I dub a certain meeting on Wednesday mornings at work here "Close Encounters of the Stoopid Kind". I could go on and on and on about how retardified the engineering practice is here, but basically it boils down to circle:

Engineering is asked to do something by sales
Engineering says we need X time to do it
Sales says we dont want it anymore cause thats too long to wait
Engineering say hey thats okay we'll go back to work on what was important anyway. Oh and BTW what do our customers want?
Sales says we don't know, go away you're bothering us.
Sales comes back saying hey we decided we want what we wanted but what we said we didn't want and we want it a week earlier now.

Okay so we had what I will refer as the "What the Fuck is a Ghant Chart" meeting. So bascially it comes down to this, there is a deadline. We have a Microsoft project associated with this huge project and a whole bunch of stuff has been entered in it. We've had sales and whatnot come down and tell us to change order of thigns in that project several times, which we have done.

However, whenever you move from one subproject to another you loose time in completing them. Thus, microsoft project is telling us that we won't make our deadline. But we can't do that, we have to meet the deadline. The conclusion of the people in this meeting?Microsoft project and project management principles are stupid.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

What this means is we are supposed to go through and reevaluate whats important, restructure the mess and figure out whats screwing things up and adjust times and deadlines of individual subprojects to meet the big deadline. Which is very doable. But if you were to just leave it a slush with no comunication between groups, like things are going right now, then guess what? We won't meet the deadline.

And thats today's Close Encounter of the Stupid Kind, brought to you by mildlyretarded.com

Normally MSNBC ticks me off so I don't bother to read it, but I happened to stumble across an article linked from yahoo. This article titled: Greenspan's Finest Hour? was immensely refreshing to read. It was accurate, concise, and addressed very important issues to the public interest. Its kind of unfortunately that people will probably end up reading sensationalist news articles saying our economy is in the drain because we have so many jobless workers (cause saying that would help the democrats of course, and the media is typically "liberal").

You know that's another thing that I find bothersome. The term liberal has come to be used as a euphemism for stupid, socialism, and communism (depends on the flavor). Here is the real meaning for liberalism according to the Webster dictionary:

a) A movement in modern Protestantism emphasizing intellectual liberty and the spiritual and ethical content of Christianity.
b) a theory in economics emphasizing individual freedom from restraint and usually based on free competition, the self-regulating market, and the gold standard.
c) a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties.

You of course will only find those held true in Libertarian principles. In the very name of their party, Democrats can not ever be liberal. Democracy is rule by the people. This mean whatever the popular opinion is, then that is what becomes law. Simply put, it is mob politics. If I may paraphrase a Voltaire quote: "One million Frenchmen can be just as wrong as one." If the people chose that one person, or group of peoples are wrong for whatever reason, a law could be passed to do anything. This is in direct opposition to the founding principles of this country, the protection of the natural rights and liberties of each and every individual.

Now on the flip side is the whole Republican thing. The problem with Republicans and the party is that its totally FUBARed. That's right Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. Mater of fact its so screwed up the Webster dictionary reduces republicanism, republic, and republican into a circular definition. Conservatism is by definition the adherence to status quo and doing things the old way, with resistance to change. To assign this definition to Republicans and their party is retarded as well. Republicans have their own agenda and want things to change as well. Typically in the past when you compare the two groups Republicans can come off as being conservative when they are opposing things socialist and communist but in general I reject the use of this term as well.

Liberalism is, by definition, favorable to conservatism but with the terms have been mutilated in politics now both are equally despicable and I would rather associate myself with those slightly more conservative because at least if you don't change things too fast you may have a chance of recovering from a catasrophic mistake.

After a revolution with the people lopping off heads there isn't much going back (yes I am thinking French revolution here).

Ultra Wireless Tech Article. See this is what happens when you fund pure research. So the fusion aspect (where I worked) isn't working out so hot for General Atomics yet, but the tech they developed to move data from place to place in tight confines looks like it has. The technology is finally making into the commercial world where it looks like it could actually do a lot of good, especially if it helps out data-comm centers.

