The Terran News Network

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-05-17T16:18:00

2008-05-17T23:20:34Z

Indian food is Teh Win. It can, however, give one endless heartburn, apparently.
Also, Tandoori chicken is the best of the best. Even better than Lamb vindaloo.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-05-15T09:15:00

2008-05-15T16:22:53Z

John McCain has a glorious vision of our future.

Seriously; he sees all the things happening which need to happen. Iraq running itself and our presence there mostly symbolic. Non-partisan politics in Washington. Appropriations bills without earmarks (pork), simplified and more just tax laws, dogs and cats living together...

These are all things we'd all like to see, I'm sure.

The biggest problem is that he hasn't offered a single idea on how to get from here to there. I'm happy he's at least able to articulate the things we're all sick of, but dude- Any blog on the net could give you that much. Half of them actually have nearly workable ways to achieve these things. Maybe you should try proposing some changes, regardless of whether you win or lose. If your real goal is an improved country and an improved government, then the changes are what's really important, not who enacts them.

So, what's your plan, John? What do you propose doing differently than everyone else before you?

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-05-14T20:25:00

2008-05-15T03:29:39Z

Aaargh!

Fuck today. Tomorrow has got to be better. Or maybe tomorrow is laying in wait with even better news. Considering how well today went, I consider just about anything as a distinct possibility. Maybe I'll get fired. Right now, that actually sounds like a good thing.

I'm not asking for sympathy, thanks. I don't want to explain, thanks. I'd just like a fucking wheelbarrow to cart this bullshit around in. Or a fucking break.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-05-14T08:53:00

2008-05-14T15:58:07Z

The day may come, years from now, when someone wishes to damage my character by taking a line from one of my posts out of context and slandering me with it. Apparently this is done these days, and it's supposedly ok to do.

Being as it'd be so very difficult to find anything I'm actually embarassed about having said at any time,¹ I am hereby including a link to a perfect choice for out of context quoting in the future.

¹No, actually I'm sure there's thousands of things, some of which wouldn't even need to be out of context to be embarassing.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-05-11T11:45:00

2008-05-11T18:46:54Z

Yes, I'm fine. I don't think any twisters got within fifty miles of me, although the lightning storm was pretty impressive.

If this is God's country, I think he's pissed at someone.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-05-10T05:57:00

2008-05-10T12:58:20Z

Thanks to (who else?) ajollypyruvate for the link. She's got another one on whooping cough.

Measles outbreak in San Diego in January-February, 2008

Note that of the initial eleven secondary infections, 3 were infants too young to be vaccinated who were infected at the pediatrician's office. That's better than 25% who were exposed and infected for no good reason, whose parents had no choice about protection, all because someone's religious beliefs told them not to take normal, sane protective measures for their children. These people likely don't associate with the source family and would have no way of knowing that such a risk existed, especially in this day and age when vaccinations have all but eliminated diseases like this from our society.

Generally, the socially accepted guideline for liberty/rights is if it doesn't adversely impact others, you should be free to do as you see fit.

OK, so when your kid kills a kid and/or sends dozens or hundreds more to the hospital because you believe God doesn't want you to get vaccinations, I'm pretty sure that's what we'd call adversely impacting others.

Here's my proposal. You don't want your child vaccinated? Fine. You keep him/her (and you) out of public places, (stores, buses, airplanes, malls, McDonalds, doctor's offices, everywhere. Get the picture?) provide home schooling with an approved curriculum and periodic testing by the state, and inform the child by the age of 18 of exactly what's being withheld with appropriate documentation which shows the benefits to be received from vaccinations, and explain that until they get vaccinations, they, like you, get to live in isolation. No jobs where they work with others, no access to public buildings, not even church, unless said church is approved for this type of belief system.

You think I'm being harsh? Hey, just hook up with the rest of your friends that believe the same way. According to that article, 9.6% of the children at that school had PBEs filed. Y'all just hang out together, spread diptheria, whooping cough, measles, rubella, all that stuff amongst yourselves. In a decade or so this won't be a concern to the rest of us.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-05-08T18:02:00

2008-05-09T01:15:43Z

Over at nin.com, there is a free download of NIN's new album The Slip.
Having downloaded and listened to it, (it being my very first NIN album,) I think it is now safe to say what we've all suspected for years, but which he has adamantly denied.

