Reflections of a Nonsensical Nerd

Web Radio I dig

2010-12-08T03:34:00.001-06:00

Instead of trying to bring my MP3 collection to work, I've gotten deeply into digging up web radio channels that I plug into via foobar2000 (or Rhythmbox at home). Some of the linked streams use OGG media, so you may need to visit the station's site to find another alternative if you don't want to start utilizing the best in media freedom. Here's what I'm listening to (a few much more than others):

Station name	genre	direct stream URL
Absolute 80s (UK)	80s Hits	http://network.absoluteradio.co.uk/core/audio/ogg/live.pls?service=a8bb
Absolute 90s (UK)	90s Hits	http://network.absoluteradio.co.uk/core/audio/mp3/live.pls?service=a9bb
Absolute Classic Rock (UK)	Classic Rock	http://network.absoluteradio.co.uk/core/audio/ogg/live.pls?service=vcbb
Absolute dabbl (UK)	Pop	http://network.absoluteradio.co.uk/core/audio/ogg/live.pls?service=albb
Absolute Radio (UK)	Pop	http://network.absoluteradio.co.uk/core/audio/ogg/live.pls?service=vrbb
BBC Radio 1 (UK)	Pop	http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r1.asx
BBC Radio 1Xtra (UK)	Hip Hop	http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r1x.asx
BBC Radio 2 (UK)	Rock	http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r2.asx
BBC Radio 3 (UK)	Classical	http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r3.asx
BBC Radio 4 (UK)	Public	http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r4.asx
BBC Radio 5 Live (UK)	Talk	http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r5l.asx
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra (UK)	Sports	http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r5lsp.asx
BBC Radio 6 Music (UK)	Adult Alternative	http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r6.asx
BBC Radio 7 (UK)	Radio Shows	http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r7.asx
BBC Radio Asian Network (UK)	South Asian Pop	http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/ran.asx
BBC World Service (UK)	Public	http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/meta/tx/nb/live_eneuk_au_nb.asx
CBC Radio 1 (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)	Talk	http://out1.cbc.icy.abacast.com/cbc-cbcr1hfx-96
CBC Radio 2 (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)	Classical	http://out1.cbc.icy.abacast.com/cbc-cbcr2hfx-128
CBC Radio 3 -- Live (Canada)	Pop	http://shoutcast1.cbcradio3.com/
CBC Radio 3 Electronica (Canada)	Electronic	http://radiostreams.cbc.ca/cbc-w7vcr-128.xspf
CBC Radio 3 Hip Hop (Canada)	Hip Hop	http://radiostreams.cbc.ca/cbc-w8vcr-128.xspf
CBC Radio 3 Pop (Canada)	Pop	http://radiostreams.cbc.ca/cbc-w9vcr-128.xspf
CBC Radio 3 Rock (Canada)	Rock	http://radiostreams.cbc.ca/cbc-w6vcr-128.xspf
Covenant Network	Catholic	http://66.138.135.77:8000/listen.pls
EWTN Radio	Catholic	http://viewers.multicastmedia.com/asx_files/EWTN_Channel9_English_Radio_64k.asx
Freethought Radio Network	Talk	http://rs4.radiostreamer.com:8370/listen.pls
HBR1.com - Dream Factory	Ambient	http://ubuntu.hbr1.com:19800/ambient.ogg
HBR1.com - I.D.M. Tranceponder	Trance	http://ubuntu.hbr1.com:19800/trance.ogg
HBR1.com - Tronic Lounge	House	http://ubuntu.hbr1.com:19800/tronic.ogg
KGSR 93.3 (Cedar Park, TX)	Adult Altenative	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/KGSRFM.pls
KINK 101.9 (Portland, OR)	Adult Alternative	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/KINKFM.pls
KKND 102.9 (Belle Chasse, LA)	Hip Hop / R&B	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/KKNDFMAAC.pls
KLCL 1470 (Jennings, LA)	Cajun	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/KLCLAM.pls
KLRZ 100.3 (Larose, LA)	Cajun	http://www.warpradio.com/player/asx.asp?id=4275
KLSU 91.1 (Baton Rouge, LA)	College	http://130.39.238.143:8002/listen.pls
KMEZ 106.7 (Port Sulpher, LA)	Old School	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/KMEZFMAAC.pls
KMYO 96.7 (Morgan City, LA)	Retro	http://cmn-ice.spacialnet.com/kmyo
KNXX 104.9 (Donaldsonville, LA)	Rock	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/KNXXFMAAC.pls
KOCZ 103.7 (Opelousas, LA)	Zydeco	http://www.kocz.org/kocz.m3u
KROK 95.7 (South Fort Polk, LA)	Adult Alternative	http://www.streamgeeks.com:17442/
KRVM 91.9 (Eugene, OR)	Community	http://kara.fast-serv.com:8542/
KRVS 88.7 (Lafayette, LA)	Community	http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/krvs/ppr/krvs.pls
KSLU1 90.9 (Hammond, LA)	College	http://147.174.55.27:7998/listen.pls
KSLU2 90.9 (Hammond, LA)	Blues	http://147.174.55.30:8000/listen.pls
KUT1 90.5 (Austin, TX)	Public	http://kut1.streamguys.net/
KUT2 90.5 (Austin, TX)	Public	http://kut2.streamguys.net/
KUT3 90.5 (Austin, TX)	Public	http://kut3.streamguys.net/
KVRX 91.7 (Austin, TX)	College	http://129.116.109.155:8000/listen.pls
KZJM 92.7 (Lafayette, LA)	Old School	http://www.927kzjm.com/kzjm.m3u
Moody Radio -- Proclaim!	Christian	http://75.125.83.200:7070/conferencecenter.mp3
National Public Radio	Public	http://npr.ic.llnwd.net/stream/npr_live24
Pagan Radio Network	Pagan	http://st1.webradioworld.net:8090/listen.pls
WCDV 103.3 (Baton Rouge, LA)	90s Hits	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WCDVFMAAC.pls
WDEO 990 -- Ave Maria Radio (Ypsilanti, MI)	Catholic	http://www.barnabasroad.com/wdeo_avemariaradio.m3u
WEMX 94.1 (Kentwood, LA)	Hip Hop / R&B	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WEMXFMAAC.pls
WEZB 97.1 (New Orleans, LA)	Top 40	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WEZBFM.pls
WFHN 107.1 (Fairhaven, MA)	Top 40	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WFHNFMAAC.pls
WKBU 95.7 (New Orleans, LA)	Classic Rock	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WKBUFM.pls
WKNC 88.1 (Raleigh, NC)	College	http://wknc.sma.ncsu.edu:8000/wkncmq.ogg.m3u
WMTI 106.1 (Picayune, MS)	Oldies	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WMTIFMAAC.pls
WPYR 1380 (Baton Rouge, LA)	Catholic	http://www.live365.com/play/catholics
WRBH 88.3 (New Orleans, LA)	Community	http://www.i-55.com/wrbhlive/wrbh.asx
WRKF1 89.3 (Baton Rouge, LA)	Public	http://pubint.ic.llnwd.net/stream/pubint_wrkf
WRKF2 89.3 (Baton Rouge, LA)	Public	http://pubint.ic.llnwd.net/stream/pubint_wrkf_hd2
WRKN 92.3 (LaPlace, LA)	Rock	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WRKNFMAAC.pls
WSCA 106.1 (Portsmouth, NH)	Community	http://74.220.236.214:7000/wsca.ogg.m3u
WSHO 800 (New Orleans, LA)	Christian	http://www.barnabasroad.com/wsho_radio.m3u
WTUL 91.5 (New Orleans, LA)	College	http://129.81.156.83:8000/listen.m3u
WVOG 600 (New Orleans, LA)	Gospel	http://216.240.139.89:2367/
WWL 870 (New Orleans, LA)	Talk	http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WWLAM.pls
WWNO1 89.9 (New Orleans, LA)	Public	http://nyc01.egihosting.com:7200/
WWNO2 89.9 (New Orleans, LA)	Public	http://nyc01.egihosting.com:18830/
WWNO3 89.9 (New Orleans, LA)	Public	http://nyc01.egihosting.com:18840/
WWOZ 90.7 FM (New Orleans, LA)	Community	http://wwoz-sc.streamguys.com/wwoz-hi.mp3

Freethought Radio Network, Pagan Radio Network, WCDV, WRBH (supremely relaxing, in a strange way often times, particularly if someone is reading fiction), WRKF1&2, WWNO3, and WWOZ are my favorites.

So much to say . . .

2010-01-02T14:33:00.016-06:00

I really wish I could convey the past eight months to each of you, but I cannot. There is just so much to say and not enough time to say it, which I think is why I stopped blogging during this time: I found I could not take the time to formulate my thoughts into words effectively. Even when there was time, the task was overwhelming and I chose to do something mindless or relaxing, instead. Of late, I've considered deleting this blog, or reducing it to a series of computer-related posts on some helpful tools I've found, devised, or systematized in a way that might be helpful to others. And though splitting out the computer posts may make sense (and may be on the way), I don't think I'm going to do that after all. I like my little online community of friends and I've missed you folk.

