http://dinosaurbob.livejournal.com

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Just sticking my head in

Adding a post so I don't get deleted.

My current life is lived over in my LiveJournal blog.

Help out a friend in her Cancer Three Day Walk

My friend Maren is going to be doing the Breast Cancer Three Day Walk in Boston. If you read my LJ (or BlogBoogers), please consider giving to her cause. She's selling the pink bracelets for $5 (similar to the Lance Armstrong "LiveStrong" bracelets). She's gotta get a fair chunk of change together to be able to do this and I want to help in any way I can.

From Maren:
Help in getting one step closer to a cure! Please consider a donation to the Boston Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk, which I will be participating in July 2005 in honor of my mother, a breast cancer survivor of 8 years. My personal fundraising goal is $2,100!

Donations can even be made online! Visit The 3 Day's website (Boston) and look me up (Maren Fuentes) under the "Donate" button and check out my personal & team website.

A far better way of determining a person's character

You scored as Elmer Fudd. Elmer Fudd 67% Taz 58% Tweety Bird 50% Wile E. Coyote 50% Sylvester Jr. 50% Sylvester 50% Foghorn Leghorn 42% Henry Hawk 42% Daffy Duck 42% Marvin Martian 33% Porky Pig 33% Petunia Pig 33% Yosimite Sam 25% Bugs Bunny 25% Which Looney Tune Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

Not only do I look like Buddha, I are one!

You scored as Buddhist. Buddhist 85% Christian 80% Anarchist 60% Jewish 55% Cult 50% Catholic 35% Religion created with QuizFarm.com

Thankful in different ways.

So I went to bed REALLY late this past Thanksgiving eve, fully expecting to be able to sleep in until 10 or so; late enough that I get about eight hours of sleep. These thoughts were pushed to the side by the phone ringing at about 7am. My sister calling, telling my girlfriend that they were taking my nephew, Mitchell, to the ER with a severe nosebleed.

Backstory: Mitchell has hemophilia (sub-type C) as well as von Willebrand's disease (sub-type IIb). This means that he's really prone to bleeding. We first got a clue about it (but didn't make the connection) when he got circumsized. Bled like a stuck pig. Anyway, we have to be careful about his typical toddler (3 ½ yo) life. On Thursday, he got a nosebleed starting around 4:30 in the morning. By 7:30, he was on the way to the ER. Now mind you, this isn't an SNL-version of Julia Child spraying blood all over the kitchen. This is just a constant -- non-stop -- bleeding episode.

We got to the hospital shortly after 8am, and my sis and her husband were there with the kids already. So they handed my neice, McKenzie (also a hemophiliac C) to us and went back to Mitchell.

By 10:00, we were let into the pediatric ER waiting room (duh, it's where they were and we were stuck in the regular ER) and were able to move back and forth a little into Mitchell's room. My sis was wiping his bloody nose constantly but it was a wipe/wait/bleed/repeat process. They were going to give him a platelet infusion to stem the bleeding some pending hearing from the hematology doc that Mitchell sees. His platelet count was about 10,000; normal being 150,000 to 350,000. While they were waiting, it was decided that we would take McKenzie back to my sister's place, since she was getting cranky from lack of sleep and lack of nappage. We left about 11:00.

We got to the house around 11:30 and proceeded to just vegitate. McKenzie napped in the car on the way home but that was about the end of it. My gf tried to put her down for a nap around 1pm but she was having none of that. So we sat around and watched TV and tried to entertain McKenzie. I was very popular with her by wadding up pieces of newspaper and bouncing them off her head. She thought that was great fun.

By 3pm or so, it was plain that there would be no Thanksgiving for us. Sis had put together all the fixin's but we didn't know when they'd be home. It was obvious it wasn't gonna be any time soon. They admitted Mitchell for observation and didn't give him the platelet infusion, since the bleeding was gradually slowing. We scrounged and found the pink salad that we have for Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. Mom started it, Sis continues the tradition. It's good yet weird, and it isn't a holiday without it. There's Cool Whip and mandarin oranges in it and cottage cheese. That's all I know for sure. I just eat it.

So that's how the afternoon progressed into evening. I was tossing paper off McKenzie's head and she was having a pretty good time. Everyone got home around 7:30 or so and Mitchell was fine, though bloody. He definately needed a bath! He was tired but OK, thankfully. We decided to leave pretty quick after that, meeting userinforiffalike in Canton for Chinese buffet. How traditional is that???

Ironically, everyone at the hospital got turkey for dinner and they gave Sis and B-i-L a plate, too.

Pass the California rolls, please.