Hey this one is pretty cool (refresh this page if the image doesn't show up):



create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

So the states I've been to. One should be able to guess that I've done several road trips due to the fact nearly all the states are physically connected :) Also I have driven from sea to shining sea. Luckily not in the same trip of course, but I've covered all the pavement on the right roads inbetween. I would also point out that I have in fact visited each of these states and not simply driven through them I have stayed in each of them at least one night and seen some of the stuff off the highway (got to love Solar Car Races, you don't go anywhere when the sun is down : )

So I found the mapper thingy on Liz's LJ.

Yet another article. Lots of blah blah blah involved but one quote I would like to extract is this:

"With the multitude of issues we have to deal with that deal directly with people's lives, this just isn't a priority at this moment," said Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, chairman of the House Rules and Legislative Procedure Committee.

There are not enough expletives to describe my initial reaction to this statement. But it would probably go something holyshityou'vegottobefuckingkiddingmethatsoembodycouldbesostupid!

Issues! Issues dealing directly with people's lives? NOOOOOOO!!!!! That's not the point of governments, federal, state or local. What the hell is wrong with these people?

I will have to organize my thoughts and calm down before I could even conceive on writing a logical post at the moment.

Okay so here's an article to read. Which I think is classic, so there is a whole bunch of people thinking that Indiana should conformist and do the daylight savings time thing. But of course its being pulled in two directions, all the yuppies that live in Indiana and commute to Chicago want it to be on Chicago time, and everybody down by KY want it to be eastern or New York time. But the biggest thing is being on daylight savings time like either side of the state is. My opinion?

Its STUPID! I hate daylight savings time.

Right now in this day and age daylight savings time is retarded, it was "intended" to give people more daylight to work with, but in reality all it does is create two days of hassle each year for no reason. Well its a great move saying to everybody in the united states: hey look the government has the ability to make you and everybody you know do something, disrupting your life and you didn't even realize it. So here's the breakdown

A) In urban areas where the commute is over an hour during rush hour you leave in the dark even on daylight savings time, and in the winter you go home in the dark, the hour doesn't do a damn thing for you. So obviously for the vast majority of the country its pretty dumb. Back home in California it was often times well over two hours early that you would leave, meaning 5:30am commutes were very common.

B) In rural areas where there are predominately farmers (this is my favorite part of the whole argument), the people that its supposed to help the most, it doesn't do a damn thing for. Turns out they get up well in the dark anyway and during the summer they work late into the night because its cooler, so the hour difference just means a clock they have to change to stay in tune with the rest of the world which they have even less contact with on that level then those working primarily service based businesses in the city.

So who benefits from it? NOBODY!

The other states that doesn't observe daylight savings time? Arizona and Hawaii. And the whole economic argument, it benefits Arizona to be on California time, but do they bother? No, because its stupid.

Quiz time:

Thanks to Nate for this one....


Nemesis


?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

thanks to Dess for this one....


You are a PHOENIX in your soul and your
wings make a statement. Huge and born of flame,
they burn with light and power and rebirth.
Ashes fall from your wingtips. You are an
amazingly strong person. You survive, even
flourish in adversity and hardship. A firm
believer in the phrase, 'Whatever doesn't kill
you only makes you stronger,' you rarely fear
failure. You know that any mistake you make
will teach you more about yourself and allow
you to 'rise from the ashes' as a still greater
being. Because of this, you rarely make the
same mistake twice, and are not among the most
forgiving people. You're extremely powerful and
wise, and are capable of fierce pride, passion,
and anger. Perhaps you're this way because you
were forced to survive a rough childhood. Or
maybe you just have a strong grasp on reality
and know that life is tough and the world is
cruel, and it takes strength and independence
to survive it. And independence is your
strongest point - you may care for others, and
even depend on them...but when it comes right
down to it, the only one you need is yourself.
Thus you trust your own intuition, and rely on
a mind almost as brilliant as the fire of your
wings to guide you.You are eternal and because
you have a strong sense of who and what you
are, no one can control your heart or mind, or
even really influence your thinking. A symbol
of rebirth and renewal, you tend to be a very
spiritual person with a serious mind - never
acting immature and harboring a superior
disgust of those who do. Likewise, humanity's
stupidity and tendency to want others to solve
their problems for them frustrates you
endlessly. Though you can be stubborn,
outspoken, and haughty, I admire you greatly.