Moving along, I will briefly try to recount the past amazing eight months, the most romantically and personally fulfilling of my life.

A lot of why I stopped blogging when I did is because I married the love of my life (AKA "tLoML," which I think is how I'll refer to her henceforth on this blog) on May 23rd. I haven't spoken of this since I announced my engagement almost a year ago. Planning a wedding (which required a lot more organizational skill of me than I actually have between January and May of last year, since we were our own wedding planners and organizers) was really a pain in the ass, though the day came together pretty well after all:

It was a fabulous day and thankfully the weather cooperated with our wonderful outdoor wedding! The ceremony was written and performed by the local UU minister, though we wrote our own vows and selected our own readings. (We considered some other marriage officiants, but he was by far the best for the money.) The text of the ceremony is now online, too, though I've removed the names of people and places given in the original text. The officiant wrote more religious language into the text than I would have liked, but tLoML encouraged me not to forbid him from doing so, having a more laid-back attitude about it than I did.

We went on to have a nice, long, rambling honeymoon that took us many places: a night in Kisatchie National Forest; a night alone in a cute bed & breakfast and a meal at the Landing in Natchitoches, LA where I went to college; a couple of nights in Ouachita National Forest, where we hiked and picked up a handful of ticks, who unfortunately stuck around and popped-up from time to time throughout the trip (dangit!); a couple of nights in Hot Springs, AR where we spent the first night at the Arlington hotel, visited the Garvan Woodland Gardens and Hot Springs National Park, and spent the second night at a very charming little motel called the Alpine Inn; spent many glorious days at a cabin in Mount Nebo State Park, which was so, so very gorgeous; stopped for an afternoon at the Clinton Presidential Library; spent a couple of nights at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, where we played tourists the most and visited Beale Street, Graceland, the Memphis Botanic Gardens, and briefly stopped at Sun Studios; and finally spent a relaxing night in the French Quarter in New Orleans before traveling home the next morning. It was the best vacation I've had in a very, very long time, and though tLoML was under the weather for parts of the trip, we had a great time and kicked off married life right! :-)

The summer was a haze of newlywed love. We were short on cash and long on affection, so we weren't very social. (We've also been sharing the computer, which means less time to do things like blogging online.)

Since then, things got more hectic at work (which sometimes sucks up my weeknights) and tLoML went back to university to finish up her Bachelor's degree (and got straight As her first semester back, as she's such a smart person). So, we have been quite well and married life REALLY agrees with me.

So much has happened in politics and the larger world during 2009, much of it disappointing on one level or another. I just plain don't have the time and energy to comment on it now, but I may do so later. In short, I'll say that Obama has been disappointing me and very little has gotten better in the wider world. I'm so glad to have so many consolations here at home . . .

:-)

P2k Commander for Ubuntu

2009-04-20T00:47:00.006-05:00

OK, after I got my cell phone, I went looking for a program that would allow me to put files onto it and otherwise customize it. I own a Motorola RAZR V3xx. Turned out that was not so easy. The moto4lin program was supposed to do it for me, but no love there . . . They don't support RAZR V3xx. I tried some other programs and none came even close to providing what moto4lin attempted to provide.

Finally, I found something that actually does allow me to interact with a (relatively) modern Motorola phone just fine! It's called P2k Commander and there's a Linux version as well as a Windows version. Seemed perfect! I downloaded the source for p2kc 0.6 and got started. And it was pretty good, but there were some things I wanted to fix in the code . . . So, I did! (Got to love truly free software!) Also, I figured it could stand to be cleaned-up and packaged for Ubuntu. So, I did that, too!

If you'd like to try P2k Commander on Ubuntu, download this package. (If you're running the AMD64 architecture of Ubuntu, use this package instead, but if you're not sure, stick to the default i386 architecture package that will work best for almost all Ubuntu users out there.) Finally, if you're a developer interested in the package sources, you can find those here.

I might eventually create an Ubuntu repository for these packages, but I'm not to sure I can actually provide that, so we'll see . . . In the meantime, once you've downloaded the package, install it like so:

sudo dpkg -i p2kc_0.6-0ubuntu1_i386.deb

or:

sudo dpkg -i p2kc_0.6-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb

Then go to your Applications menu and select the P2kCommander launcher (which should be under "Accessories" or "Utilities" or something like that). You'll be asked to enter your password to gain administrative privileges.

After that, you'll need to connect your phone with a USB cable. And then you should be able to view, change, and copy files on the phone by selecting "P2k: /e" or one of the other "P2k" entries. So far, it's allowed me to add ringtones and other files to my phone with little trouble!!! It also allows me to download pictures off my phone and retreive audio files recorded on the phone (which are recorded as AMR files and can only be played with this app, so far as I know). This has opened up a lot of new uses for my phone to me!

I hope this helps someone else. And if you do like this app, show some appreciation to Sándor Ötvös AKA s5vi, who created P2kCommander in the first place.

Finally, if you're interested in the Windows version, you can get that at his site as well: http://www.el-co.hu/smf/.

Thomas Geoghegan On Infinite Debt

2009-03-25T15:35:00.003-05:00

Thomas Geoghegan speaks to one of the most pressing issues in our current economic downturn: the explosion of usury in the United States. He explains, yet again, Marquette National v. First of Omaha, the abysmal Supreme Court decision which partly precipitated the current state of affairs. It's really worth giving a listen, if you can find the time.

"Too Big To Fail" No More?

2009-03-19T13:59:00.003-05:00

Sheila Bair, head of the FDIC, has some interesting things to say here about how we should regulate and insure the various financial institutions that have become "too big to fail." As she says, nothing should ever be too big and unregulated to fail. Here's hoping a system can be devised that closely approaches "the end of 'too big to fail,'" which is probably a phrase we'll have to retire all too soon in any case, as the expense of continually bailing out the rich and powerful very likely will become too high to sustain, especially as the needs of the increasingly poor and dispossessed populace will require greater attention to prevent vast instability . . .

Also, I encourage you to listen to this interview of Elizabeth Warren (MP3), who is one of my favorite economists. She's currently heading up the Congressional Oversight Panel (WikiP) that's supposed to expose what's done with the TARP monies. It's a fascinating listen. The most significant thing I gleened from this is that (1) we overpaid for the preferred stock (which has since been converted to common stock in such a way that even more money was lost) that was bought with TARP funds and (2) we overpaid more for the stock of banks that were in bigger trouble (like Citibank and Bank of America) than we overpaid for banks that are relatively sound for the moment. Basically, the "capitol injection" plan that was implemented by the purchase of preferred stock (since converted to common stock) in banks was actually used as a back-door way to hand more "free" money to the banks in the most trouble, but to do it in such a way that no one could tell from the purchase (without careful analysis that couldn't be done quickly) which banks were getting the most money from the deal and which were getting the least, presumably to conceal from nervous investors that some banks were in a lot more trouble than others.

How long will vast amounts of taxpayer funds be given away to the largest and most irresponsible corporations (supposedly to "save the economy")? How much more of our public assets must be handed to the wealthiest before we downsize and break-up these corporate interests so as to really begin to salvage the economy and help average people in helping us all to rebuild it on a firmer foundation? The current tempest in a teapot is actually small potatoes compared to the real scandal of overpayment going on here . . .

Bad Banks (and how and why they are about to mess you up)

2009-03-03T13:27:00.005-06:00

The latest episode of This American Life (mp3 download) is all about the banking crisis and gives a pretty good rundown of what's happening if you don't know a lot about banking or economics.

There is a point in the episode where, in my opinion (and seemingly, their own), they get to the heart of the matter: American consumer debt has risen to 100% of annual GDP, or "the total annual economic output of the United States." Now, they basically say that it's the fault of the consumers, which many (including myself and Dean Baker) would dispute, but the basic analysis here is dead-on: the use of credit in the United States is entirely unsustainable in reality, no matter how worthy or profitable it seems that it used to be. Every level of American society (average consumers, businesses of all sizes and most all types, the federal government, and government at many other levels) has way too much debt. The amount of money being lent out is more than the money the country generates. You simply cannot live like that. You can't borrow against your whole income every year and function. Period.

So, this is gonna suck and this is why. Hope y'all can get something out of this one . . .

The "Citi can't fail" attitude

2009-02-27T09:32:00.004-06:00

I've been expecting Citi to have massive problems since at least early December and long found them to be a creepy and dangerous business model, ever since I learned about the creation of the company, which occurred a little over ten years ago after laws passed during the Great Depression were weakened and changed so that horrible, monopolistic financial behemoths riddled with conflicts of interest could be created again.

How much taxpayer money will be poured into this Titanic mistake before this company comes to an end, whether through outright nationalization, some kind of orderly bankruptcy, or some other form of orderly collapse managed with even more massive amounts of taxpayer cash?