Sticker fun in our paranoid schools!!

Textbook disclaimers

How British am I?

As if there was ANY doubt...

Jolly good, wot! Anyone for tennis? That'll be ten ponies, guv. You're the epitome of everything that is english. Yey :) Hoist that Union Jack!

How British are you?

this quiz was made by alanna

Oh, yeah

I'm starting to cross-post in LJ. I'm still not 100% about doing the conversion, as LJ doesn't have quite the set-up I'd like but it can be a little more granular about stuff when I need to be, well, private.

My LJ stuff is here

Today's quote

"As democracy is perfected, the office of President represents, more and more
closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain
folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." -H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Note to the ignorant ABC affiliates

You're a bunch of scared assholes.

Article discussing the cancellation of tonight's presentation of Saving Private Ryan

From the article:

While the stations have already aired the World War II drama twice before, they decided to preempt this year's run after deciding Ryan's graphic depiction of the D-Day invasion and use of profanity (the film contains upwards of three dozen F-bombs) was not appropriate for prime-time in the wake of the recent FCC crackdown on CBS over Jackson's Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction.

Morons, there's a difference between an accurate depiction of the horrors of combat and the insanity of war and Justin and Janet pulling off a publicity stunt.

Or maybe we should just make all war films look like Hogan's Heroes; hilariously funny times in the Nazi POW camps. I'll bet the concentration camps were even funnier.

Remember the soldiers this holiday season.

Think about buying them something for the holiday. I'm sure they'll appreciate it more than you'll know. There's little worse in life than being stuck in the field (or in combat, I'm sure) and being far away from loved ones during special times.

Go to www.anysoldier.com and you can find out how to send them a care package.

November 11

The armistice for "The War to End All Wars" was signed at 11:00am on 11/11/1918.
If only that were the case.

This Veterans Day, remember those who serve and who have served. Remember those who fought and came back and those who fought and remained.

Dream for an end to all wars. No one wants peace more than a solider.

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

There are a million stories in the Naked City...

And this is one of them:

From the files of the Ann Arbor Police Department:
Nov. 3rd, 2004 10:58 pm Fraudulent activities @ SOUTH QUADRANGLE -- 600 MADISON

3 Nov 2004 22:58:03 EST, Caller advised he received an email asking him to verify his credit card information. He did so and today his credit card company advised him of an unauthorized cash advance.

600 MADISON

(cad #43080180, Incident Report #04-004332)

Ann Arbor is said to have one of the highest per capita IQs in the country. Or that's what they say, at least. Duh.

Interesting observation about the campaigning

So it made the news recently that both Presidents Carter and Clinton were out stumping for Kerry. I thought that was pretty cool and the fact that Carter was out there to give him his support at the DNC is great. I was too young to really understand Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. He was the President with the weird family. A southern mama who lived in the White House with him and a hillbilly brother (Billy). But he's done so much in the last 25 years since he's left office. Healing a deeply wounded country (after Watergate and the resignation of Nixon) was a thankless task that no one relished. His resume as a peacemaker since his Presidency is more impressive than his record as President. I don't think he's actively on the road campaigning since his Carter Center is a non-partisan agency and, because they're often called to monitor the voting process in many emerging democracies, they can't get involved in partisan politics. I wasn't a huge fan of Clinton but that doesn't mean he isn't a popular ex-President and Kerry gets popualrity points when they're together.

Anyway, it occurs to me that I haven't seen any ex-Presidents campaigning for Bush. Granted, I don't think President Ford travels much any more due to his age (he's 91). But there's another Republican ex-President out there who I haven't heard a peep from in connection to the campaign. It just happens that that person is the current President's father. Is it just me, or is it a little odd that Sr. isn't out there stumping for Jr.? I mean, he wasn't the greatest President in history or anything but he was the President for four years and he was the Vice-President for one of the post popular Presidents in history, Ronald Reagan. It doesn't seem like it's health-related, as he looked fine when he spoke at President Reagan's funeral earlier this summer. (He's "only" 80) so I can't figure out why I haven't seen any coverage of this. Kinda seems odd to me. I did a Google search for "George Bush" and "campaigning for his son", which I thought would be a pretty common phrase in the news and found only 31 hits, none of which pertain to the 2004 election. They're all from the 2000 election. Sr. did speak at the RNC in Philly, I'll admit. But that's all I could find.

I'll let my readers draw their own conclusions, since you're both pretty bright folks.

Watch this space.

It may do tricks.

ABCs of DinosaurBob

Feel free to rip it off, as I did from Eric.

