertainment.

I honestly don't know how I came to believe the things that I do. But it certainly didn't come from my parents. After a long, drawn out discussion, my mother agreed with the steps of evolution, natural selection, and speciation, but maintains that evolution does not exist because we are not monkeys. No, closer to apes. But anyway, I'm off. Will elaborate more later. -j.

Anger cured by Wegman's

Ok, so I'm driving in to work today and the whole drive in, I'm in such a bad mood. Stupid drivers. Stupid traffic. Stupid morning. Stupid mean people. Stupid noise in the car. Stupid radio. Stupid mouse. Anyway, bad mood. So I get in and I'm in the middle of this email argument something or other. But then! The person asked if I had heard of the Wegman's bakery. Have I ever! Not Wegman's bakery. Wegman's grocery store! It's stupendous! It's amazing! Anyway, here's the response I sent back:

Wegman's is great! It's a supermarket, but it has so much character. And for some reason their employees are very happy working there, so they're so nice to people. It's like a cross between Trader Joe's, Europe, and Giant. Good produce, little eatery with stone walkways, some organic/hippie stuff, generic frozen foods and magazines... It's the greatest place ever. Well, maybe. I haven't been to that many places. But yeah, they're building one on the corner of 29 and monument. So not in the same shopping center as chipotle, but very near it. You should totally check out the one in dulles if you have time. They have a train set hanging down from the ceiling that's probably about 12 feet up from the ground. It runs on some schedule, but I don't know what it is. All the cars are painted with little advertisements... Kind retro. So fun. :) haha. Wegman's just made my morning much less sucky. Thanks! :) -j.

Oh yeah:
P.S. Happy Rosh Hashana! L'Shana Tova.
P.P.S. *giggle* This keeps making me laugh. Maybe I'll put it as my background:

Angry

Dear person I am writing this to,
I don't like what you did or the manner in which you did it. I'm going to go cry myself to sleep now. Or maybe eat a cookie. Food is love. "I'd hate to be there when the laughter stops."

Sincerely,
Enjanerd

QOTD: "Also, all employees are reminded to look both ways before crossing the street." Another reminder that, while I may work with smart people, smart people do stupid things.

LOTD: Some guy

Gilmore night

So, the excitement of the night: Gomer. That would be the house mouse. I hadn't really seen signs of a mouse around the house, like teeth marks getting into food or anything like that, but I'm guessing he didn't just show up today. Who knows... Went in search of a mousetrap, but only found two main options at Giant. 1. Trap: sticks/kills the rodent, you dispose of the body. 2. Poison trap: slowly kills rodent, surprise corpse somewhere in your house. Maybe decomposing somewhere where you can't reach it. eh. ITP said he would look for a humane trap tomorrow so the mousie can run free! Free like the wind. Out in the country somewhere. Or maybe across the street near the bad neighbors' house.

In other news... so angry. But Angry Yenny pretty much summed it up: bad parenting. Go deal with your issues. Don't cover it up with sugar and drugs. Mm... drugs... oh wait. Scratch that. Take a placebo. Mm... sugar pill... Er. Anywho. Exercise -> endorphins -> happy. That's really the main reason I exercise. The physical health part of it is just a side-effect. I exercise for my sanity. Quite underrated these days. Exercising, I mean. Not sanity. Well, actually, sanity too. Ok. Both.

That's about all. I'm outtie. :) -J.

QOTD: Regarding the voting rights of demented people -- "Someone who is illiterate can vote. Someone who is intoxicated can vote"

LOTD: Banned Books

Weekend

Went and got my car inspected on Friday. Tres exciting, really. Spent the rest of Friday with ITP. Checked out Famous Dave's. A BBQ joint I went to with my sis and TB near Potomac Mills, but it turns out there's another one in Oakton. Go figure. Anyway, ate too much food there, then went on a quest to find ferrets. And, well... we found some mighty unfriendly ones. Maybe we'll check out another place later. Somewhere with nice ferrets. Somewhere where they aren't vampires. Poor ferrets. Still cute though. Just keep them on the other side of a piece of glass from me. Anyway, after that, went on a quest for Sealab 2021. Totally weird show, but so funny. Watched a few episodes of that before heading over to try out a Chinese buffet with the HOY gang.