The deal today just eliminated tons and tons of guarantees on the taxpayer money that was given to these banks before by converting the preferred stock the U.S. bought in the company into common stock. So, now when the company falls, all that taxpayer money will be irretreivably lost. But somehow this will prop-up the company and "protect" us all . . . I have a feeling some bank execs will be protect all the way to their offshore account ballances . . . Once again, I hope to be wrong about all this, but I haven't been wrong as much as I would have liked to be lately . . . :-p

Skeptical view from the left

2009-02-25T10:00:00.002-06:00

Well, Obama delivered a masterful speech last night and promised to do some good things for folks. Mostly, he seems to be interested in trying to drive the economy with tax cuts on the bottom and reimplementing taxes at the top, slightly reimplementing our progressive tax structures of the more prosperous past after many years of increasing regression, while continuing massive bailouts of huge private corporations, which we are then vaguely promised will be reregulated. Oh, and after Obama explained that we have all borrowed too much, he explained how he'll save the economy by reigniting lending. I have a lot of doubt that we can rebuild the American economy from the top down while we continue to fight two wars and while the purchasing power of the average American (long financed by tremendous debt) continues to shrink and we try to make sure that everyone can borrow more in the interim, but I'm stubborn like that . . .

The Real News Network interviewed Thomas Palley on these issues and I thought some very fine insights resulted:

Dean Baker has also been providing great and accurate commentary on the bailouts.

I would like for myself and all these critics to have it wrong, but it's so hard to believe that paying all this money to failing companies near the top of our economy, where too much wealth is concentrated and too many near-monopolies run major industries and most banking and finance, will actually restart the economic engine that makes the world hum with vigor and prosperity. I think only spreading prosperity to average people will do that and I don't really see that plan on the table yet . . . I believe that until the fantastic disparities of wealth are addressed, we'll be in trouble.

Barack Hussein Obama is President!

2009-01-20T11:01:00.005-06:00

It's a happy day in America. We'll be inaugurating a president who symbolizes new aspirations for so many of us and there is perhaps even a fair chance that this "symbol" will put some reality behind the rhetoric over the next few years (though I worry he and the Democrats in Congress will not, as do others).

I would have enjoyed seeing and hearing the inauguration events, but work intervened. It sounds like it was quite an inspiring event . . .

OK, so this is the last day you'll be seeing this on my blog's sidebar . . .

Bush countdown!

Get this widget!

And then it's got to
get better . . . right?

The Bush administration is finally over! :-D I have to hope that the creation and exacerbation of problems we've come to expect during the past eight years is at least at an end . . . I'm vitually certain we've at least cleared that low bar and that alone gives me a vast sense of relief!!! And now we get to watch and see how the new administrations handles the vast panorama of problems they've inherited . . .

When the Citi falls . . .

2009-01-16T11:37:00.002-06:00

OK, so I was expecting Citigroup to fall before the holidays started (and I blogged a bit before about their creepy Primerica unit) and since the new year, they seem to be well on their way to collapse. Perhaps the "good bank/bad bank" split will allow a shell of their former selves to soldier on intact, but I have my doubts about even that. I still feel it's more likely for Citi to end up a pile of financial rubble that cannot be salvaged, only canibalized.

When Citi falls, though, it's going to take large chunks of the economy down with it. Huge numbers of consumers will be withdrawing funds through the FDIC, further raising the national debt. And then perhaps Bank of America will fall (though I think they have a better chance of making it than Citi) . . . If they both fall, Depression will likely soon follow . . .

Given the amount of government money that's been handed to Citi so far, it will be a shame to watch it all wash down the tubes . . . Again, I hope to be wrong . . .

I am engaged!

2009-01-15T09:26:00.002-06:00

And actually, I've been engaged for almost four weeks now . . . Anyway, some of you may remember that I announced about a year ago that I was seeing someone. That relationship has gradually blossomed into the best one I've ever known and it keeps getting better. So, I researched diamonds carefully for a couple of weeks and saved up some cash and presented her with the ring at the levee here on the bank of the Mississippi a few days before Christmas. And now we are in the midst of making wedding plans, which she is thankfully keeping pretty simple for me. We should be getting married in May, with the local Unitarian-Universalist (UU) minister officiating, though we're planning the ceremony to be held at the local university arboretum and not the UU church. Thankfully, my beautiful bride-to-be believes in Keeping It Simple, so I don't think I'm going to find this process to be much of a headache procedurally.

I'm terribly happy! :-D

Made millions on outrageous debt and then dropped out . . .

2009-01-01T15:03:00.003-06:00

I'm beginning to realize how soon CNBC retires their webpages, so I'm just going to copy this amazing letter from a former hedge fund manager into this post. I apologize for the length, but this is too sweet to miss . . .

Andrew Lahde, manager of a small California hedge fund, Lahde Capital, burst into the spotlight last year after his one-year-old fund returned 866 percent betting against the subprime collapse.

Last month, he did the unthinkable -- he shut things down, claiming dealing with his bank
counterparties had become too risky. Today, Lahde passed along his "goodbye" letter, a rollicking missive on everything from greed to economic philosophy. Enjoy:

Today I write not to gloat. Given the pain that nearly everyone is experiencing, that would be entirely inappropriate. Nor am I writing to make further predictions, as most of my forecasts in previous letters have unfolded or are in the process of unfolding. Instead, I am writing to say goodbye.

Recently, on the front page of Section C of the Wall Street Journal, a hedge fund manager who was also closing up shop (a $300 million fund), was quoted as saying, "What I have learned about the hedge fund business is that I hate it." I could not agree more with that statement. I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.

There are far too many people for me to sincerely thank for my success. However, I do not want to sound like a Hollywood actor accepting an award. The money was reward enough. Furthermore, the endless list those deserving thanks know who they are.

I will no longer manage money for other people or institutions. I have enough of my own wealth to manage. Some people, who think they have arrived at a reasonable estimate of my net worth, might be surprised that I would call it quits with such a small war chest. That is fine; I am content with my rewards. Moreover, I will let others try to amass nine, ten or eleven figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck. Appointments back to back, booked solid for the next three months, they look forward to their two week vacation in January during which they will likely be glued to their Blackberries or other such devices. What is the point? They will all be forgotten in fifty years anyway. Steve Balmer, Steven Cohen, and Larry Ellison will all be forgotten. I do not understand the legacy thing. Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.

So this is it. With all due respect, I am dropping out. Please do not expect any type of reply to emails or voicemails within normal time frames or at all. Andy Springer and his company will be handling the dissolution of the fund. And don't worry about my employees, they were always employed by Mr. Springer's company and only one (who has been well-rewarded) will lose his job.

I have no interest in any deals in which anyone would like me to participate. I truly do not have a strong opinion about any market right now, other than to say that things will continue to get worse for some time, probably years. I am content sitting on the sidelines and waiting. After all, sitting and waiting is how we made money from the subprime debacle. I now have time to repair my health, which was destroyed by the stress I layered onto myself over the past two years, as well as my entire life -- where I had to compete for spaces in universities and graduate schools, jobs and assets under management -- with those who had all the advantages (rich parents) that I did not. May meritocracy be part of a new form of government, which needs to be established.

On the issue of the U.S. Government, I would like to make a modest proposal. First, I point out the obvious flaws, whereby legislation was repeatedly brought forth to Congress over the past eight years, which would have reigned in the predatory lending practices of now mostly defunct institutions. These institutions regularly filled the coffers of both parties in return for voting down all of this legislation designed to protect the common citizen. This is an outrage, yet no one seems to know or care about it. Since Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith passed, I would argue that there has been a dearth of worthy philosophers in this country, at least ones focused on improving government.

Capitalism worked for two hundred years, but times change, and systems become corrupt. George Soros, a man of staggering wealth, has stated that he would like to be remembered as a philosopher. My suggestion is that this great man start and sponsor a forum for great minds to come together to create a new system of government that truly represents the common man's interest, while at the same time creating rewards great enough to attract the best and brightest minds to serve in government roles without having to rely on corruption to further their interests or lifestyles. This forum could be similar to the one used to create the operating system, Linux, which competes with Microsoft's near monopoly. I believe there is an answer, but for now the system is clearly broken.

Lastly, while I still have an audience, I would like to bring attention to an alternative food and energy source. You won't see it included in BP's, "Feel good. We are working on sustainable solutions," television commercials, nor is it mentioned in ADM's similar commercials. But hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products. Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa. Hemp is the male plant and it grows like a weed, hence the slang term. The original American flag was made of hemp fiber and our Constitution was printed on paper made of hemp. It was used as recently as World War II by the U.S. Government, and then promptly made illegal after the war was won. At a time when rhetoric is flying about becoming more self-sufficient in terms of energy, why is it illegal to grow this plant in this country?