A - Age: 39
B - Best feature: Sense of humor, usually about the absurd.
C - Car I first owned: 1968 Mercury Cougar. 289 cubes under the hood with a Holley 1600 cfm double pumper 4bbl carb sitting an an Edelbrock Hi-Rise manifold and a performance cam and crank. Named Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang due to the occasional backfiring problem.
D - Depeche Mode song: Master and Servant or Blue Dress
E - Easiest person to talk to: Typically Riffalike or sandy.
F - Farthest from home that I've traveled: Which is further: Las Vegas, or Phoenix?
G - Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms: Either.
H - (Real) hair color: Dark brown with increasing amounts of grey, especially in the beard.
I - Instruments: Trombone.
J - Jellybean flavor: Yellow and orange. If they’re Jelly Bellies, then the butter-flavored popcorn.
K - Kids: One stepson, Michael, 14.
L - Longest car ride ever: In one sitting: New Symrna Beach, FL; Overall: Phoenix, AZ.
M - Mum's name: Margaret Jane
N - Name that was almost given to me: Andrew Robert.
O - Oldest living relative: Aunt Elsie, 80-something.
P - Phobia[s]: Heights.
Q - Favorite Quote: "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." – General George S. Patton, Jr.
R - Reason to smile: New house. (Also reason to curl up into a fetal position in sheer terror)
S - Song I sang last: Englishman in New York, by Sting.
T - Time I wake up: 0540 during the week, whenever on weekends.
U - Unknown fact about me: I’m a neat-freak when it comes to eating.
V - Vegetable I hate: Asparagus. I have the gene that lets me smell it in urine. I like the taste but hate the smell.
W - Worst habit: Messy.
X - X-rays I've had: Chest, spine, teeth, foot. Probably more. Plus upper g.i, and a PET scan.
Y - Yummy food: Beef. Done rare to medium rare.
Z - Zodiac sign: Virgo.

Which Sci-Fi Character Are You?

New Canadian Band "Finger Eleven"

Go to this site and watch the videos. I heard the song, "One Thing" on 93.9 and was immediately struck by the quality of the singer's voice and the really good music. It definately stuck in my head. I've already watched the "One Thing" video about five times and watched the other video, for "Good Times". (The lyrics aren't really soul-stopping but they're good.)

I was really surprised to find out that they started out as a heavy metal band. That's pretty obvious in "Good Times" but totally played down in "One Thing".

Check 'em out!!

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday, dad. 88 years old today.

I miss you.

Love,
Your son,
Bob.

John Eisenhower, son of the President, will vote for...

John Kerry.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? President Eisenhower was one of the most admired and respected Presidents of the Twentieth Century. He was a Republican who believed in responsible politics. Perhaps one of the last men who believed in the ideals of the Founding Fathers; that is, to do your job and step aside. He was not a politician going into office and when he was done, he returned Abeliene, KS and retired. He led our nation for eight years as President and before that led our troops for three more, culminating in the Allied victory in World War II.

You'd think his son, who served as an advisor in his Presidency and was a United States ambassador, would be excited about Dubya running for a second term.

Not so much.

Read his editorial here: John Eisenhower: Why I will vote for John Kerry for President.

President Eisenhower was such a capable leader and able to make politics work for the betterment of the country as opposed to the holder of the office that he was able to secure victories in Congress despite that body's Democratic majority for six of his eight years in office. John Eisenhower's comments on how the Republican Party used to be, back in the years of success, versus how it is today are right on the money and really just serve to make me all the more confident in my decision to vote Democratic this time after a history of voting Republican. Won't you join me?

I know it's been a while...

So I thought I'd slide this one in, just so my peeps know I'm still exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide at nominal levels.

Besides, it so fits.


What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

What I did this weekend.

Names have been changed only because I didn't ask for permission to print them.
This was an email sent to a friend who wanted to be on the trip but couldn't be. I figured it was entertaining enough to put here to save and share.


H and S started out early on Friday, about 7 am, so they could get some hiking in at Clear Lake State Park before getting up to the campsite. I had to leave later so K and I drove up together. It was supposed to be all four of us in K's mom's Explorer but this way worked out better. I had some trepedation about it but it was really unfounded. We didn't really get on the road until almost 1pm, thanks to some really annoying Jackson traffic.

H and S got there around 4pm; K and I around 6pm. That evening was relegated to setting up camp (H & S set my tent up, bless them) and generally relaxing. The weather on Friday was very nice. Mid-70s and sunny.