Jason is a hippy.

That's right, you stoner. NIN is obviously the new generation's heir to Pink Floyd, with music best listened to after a bowlful. Over a third of this new album is obvious psychedelica, and the remaining bit is every bit in line with some of PF's better rock tunes, with a new era edge to it.
One of the psychedelic tracks, Corona Radiata, even evokes the original intro music for Welcome to the Machine with it's haunting, throbbing subbeat and whispered voices.

While I enjoyed the album, it's clear that this type of music could easily obtain cult status among the stoner crowd. Hence, Jason is clearly a stoner. Or he ought to be. And it's a small step from stoner to filthy hippy. :P

(I'm going to feel extremely silly if this has actually been the case all this time, and Jason's various denigrating references to filthy hippies has all been ironic self-deprecation.)

If you don't know who Jason is, you won't get the joke, so you can just ignore this.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-05-04T07:17:00

2008-05-04T14:21:41Z

It's Sunday!
I've got a stack of music on the player, breakfast under my belt, coffee in my gut (just enough, I hope) and a stack of things to do a mile thick. w00t?

This is the kind of day I'd twitter, if I did that kind of thing..but then i'd run out of energy and ambition about lunch time, and it'd all fall by the wayside. So you get this, and maybe an update later.

Hope your day is nice and sunny, productive, fun, relaxing, positive. Hasta!!

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-05-03T18:59:00

2008-05-04T02:03:53Z

This is why my life has always been so messed up. It's obvious I can't pick a direction.

Today I went to a used music store and bought ten cds to keep me company out here in Misery.

I now own albums by;
Eric Clapton
No Doubt
Andrea Boccelli
Santana
Green Day
Shawn Mullins
Shawn Colvin
Jimmy Vaughn
INXS
Enigma

I think the only thing I don't have is some rap and C&W.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-05-03T18:07:00

2008-05-04T01:23:41Z

Thanks to ajollypyruvate and 14cyclenotes for the following link.

Microsoft has built and distributed at least 2000 thumb drive sized USB devices designed to make computer forensics easier.
The article indicates it makes it easier to decrypt passwords and gather other evidence from a computer, without even disconnecting it from the network or, presumably, the internet.

While I'm all forputting a stop to "cyber"crime, including stalkers and pedophiles, but not neglecting ID theft, the creation of zombies, and a host of other simply malicious more minor crimes....
This tool would, in the hands of a reasonably intelligent hacker, make it simple to strip all your information, passwords, account usernames, etc.

And Microsoft gave these away for free to 2000 cops.

There is not a single word about accountability, records on who has them, how they'll know if one goes missing. They're just releasing them into the wild, like..like.. like viruses.

And if you're a cop (or anyone else) who gets a neat little toy for free, how invested are you going to be in maintaining close control on the thing? You're going to be handing it to co-workers to show it off, loaning it out, and allowing them to loan it to others. If one of them loses it, how will they ever even realize it's missing, much less who lost it?

And the last line says it all, really; That Microsoft is pushing these as a product they'll be able to sell. Why would they not include a keystroke logger in Vista which (in the ad I'm envisioning) "can only be accessed through one of our Law Enforcement Insta-hack Field drives. We like to call it LEIF. No really, your system is perfectly secure, as only the police will have these devices."

Just like only cops will have tasers, bullet-proof vests, assault weapons or any other nifty product you can name.

Note that there were five other links that were just as disturbing, but you'll need to visit those LJs to see them. One of these at a time is all my BP can take.

ETA: Corrected the number of links. Seriously, you need to visit both ajollypyruvate and 14cyclenotes for some massively fucked up shit in the world.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-05-03T05:19:00

2008-05-03T12:22:30Z

Looking for Group is simply awesome.

Richard (Dick to his enemies, and his friends, but until today, never, ever Rick) has the best sense of humor.