Saturday... Nap. Read. Nap. Read. Nap. Write. Crochet. Nap. Eat. Nap. Mm... naps... Go hokies!

Sunday... Go Gibbs! Joe Gibbs! More Sealab 2021 with ITP. Naptime... Sleepytime.

Did so little this weekend, but it was nice and relaxing.

QOTD: "Oprah: she's just like you but black and rich. she likes good gossip and plays tricks"

LOTD: Plane Pull

Gossip vs. rumors

Ok, so uh... I meant to blog this a long time ago. A long, long time ago... But it got shelved, then it wasn't interesting anymore, and then I forgot about it. I was reminded of it recently, so I thought I'd dig it up, brush it off, and blog a little. I have always maintained that there is a distinct difference between spreading rumors and spreading gossip. Specifically that rumors are unconfirmed, and often baseless, while gossip is something true, but probably repeated without permission and likely to change form as the story is passed along. So, my stories are usually rumors because I just make stuff up when I get bored. But I also ask people for gossip, usually about themselves because it tends to be more reliable. Though, I will accept second, or even third, -hand stories on some occasions. Usually when I'm unbearably bored. Or if I'm talking to BFF about her sister's friends. That's usually the only time I get 3rd-hand stories. Anyway, I have this article (sent to me by my sis almost a year ago) that supports my definition (emphasis added by me):

Ruthless Rumors And the Managers Who Enable Them
Wall Street Journal
By JARED SANDBERG
October 29, 2003

Paul Haze doesn't mind starting a rumor when he sees the telltale signs that something is underfoot at his company. So a few years back, when the software engineer noticed bean counters taking inventory, he felt obligated to tell people the company would be sold within, say, six months. "Three months later," he says, "we had a merger."

He had asked his manager what was up. But the boss said he hadn't heard anything about it. Still, it was a sign Mr. Haze couldn't ignore and a story he couldn't resist telling. "You get the scoop first!" he says.

Meet your hard-working colleagues in the grapevine department, rumor and gossip. They aren't officially on the payroll, but they can have a big effect on the bottom line. Managers know it, but they just roll their eyes, decline to comment and demand to know who started such nonsense.

Too often, it's the managers who often trigger the speculation fest. Untrusting of employees, they withhold the facts and let the rest of us fill in the blanks. "If employees don't have a definite explanation from management," explains Mr. Haze, "they tend to interpret it themselves."

Psychologists say rumors are part of our innate search for meaning. "They're hypotheses in general circulation that have run amok," says Ralph Rosnow, a former professor of psychology at Temple University. He first started studying rumors in 1969, when the rumor surfaced that Paul McCartney had been decapitated. (He hadn't -- let it be.)

Rumors really fly when at least two conditions are met: high degrees of anxiety and lots of uncertainty. Then, two basic kinds of rumors -- wish rumors and dread rumors -- emerge, says Prof. Rosnow.

Rumors are typically hypotheses with potential widespread impact. Gossip, on the other hand, is usually presented as fact, and tends to be more about people, the professor explains. Gossip flourishes, research shows, in organizations where members are highly competitive and someone could benefit from tainting a rival.

Alidad Vakili, a 35-year-old attorney in San Diego, witnessed such a character assassination first-hand. Someone anonymously sent a letter to his friend's superiors last year alleging his friend was a philanderer, liar and thief. "It's a little like being indicted for a crime," says Mr. Vakili. "There will still be a lot of people who will see that person as the criminal they may never have been."

Still, such scuttlebuttheads aside, the grapevine is more important than managers think, says Allan J. Kimmel, a marketing professor at ESCP business school in Paris and author of "Rumors and Rumor Control." In moderation, it can be used to influence decisions, vent feelings to relieve stress, signal status or power, nurture cohesiveness, and translate job tasks and policies into understandable language, he says.