Saturday started out very pleasantly. Very nice day, though I somehow put my back and knee out from just sleeping. Makes me wonder how long it'll be before I totally fall apart. Anyway, after a breakfast of cereal WITH milk (despite H's and S's derision for it) we all piled into the car to head south along 23 towards Alpena. We stopped at 40 Mile Point lighthouse which is a pretty but little-visited spot and then moved on to the Old Presque Isle light, some say it's haunted, and the New Presque Isle light. At the Old light we walked along the beach and relaxed in the warming and energy-sucking sun on the rocks. Most pleasant, though people were likely wondering what the walrus was doing sunning itself on the rock when I was lying there. At the New light we had a nice lunch and played on the swings for a while. The lighthouse there is closed most of the time because it's still functioning and operated by the Coast Guard. You can go up into the Old light, which I did, and see for quite a ways. I almost forgot I'm terrified of heights. Almost.

After deciding that we really couldn't make it all the way down to Alpena we went back to the campground to relax. K napped and studied(?) and H and S (aka the Happy Wanderers) went off on a hike and I went in to Cheboygan to acquire drugs which would either kill me or stop the back pain and let me sleep. I was willing to take either at that point. Fortunately, I found Tylenol PM and decided that I'd give them a whirl before opening up the rat poison. While out there I went down to the Lake and watched the boats in the marina and people watched and checked out the Cheboygan Crib Light. Of course I didn't think to bring my camera. So I eventually wandered back to the Park, along with a whole bunch of wood for a fire and settled in to do what I do best: Burn things.

H & S came back a little later and we started to get dinner ready. Simple dinner, pasta with turkey sausage and Prego sauce. By the time dinner was ready, the skies were getting progressively darker and ominous. By the time dinner was finished, the cook came on deck and said, 'Fellas, it's been good to know ya...' No, wait. Different storm. But we were starting to hear the rumbles of thunder in the distace. It was well to our north so we were hoping to at best avoid it; which we didn't. At worst, to get brushed minimally by it; which we did. Mostly. When we realized that we were going to get at least some of it, we started cleaning up and moving stuff into the tents. Fortunately, I have a tent which was described by all as being palatial so we were all able to get into it without becoming even better friends.

The rains came and they were pretty good, though not of hurricane quality. More like "pretty good rainfall, maybe .75" of rain per hour" quality. We were all in my tent, fretfully checking for leaks and puddles, staring at each other and played -- you guessed it -- Dirty Uno. That lasted for a while but the rains stopped after 30 or 40 minutes and we ventured out of the tent to discover that nothing had floated away. Even the fire was still going. I told you I burn things well. I started nodding off thanks to my drugs and went to bed sometime around 10 or so. The others trickled in soon after. Very shortly after we were all abed, there was a visit from the local chapter of the raccoon mafia. They were looking for their cut of the action. After all, as they say, "It would be a tragedy if something was to happen to that nice tent of yours, and all this nice food youse guys got here, if you don't share wit us. Capice?" Or at least that's what I'm told they say as I don't speak the northern dialect of Italian-accented Raccoon. They may have just been local thugs pretending to be Cosa Nostra. Either way, they got away with the left-over pasta and turkey sausage dinner and the pepperoni slices. (This is the reason, by the way, I tend to believe that they were authentic raccoon mafiosa.) They definately have good taste in camp food.

Sunday dawned a very nice morning and we began the onerous task of breaking camp and facing our trip back to "the world". It was decided after much discussion and commentary, mostly consisting of, "I don't care, what do you want to do?" that we would together follow US-23 (mostly) along the Lake Huron shore and have lunch at Tawas State Park. They, too, have
a fantastic lighthouse there. Unfortunately it was closed. Despite that, there was a good lunch of thin-sliced deli chicken and some cheese and my new favorite condiment, Harry & David's raspberry chipotle. After lunch the Happy Wanderers did their hiking thing and K and I headed south. The trip down 23 was totally uneventful and about as fast as I've ever done it. It's amazing what happens the weekend after Labor Day. It's like they turned off the "Vacation Here" sign and posted detours.

Got home around 8 and crashed into my comfy bed, exhausted from having so much relaxation.

Shhh.... It's a secret!!!

This is from an email list I subscribe to, www.misleader.org.

NEW REPORT SHOWS BUSH INCREASING GOVERNMENT SECRECY

President Bush has said that he wants to "create a culture of
transparency"[1] in government, but according to a new report to be released
today by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), his administration is going to
extraordinary lengths to increase government secrecy.