The last strip's comment on initiative was nice, but today's punnishment is even better.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-04-29T20:57:00

2008-04-30T04:16:10Z

I saw this review of Pontiac's new G8 sport sedan over at MSN and just had to link it. And comment.

On the one hand, I drove a V6 G6 last year as a rental. It was brand new, and I loved almost everything about it. It had decent power, good handling, even decent fuel economy, for a V6. (If I was careful, which I was.) The interior was both roomy and upscale, and extremely comfortable. I drove all the way across Iowa in it.
The only problem with it was, it was a Pontiac. And an automatic.
By the time I turned it in, with 3600 miles on it, I could feel the transmission beginning to get 'soft' and sloppy. I have no idea what kind of car it would be at 50,000 or at 100,000, but I could guess. Pontiac has never impressed me, even back in the days of the old Firebirds.

This new one comes with an optional 6.0L V8. That's a 6.0 liter V8, putting the block somewhere in the 350 cu. in. area, I would guess. (a 5.0 is about equivalent to a 302, as I recall)
And a 6 speed automatic sport tranny, which you can use as a manual. 18 or 19 inch rims, a sweet looking interior. Lots of power. And all for $30k.

But it's still a Pontiac. And gas prices are currently staring $4 a gallon in the face. Who, exactly, is their market? People who want a muscle car, but are on a budget, yet too shortsighted to realize this thing will get half the mileage of your average Toyota, and look half as good? This is what Pontiac leads with?? Come ON!

Put together a smart little roadster with more HP than weight. That'll sell to the midlife crisis bunch.
Or put a luxury sedan together with the smoothest, plushest ride on the road. Spare no expense, and market it to uber-successful DINKs.
Or do the smart thing, and build something with style, with a hybrid motor or an all electric car, and catch the wave of the future. I mean, I'm 51 for crying out loud, and even I can see that the days of the gas-guzzling muscle car have been gone for 20 years, and that within 5 years, nobody would touch that car for anything, because the mileage is going to drive you to bankruptcy. Hell, you put your foot in the thing once to burn a little rubber at the light and you'll be out $50. Anybody with that much money to burn isn't going to be driving a bargain basement muscle car like this. They'll be in their Porsche or their BMW Boxter.

See, this is why America's economy is in the toilet. Because American industry is clueless.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-04-28T07:41:00

2008-04-28T12:47:02Z

I fried up a pound of bacon today. Thick sliced, peppered bacon. Crispy, fatty, delicious, bad-for-me bacon.

Now I'm singing a little song as I work;

Oooh little piggy how I love to eat you
Tasty little piggy Eat you up
Mmm crispy little piggy, bacon, ham and pork chops
Tasty little piggy Eat you up.

I didn't say it was a good song.

I also hard boiled some eggs for quick snacks.

Nom nom nom.

People make me sick.

2008-04-27T22:38:34Z

OK, you know what? I'm sick to fucking death of all this crap going on about the Open Source Boob Project.
Actually, what I am sick of is people taking it upon themselves to make judgements about the project and the author without ever actually even reading the original post. It is gossip at it's absolute worst, and it makes you look incredibly stupid and hateful and shallow when you participate in it without knowing anything about the original issue.

It's not even like there isn't any number of well written posts which deconstruct the thing, and logically and unbiasedly point out all the reasons it is a bad idea. No, these people insist on taking quotes out of context, assigning motives and characteristics which, by the simple expedient of reading his post, it is easy to see he does not possess.

If you haven't read the original post, but only heard about it from someone who claims to know about it, shut your fucking mouth. Go read the original post, read the clarification, ignore the hyperbole and bile being slung by those who aren't content with pointing out it's a bad idea, but have to character assassinate the guy when his biggest crime is probably a momentary bout of stupidity.

Or better yet, just ignore the whole fucking mess and let it die the ignoble death it longs for.

just STFU about it already.

Alright, since I've been sucked into it;
Here's the kind of shite I'm talking about

ETA: You know there's something wrong with someone who twists words around to mean what they want against all logic which shows otherwise, but what do you say about someone who apparently scanned back through three freaking years in order to find a sentence which would allow her to twist it in such a fashion? That's how far back she went to get that footnote; Three. Fucking. Years.
There's something seriously wrong there...