Ah, the female. The evil female plant -- marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country. My only conclusion as to why it is illegal, is that Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other additive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers. This policy is ludicrous. It has surely contributed to our dependency on foreign energy sources. Our policies have other countries literally laughing at our stupidity, most notably Canada, as well as several European nations (both Eastern and Western). You would not know this by paying attention to U.S. media sources though, as they tend not to elaborate on who is laughing at the United States this week. Please people, let's stop the rhetoric and start thinking about how we can truly become self-sufficient.

With that I say good-bye and good luck.

All the best,

Andrew Lahde

Blagojevich sure blew it . . .

2008-12-09T15:45:00.002-06:00

Dammit, why are politicians idiots? The current Governor of Illinois sure seems to be an idiot. And it seems that the Senate seat recently vacated by Barack Obama will remain empty for a while, as Blagojevich is now under too much of a cloud to credibly appoint a replacement.

I'm not at all uncomfortable with Illinoians selecting their new Senator rather than a single individual doing it, in any case. I just hope they get to do so very soon.

In any case, I hope this gets handled gracefully quite soon. If the alegations against Blagojevich are true (as seems to be the case, given the evidence aleged to be available), I cannot believe the selfish bastard would risk besmirching the new president's previous office so soon after he vacated it! If the alegations prove untrue, I sure hope they nail whoever made them to the wall, as I'd suspect some Rovian-style guilt-by-association attempt to be in the works . . . Unfortunately, I suspect it's rather the former instead. :-p

Jack Black as Jesus!

2008-12-09T09:19:00.003-06:00

It's almost enough to make a guy reconsider Christianity. <tears up>

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... by Jack Black

And alas, it's a shame this video didn't have its intended effect . . .

The Recession is here (officially)

2008-12-01T18:13:00.004-06:00

Well, it's here. That's not really a surprise. The question still lingering now is "How long?" How long will the deflation last before inflation comes back? And how wicked will the inflation be? If the inflation doesn't come back, when do they officially declare a Depression? And how long will that last? Perhaps you'll find me overly gloomy again, but I actually expect the guys in this video will prove to be too optimistic. Yes, I know it sounds nuts, but I think they're being really optimistic. Quite.

Here's some of why I think that: consumers' credit limits will soon be lowered massively. Yes, your credit card will quite likely soon betray you. Right at the moment when people are going to loose work and try to max out their credit cards to compensate, it won't be there. This will accelerate many current trends, most likely including deflationary pressures. I'd also expect at least one major bank to fail within six months. (My money is on Citigroup (AKA Citi), as they have been the most egregious predatory lenders among the big guys and they are almost certainly far more overleveraged than their competitors. My only first-hand experience with them was going to one of their creepy Primerica recruitment sessions once, though I thought it was all crap after about half an hour. I gather that's about the moral level of the whole thing, which points to the coming problem. Truly, it's a company that should never have been allowed to come into existence in the first place.)

In the end, I think everyone will have to acknowledge that all of this is a fruit of deregulation, particularly the deregulation of credit . . . Really, all forms of leverage in general. Here's hoping something like Senator Durbin's anti-usury bill from earlier this year actually gains some traction!!!!!! It's sorely needed!!!!

Rebound possible within a few months -- or depression likely

2008-11-21T09:45:00.003-06:00

Marc "Dr. Doom" Faber is a well respected market analyst. He seems to think that government aid will have the intended effect and things will start rebounding within a few months. Here's the kicker, though: if the government aid doesn't have the intended effect, he figures we'll see something that makes the Great Depression look preferable!!! Well . . . That strikes me as incredibly honest.

In the meantime, both the BBC and NPR are talking about the end of US dominance in the world. I do think that would be the result of an extended Depression, but will most likely happen more slowly if things don't go that bad . . . Still, no thing at all lasts for ever. Nothing at all.

Deflation -- On its way?

2008-11-14T09:15:00.003-06:00

To be honest with you, I think we'll be seeing it by the end of 2009, but for the health of the wider economy, it is to be hoped I am wrong. The New York Times fretted about it on Nov 1st, though, and it seems to be discussed more and more by one respected party or another. Even Paul Krugman says we should not worry too much about inflation or "prudence" right now, which I think is a sneaky way of saying that deflation is the bigger worry. With consumer credit starting to get really crunched, it's hard to see where a growth in revenues will come from. Basically, I think the risks of this Recession becoming a Depression are growing by the day. And the news just keeps getting worse and worse . . .

Of course, fight coming deflation too hard and you could spark over-massive inflation . . . So, you know . . . Everybody wants to hedge against all possibilities, right?

In the (very) long run, I think stamping down the U.S. credit-binge will be a good thing, as it's gone totally out of control. But will stamping down the credit-binge cause a Recession or a Depression? I only wish I could actually know . . . Crazy as it may sound, my money is currently on Depression . . . :-p

Good-bye, Republican Party . . .

2008-11-11T19:58:00.002-06:00

It's been a chaotic week, but I've been meaning to blog about our new president for some time now. Though I remain pessimistic as ever, I was highly encouraged to see Barack H. Obama become the new President of the United States!!! He was who I wanted to see win the office during the primaries and (a first for me) I actually found him more ideal than any of the available third party candidates (of whom I seriously considered Nader (who should really stop running, though I voted for him without any regrets both in '96 and '00) and McKinney (who just didn't strike me as able to deliver and was pushing issues (like trying Bush and Cheney for war crimes and pulling out of Afghanistan) that left me cold)). I'm still in shock that the candidate I wanted to see win at the beginning of the process actually became the winner! However, he couldn't be taking office in worse circumstances. I must say that I wouldn't wish Obama's (or the new Congress') task on my worst enemies. He gets to inherit the mismanaged messes of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as an economy which I am afraid is progressing towards Depression-level lows. This man has on his shoulders not only his own prospects, but the prospects of how his party will be perceived for a generation, and most important of all, the fortunes of the American people for probably a decade to come. I hope that he can deliver on all the hopes he has raised. Thankfully, he is eminently qualified and level-headed. I fear the compromises and conflict to come, but I find while expecting the worst, I can more genuinely hope for the best than ever before. We'll see during the next four years if things really improve or if I'm simply drinking too much O-Kool-Aid . . .

As Obama met with Bush today, businesses asked for more "help" at the expense of their employees. The amount of corporate welfare governments all over the world have been giving is astonishing. Given the fact that overextended consumers who can no longer use their houses as ATMs is at the heart of the issue, and that these consumers (i.e. average citizens) will soon be facing lost jobs, lost houses, lost pensions, and lost opportunities for themselves and their children, I'd hope the urge to help soon turns to helping the poor get needed help and solid opportunities. 'Cause, uh, there is about to be a whole lot more of the poor, I'm afraid . . . And those hanging onto the middle class by their pinky toe . . . If those people can't buy goods and services, all ships will sink. If they can, all ships will rise. We can't build the economy on personal welfare, but I think that personal welfare will do more to get the economy back on track in the long run (and create less personal suffering in the short run) than bailing out failing, mismanaged companies. But I'm pinko like that . . .

In the meantime, lots and lots of people around me (that is, most of the white ones) were rather bitter about the defeat of McCain and Palin at the polls. Given the way things played out, I think McCain must be that much more disappointed that Jindal turned him down. I suspect if McCain had run with Jindal, he would have won. However, Jindal apparently wants to leave a mark here in Louisiana. I also suspect he didn't want to be any more closely associated with Bush's wake than necessary . . . After all, he had been a Bush appointee to the Department of Health and Human Services and has been considered a health care expert. That may have made an election run uncomfortable, but I suspect he would have inspired voters with way more confidence than Palin did . . . All-in-all, I'm glad he stayed here and focused, where he's undoubtedly needed. (And kudos to him for his good management of Hurricane Gustav, the worst I've ever seen here in Baton Rouge.) Still, I suspect I'll see Jindal on the national stage, eventually . . .

I am happy to see the Democrats have a chance to shape policy during what will undoubtedly be one of the most critical times in our nation's history. So . . . DON'T FUCK IT UP, Y'ALL!! ;-)

Dr. Warren notices the return of layaway

2008-10-27T12:32:00.003-05:00

I have a tremendous respect for Dr. Warren, as she's been tracking problems with bankruptcy and the use of credit cards for years and years now, analyzing reams of data (mostly government data) to better understand financial failure and how it occurs.

Today, Dr. Warren noticed a K-Mart ad for lay-away, something I haven't seen in years myself. I remember in the eighties and early ninties when every Wal-Mart had a prominent lay-away counter in the back. As Dr. Warren points out, though, people going to college right now probably have no memory of lay-away, as credit cards became ubiquitous by the mid-nineties and they started signing-up everyone for them.

As the credit card industry begins to contract (as it is expected to do), will lay-away return? Interesting thought . . .

Greenspan admits he was wrong . . . "partially"

2008-10-23T15:58:00.002-05:00

Well, even Greenspan has to admit he was wrong sometimes, it seems. He's apparentley "in a state of shocked disbelief" over the credit crisis and is even willing to acknowledge now that, ya know, some things actually should be regulated. So, if the Old Sage of the Fed has actually admitted the need for some regulation, I'd say there's a good chance that we'll get some regulation. But maybe not "too much" . . . After all, he only admitted to being "partially" wrong . . .

