excellent

ordered the mel brooks collection from amazon today. now all i need is some beer, and some friends who aren't in different time zones (like afghanistan) or different countries (like mexifornia), and many good times will be had.

life is like...

wiffle ball is a lot like legos... until you get old and arthritic, it will always be fun.

awesome

while i can understand the desire to get news about potential cloaking devices out must be fairly great, i really think it should be kept under tighter wraps. the less we give our enemies and potential enemies to work with, the better.

desperate house-husband?

no real point to this post, but i really wanted to use that phrase, and it does sort of fit. as he does from time to time, jeff decided that he needed to get clean his shelves to make room for new dvds. i decided to take him up on the offer, and picked up a brand-new copy of serpico for $5, including shipping. normally i would just think "hey, cool, great deal" and let it go. but it still had the $6.99 price tag from best buy on it, which for some reason i found quite entertaining. i understand that if you really want to clear out the space, five dollars (actually, only $3.89, since shipping cost him $1.11) is better than no dollars, but it seems odd to me that he was willing to settle for about half of what that movie cost, especially since it was brand new.

i have, however, come up with one random explanation: people send him movies every now and then. so my guess is this is one he was given as a gift, which means he's actually not losing anything.

oh, right, how the topic fits. jeff has mentioned several times that he's a stay-at-home dad. which, while not something i would want to do--unless my wife were able to make a lot more money than i could--i think is a good thing. in my opinion, unless you really can't make ends meet without both parents working, at least one of the parents should stay home with the kid(s) until said child(ren) is/are in school.

the end.

i disagree

but that doesn't make this shirt any less funny.

not entirely unexpected, but still... wow

so, the 9th circus court of appeals, who believes that the phrase "under God" is unconstitutional, now thinks that california school children should become muslim for 2 weeks.

computer woes?

possibly. i think my system may be getting under-volted. here are the cuurent stats:
+12v running at 11.776
+5v running at 4.919
+3.3v running at 3.312
Vcore running at 1.392-1.408 (i think it should be about 1.5)

it doesn't seem to be causing any major problems, although probably about once a month i get a notice that says my graphics card isn't getting enough power, and is reducing its performance to compensate. which is not cool.

is there something i can tweak to fix this, or should i be looking for a new power supply?

TR, my hero

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." --Teddy Roosevelt, 1907

h/t rob

using your knowledge

is what i'd like to do. the bank i work at has decided to start creating its own brochures, business cards, etc., rather than "outsourcing." we've been going through quite a few changes, and decided that it really didn't make sense to buy in bulk if we're going to be changing them fairly frequently. and since all the higher-ups are busy and i spend half of my time being bored, i got put in charge of the project. it shouldn't be too big--we've only got three branches--but it'll give me something to do, and possibly some good experience to boot.

so, what type of printer should i be looking for? i figure higher resolution is better, but how high do i actually need it? it doesn't need to print overly fast, and won't be going through a whole lot of pages each month. we're looking at glossy and non-glossy (basically some "heavy" duty paper) versions, so if you know anything about printers, feel free to put forth several suggestions. i've basically been given free reign with this... i get to choose the printer, the software, and the paper, and get to design the brochures themselves, so it may or may not need to be a picture-quality printer.

i hate driving

and yet for some reason, i'm planning a road trip. i am a glutton for punishment; i think it's all dave's fault. oh well. i've got the second week of october (i think... it's the one with columbus day in it) off, and i should be getting my new car shortly before that. this'll be a good way to break it in, and/or drive myself insane. here's the general plan:

1) colorado springs, to visit jon & michelle. estimated driving time: 18 hours, 22 minutes. i think i may break that one up, either by taking an extra day and visiting dave in montana, or crashing with relatives in wyoming (although they're distant and way older than me, so i'm not sure if that would work out).

2) davis, to visit rachel. estimated driving time: 17 hours, 52 minutes. i'd like to break that one up as well, but the only person i really know in between there (from carson city, NV) is going to be in prague, and i don't want to pay for a hotel if i can avoid it, so my options there are limited.