*~*~*Claim Your Wings - Pics and Long Answers*~*~*
brought to you by Quizilla

I have learned a great lesson today. I came to the realization that rationally arguing with a person who forms their opinions and arguments based solely on a single book. You would think somebody would take time to understand that a Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times bestseller written by a psychologist about physical anthropology is not about facts, its about sensationalism and giving people a reason to languish in their places content to live their lives in bitterness because their peoples were geographically inhibited.

I would recommend that everybody should view the movie: Inherit the Wind. Its important, no mater what stage of life you are in there is a character you should relate to and important lessons to be learned.

People of the world today seem to rely too heavily on other people's analysis of events and facts than on their own understanding and studying of the facts themselves. I find this to be a truly disturbing trend. At what point in time do the facts become a footnote to the agenda that people are pushing? When will society be centered on the opinions of people instead of the facts? When will distortion of the facts to justify the wrong completely eliminate the right?

Okay so this appears to be my second RAVING! post about XM. So if you don't have one and want to know what I talking about point yourself to The 80's Channel and click Listen!

Now realize this, I randomly sent in a request. First two things: a) they played it and b) the DJ (Heidi) personally responded, and later took the time to send another email when there wasn't enough time on the show to play it. Now do you need more proof that XM is cool? Well I'm sure I'll find another reason eventually...

The days of regular radio are numbered.

XM Forums

And if you like totally want one now point yourself to The XMFAN Store to check out prices...

First an article: Police agencies in K-9 quandary. So there is a lot of stuff that really doesn't matter for most of you, my dear readers. However may I bring you attention to a couple quotes from it: "For some people, a policeman (with a .45 pistol) is not intimidating. But they are more likely to comply (when the police officer has) a dog" and "But we had several incidents where people who arrest people were bitten by dogs"

Well lets see, maybe there is a connection between those two statements. A police officer will often hesitate before shooting your ass. A dog? It'll tear the flesh off your arm given the opportunity, and come back for more.

It is a well known fact that punishment needs to be swift and painful to be an effective deterrent. Will a dog loose its job because it liberated some blood and possibly skin, muscle and fat from a criminal? Of course not. Will a police officer get tried for use of excessive force if he beats that criminal into submission? Likely, especially if a tourist camera is involved.

Yes, something in this world is broke.

Things that can ruin your day:

A demagnatized debit card.
A torn thumb nail (owey!).
Fiberglass Insulation Batts (ichy!).

Will there be something redeemable in this day? Well I guess I'll just have to find out.

Update: XM Radio is getting even better. I even heard some weird al today. I was happy.

Well two things to post about:

Interesting movie review site: Mr. Cranky, the most entertaining review being that for the Laura Croft Sequel

And lyrics for a strangely addictive song (which actually came from a musical named Chess):

One Night In Bangkok
Murray Head
Music & Lyrics : Benny Anderson - Tim Rice - Bjsrn Ulvaeus

THE AMERICAN:
Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don't know that the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner

Time flies -- doesn't seem a minute
Since the Tirolean spa had the chess boys in it
All change -- don't you know that when you
Play at this level there's no ordinary venue

It's Iceland -- or the Philippines -- or Hastings -- or --
or this place!

COMPANY:
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

THE AMERICAN:
One town's very like another
When your head's down over your pieces, brother

COMPANY:
It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city

THE AMERICAN:
Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town --

COMPANY:
Tea, girls, warm, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite

THE AMERICAN:
Get Thai'd! You're talking to a tourist
Whose every move's among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine

COMPANY:
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

THE AMERICAN:
Siam's gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha

And thank God I'm only watching the game -- controlling it --

I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you

So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage
parlours --

COMPANY:
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

Funky Quiz time. Accuracy is questionable

What Famous Leader Are You?

What Classic Movie Are You?

(Editor's Note: Thanks to Kim_Le for providing endless (about 10 minutes) worth of entertainment :-)

Well our president has done something that I like now. Something to truly inspire. Increasing NASA funding and purpose. Not since Kennedy has such a dramatic statement about space exploration has been made. I guess we'll just have to see what the ramifications are. But it would be cool to see humans on the moon in my lifetime. On Mars? That would be freakin' awesome.

