Score one for the family!!

One of the gold medal USA women's Softballers...

Well, maybe. Dunno if we're related or not. But yay, anyway. A Topping gets a gold medal.

Pick me!! Pick me!!

20 Questions to a Better Personality

You are a WRDL--Wacky Rational Destructive Leader. This makes you a Enemy of the State.

You are charismatic and winning and a very dangerous enemy. You favor justice over compassion, and would almost rather see your opponent fail than you succeed.

You impact the lives of those around you more than any other personality. People remember your name and respect you. You are a tremendous amount of fun to be around and astonishing to watch. You are generally abstinent in your habits, and you like things tidy and ordered.

When picking teams, it is smartest for others to pick yours.

Of the 10477 people who have taken this quiz since tracking began (8/17/2004), 1.5 % are this type.

What type are you??

What is Bush's malfunction?

COLUMN: The president's often short attention span
By Jeff Postelwait
Daily O'Collegian (Oklahoma State U.)
04/28/2003

(U-WIRE) STILLWATER, Okla. — "Dead or alive," said the president. We were promised Osama bin Laden's head on a platter. On Sept. 13, 2001, President Bush said this to a grieving and shocked nation, "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." But then his focus shifted and there was a new public enemy number one: Saddam Hussein. Eighteen months later to the day, President Bush said this of bin Laden, "I don't know where he is and I really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."

Read the rest here: http://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/voices/200304/0428span.html

I'm gonna score "12"

I signed up for the GRE yesterday. I need to take it to assure my place in the grad program at MSU. The trouble is that I didn't take one of the sample tests before I signed up. Now that I've done that, I'm positive that I will have the lowest score ever recorded in the GRE. I was told that just putting your name down gives you 20 points, so I figured that I can spell at least one name right and the other name close, so I'll get half credit plus partial.

This is a step I must take and I must not falter at it. But DAMN, it's a scary one. I don't take standardized tests well -- at least I don't think I do. To see the scores of the standardized tests I have taken may show differently but it's still all about the stress.

I've decided to devote several hours per weekend to study. The test is October 15 at 1pm. This gives me 7 weekends. At a basic three hours per weekend, that's 21 hours. I've read entire books in less time. If I can manage more, that'll be icing on the cake. Of course, that also means that I won't be tempted away by the siren call of the television. Or my computer. Or some random shiny thing....

Crap. I'm gonna score -6.

One step closer

To the new American Police State.

Sent by Eric:
http://snipurl.com/8gk7

A couple of quotes:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been questioning political demonstrators across the country, and in rare cases even subpoenaing them, in an aggressive effort to forestall what officials say could be violent and disruptive protests at the Republican National Convention in New York.

The unusual initiative comes after the Justice Department, in a previously undisclosed legal opinion, gave its blessing to controversial tactics used last year by the F.B.I in urging local police departments to report suspicious activity at political and antiwar demonstrations to counterterrorism squads. The F.B.I. bulletins that relayed the request for help detailed tactics used by demonstrators - everything from violent resistance to Internet fund-raising and recruitment.

Prosecutors have now informed the men [three men subpoenaed before a Grand Jury probe on domestic terrorism] that they are targets of a domestic terrorism investigation, Ms. Lieberman said, but have not disclosed the basis for their suspicions. "They won't tell me," she said.

It's getting harder and harder to be a proud American.

Thinking about converting.

So I'm pondering about converting from Blogger over to LiveJournal. It isn't an absolute done deal or anything but it's something that I'm thinking about more and more.

There's much more granularity with LJ than there is with Blogger and that's what really appeals to me. I mean, I don't mind sharing with people; that's what I started the silly thing for in the first place. But sometimes issues crop up in my life that I'm not ready to tell the world in general about but maybe my local group of friends should know. Blogger just doesn't easily allow for that.

The thing that keeps me here is the very lengthy history of blog that I've created already. I was looking for some sort of conversion utility but that doesn't seem to exist. So I choose now between: 1) Sticking with Blogger and dealing with the lack of granularity for posts. 2) Converting posts already made over by hand, one at a time, into LJ. 3) Just leaving Blogger here with a pointer to my new LJ home. Choice #2 seems like the only reasonable long-term answer at this point. Choice #1 is probably the least likely unless Blogger announces some amazing new changes. When they were bought out by the Google behemoth I thought this might occur. It has not. The third choice is really not feasible because Blogger deletes blogs which haven't been updated in some predetermined time period. And I don't want that.

So, for now, I will continue to research. But in the long term, look for my new home over on LJ, which has existed for some time already but only has one entry.

Comments are welcome.

Of all people, Hermann Goering...

Said this:

Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

When I first read it, I didn't believe it. But in doing some research as to the authenticity of it, I ran across previous verification of it from snopes. If it's at snopes, it's true. I know them only by reputation and I do know from personal experience that they confirm what they say. The link to the verification is here.

I confess that when I read this I was surprised at how well it fits current events. I didn't think that Goering really had said this but it sounded like a quote that might be tracked down with some digging. When I saw that it had, indeed been said by him, I got a cold chill.

Vote. Please. Follow your conscience, read the words above over and over, and follow your conscience.

What kind of geek am I?

Nipped from Eric.

What Kind of Geek are You?
Name
DOB
Favourite Color
Your IQ is	quite high
You are a	computer geek
Your strength is	you can see in the dark
Your weakness is	alcohol
You think normal people are	aliens
Normal people think that you are	weird
This QuickKwiz by owlsamantha - Taken 5492 Times.

New - COOL Dating Tips and Romance Advice!

What kind of friend am I?

Category III - The Regular
Jo(e)
You are the quintessential standard conjured by the word 'Friend'.


Only my friends can tell me what kind of friend I am. But it was an interesting exercise.