The Waxman report is consistent with earlier signs that the Bush
administration is doing everything it can to limit the amount of information
the public can get from its government. Last month, a coalition of 30
organizations issued a report saying "Secrecy has increased dramatically in
recent years under the policies of the current administration." The report
found that "the number of documents being classified has jumped 40 percent
from 2001" and that the number of documents declassified in 2003 was about
one fifth the amount declasssified in 1997. The result "is an increasing
backlog of requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act."[2]

To find Waxman's full report see both his personal office website,[3] and
the House Government Reform Committee's Minority website[4] today.


Sources:

1. "President Bush Remarks at Summit of the Americas Ceremony,"
WhiteHouse.gov, 1/12/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=3138137&l=55435.
2. "White House takes secrecy to new levels, coalition reports," San
Francisco Chronicle, 8/27/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=3138137&l=55436.
3. Website of Representative Henry Waxman, 9/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=3138137&l=55437.
4. Government Reform Minority Office Website, 9/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=3138137&l=55438.

Go read this article.

As it's all laid out there, Bush was right.

The unwinnable war

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.

The script kiddies are getting ballsy

I get an above number of spam emails compared to most people I know.  Most of them are taken care of by filters I've set up.  I've seen more than my share of ads for mortgage refinancing, Viagra and Cialis offers, stock tips, online casinos, and on and on.  I also get scams which look like they come from legitimate sources.  The kind where "The Citi" has noticed that your accounts are being used in a suspicious manner and would you kindly enter your account information here (including the all-important check digit on the back) so they can verify that you are you and make sure that everything is cool with your credit card.  At least until they get to your account themselves, after which you'll get a phone call from the *real* Citibank who will then proceed to tell you that someone's been using your account to buy Viagra and Cialis online and buying into online casinos. 

Today I got an interesting one pretending to be from eBay.  It was an obvious scam email, if only for the fact that it wasn't actually addressed directly to me.  I'm sure I was part of a large bcc group.  It had the usual bad grammar and formatting -- the grammar was bad in the "I'm 15 years old and hacking together a scam; I don't have time to pay attention in English class" way.  Not the grammar that's used by people for whom English is not a first (or second) language.  Allow me to share:

  WE have been trying to get members to update there accounts Your account has been Flagged as not updated. 

Protecting the security of your eBay auction account is our primary concern, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.Comments are welcomed!

In order to update your account information, you need to complete the following !  If not, your account may Be CLOSED and errors may occur without notification If you have gotten this before you Must of failed to complete ALL FEILDS! 

Stunning, isn't it? 

But it's what information they ask you for that's the ballsy part:

User ID
Password
Account type Seller Buyer
First Name
M.I.
Last Name
email
email password
address
city
state
phone
zip code
Card Number
Expiration Date
social Security Number
Atm Pin
Date Of Birth
Mothers Maiden Name
Drivers lisence number
Bank Account#
Routing #

Wow.  They sure do want to make sure you are who you say you are.  I'm sure that when they send this out again, with improvements, they'll also ask for a DNA sample and fingerprints.

Well, I filled it out just for fun.  Stuff like George W. Bush, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C., etc.  Shucks.  The email account is shut off.  I wonder if that means eBay is having a problem with their email servers?  The email return address,  something3434 @ yahoo.com is unknown to the intermediate mail gateway now, so I'm sure it's been shut off.

I'll tell ya.  Kids these days.  If they put as much effort into video games as they did hacking, we'd be up to Final Fantasy XX now, instead of just X.  They still wouldn't be able to read or write but they'd be off the internet and on the video game consoles.

Jail is just like camping, only not!!

"I could do it. I'm a really good camper. I can sleep on the ground. There are many, many good people who have gone to prison. Look at Nelson Mandela"
--Martha Stewart, in an ABC News interview, saying she could handle prison.

 
See, now that's funny.  Marvelous Martha has no clue what's coming down the pike for her.  She's going into a work camp and thinks it's summer camp.  I'm sure that the class of criminal she will be incarcerated alongside will be something less than serial killer-level but there's still going to be a struggle for power, just like there is in every enclosed environment.  Humans are pack animals, with hierarchical structure.  We're more sophisticated than wolves, in that we plot and plan and backstab our way to the top.  Wolves just fight.  Strongest wins.  Maybe they're the sophisticated ones.
 
Anway, Martha's in for a whole lot of "fun" if she thinks it's gonna be a camping adventure. 

Top 100 movies...

Blatently stolen from celtie.