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-04-26T13:02:00

2008-04-26T20:07:02Z

OK, all the responses to any of my comments are showing up with this string after (so-n-so) replied; replied to a [[sitenameshort]] comment in which you said:
followed by the normal comment text.

I mean the copies sent to my mailbox, of course, not the ones in the journals.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-04-24T09:02:00

2008-04-24T14:07:10Z

White House twists science to meet the needs of industry, undermines the EPA

No. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you. I thought the only money in the environmental game was trying to coerce us into more stringent environmental laws by promoting that old myth of global warming.* Who would ever have thought that industry, the biggest source of political money in Washington, might be trying to push for more lenient pollution laws. It just makes no sense to me at all. The world is upside down, I tell you!

/sarcasm

*Don't you just love how easy it is to find new articles about our oncoming extinction?

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-04-23T08:04:00

2008-04-23T15:07:29Z

This weekend is Stumptown Comics Fest. Dammit. Ah well, it'll save me money. I'm bummed that my sketchbook will have gone two entire cons without a single sketch in it, but there's nothing to be done about it.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-04-22T23:53:00

2008-04-23T07:12:43Z

So, yesterday I was running through the channels (Bruce Springsteen; 57 channels and nothing's on) and I ran up against the Hunting channel again. I spent a whole five seconds there, and wouldn't have spent that much except for the scene the selector happened on; 5 guys in camo, one with a bow, kneeling beside the dead body of a giraffe.

The guy says "This is the biggest thing I've ever brought down with a bow; 3000 lbs, 19 feet tall. You have got to come to Africa and get one of these!"

Yes, because nothing says brave hunter like killing an herbivore. It's right up there with tracking and killing the dangerous, deadly cow. That's right. At 3000 lbs and 19 feet, it could kill you with a single kick, if you cornered it, pissed it off, and made it scared or angry enough to fight. Because you know, giraffes have such vicious reputations.
And you know he didn't track it down, run it to ground, or sneak within shooting range. He hid in a shelter while his buddies drove it to him, or else they went to a game farm and hung out in a camouflaged shed until one stumbled by.

At 3000 lbs, he'll need approximately 10 full size freezers for the butchered meat, and he gets to pay to ship it home from Africa. I figure the cost ought to put a steak in the $75-$100 a lb range. What do you think the odds are that he's actually going to take home more than 20 lbs of meat? If that. The rest of the carcass, I'm sure, will be donated to charity. Right. Because they surely wouldn't just leave it to rot in the savannah, now would they? I guess the hyenas will have a good meal, anyway.

The entire point of the trip was to kill the biggest thing he could. Not the most challenging. Not the most dangerous. Simply the biggest. I am unable to properly articulate how much loathing this engenders in me; how much disdain, how small I think the man is, and how little respect I have for him, and the producers of this crap.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-04-20T09:17:00

2008-04-20T16:50:52Z

Gee, I wish I had cable.

Because who wouldn't want to wake up to the sight of some woman in camo, up a tree, shooting a bear with a huge compound bow.

I couldn't believe it was real at first. But no, no darts, no drugs, no cameras. She's going to take it home and have it stuffed and mounted.

Now, I'm neither stupid nor naive. I know people hunt all the time. In Alaska, that's how they fill the freezer. And, I love the taste of buffalo, elk, venison...
I also know a lot of people are "sport" hunters. That is, they think it's some kind of sporting event to go out into the woods and kill animals just for the skulls and skins.

I find it offensive though, that they do this,(sport hunting) and even more so that they film it and show it on cable tv.

Exactly how is it sporting to shoot a bear from a stand up a tree, after luring it in with barrels of bait? Unless you are a complete incompetent, there's no danger, there's no trick, hell, there isn't even any skill involved, since she shot it from probably less than 30 yards away, including the thirty feet up the tree. Hell, I've pulled a bow maybe four times in the last ten years and even I could hit that target. There's no strength involved because it was one of those hi-tech compound reflex bows with the pulley systems and a scope. (That's right, a scope from 30 yards out.)