Management often underestimates the power of the grapevine. According to a recent survey commissioned by professional employment services firm Randstad, only 17% of employers think workers get their information from the grapevine, while nearly half of all employees credit it with first bringing the message of major company changes. One study from the 1960s found that 82% of "bits" of information coursing through one company's grapevine was accurate.

When Meghan De Golyer Hauser worked for one company, the grapevine said the boss was drinking on the job, the accountant was stealing and a co-worker was a nude model. "The rumors," she says, "all turned out to be true."

Big companies have had to learn the hard way just how powerful the grapevine can be. Procter & Gamble, for example, had to deal with outrageous rumors in the 1980s that the company was funneling cash to the Church of Satan. People, holding its logo up to the mirror, "found" hidden 666s, the mark of the devil.

The company phased out the logo, hired additional staff to handle consumer letters, mass-mailed churches and sued the rumor spreaders.

Microsoft is another persistent rumor victim: that it's moving to Vancouver, buying the Vatican, and giving $5,000 and a trip to Disneyland to everyone who tries its software. "That [last] one I deal with every 18 months -- I swear, every 18 months," sighs Mark Murray, director of pubic relations at Microsoft. The company began denying the Internet-born Disney rumor in the late 1990s, but it keeps surfacing. "It used to drive me crazy, but I guess now I recognize that it's part of being a prominent company," he adds.

To quell rumors and gossip, company brass has to talk. It has to be timely and honest. "If they don't come through with their promises, or they communicate the full story ineffectively," says Prof. Kimmel, "they have themselves to blame."

If bosses wait too long, their efforts look like feeble attempts at damage control. If they gloss over it, they'll have less credibility than the mongerers. When Bill Shanahan was a director of a hospital's alcoholism-treatment center, management met employee rumors with only "a blizzard of cliches," he says.

"Management communicated all the time," he adds, "but it was just garbage." So when the chief executive stood up and said there would be no layoffs, no one believed him. With good reason: layoffs came two months later.

QOTD: "When is gossip gossip? When [enjanerd] is spreading it."

LOTD from Ben: You know how amazon has their used book exchange doober? I hope this never ends up on there -- Box of 36

In response to eepie...

Reposting in response to some comments on eepie's blog:



*HUGS* TOTAL!
give enjanerd more *HUGS*
Get hugs of your own

Inspiration..?

I was going to post up an entry on gossip and rumors, but I think I'm going to hold that one off until tomorrow. I noticed the date and thought that I should write something more meaningful or inspirational or something. Granted, once I decided that, I blanked and had nothing to talk about. So, in lieu of a good story, I'm going to tell my where-were-you story.

September 11, 2001: It was a Tuesday. I remember this because it was senior citizen discount day at Kroger. I don't know why that's important, but it is a part of my memory of that day. I caught the bus to campus (in front of Kroger), as I did on every Tuesday that semester to open/work in the tutoring center before going to class. I showed up a few minutes before 10. So, pretty much all morning, I was just rushing around getting ready to face the day and heading to campus. I got in and helped a few people and then around 10:30, someone came in for help and asked me if I had heard. Heard what? "A plane crashed into the World Trade Center. They don't know what happened yet." Oh, that's weird. That seems like a pretty improbable accident, but ok. Got a little busier after that, so I didn't get a chance to look up the news. Although, at that time, I was more absorbed in school than I was in the rest of the world, so I might not have looked it up even if I had the time. Not that there would have been much accessible news about it on the internet at that time anyway. Not enough time to write an article.