You know its amazing how frequently it comes up, but my answer to the eternal question "Was the war on Iraq justified?" is this: Do you mean morally or economically? Morally no, violating the sovereignty of another nation is morally wrong, no if, ands, or buts about it (Kantian reasoning here). Economically? Hell yeah, we’re an expansionist culture; if we don't expand we rot from the inside, which we are actually doing right now.

Its not just the United States here, every country is feeling the limits of its borders, and the amount they feel it is dependent on how much technology and infrastructure they have to support their ever growing population. Right now the United States supports a large percentage of the world to keep them above the inevitable famine that would strike otherwise. It is doubtful Europe would be able to support itself even. China is in perpetual famine, but they don't care about human rights so they kill off their population before its gets so bad that the rest of the world notices how shabby they really are.

So one could justify it from a Utilitarian standpoint, as in if we don't prosper the rest of the world will not either. Eliminating a tyrant that is guilty of untold human rights violations, even more atrocious than the violation of sovereignty? Yup I think it could be justified. And screw WMD, who gives a rip? WMD are not, and never were, the reason behind it all. Kind of like saying slavery was the reason for the Civil War. Looks good in the history books, but is it true? No!

Wanna try the new whopper with extra cheese?

The United States is being accused of being unfair and anti-competitive with Iraq contracts and numerous other trade policies. And yet right now capitalism and fair competition is being declared "perverse" by our United States supported and subsidized neighbors in this "Americas Summit". I dare anyone to name a country that isn't greedy. I doubt you could find a country that is less corrupt and special interest oriented than the United States. So it’s not perfect, but who is?

Next window please.

How do you control the demand of an inelastic good? You raise the price, you always raise the price. To increase demand you spike the price, dropping to something about the same as it was before after about a week or so. To lower demand you raise the price steeply over time. Why can you do this? Because people are very predictable when it comes to something they "need" or "must have to survive."

Self-fulfilling prophecies (and the bandwagon principle):
If Allen Greenspan says the dollar will go up the dollar will go up. Why? Because people will invest in the dollar because it’s going to go up. Why? Because Greenspan said it would.
There is going to a fuel shortage. There is a run on the pumps. Now there is a fuel shortage. Why? Because you said there was going to be a fuel shortage.

We are an economy where the people have perfect knowledge. But they still act irrationally. Thus that perfect knowledge becomes perfect deceit.

Other example of irrational behaviour:
Gambling, the vision of getting something for nothing. Actually thats not true, somebody pays and somebody gets. The people who make out are those that provide the service. Big winners? The bookies and casinos.
Auctions, getting something cheap. Actually the reason you win something is because you are willing to pay more than market value of that good. The winner's curse as it is called. The winner? The auction house.
Day trading. Stocks go up, stocks go down. Who controls the price, the guy with the most stocks. The average joe? Pays all his "winnings" to the broker.

Would you like fries with that?

(Editor's Note: The best plan of attack is still to have the United States rename itsself the Peacekeepers, after all for the UN to do any good it needs a sovereign power to enforce its laws, what else does the United States really have over the rest of the world?)

Since everybody else is doing it here is the first 10 songs your winamp plays thingy. Mind you I crashed winamp the first time I tried to load "all" my mp3s.


1. Put all of your songs onto a playlist, or cue up your most recently used playlist
2. Set it to random
3. Note down the first 10-15 songs it chooses

Playlist Size = 3252 songs
Using Winamp 3.0d

1. Sade - The sweetest Gift
2. Letters to Cleo - I Want You to Want Me
3. Amy Grant - Love Has a Hold on Me
4. Train - Meet Virginia
5. Black Sabbath - The Sign of the Southern Cross
6. System of a Down - Jet Pilot
7. Kevin Kiner & David Arnold - Big Damn Ending (Editor's Note: This is from a movie score)
8. Cirque du Soleil - Jardin chinois
9. Vanessa Carlton - Unsung
10. Lords of Acid - Lucy's Fucking Sky


Honestly I am trying to figure out if this is a good sample of what I listen to or not. I think there are probably some statistics rules saying that it is not. Close in illustrating the somewhat eclectic nature of my music preferences.