IMDB's Top 100 Best Movies of All Time generate this HTML for your own page at ObeytheFist.com
Rank Movie Didn't See It/ Started It/ Finished It/ Hated It! 1 Godfather, The (1972) Finished It 2 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) Finished It 3 Godfather: Part II, The (1974) Finished It 4 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) Finished It 5 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) Finished It 6 Casablanca (1942) 7 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) Finished It 8 Schindler's List (1993) Finished It 9 Shichinin no samurai (1954) 10 Star Wars (1977) Finished It 11 Citizen Kane (1941) Finished It 12 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Finished It 13 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Finished It 14 Rear Window (1954) 15 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Finished It 16 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Finished It 17 Memento (2000) 18 Usual Suspects, The (1995) Finished It 19 Pulp Fiction (1994) Finished It 20 North by Northwest (1959) Finished It 21 12 Angry Men (1957) Finished It 22 Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001) 23 Psycho (1960) 24 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 25 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) 26 Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) Finished It 27 It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Finished It 28 Goodfellas (1990) Started It 29 American Beauty (1999) 30 Vertigo (1958) Finished It 31 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 32 Matrix, The (1999) Finished It 33 Apocalypse Now (1979) Finished It 34 Pianist, The (2002) 35 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) 36 C'era una volta il West (1968) 37 Some Like It Hot (1959) 38 Third Man, The (1949) 39 Taxi Driver (1976) 40 Paths of Glory (1957) 41 Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) 42 Fight Club (1999) 43 Boot, Das (1981) 44 Double Indemnity (1944) 45 L.A. Confidential (1997) 46 Chinatown (1974) 47 Singin' in the Rain (1952) Finished It 48 Maltese Falcon, The (1941) 49 M (1931) 50 Requiem for a Dream (2000) 51 Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957) Finished It 52 All About Eve (1950) 53 Se7en (1995) Finished It 54 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Finished It 55 Saving Private Ryan (1998) Finished It 56 Cidade de Deus (2002) 57 Raging Bull (1980) 58 Rashômon (1950) 59 Wizard of Oz, The (1939) Finished It 60 Sting, The (1973) Finished It 61 Alien (1979) Finished It 62 American History X (1998) 63 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) 64 Léon (1994) 65 Vita è bella, La (1997) 66 Touch of Evil (1958) 67 Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) 68 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Finished It 69 Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) Finished It 70 Great Escape, The (1963) 71 Wo hu cang long (2000) 72 Reservoir Dogs (1992) Finished It 73 Clockwork Orange, A (1971) Finished It 74 Amadeus (1984) 75 Modern Times (1936) Started It 76 Ran (1985) 77 Annie Hall (1977) 78 Jaws (1975) Finished It 79 On the Waterfront (1954) 80 Braveheart (1995) Finished It 81 High Noon (1952) 82 Apartment, The (1960) 83 Fargo (1996) Finished It 84 Sixth Sense, The (1999) Finished It 85 Aliens (1986) Finished It 86 Shining, The (1980) Finished It 87 Strangers on a Train (1951) 88 Blade Runner (1982) Finished It 89 Metropolis (1927) 90 Duck Soup (1933) Finished It 91 Finding Nemo (2003) Started It 92 Donnie Darko (2001) 93 General, The (1927) 94 City Lights (1931) 95 Princess Bride, The (1987) Finished It 96 Toy Story 2 (1999) Finished It 97 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) Finished It 98 Great Dictator, The (1940) 99 Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957) 100 Lola rennt (1998)
Which movies have you seen?

Key Bush Military Service Files Destroyed

http://snipurl.com/7n0d

"This whole thing was inadvertent. It happened a long time ago at a files storage site in Denver," a senior defense official, who asked not to be identified, said.

How convenient. The things that happen to this administration just continue to amaze and stun me.

"We're only missing those files which are guaranteed to clear (or convict) the President. Shucks and darn. Sorry about that; that pesky film just crumbled."

20 Questions to a Better Personality

Ganked from Eric's blog:


You are a WRDF--Wacky Rational Destructive Follower. This makes you a hacker. Your thirst for knowledge can be damaging to your possessions--you like to take things apart, even if you then forget to put them back together. You demand respect and, no matter how much you are respected, seldom feel it is adequate. You are tenacious, and will stick to a task long after weaker minds have given it up.

Socially, you are awkward, and get into arguments and make people uncomfortable. One recommends counting to ten, holding back comments unless warranted, and listening more than speaking. Still, your no-holds-barred approach to socialization can be strangely endearing, as long as you are funny and self-deprecating.

You feel misunderstood, and you probably are.
Find out what your better personality is by going here.

What Muppet am I?

Interesting...


You are Sam the Eagle.
You are patriotic and devoted. And extremely anal.