Next up: Boundary Layer Analysis. Partway through class, someone sticks their head into the room to announce classes have been canceled. Everyone go home. Cadets: Change out of your uniforms. NOW. Pandemonium ensues. What's going on? What happened? Why are classes canceled? Didn't you hear? Turn on the TV. I heard a plane crashed. Not just a crash. A plane into the World Trade Center. Terrorists. Watch TV for about 10 minutes... Not just a plane into the World Trade Center... Four planes have crashed. Calling in the National Guard? The Pentagon got hit? Relatives in NYC, sister working in DC, brother in the National Guard... I was hit with this wave of panic. Panic enforced by that person coming into our class telling the cadets to go change out of uniform. It wasn't a terribly logical train of thought, but they have to get out of uniform in case someone comes to attack us looking for military. Why they would go to a state university in the mountains to find students who are in the military, I don't know. How we could possibly even be in the top 100 targets in this country to hit, much less top 5, I don't know. But it instilled panic in me at the time. Call home. Everyone's ok. Rush out of the building.

Go home and sit with my roommates for the better part of that day just entranced in front of the TV: Plane, building, crash, fire, falling bodies, smoke, hysteria. Repeat.

QOTD: On the entrance gate of the Oklahoma City National Memorial:

We come here to remember
Those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever.
May all who leave here know the impact of violence.
May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.

LOTD: Heroic Stories -- To remind people ... that other people have been in this pain before you, others will be later. Yet, wherever there is disaster, your fellow humans will race forward to assist you in your hour of need. This is a constant throughout human history: humans rushing to help other people survive a disaster.

Ferrets

Regarding a discussion earlier today:

"The common ferret (Mustela putorius furo) is a domesticated form of the European polecat. It was originally domesticated for hunting mice, rats, and rabbits."

"[O]rder Carnivora, consist[s] of 12 families of primarily predatory mammals: Canidae (e.g., dogs), Ursidae (bears), Procyonidae (raccoons), Mustelidae (weasels), Mephitidae (skunks), Viverridae (civets), Herpestidae (mongooses), Hyaenidae (hyenas), Felidae (cats), Otariidae and Phocidae (seals), and Odobenidae (the walrus)." -Britannica

My week...

This was a pretty lazy work-week for me. Not because I was lazy at work (I would never do that. I don't know why you would even imply that.), but because it was a three-day work week. So, Monday I spent napping and watching Due South. Tuesday was Gilmore Night. Wednesday, I had a SNAME meeting. Oh! Oh! So exciting. Some dude is going to take over my meetings chair position. Which means I don't have to go to all the meetings anymore. I can just laze around and update the webpage. This also means that I won't have to talk to all these people anymore. This is so great. Anyway, last night, got to bed early. I don't know why I can't seem to manage that when I have work the next day. Today is car morning and BBQ afternoon with ITP. Searching for, not the making of. Wow this was a boring update. I apologize. -J.

LOTD: Gmail notifier (For those of you who don't have the firefox extension or if it has stopped working for you. The extension still works for me, but I've been hearing complaints that it stopped working after google redid the login page.)

QOTD: What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic.

Helpless girl is helpless no longer!

I did it! I did it! I went over to get some water today and the doober was almost empty, so I took some water and figured maybe someone would replace it without me having to go be a girl and ask. So, I go back a few hours later... no such luck. I took the rest of the water and tried my luck at replacing the water jug. And I replaced it all by myself. The entire water jug. All by myself. I rule! Granted, it was facilitated by the fact that our water jugs now have handles. And the one that I chose was balanced on top of 4 other jugs, so I only had to lift and flip a little bit and not lift from the floor. But now that I know I can do it, I don't have to spend all my time looking for boys at work to help me. All my time... as though all I do around here is drink water. Mm... water... :) -J.

QOTD stolen from someone's lj quoting someone on IM: "Latest news: Ilinois U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes (R) says Jesus Christ would not vote for his opponent, Barack Obama. I find it hard to imagine that if Jesus got directly involved in the Illinois Senate race, he'd have not found a more viable Republican nominee than Alan Keyes"

LOTD: The odds are good...

Voter registration fraud

QOTD: "I was calling you to find out your phone number." -some dude who just called me

LOTD: Belly Casting -- Surprisingly, that link is exactly what it sounds like...