Okay so having seen a commercial for a movie called Torque, it looks really stupid btw, I decided to do some IMDB searching to see what other "physics" related words have been turned into movies so here's what I found:

Heat exists. In fact there are multiple movies by this name.
Force however does not.
Which actually gets me off into geology, with heat, force and Pressure you can create metamorphic Rock.
We all remember Speed of course. If you go too Fast I guess you have to worry about Drag.
But what about Velocity? Okay so I cheated on that one, Velocity was only its video title.
Oh well so what about Momentum or Impact? Actually there are some things that Bounce after impact. Hrm I guess this just goes to show we have an obsession with things that Move and Crash resulting in things broke and Broken.
Neutron, proton and electron didn't have any movies with them as their title but I did run across one really weird sounding movie: The Man with the Smallest Penis in Existence and the Electron Microscope Technician Who Loved Him.
Pretty weird what's out there.
Well I guess when ya run out of things to type in you end up with Space.

Editor's Note: I didn't really declare a set of rules to this so some of them kind of push the limit on what is actually, truly, acceptable in this entry.

BTW I ment to post this image a long time ago, but I forgot to. If you ever wake up in the middle of the night with a grinding noise eating away at the back of your mind like a mouse chewing through a wall....it probably is a mouse chewing through the wall....except on vary strange occasions when it is large chunks of ice.

You know I wish I could have the choice to keep some urls from being included in the autocomplete for the address bars in browsers. Just because I once visited blockbuster.com or goodyear.com doesn't mean I want it to take the place of blogger.com or google.com when I type two letters and hit tab. Yes I did have two letter aliases in my unix login scripts back in the day.

40.476190476190474% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?

Well here's THE LIST*:

Action:
Blade
Blade II
Clear and Present Danger
Deep Blue Sea
Eraser
G.I. Jane
Indiana Jones Boxed Set
Jackie Chan's First Strike
Last Action Hero
Mr Nice Guy
Patriot Games
Pirates of the Caribbean
Ronin
Shaft
Snatch
Street Fighter
The Art of War
The Bourne Identity
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Transporter


Classics:
Shane


Comedy:
8 Heads in a Duffel Bag
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ace Ventura Pet Detective
American Pie
American Pie II
Anger Management
Bedazzled
Bruce Almighty
Bruce Lampbell vs Army of Darkness: Director' Cut
Disney's The Kid
Hercules in New York
Liar Liar
Me, Myself & Irene
Mixed Nuts
Monkeybone
Shallow Hal
The Cannonball Run
Trading Places
Van Wilder
Very Bad Things
Volunteers


Drama:
American History X
Arlington Road
Chasing Amy
Donnie Darko
Forever Young
Joan of Arc
October Sky
Phonebooth
Red Dragon
Road to Perdition
The Bone Collector
The Hunt for Red October
The Ice Storm


Romantic Comedy:
America's Sweethearts
Isn't She Great
Nine Months
Serving Sara
She's All That


Sci-Fi:
Blade Runner: Dirrector's Cut
Dark City
Godzilla
Hulk
Johnny Mnemonic
Resident Evil
Spawn
The Last Starfighter
The Matrix
Titan AE
Tron
X2


Undecided:
The Never Ending Story II
Wild Things


* THE LIST is those DVDs of which I own, yet is not a comprehensive list of favorites, in fact some have never been watched. (Added by the Editor)

No best film nomination for Cold Mountain. Granted I never saw the movie nor was interested in seeing it, but given it was supposed to be one of those artsy films made by a major Hollywood house in the attempt to suck some of the movie dollars from the independent films. But I think it is somewhat fitting though, considering Cold Mountain is civil war (most often named the darkest moment in American History) movie in which hardly any of the players are actually from the United States. Now that is truly ironic.

So...
Whos the baddest of the bad
Who finds the best 5.88 DVDs?
Me!


Yup diving into the 5.88 bin at walmart this week yielded: Dark City (in widescreen even) and Patriot Games (also in widescreen).

Wa Hoo!!!

Anyway, as I watched the movie it struck me that Jennifer Connelly, intentionally or not, has played in a large number of movies that appeal to a very select group of people.... dare I say nerdier crowd since I am talking about my friends and myself?