And then, when she's sure the bear is dead, she goes down, kneels by its head and says in her most wistful voice; See, this is why we just love to come to Alberta (or Edmonton, or wherever the hell she murdered the bear) like she was talking about the beautiful forests or mountains or something. No, she's talking about the corpse of the bear beside her, with a head "so big I can't even lift it to show you."

The native americans, when killing animals, thanked the creature for giving its life for their needs, and they used the animal for food, for clothing, for thread, for shelter and for weapons.
(OK< they weren't such saints either, as one of their methods involved stampeding buffalo off a cliff edge, resulting in more meat than they could use, I'm sure. Still.)

I'm no PETA fan, because I think they're complete wackjobs, but this kind of crap is why I never learned to be a hunter. I understand hunting for food. (I'm not certain I could do it unless I had to, but I understand it.) I understand how cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens are raised and slaughtered, both on the farm and in the factory. I'm not simply a naive hypocritical ideologist. I accept the things we do to produce the food we eat, and although I may find some of the practices reprehensible, I do not protest them because I don't have a solution, and because I believe we are meant to eat meat as well as plants. We're omnivores.

But sport hunting is a class all on its own, and I find it disgusting.

If you want a sport and you want to kill big game, go out in the woods with a knife, track the bear down, and kill it by hand, alone. I guarantee you'll get a bigger adrenaline rush than pulling the trigger or shooting a bow from some safe hiding spot. Try tracking it instead of luring it in with barrels of bait. And really, if you want a trophy..take a picture. Beause if your friends knew how cowardly you were when you killed that critter, they'd be a whole lot less impressed with you than if they knew you snuck up within 100 ft of a bear without killing it.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-04-19T23:56:00

2008-04-20T06:59:18Z

I was looking through some weekly linkage when I found this rant against Mel Gibson's The Passion which makes clear some very simple truths which people seem to forget.

Also, his response to the one jackass who commented is a wonderful little rebuttal.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-04-19T13:48:00

2008-04-19T21:06:05Z

I'm having one of those months where you just wish you were some(one?)where else, ya know?
It's not that I hate my job, or even that the living in a hotel is really that difficult, but that I just wish I could be home, NOT working in the field, and doing the things I really want to do. ms_issicran really needs to win the lottery.

I went to the music store today to see about renting a violin and taking lessons, but the mutes they had didn't seem to do a whole lot, and I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything more dreadful than being the neighbor of someone who has just taken up the violin, and is practicing in the hotel room next door.

I've been spending too much time recently rehashing my divorce in my head and yearning for some opportunities to vent a little on some people for being complete and utter assholes, what with the whole violating trust and such, but even that's not a clear case of "Gee that'd make me feel better," because really, I also owe them thanks for opening the gates of hell and letting me out.

I'm feeling a little depressed, and while I'm pretty sure this is just an extra-low spot in the cycle, and everything will be peachy keen in a few days as I move into a more manic phase, right now it pretty much sucks. (No, I don't think I'm diagnosably bipolar, but I think I have some tendencies in that direction.)

There's work to be done here, but it is (as it always seems to be lately) all about picking up after others and finishing their work. That's the most dreary kind, because it's all about re-reading all their notes, examining all the data, hopefully coming to the same conclusions, or at least being able to justify the conclusions they arrived at, and assembling it all into a nice, readable package. (All the while wondering why they couldn't have finished this themselves before they left.)

It's Springtime back home, and while it's reasonably nice around here, it isn't home, and while I need to be here to earn the money to do the things I would want to do if I were home, such logic doesn't make me feel any better about not being there.

On top of that, I'm tired. Maybe that's what this is all about. I'm just cranky 'cause I need my nap.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-04-14T17:10:00

2008-04-15T00:20:03Z

Stolen from nea852

You.

Can.

Only.

Type.

One.