What went wrong?

2008-10-08T15:46:00.003-05:00

Well, it's complicated, but this is the quick explanation (as covered on 60 Minutes). (And if you want a longer, more detailed explanation that's still easy for a novice, check out "The Giant Pool of Money" and the "Another Frightening Show About the Economy" episodes of This American Life, one of my very fav shows in any format.) So, people were trying to create "safe bets" out of thin air using vastly overvalued mortgages. And now it's all tumbling down around us . . . But in truth, I suspect this is just the first brick to fall in the entire, overextended American economy . . . Maybe that should read "The entire, overextended world economy," but it's just too scary to think that big right now.

Here's the real truth about the matter

2008-09-30T14:57:00.003-05:00

Well, that's what's gonna happen, all right. The credit crunch is gonna crunch consumers. So, what should have sent signals about ten years ago (or more) as the average U.S. consumer started creeping into a negative savings rate will soon become very, very clear: you can't borrow your way into prosperity! Not with a second mortgage (or even a first mortgage, really) or a car loan or a small loan for Xmas and especially not with the single most powerful demonic entity in the U.S.: the credit card!!! It will be the revenge of Dave Ramsey (even if Dave sucks at macroeconomics) and Elizabeth Warren (who got the macroeconomic situation just right) and others who basically counsel consumers to develop a positive savings rate or else (and remind politicians to enable and encourage the middle class to do that or else). These "bottom liners" have been ignored for too long and we're all about to pay the price for it.

So, if the American consumer is finally priced out of easy credit, the economy should start to contract in waves. And that's when trouble really begins.

I'm not too convinced there's going to be much that can be done to prevent this and I suspect the effects will be more widespread than most commentators understand. Or if they understand it, they are loathe to admit it.

Hopefully my little Cassandra routine here is simply me crying "the sky is falling," but I don't believe that.

My good friend Leif lost his home during Gustav

2008-09-29T13:52:00.003-05:00

He was renting, so he moved and things are better now, but it was an incredibly harrowing situation that he describes here. Though many of the afteraffects of Gustav still linger, most of them are wrapped up now. The only persistent sign of hurricane that most of us see is that there is a massive pile of yard trash stacked in front of almost every yard in town. There's so much of it that it's taking the city weeks and weeks to clean it all up . . .

I "toured" the old house with Leif a week and a half ago. Massively scary to think my man and his wonderful girlfriend, R, had to sit through all that wind and rain in a house that literally fell apart around them during the event. Their new house is very nice, though, and I hope it proves to be a foundation of further bliss.

Google 411 -- good stuff! (And Google Android)

2008-09-25T11:55:00.003-05:00

Google is now providing a new 411 service that is entirely free! Screw using the phone company service with all those fees!

There's a YouTube video demo available, too. It's pretty darn easy!

Also, Google released the so-called "gPhone" this week. It runs their Android platform, which will attempt to become an open platform that can be used by vendors on any handset. Here's some YouTube videos on that: 1 (older), 2, and 3. Right now the only "Android powered" phone is available through T-Mobile and they have virtually no service where I live out "in the country," so I won't be getting a G1, but I do believe it's the first serious competitor to the iPhone and I believe the Android platform could be the basis of many wonderful cell phones of the future. If it's available, I will look to get an Android-based phone for my next cell. If it's not available, I suspect it will have been abandoned by then . . . But I think those Google geniuses just might pull it off! ;-)

Tata Nano

2008-09-18T14:41:00.002-05:00

I think the Tata Nano looks like a damn cool machine. I love simplicity as a general design principle and something as stripped down as that strikes me as particularly beautiful in a sense, even if it's not really the most beatiful thing on the surface. Plus, just the idea of a $2,500 car strikes me as being very awesome.

I will be curious to see how it sells and spreads in India and other developing countries. While it doesn't look suitable for the requirements of the U.S. market, I suspect most of the design principles of the Nano could be used to build a $4,000 to $5,000 car for the U.S. market. Given the way the economy is going, that might just be a more useful thing than it would have seemed to be a year or so ago . . . Generally, I like the idea of something like this spreading and I think it eventually will.

Now, if they can combine something like that with some hybrid technology, maybe they could create a (plug-in?) hybrid with super-high gas mileage at less than $10,000! Or maybe even a long-range electric vehicle . . . That would rock!

In the meantime, I'll keep reading the hybrid blog and see what develops . . . Maybe I should look at buying some Tata Motors stock! Might be a good buy right now . . .

If the Rave Is Silent, Does Anyone Hear You Trance?

2008-09-16T15:23:00.002-05:00

This is an awesome idea. Yes, fuck clubs, let's go hang out (semi-)spontaneously in public with fun and groovy people dancing to their own beat. What a loverly metaphor and fun event . . . Maybe I wouldn't dig it as much as I'd hope, but I adore the idea . . .

OK, so no worries about Sarah Palin, right?

2008-09-14T02:46:00.005-05:00

OK, she can see Russia from her state if she goes out to Little Diomede in the middle of the Bering Strait and stares at Big Diomede. That's a rather special foreign policy credential, I guess. She also didn't really know what the Bush Doctrine was until Charlie Gibson explained it to her, as her recent interview with him attests (as well as parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7). I'm disappointed to see that McCain seems to have picked a veeeery inexperienced VP candidate easily able to out-Bush dear ol' incompetent Bush.

And yeah, Sarah Palin looks like Tina Fey and Tina Fey can do a damn good Sarah Palin. A spookily accurate Sarah Palin, perhaps even . . .

So, keep in mind . . . This recent small-town mayor will be "one heartbeat away" from the Presidency if McCain gets elected . . . And how many heartbeats do you think McCain has left, anyway? Hasn't eight years of an overly religious, war-mongering ignoramus raised in & elected from Texas been enough? Do we need to risk dealing with the small-town, female, lipstick-wearing-so-I'm-distinguishable-from-a-pit-bull, I'm-also-on-a-mission-from-God-even-if-I'm-not-a-Blues-Brother version of this same sort of things except raised in & elected from Alaska, too? Do you really think engaging in the same fucking behavior over and over again is going to solve the problems of our nation? Like electing tough-talking, empty-brained nincompoops just because they seem to really genuinely believe in America's most popular deity? Do you really think the guy who picked this sweet little inexperienced warmonger is really got fabulous judgment? Or is it perhaps just early signs of dementia? Her record just isn't that awesome, according to at least one former constituent. I'd say there's much to worry about here.

P.S. On a different subject, Ron Paul says don't vote for McCain or Obama, but for Nader. I'm not sure if a Paul/Nader alliance can actually mix-up politics in our country as we know it. Still, I find it interesting . . . Ideally, it's a move I'd like to see bear fruit and expand the number of parties participating in U.S. politics, but not at Obama's expense . . . Not this year!

Ike hits Texas instead

2008-09-13T16:11:00.002-05:00

One hates to breathe a sigh of relief at the misery of others, but most Baton Rouge residents are very, very relieved we only caught the edge of Ike. Of course, it was so powerful that there were still 40 mph to 50 mph wind gusts in the Baton Rouge area, which did cause a bit of additional damage. Still, that didn't set us back from Gustav too much, though the southwest of Louisiana may not be able to say that. Looks like Houston got hit hard this time.

Some people in BR still don't have their power back from Gustav, as it is. I'm sure a few lost their power again thanks to these minor effects from Ike. I actually didn't loose power again, though I did loose my Internet connection through cable for about 24 hours and finally got it back this afternoon. Basically, this one didn't cause me any grief at all. Just a lot of exciting wind.

Well, this is probably my last hurricane commentary (at least, for this year). I figure life won't feel completely back to normal 'til October, but at least the likelihood of another major hurricane is lessened for this season.

Wish us peace, especially as regards the weather. ;-)

Greg Epstein on Humanism

2008-09-09T14:21:00.004-05:00

I've been listening to the podcast of a fascinating show called Speaking of Faith. You could think of it as the religion-focused version of Fresh Air. It's a neat show. In any case, I find I'm interested in about a third of the episodes that get produced. Recently, Krista Tippett conducted an interview with Greg Epstein (podcast MP3 episode) that I found pretty thought provoking. Epstein is Harvard's humanist chaplain. He's one of those rare professional religious humanists who conducts his ministry outside of Unitarian Universalism (where I'd say about the one-third to one-half the ministers are religious humanists, if you pinned them down). He has a Jewish background and has a special interest in Jewish humanism (which is a very strong strand of the religious humanist spectrum, particularly outside of UUism). His describes how he's committed himself to an ethical life outside of religious faith within a community that shares his beliefs and does not profess the beliefs he doesn't share. Give it a listen if you have time.

Gustav problems subsiding -- but Ike?