HOBBIES:
Patriotism, Being appalled at what everyone else is
doing.
FAVORITE MUSIC:
The National Anthem of America

FAVORITE MOVIE:
"An American In....America"

LAST BOOK READ:
"Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus,
Eagles are from America"

QUOTE:
"Please stop that now! It's un-American!"


What Muppet are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Got this in email a while back.... Makes ya think.

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then to loosen up. Inevitably though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone - "to relax," I told myself. But I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.

I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't stop myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"

Things weren't going so great at home either. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's.

I soon had a reputation as a heavy thinker. One day the boss called me in. He said, "I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job." This gave me a lot to think about.

I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"

"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."

"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors, and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking we won't have any money!"

"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently, and she began to cry. I'd had enough. "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.

I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche, with NPR on the radio. I roared into the parking lot and ran up to the big glass doors... they didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.

As I sank to the ground clawing at the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked. You probably recognise that line. It comes from the standard Thinker's Anonymous poster.

Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was Porky's. Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home.

Life just seemed... easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking.

Soon, I will be able to vote Republican.

A SO much better browser:

My Dream

I dream, everyone does. I don't frequently remember what I was dreaming, excepting in random and very foggy memory fragments. But this morning I had a dream that I actually remember in some detail:

I was a member of a scientific team who were responsible for the development and launch of a probe to examine some sort of small object in space. I don't really remember what, specifically, but it wasn't huge. It seems like it was an asteroid or a comet.

Anyway, the probe we were designing was very cool. It was a sphere at launch but once in space it broke into four wedges, like a quartered orange. Each wedge was responsible for different scientific measurements and had antennae and solar panels which deployed when it split up.

It also had a very sophisticated thruster system, in that it was capable of countering external effects of Newton's Third Law. It was capable of precise movement in a single dimension and remain stable in the other two.

There was even computer-modelled imagery in my dream, showing NASA-like simulations of the probe's mission.

The funny thing was that part of the testing involved running piping and wiring through the interior of a 1961 Lincoln Continental. For some reason, this car had to be used for the experiment because if the suicide doors. Anyway, we had to move through the lab testing area by crawling through the car's interior.

Unfortunately, I woke up at this time and never got to see the undoubted success of our awesome probe, developed with the assistance of the Lincoln-Mercury Corporation.

I blame this dream on influence from a dream from another friend of mine who shall remain nameless but not blameless, and is known for his up-fucked imagery.

Baby names

There are days when I hate having to sit behind my desk working on some project that needs to be done the day before yesterday. Today is not one of those days. I ran across a web site that is not only funny, it's downright hilarious. It's a site that one Diana Goodman started up and it deals with people who are nearly insane. Or at least they appear to be so, judging from some of the crackheaded names they want to "give" their children.

Diana makes poignant comments (read "bitingly sarcastic") about many of these postings, which almost all come from a baby name site. She mentions the site in her pages but I couldn't find it. Doesn't really matter so much, as the sentiment seems universal, judging from the responses garnered through the 15+ pages.

Diana's site is here: Not Without My Handbag. Diana, if you ever read my humble blog, please tell me where you came up with your dotcom name. Actually, that begs another site with dotcom names in a similar vein. But this post is about Diana's site and I invite you to read a couple of excerpts that made me spit laugh, they were so funny (The part in regular text is the entry on the baby name web site, the italics are her response):

What is a nature realated name for a boy? I am pregnant with a boy and I already have four girls. My girls are Summer Skies, Autumn Night, April Shower, and Spring Flower. Please help I am due in November.
Star Light

Star Light, star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, let this lady be a mental patient whose "children" are actually straws she stole from the hospital cafeteria.

My favorite name are:
Xev Chiana Louise
Nikita Gia Ravin
Gavin Charles Bailey
Tristan Michael Ares
I want kids to entire the world unique.
When they turn 18 can always change it. I hate name like Collette. She would get picked on. Kids are not always PG!

Yeah, well I like names not stupid. Names actual exist. Pronoun, verb like too. Names suggest cruel, unusual. Fourth Amendment Constitution ban 'Nikita' for all but French assassins, bald Russian men. Friend, good! Fire, BAD!

(Helpful reader and SciFi channel viewer Joan adds that Xev is a character from Lexx: "She's a virgin love slave, in love with an animate dead assasin." and Chiana is from Farscape: an "escaped convict, genetically altered by her home planets government to be a nymphomaniac" and spread an STD across the universe. What does this say about Mama's ambitions for wee baby Xev Chiana? Do we really want to know?)