Latest conspiracy: Apparently there are groups out there who buy copies of the voter registration rolls, then send in new registrations for registered voters giving them a new address. It's really a more sophisticated version of the whole thing with the felony lists in Florida in the last election - however, people aren't being REMOVED from the voting rolls, and hence there's no red flag being raised. After all, people DO move and send in change of address, so there's no reason for them to suspect voter fraud. And there's really no way to trace this, so there's really no way to detect this. But in effect what it means is voters are removed from the rolls - after all, if you're unknowingly registered in another precinct, how can you vote at yours? I was lucky...I have the job flexibility and transportation to go down to the election board and find out the problems, but I'm betting a lot of the other people with the same problems don't. And there are a lot - at my precinct, during the period we were at the polls, which was pretty slow, there were only about five or six people in and out, including us. And of those, me and one other guy found ourselves off the rolls, and one woman said she'd had the same thing happen to her during the 2000 presidential election and had to spend the entire day down at the election board.

Oh the drama

The drama that is my life. Need more Gilmore Girls. Week is jam-packed, as always. Off to bed.

LOTD: Code Jam -- Ok, nerdburgers. Go code and be cool and stuff.

QOTD: "I'm going to kill these guys, then eat their dogs and their wives." -my boss

weekend...

I'm not really sure where all my time went this weekend. I mean, I know I spent a lot of time napping. And I watched a couple movies with ITP and then another with the girls... then about 4.5 hours today of Due South with Roy... Hm, ok. I think I just figured out where all my time went this weekend. Anyway, traffic day tomorrow. Kiddies are back in school and road crews are back on the roads. So, lots of traffic. I'm off! :) -J.

Naps

I've spent much of my 3-day weekend so far napping. I like naps. I tried to minimize human contact this weekend so I could have some time to myself and I've spent most of it napping. But I feel like I'm in such a better mood for it. Definitely worth the time invested. Should have planned ahead and gotten more cookies though. Anyway, off to read and eat cookies. :) -J.

LOTD from ITP: FanWing -- So very cool. The fourth greatest advance in aeronautics history. No stall, no turbulence, quiet, and short take-off and landing capability. It's *magical*:

How much horsepower would an ultralight FanWing need?

The latest model gets off the ground with approximately 20 grams/watt of power into the rotor. This ratio gives 15kg/ hp or 33 pounds of lift per horsepower. All indications are that this efficiency will improve as the size is increased and as the blade shape and wing shape are improved. A 400 kg gross weight FanWing aircraft will probably fly well with 40 hp.

QOTD:
it's all beautiful

What do you mean it's *all* beautiful? What about mud, is mud beautiful?

Yes, in it's own way.

Oh right, like how if you look at it in the right way it's beautiful, sure. So what about murder, rape, torture - if I came and tortured your family are you actually saying you'd find that beautiful?

It would make me sad, but it would still be beautiful.

What kind of person wants to accept things like rape and murder as beautiful?

The kind of person that wants to live in a beautiful world.

That's... that's crazy. If you believe everything is beautiful, then you make no distinctions. You have no way of rationally thinking about things, no way of seeing what things are actually beautiful and which things are disgusting.

I do not see things as disgusting because I do not believe they exist.

You're insane - you know that, right?

It was the first truly beautiful thing I noticed.

Statute of Limitations

I had a discussion with Lenny last week about apologies. If you have done something and owe someone an apology, how much time do you get to deliver it? Or if someone owes you an apology, how much time do you give them to deliver? After a certain point, does it cause more harm than good to dredge up the past and apologize? In my opinion, there is no statute of limitations on apologies. If you owe someone an apology, it doesn't matter if it's the next day, next year, or a decade later. If the person doesn't think about it anymore, then you're pretty much off the hook anyway. But if they do hold a grudge, you have the chance to make things right. A la Billy Madison: you might get crossed off of someone's hate list.