1. Where is your cell phone? Missouri

2. Your significant other? Oregon

3. Your hair? Gone

4. Your mother? Home

5. Your father? Ditto

6. Your favorite thing? Home

7. Your dream last night? Forgotten

8. Your favorite drink? Brewing

9. Your dream/goal? Evaporated

10. The room you're in? Hotel

11. Your ex? Married

12. Your fear? Hiding

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Travelling

14. Where were you last night? Here

15. What you're not? Retired

16. Muffins? Butter?

17. One of your wish list items? One?

18. Where you grew up? Oregon

19. The last thing you did? Click

20. What are you wearing? Clothes

21. Your TV? No.

22. Your pet(s)? dead

23. Your computer? Sager

24. Your life? Passing

25. Your mood? Quixotic

26. Missing someone? Yes

27. Your car? Rented

28. Something you're not wearing? Shades

29. Favorite Store/Shop? None

30. Your summer? Spent

31. Love someone? Yes

32. Your favorite color? Octomarine

33. When is the last time you laughed? recently

34. Last time you cried? recently

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-04-06T17:20:00

2008-04-07T00:27:16Z

What this lacks in originality, it makes up for in simply stating the first thing which came to my mind.

I mean, others have gone there, but this was the clearest, cleanest method of conveying the news that I've found so far.

Now if Ted Nugent would just get on with dying of an overdose in some hooker's arms, my week would be complete.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-04-02T10:15:00

2008-04-02T17:44:02Z

I watched Inside Man last night, with Jodie Foster, Denzel Washington and Clive Owens.

Assuming you've seen the movie means the review is redundant, so I'll try to avoid spoilers, but they may show up.

On the surface, the movie was a nice whodunit along the lines of The Usual Suspects, but it falls short in a number of areas from equalling that fine piece of cinema.

Jodie Foster's character is a paper cutout, and Jodie never really invests it with any life. I think she recognized that the character as written wasn't realistic, because I know she's a much better actress than this performance would imply. I know that if I were in her character's place, I wouldn't have been so much a supplicant when entering the bank, but would have had a backup plan already in place if they failed to respond to negotiations and bribes. Money and power were obviously not an issue for her character to wield, and the only thing keeping the kidnappers alive is the fact that the cops follow certain rules which someone in her position would not be subject to.

The handling of certain realizations was questionable as well. That the kidnappers, although asking for a plane, didn't actually want one, was brushed upon by Foster's character, yet she, supposedly this competent, capable person, even though she realizes the fact, doesn't follow it through to the logical conclusion which Denzel Washington's character realizes mere minutes later.

It's like the director wanted to make the point to a not-so-bright audience, but couldn't manage to get there without beating us over the head with it. It left me the impression that he thinks we're stupid, which may or may not be true, but since the end of the movie is so subtle in laying out the villain's final fate, one wonders why he felt so differently halfway through the movie.

Finally, the cursory search disappointed me. You'll figure it out later.

However, if you overlook that, Foster's performance and even her character's questionable presence, the rest of the cast did an excellent job. Denzel Washington's cop was believably human while being nearly supernaturally brilliant at times (which I blame on the screenwriter and director) and Clive Owens was more believable in this than anything I can recall seeing him in. Which, unfortunately, isn't saying much. At any rate, he was toned down, less melodramatic and more interesting, although that may all have been because of the mask. :)

The questioning, the revelation of the importance of the outfits and masks, some really odd behavior during the course of the movie by hostages and kidnappers alike, all become clear only at the end, which was, finally, fairly satisfying and fun. You'll probably want to see it a second time, much like The Usual Suspects, and I suspect it may hold up reasonably well under that second viewing.

Hopefully I didn't actually spoil the movie for you. With all its flaws, it's still a better movie than most I've seen lately.

blackbyrd2 @ 2008-03-31T20:01:00

2008-04-01T03:03:38Z

The good news: Tomorrow I drive to Springfield,MO (i.e. the opposite direction from Tornado Alley)
The bad news: Apparently no one told the tornadoes that they were to stay in TA. Apparently, they think they're free to go whereever they wish, which includes Springfield.

So, if I die, torn into pieces and spread across the state, say something nice about Dorothy and move on.