2008-09-07T23:59:00.003-05:00

Well, many residents of South Louisiana are still waiting on power, though I believe all the parishes have reopened. I'm amongst those lucky ones to have his power back already, though my parents don't have theirs yet and many, many others don't. I actually got my power back on Thursday afternoon, but the Internet service wasn't restored until this afternoon. Having only been out of power for a little over three days, I feel really lucky. Still, things are starting to feel part-way normal again, which is nice.

But while the effects of Gustav begin to subside, we've now got to worry about Ike, another storm barreling our way. The latest projections I've seen show this one going significantly west of us (rather like Rita went west after Katrina). Still, the tension won't really pass until Ike passes . . . I'll keep y'all posted.

More Gustav -- rain and damage

2008-09-03T15:10:00.004-05:00

I wound up at work again today, so I thought I'd give y'all another update.

The wind and rain damage from Gustav turned out to be a little more extensive than I'd original thought, though not drastically so. There are lots of large old oak trees down in the older parts of town. Lots of damage all over town. Though deaths and injuries seem to have been relatively modest, given the chaos, the property damage will probably be the largest we've ever seen in this area. Probably the most expensive storm Baton Rouge has ever experienced.

To add a touch of symbolism . . . Many of the old oaks standing in the gardens in front of the State Capitol building have fallen over or lost large limbs. Those oaks have stood there for eighty or ninety years. They play a significant part in our local culture, you could say. They are a very popular place for brides to take wedding photos arrayed in their elaborate dresses . . . They will be missed.

They're now saying it may take up to a month for power to be restored to some parts of East Baton Rouge Parish. That's a lot worse than I'd anticipated, too. They're focusing on hospitals and major businesses first, which is fair. There was a tremendous amount of damage to the electric grid. There are thousands of lineworkers scurrying around right now. I wish those guys the best. With any luck, the rain will at least let up on them tomorrow.

I'm not actually sure if state employees will be returning to work (well, those lucky non-emergency kind) until Monday. State buildings still don't have power, which means there's nothing for office workers to do without computers, lights, fax machines, and what-not. We've got the main servers running thanks to generators, but there's only air-conditioning for the computers, not us hot, sticky humans. :-p That's fair, though. We adjust to the heat better than those machines and they're providing some very important information to the area and the world right now.

Wish us all luck on getting back lights and power before the end of September! I'll write about any further info I gather, but news, TV (33 & 44), and radio are probably your best bets. You probably won't hear from me again until I get power next week, though I may reply to some comments. All will be well. It's the guys doing the hard work of moving trees, restoring power, and preventing further flooding that I admire today . . .

Hurricane Gustav -- still lingering a bit in the BR area

2008-09-02T10:03:00.006-05:00

Baton Rouge is a sluggish, rainy city this morning covered in fallen tree limbs and branches, and quite often, simply entire trees. The electricity is out nearly everywhere. Only one radio station is really operating, but it's operating on more than one frequency today and providing good information. This one was pretty rough for the surrounding area, though not for me personally so much. I have a ton of tree crud in my yard, but no trees actually fell. For me, Katrina was worse in that a tree fell in my yard that time. However, overall, this storm was much worse than Katrina for the Baton Rouge area and it's being compared to Andrew by many people. After Katrina, most people had power back on within a few days. My power was only out one day during Katrina. But this time, they're telling people to be prepared for the power to be out for up to two weeks, which is very reminiscent of Andrew.

A whole lot of fences have been knocked down this morning because something heavy fell on them, but I didn't notice too many houses with damage, which is a blessing. There's lots of crap in the streets. Driving is a series of obstacle courses.

South of here, many of the parishes are still closed and have much heavier damage. New Orleans seems to have taken the hit relatively gracefully this time, which is a saving grace. Little Houma took it head-on, though. It's been many years since I visited Houma, but I wish them the best. It's a charming place with kind people who have a good sense of humour. Almost everyone evacuated there, but they won't be allowed to return until Friday at noon! I wish them all well wherever they have landed for the duration . . .

The state's emergency web-site is giving lots of info. I'm at the office today to provide some IT support, if required.

Lots is going on, but I actually think things will be feeling mostly back to normal by the end of next week . . . Except maybe for Terrebonne and some other coastal areas . . . Thankfully, though, much was learned after Katrina and Governor Jindal has staked his reputation on being better prepared in spades than his predecessor was during Katrina. So far, that motivation has led to many good things. Hopefully we'll prove to have weathered Gustav much better than Katrina, statewide. And that is very good thing . . . It's a glum day, but I think brighter days will be ahead soon.

Here's hoping no other storms head our way this season!

How to Steal Back the Spotlight

2008-08-29T14:41:00.002-05:00

OK, so, you're John McCain. You're in a tight political race. The Democrats just had a very successful, emotionally salient convention. They did a good job of putting you on the defensive. Now you have to conduct your convention next week. So, how do you make a splash and steal the spotlight back immediately???

Nominate a vice presidential candidate that nobody expects: Sarah Palin.

Managed to find an anti-abortion Republican female governor. Admittedly, some here in Louisiana may be disappointed that he passed over Bobby Jindal, but I must say that Palin is a much more attractive pick for McCain to make, on the surface.

It's an obvious ploy to appeal to some of the Hillary voters . . . Now let's see if it works!

I'm waiting to see what Michael has to say, myself . . .

Interesting Lecture by Hector Avalos

2008-08-04T17:53:00.004-05:00

Well, this is worth mulling over a bit:

Also, don't miss part two:

Avalos talks about things like P52 and other technical details of Biblical scholarship and Biblical archaeology from an openly atheist perspective. This guy is like a more strident, straightforward version of the much more famous scholar Bart Ehrman, who've I've blogged about in the past.

I might have to check out one of Avalos' books one of these days . . .

Very interesting article on the dilemmas of lust

2008-07-08T13:12:00.002-05:00

Almost every guy I know has had the back and forth conversation with himself and his male friends had in this article. The conclusion is a little disappointing and the author really, really wants to rationalize infidelity. He may be giving himself away too much . . . But the quick conversation with his wife near the end of it, that's the kicker.

One issue I don't think he explores very honestly is that all the sexual "arrangements" of the past were largely predicated on the lack of opportunities women had for fulfillment and excitement. Perhaps fewer situations catering to men's desires are inevitable in a post-feminist world . . . If such a world can last!

I will say that lust places strange pressures on men. Just read the article to get the idea . . .

Brooks thinks modern neurology will lead to quasi-Buddhism

2008-07-06T00:42:00.002-05:00

I think David Brooks makes an interesting case in this article that new findings in neurology will likely not reduce people's religiosity a whole lot, but might begin to change it significantly. He feels that the current wave of atheism really is chipping away at the "old time religion" that views the Bible as a literal account and dogmatically and stridently pontificates on the need to follow an orthodox law of a god. Instead, he thinks that the valuation of mystic experiences will heighten people's esteem for mysticism, and particularly, for western Buddhism. If so, that would be very interesting . . . But I'm not entirely sure I agree. While I believe what he describes could influence as many as the already-less-than-rigorously-traditional part of the American population (about a third, I'd guess), I find it hard to believe that the religious fabric of a culture could possibly change non-violently. I can't think of even one time in history when a major, well-organized religion that was well-ensconced in a society (as Christianity is in the U. S., but to a lesser degree also in Western Europe) actually shriveled away and became permanently smaller. Could I actually live to see this happen for the first time? Is it perhaps already happening in Western Europe. (Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union are a little different; atheistic thinking was enforced by state teachings for almost half a century; China is in similar straights. Japanese religion has become confused and diffuse, but only after we disestablished the state religion of Shinto by force during the U. S. occupation following WWII. Interestingly enough, the Zen Buddhism of Japan (the Buddhism that is most directly antecedent to the forms of Buddhism practiced by Westerners today (though the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hahn, and Vipassana have changed that a bit)) doesn't hold the attention of the majority of that country's population. Buddhism was never a majority religion in China or Japan, so far as I can tell, except perhaps (and maybe not even when) it had heavy state sponsorship. I suspect the same would be true of any places in the West where Buddhism truly takes root.

There is some evidence that organized religion is in steady and growing decline in Europe, though, and that it's being replaced, not by a philosophically rigorous naturalistic worldview, but by a vague and fluffy spirituality that finds things like psychics potentially plausible. A very consumerist spirituality, it would seem. This is akin to the religious mix that has arisen in Japan since WWII. I wonder if that's what democratic, capitalist societies characterized by religious freedom will eventually produce. A kind of diffuse spiritual glop . . . But I'm still not quite convinced. Maybe Brooks is onto something. Maybe it'll be a vague and consumeristic New Age future for faith, but I'm suspect that the old-time religion will continue to go down swinging (as it always has) and I suspect the old organizations may have more tricks up their sleeve than I'd like to believe or David Brooks can imagine . . . Your thoughts?

OK, maybe not such a lost tribe . . .

2008-06-24T10:13:00.002-05:00

Remember that uncontacted tribe in the Amazon rainforest that amazed everyone? OK, maybe it's not like they were so lost after all.

Maybe nobody's uncontacted anymore.