3) portland, to visit geanna, and possibly alyssa and brian. this one is listed as a relatively short 9 hours; still way more time than i want to spend in a car, but shouldn't be any problem to get done in a day.

depending on how much time i have left after those, i may also stop in the seattle area to visit some other friends. or i may just be hating life and decide to go straight home (5 hours, 29 minutes away) and sleeping for the next few days.

speaking of which, i'm h-tired from getting up early today to drive to seattle and back for mike z's wedding, so i be off to bed.

wrong, but hella funny

holy balls

although to be more accurate, i probably should have said sweaty balls. but that just conjures up all sorts of bad images.

anyways, it was about 100 degrees at work yesterday; at least 96, and it was 100 just a little ways down the river when i left work at 5:00. and our air-conditioner was out of commission. good times were not had.

c for cookie

what will they think of next?

not quite as cool as bottled oxygen, but i must say, the tv activated batmobile is a close second.

new look!

same great taste! i've never understood how that would be a selling point for food, but oh well. apparently it works. anyways, if you haven't noticed, i finally figured out how to update the links on the sidebar. i think they're all worth visiting, especially my booklist, which i've plugged a few times before.

what's the big deal?

a lot of people seem upset about the NSA caller database (or at least the media wants us to think that). here are my thoughts on that:

*i really like rob's term "on the envelope information." from what i understand, the NSA is looking at where the call came from, where it went to, and probably the length of the call. when you mail a letter, the post office can see: where you're mailing it from, where you're sending it to, when it was sent, and (on one end, at least) when it was recieved. so can the mail man/letter carrier who delivers it.

*if you go into a bank to open an account, the bank will collect more information than that about you: physical address, social security number, driver's license or state ID number, and at least in the case of my bank, your mother's maiden name, among other things. so, if you stop and think about it, the NSA is less invasive than your bank.

*if you order something online, you generally need to give your physical and/or mailing address, phone number, credit or debit card number, etc. so the NSA is also less invasive than ebay.

*and, a good standard one. USA today claims the NSA is "amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans"; i say, if they actually are ordinary Americans, they have nothing to worry about.

not cool man

US Border Control Gives Minutemen Locations to Mexican Governtment

h/t wizbang

more here, here, and some other places

quote (sort of) of the week

Uzbekistan has banned fur-lined underwear. Sales had been climbing during the cold winter months, but the government says teh undies lead to “unbridled fantasies."*

this is why i don't like analyzing things

mainly, because i can't understand half of what's being said. although i do agree with jeff's intentionalist views; which, as far as i can make out, means that any writing/argument/etc. has only the meaning that author intended for it to have, and not any other potential meanings that people might be able to wrangle out of it (see his post here on curious george). for example, when i say that i don't like illegal immigrants, it doesn't mean that i'm racist or xenophobic, it means that i don't like illegal immigrants; nothing more, and nothing less.

and remember: you can't spell "analyze" without "anal."

what's the big deal? and other thoughts

so, what's the big deal with the fifth of may? many people seem to think it's mexico's independence day... those people are wrong (actually september 16). the fifth of may is a celebration of a mexican victory over the french; which, lets face it, isn't really much of an accomplishment.

also, carhart makes really nice jeans, and treadmills are pretty dang heavy.

fun with numbers

it's only one poll of course, but it looks like there may be hope for this country after all.

welcome to the blogosphere

my friend kate-lynne started herself a blog the other day. it's entertaining, in a very random sort of way.

random thought

i think we need to change the title of the secretary of defense back to the secretary of war. because let's face it, what he does isn't always defensive. the mission in iraq could be argued to be in self defense, but when you get right down to it, it was a very offensive (and, depending on your point of view, offensive in the other way) operation. "war" is much more accurate than "defense."

who says racial stereotypes aren't funny?

mind of mencia presents: racial profiling in the military

more on immigration

neighbors

once more, with(out) hypocrisy

a note to mexico: take a look at your own immigration laws before you start bitching about ours.