The disclaimer is that I don't hate all of the names that are mentioned here. My own beautiful neice's name is McKenzie, a name which is bandied about frequently on these pages. But many (most) of the names are, indeed, a little (lot) odd (freakish).

Go to Diana's site. Read. Laugh. Appreciate. Learn. Mock.

Sunburn, auctions, memories, and harmony.

Ouch. Sunburned neck. I always think about putting on sunscreen; I realize the dangers of skin cancer. My dad had skin cancers on his neck and hands which were, fortunately, treatable. But in the time when he was exposed to the sun continuously, people didn't wear sunscreens. Plus, he was fighting a war in sunny North Africa and Italy and didn't really have much time to think about slathering on some SPF. But I do resolve to be more active about putting some on rather than just thinking about it. Keeping some in the car might be a good idea. Duh.

I love auctions. I'm almost addicted to them. My favoritest of auction companies is Braun and Helmer. Dad took me to them when I was very young and I thought that it was like a toyland of "stuff". Dad also taught me to wait for a good bargain all the time. So auctions seem to be a sort of raison d'etre for me to find a good bargain. Saturday I got a 32" Quasar TV for $110 and Sunday I got a garden tractor with a drag, mower deck, and front blade for $150. It's an older tractor, a Sears model, and it's been pretty well maintained. I went to the auction on Saturday with an idea towards getting one of those cool zero-radius-turn mowers but it went for $4000. There was a Ford 1910 (model #, not year) tractor that went for more than $7000. I'm convinced that I should be going into the tractor restoration business. There was even an old Farmall Cub tractor in really rough condition that ended up going for $1800. (The picture is a different tractor)

In contrast, the auction yesterday had a beautiful 1972 Lincoln Continental with 57,000 original miles that only ended up going for $3250. When we went back to pick up the tractor, I found out that they pulled the car from the auction with the view that it was really worth more than that. I agree with that but it means that the seller has to start over again and start marketing it. I don't think he was totally happy about that but he didn't find out until the end of the auction.

I think that one of the reasons I like auctions so much, other than to find way cool deals, is to sort of get a piece of the history of other people. I find myself wanting to be the caretaker of the things that people no longer want yet someone liked well enough to buy or make. There are items that we think are ugly today yet were considered high-fashion in their time. And we feel connections with the mundane. The guy who owned this tractor hadn't used it regularly for several years, as he'd bought a newer and bigger one. Yet, when it was wheeled out for the auction, his daughter was upset that he was getting rid of it, saying that she'd grown up with it. As an aside (aren't all of my blog entries asides, really?), I was upset with my sister for giving away the old Allis Chalmers tractor that I grew up with. It's the first thing I ever drove, the sound lulled me to sleep on many summer nights as my dad would mow into the darkness, it's a part of my childhood. Never mind that it was ancient, it was ours. It was mine.

There are little knicknacks that are parts of our lives which are part of the "background noise". Things that are in our world for our entire lives and when they go away we feel their absence. A particular piece of furniture; an old table lamp; even the way a room is arranged. We get used to them and they become part of that noise. When they change, so changes the noise. It's different -- not quite right. It's a little out of tune. I guess that when I buy that little knicknack, I try to bring a sense of harmony into my own life and allow those who grow up with something and wonder what's happen to it to imagine that it's gone to a good home.

The need to blog is strong in this one.

I know I haven't blogged in more than forever but I have a really good excuse!! Yeah, I do... Ummm... My dog ate it. I dropped it in the mud and couldn't read it. No, really!

No, really. I've been up to my shiny metal ass in work which has allowed me precious little free time to expound on life's humor. I'm taking a few minutes now while I run some utilities on another computer. Were it not for this need, precipitated by interesting and strange random freeze ups, I'd be back nose to the grindstone.

Today's problem centers around getting this silly ticketing system to work. I have XP installed, patched, and firewalled; ASPemail installed but not tested; IIS installed and tested; and the Liberum Help Desk installed. That's the biggie right now: I can't get the stupid software to run. It's basically just .asp scripts which feed into an Access database. The problem is that I can't get to the helpdesk itself which is accessible via a web interface. It keeps telling me that it can't view XML input using XSL style sheets. Gah.

After it finishes, I'm going back in. Wish me luck.

BTW: Here's the message I'm getting, in case someone reads this who understands more than I:

The XML page cannot be displayed. Cannot view XML input using XSL style sheet. Please correct the error and then click the Refresh button, or try again later.

A name was started with an invalid character. Error processing resource
'file:///C:/Inetpub/... etc'

<%@ LANGUAGE="VBScript" %>
-^