My Battlestar Galactica personality

2008-06-03T20:50:00.001-05:00

I know you were dying to know this!!! ;-)

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, folks. I've been having a distracting month or so. Everything has either been too complicated to blog or too unremarkable.

Later!!!

You will not be Expelled from my blog

2008-04-07T10:38:00.003-05:00

So, the demagogues of the Creationism movement have put out a new film that will be opening around the country soon called Expelled and it stars long-time right-wing funnyman Ben Stein, whose monotone voice will be familiar to anybody who has had much contact with American media for the past few decades. I first found out about this movie in a roundabout way. I was surfing YouTube about a week ago and came across this funny and effectively produced piece of Intelligent Design (i.e. modern Creationism) propaganda, which shows all the hallmarks of having been created by the guys at JibJab, and specifically parodying Richard Dawkins, Eugenie Scott, Daniel Dennett, PZ Myers, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and many historical moments in the debate over Creationism. So, I started checking around about the video and eventually found the Expelled website, which includes a different (less forthright) JibJab video parodying many of the leading lights of the recently labeled "New Atheists" movement (though Eugenie Scott only seems to discuss her religion (or lack thereof) when asked and hasn't published the sorts of things the others have). Expelled promises to do for the Intelligent Design movement what Fahrenheit 9/11 did for opponents of George Bush in the 2004 elections: provide a snarky, emotionally-charged, one-sided docudrama that proves very little and preaches admirably to the choir. I'll probably hear about it from many, many people around me here in fundieland . . . <groans loudly>

First of all, the film claims that "Darwinism" (the supposed "philosophy" or "religion" of following Darwin's teachings; as if the science and theory of natural selection has not subtly changed and grown after over a century and a half of scientific scrutiny and debate) is now the "dogma" of >ahem< "Big Science." A hostile interview of Richard Dawkins (according to Dawkins, cleverly and misleadingly edited) is a centerpiece of the film. The proposition here is that a dogmatic movement is crushing free speech and real debate in the realm of science, particularly biology. In general, the film contrasts the idea that "a loving God" created all things with the idea that we all come from lightning striking a mud puddle. While no one has claimed to be able to have a good, thorough, scientific theory of the chemical precursors of biological life and how they arose naturally, the film likes to parody this vacuum of knowledge by focusing on its over-simplification of only one of the many mechanisms proposed as a possible generator of the pre-cursors of single-celled life. This entirely side-steps the issue that whether or not the origins of life were theological has absolutely no effect on the evidence for and veracity of the theory of evolution by natural selection.

They proceed to interview a lot of people who have supposedly been overly persecuted for breaking with the "dogma of Darwinism" and deposed from academic jobs or high scientific posts because they proposed that only an intelligent creator could be responsible for the genesis of life. It would seem that the "dogma" of "Darwinism" has only been maintained by a fascist-like policy of expelling anyone who would dare to propose that God created life in a scientific context or allow someone to publish something that implies that. The film side-steps the issue of whether or not somebody could possibly produce quantifiable, material evidence for such a proposition and pays no attention to the fact that all discussions in science require quantifiable, material, replicable proof for discussion. Proposing that a vast, complex intelligence preceded everything in the universe is an extraordinary claim requiring compelling, quantifiable, material proof for substantiation. It is entirely understandable that someone could be removed from a scientific post if they do not provide evidence for a scientific proposition. But the film ignores the basic premise of all science and tries to cast this as a free-speech issue, as if discussing science is like discussing the conflicting interpretations of Jane Austen's Emma. In reality, the theory of natural selection (first formulated by Darwin and others in the late 1850s), has proven to have enormous predictive power in anticipating how fossils would be distributed in the sediment layers of the earth, predicting a gradually mutating mechanism of heritability (actually explained in detail by Watson & Crick in 1953 (building on work by Franklin)), explaining the relatedness of various species (including similarities in morphology, physiology, and biochemistry), and providing a crtical plank in the foundation of modern biology.

Mostly, the film uses a broad brush to attempt to paint all proponents of the theory of the evolution of species by the natural selection of randomly occurring mutations as also being defenders of Social Darwinism and essentially in line with the eugenic thinking of Nazis, which led to the Holocaust. The narration of Ben Stein (who is Jewish) is used with great effect to attempt to convince the audience of this film that accepting evolutionary theory and the naturalistic account of the origins of life (which is called a "materialistic" account throughout the film, which allows for the convenient conflation of the philosophical meaning of "materialist" (one who believes all existent things are material) with the popular definition of "materialist" (a person who is focused on non-living material things as their primary source of gratification, i.e. somebody who tries to buy happiness)) is tantamount to declaring yourself a closet Nazi who would like to exterminate those you consider lesser peoples.

The film calls for allowing "free speech" in the science classroom so that we can allow children to decide between the "good" evidence for a benign Creator or the utterly "random" evolution of life from natural causes. The film seems to take a definite view on which idea could possibly be rational and which could not.

Here's hoping that this movie is a little drip in the pan which can be quickly and easily ignored. I heard Ben Stein on the radio this morning being interviewed by James Dobson on his program Focus on the Family. Dobson was congratulating Ben Stein on his long-time advocacy of pro-life and anti-abortion causes as well as his new Intelligent Design documentary. Dobson and his co-host simply felt Stein is a hero. They are all hoping that the movie has a really deep impact and makes people consider the issue of Creationism from a more sympathetic and accepting angle.

And here's an amusing side-note from PZ Myers.

I'm so glad the boss has a sense of humour!!

2008-02-12T10:01:00.000-06:00

I got this from my deputy director today. We don't always see eye-to-eye, but a sense of humour goes a long way!!! ;-)

Deleted "The Church Critics" blog today

2008-02-11T15:59:00.000-06:00

Despite having lofty(ish) goals at the beginning, the Church Critics blog turned out to be a cause of contention more often than a place for fun and insights. What did I learn from that blog in the end? It became a big reminder that people take their religion quite seriously and get extremely irrate if you objectively assess their practices from a bland, secular point of view.

Plus, writing weekly reviews of new denominations every week was damn hard work!

And finally, it was yet another lesson in what I've ultimately learned is the rock-bottom truth for me in all spiritual quests: Religion makes me crazy!!!!

So, with Astra Skadi's request, I've deleted the blog. I have to thank Astra for humouring me during that period of time. It was a hell of an undertaking and she was very nice about the whole thing.

Well, enough of that . . .

Chuck Norris doesn't have a 'Ctrl' key on his computer

2008-02-07T16:59:00.000-06:00

For those of you craving a little Chuck Norris truthiness, go check out some facts about the man. Because he is the man.

Well, except that he's a Republican and supporting Mike Huckabee for president. Oh, well . . . He's not the man because of his politics . . .

Ubuntu on Dells

2008-02-01T14:59:00.000-06:00

Interesting video about Ubuntu Linux on Dell computers. This will also give you a very partial, introductory picture to some of what I use at work . . .

Day for announcing change

2008-01-07T10:05:00.000-06:00

Partly inspired by TQ, I've decided to rename this blog. Truth is that I almost never comment about being a Louisianian, and in fact, the name of my blog has made me realize how very little I do feel tied to my state. Truly, I'm much more pleased to be an American than a Louisianian, and actually, I think I'm even more pleased to live in a culture that's clearly something of an heir to the Enlightenment spirit than I am of any geographic or national affiliations. (And Louisiana has way, way too many counter-enlightenment tendencies for my tastes . . . Superstitious lot of ignorant buggers around her, generally . . .) If anything, declaring myself a "Louisianian" for so long in a public place has made me seriously question my attachment to my birthplace more than just about anything else ever has. In questioning it, I've realized I may have made something of a mistake in choosing to remain here all these years . . . But in all honesty, it's quite hard to believe that I'd be happier anywhere else!!! ;-)

Don't get me wrong: I adore my quirky, local, rich, and varied south Louisiana culture, as there is nothing else quite like it. But as much as I often feel near it, I can't say I've ever really felt of it. More and more, I think of myself as apart from local culture. I am an oddball and I think I'll embrace that and avoid labeling myself in terms of geographical, national, or ethnic labels in the future. Such identities probably cause more trouble than they solve, in any case . . .

As for the new name, well . . . Who is going to dispute that I'm a nonsensical nerd? ;-)

Seein' somebody

2008-01-07T10:01:00.001-06:00

OK, in the past, you've all read some wonderful moaning and groaning about being single and having trouble finding a good relationship on this blog. Well, for almost five months now, things have been increasingly different. I'm dating a wonderful woman who I find more and more appealing all the time. :-)

I haven't thought-up a nickname for her yet (and I really don't blog my personal life all that much these days, for various reasons . . .), but I will have to cook one up and start blogging about her and the changes she brings to my life.

:-)

A "Jungian" personality test and my results

2008-01-07T08:47:00.001-06:00

My personality?

INTJ - "Mastermind". Introverted intellectual with a preference for finding certainty. A builder of systems and the applier of theoretical models. 2.1% of total population.