I thought about this a few years ago when I was watching some sitcom. I don't even remember what it was, but there was some guy in AA and he went around visiting old friends apologizing for his past actions. Thinking about this, I figured, why should you have to be a recovering alcoholic to make things right with people? So, for the things I did in the past that I felt I would want an apology, I went back and apologized. It was all very cathartic and I felt like I had at least done everything within my power so that no one would begrudge me for my past actions. There's still one more person I haven't been able to find to apologize to, but it was a relatively minor offense and I haven't tried all that hard. Google-stalked, but that's about it. And still a few outstanding apologies I'm expecting to never receive, but it'd be a nice gesture.

In any case, thoughts? Opinions? Apologies?

LOTD: Daily confession (Where I can get my fill of gossip from people I don't know.)

QOTD: "you had friends growing up??? like plural???... i think this may pretty much sum up how we ended up where we are currently.. my favorite friends were sticks and dirt :(" -JL4

Hello, little girl...

So I'm at this professional engineering society meeting the other day and this dude comes up to me and says, "Hello, little girl." Hello, ok. Little girl, I suppose might be an accurate description of me, but completely inappropriate. It's not like I go around the entire meeting saying, "Hello, old man." Or possibly, "Hello, middle-aged man." So, I'm a girl. Thanks for the reminder because I might have forgotten. I know it's rare to see girls around. But everyone knows me. They know I'm going to be there. I send out all the meeting info and reminders and update the webpage. My name/email is plastered all over everything. That doesn't mean I should be addressed as "little girl." That's just weird. Actually, that should ensure that they know my name and should address me as such. Or, if they don't know me, as the guy at one of the meetings last year didn't, it's still inappropriate to ask if I'm a member of the society just because I'm a girl. It's not like people sneak into our monthly technical sessions because they're so lively. Why would I try to blend in with a bunch of old, white men (oh, and don't forget the one minority and one guy under 30)? Anyway, addressing people with descriptions of them, rather than their names is weird. Especially when I know you know my name. Hello will suffice. :) -J.

LOTD: Yeti Games
QOTD: "If you'll notice, I used a pdf presentation program and not Powerpoint. It runs much faster and you don't necessarily have to have a specific program installed to run it. It also has a feature that allows you to rotate the slides upside down so it works properly on your computers here." -Australian speaker doing a
presentation for our company.

Words of wisdom

Ok, so I haven't seen the movie, but since my big brother recommended it, it must be good. To the handful of people I just learned started/restarted/continue smoking:

"...to help you stop, I order you to watch The Insider starring Russell Crowe. I don't care if you've seen it already because you obviously didn't get the message. Smoking is not cool, you dork!"

Also, you smell gross. That is all.

:P -J.

Help me; I'm helpless...

Needed help replacing the water jug again. I guess this is a convenient way for me to meet the boys on the other side of the floor. Or anyone going through HR. Maybe I should stop drinking so much water...

So been pretty busy this past week. And I haven't been getting as much sleep as I normally like. Monday I came home and did all the things I put off doing this weekend. Still need to go to the bank to trade in my monies, but other than that, I seem to be caught up on the little tasks in life. Guesday was Gilmore night. Went over to hang out with Sarah&Ian2, Ted, and Jenn. Watched the girls and then came home. Stayed up much too late on the phone. Last night was SNAME Executive Committee turnover dinner night. Which meant we had to have a drawn out 2-hour meeting prior to it, discussing the same things we've discussed for the past year (and presumably for years/decades prior to that). Dinner was so good though, which made it almost worth it. ;) Ruth's Chris Steakhouse... mmm... Home for drama-time. Woo gossip!

And now, here we are. My sister's birthday today. Spent the day working at work (what a novel idea, huh?) and then sent out about a dozen and a half emails for SNAME. Went to the parents' for family time, tasty food, and *cake*. Yay birthdays. :) Happy Birthday, sis! :) -J.

Birthday!

Happy birthday to my big sis! Yay! Woo!! :) -J.

LOTD: Couch bike. Those silly Canadians...
QOTD: "Don't be economic girly-men." -The Governator