Free Jung Word Test (similar to Myers-Briggs)
personality tests by similarminds.com

Though this test is a bit flawed (specific questions would improve it enormously), this is about right.

I took a lot of these in college (more along the lines of Myers-Briggs) and I seem to remember showing up more often as an INTP. I have become a lot more introverted than I was back then. The "INT" part has definitely remained a lot of who I am. And actually, shifting from P to J may have done some to get me a little more grounded. I used to not worry as much about how my toughts intersected reality. I think the J has become more prominent as my beliefs have become much more definite in light of having to test them against reality for a decade or so . . . I'm much more certain of some truths now!

Apparently, I'm a genetic dork

2007-12-12T15:36:00.000-06:00

I indeed have a longer index finger than ring finger. So, I'm apparently more prone to hard sciences than social sciences and education. That must've been my problem when majoring in psyc . . . ;-)

Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!!!

2007-12-10T10:18:00.000-06:00

My "little" brother (who has a few inches on me) turns me on to the funniest shit!

Birth control pills for men! Well, male rats, anyway . . .

2007-12-07T17:00:00.000-06:00

So, a rat is not a man, really (though some men are rats; seems unfair to the rats), but the hormones that this pill works on are similar enough in men and rats that its presumed this will work on human males, too. (Watch the FDA, so scrupulous and worried about birth control options for women approve this without blinking. Bastu'ds!!!)

Personally, I really like the idea. I might even consider being an early adopter of it! And then when my leg falls off, they can recall the pills . . . We'll see! I really like the idea! It's been a long time coming . . .

Argument to spend more money on education in the South

2007-12-07T16:50:00.000-06:00

Oh, stars and planets, what a shame . . .

Amazon Kindle

2007-11-21T16:14:00.000-06:00

Oh, yeah!!!!!!! I've wanted something like this for years and years and years. Screw an iPod, babe!!!! I'm saving my pennies for a Kindle this year!!!!

Whoooooooooooooooot!!!!!

My age at heart?

2007-11-10T17:05:00.000-06:00

Well, duh . . .

You Are 27 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

See, Sara had one, so I needed one, too . . .

Crackberry

2007-11-09T09:03:00.000-06:00

TED talk: Journey to the Center of Your Mind!!

2007-10-24T20:51:00.000-05:00

Very cool information about brain functionality!!

Check out other TED talks at YouTube! They aren't all good, but some of them are fantastic. I liked this one, too, though it's nowhere near as good as the one I featured here . . .

I want one!!

2007-10-05T15:46:00.000-05:00

Check out this electric car owned by Jay Leno:

If I had a spare 10 to 20 grand lying around, I might really be tempted to get one of these!

The "New" Atheists -- a few interesting notes

2007-09-17T04:25:00.001-05:00

Really not a lot to this one, folks. Just three interesting articles: Jonathan Haidt on Moral Psyc, Religion, and the New Atheists, some responses to Haidt, and a Wired article on why being a very militant public atheist is really difficult for most of us. That last article makes a lot of sense to me, though I really appreciated what P. Z. Myers said in response to Haidt, too.

I was flipping through Hitchens' God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything at the bookstore the other day, too. Man, Christopher Hitchens can really throw some rhetorical punches . . . Anyway, not really worth buying, but an interesting book to browse through.

Oh, another intesting note . . . One of the writers primarily responsible for my flirtation with Episcopalianism, Carl McColman, has apparently become a Catholic, as explained on his blog starting around January 2005. Carl was raised Lutheran, then became an Episcopalian, then became a Pagan of some sort (perhaps a Druid?), and finally decided to convert to Catholicism . . . Well, for now. ;-) I've decided that I need to think of Carl (and that other writer who inspired me to undertake my Anglican experiments, Bishop J. S. Spong) as an example of who I do not want to be . . . I simply must continually remind myself that religion makes me crazy!!! But I'll probably continue to blog about it, anyway . . .

Why people get afraid of commitment

2007-09-12T18:44:00.000-05:00

"Could be worse. The last guy in that situation fell for one of the transient trumpeting angels."

Robert D. Kaplan -- Embracing American Empire

2007-09-11T15:23:00.000-05:00

OK, so I'm watching PBS the other day and was happy to see an episode of their America at a Crossroads series coming on. Though the series isn't exactly a font of joy, it tends to send people to the sites of action and cover the situations involved with the War on Terror, and sometimes even actions against terrorism. The show has covered some pro-interventionist types before, such as an episode showcasing Richard Perle and his views on the Iraq War and "spreading democracy". The most recent episode (linked in the posts title) covered Robert D. Kaplan's view of America's Imperialism and why he thinks it's a good and nearly necessary thing. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

I've mentioned the idea of American Empire in a previous post on Chalmers Johnson. Johnson tends to find the idea of an American Empire distasteful and disturbing, as I do myself. What was astonishing was how comfortable, positive, and constructive Kaplan finds the idea of American Empire. Kaplan thinks that we need to intervene strategically with our military all over the world, continuously. He feels that if we don't do this, we'll either have to fight large wars periodically (which are much worse than these continuous, little interventions everywhere) or allow large, rival empires to grow. Kaplan feels the little interventions can fight off both of the other possibilities effectively.

I tend to side with Chalmers Johnson and many others against Kaplan and the more blatant neo-cons like Perle. They seem to think military interventions solve problems and help allies, who will become more like us and increase the spread of Western values. However, this position seems to ignore the fact that both Iraq and Afghanistan represent areas where we intervened, armed the locals, and used them as proxies against our enemies. Worked out real well, don'cha think??? While there are times when force must be met with force, we seem to be leaving a legacy of agression and resentment in all-too-many parts of the world with few of the pay-offs that Kaplan and others seem to feel so many of our military interventions bring.

I'm beginning to worry that a new axis of American politics will soon develop as the idea that American Empire is a good thing spreads, to the horror of most Americans . . . What a shame that Americans might be forgetting why we don't want to be an Imperial power!!!

Un'uh'stan'in' ya shaw'tie

2007-08-30T14:29:00.000-05:00

OK, forgive my attempt at dialect there . . .

That link is too funny, though. (Click the title of this entry.)

BSG, Season 3, whatta 'bout me?

2007-08-13T16:53:00.000-05:00

Dear Sci-fi Channel,

Y'all are fuckin' up. It's about time you released Battlestar Galactica's third season onto DVD. I know dang well y'all already released the British version and it's time you allowed yer fellow countrymen a good look at it, too.

WUZZUP, BIOTCHES!!!!???!!!! Waerz mI DVDs?????

Man, I'm pheenin' 'em . . .

[Book Review] How The Bible Works: An Anthropological Study of Evangelical Biblicism by Brian Malley

2007-08-06T21:35:00.000-05:00

This short, dense little volume presents a cognitive, anthropological approach to how Evangelical churches in the U. S. operate. Malley collected data at a mid-sized Baptist church. As he came from a deeply fundamentalist background (and he distinguishes evangelicals from fundamentalists), he knows the Bible very well and could fit into a Baptist church's workings unobtrusively. He explains his methodology in the first chapter and then gets right into the meat of the book. In the second chapter, he examines what the Bible is to evangelicals and concludes that they think of the Bible as a category of texts, which they mostly recognize through the conventions of Bible publishing and through familiarity with the meaning of key stories and passages. In the third chapter, he examine the interpretive methods used by evangelicals in reading and encountering the Bible and the traditions they use as a framework. He concludes that there is no consistent set of interpretive methods used by evangelicals in extracting meaning from the Bible. Instead, evangelicals have inherited a set of beliefs that they relate to the Bible by finding parts of the Bible that support the beliefs of their tradition and finding explanations that neutralize conflicting passages. The evangelical tradition functions by leaving the method of Biblical interpretation very open, which allows individuals to find meaning in the Bible in any way they can. However, evangelical traditions set certain bounds on this interpretation, to keep the community committed to each other and the tradition itself. In the fourth chapter, Malley examines how evangelicals conceive of the authority of the Bible. He concludes that evangelicals are taught to trust in the divine inspiration of the original authors of the Bible, though they do not have a very clear idea of what that actually means. However, by trusting that inspiration granted the Bible absolute authority, evangelicals have placed the problem of Biblical authority in the remote and mysterious past. Further, though evangelicals claim to be committed to the literal meaning of the Bible, this is a belief that sets bounds on their tradition, but is quite often violated in fact. The belief in Biblical authority and the connection of all beliefs to the Bible is more important than deriving a consistent and thorough understanding and practice based on the plain sense meaning of the Bible. Malley ties all these findings together in the final chapter. He critiques past studies that have identified evangelical Christianity with a literal belief in the Bible without examining how that belief functions and actually gets expressed. He points out that the belief in the inspiration of the Bible functions to justify the belief in Biblical authority, and thus, that the belief in Biblical inspiration is perhaps the key unquestionable matter of evangelical faith. Being so absolute, this belief is more important for the cognitive consequences it produces than because of the literal details of the belief itself. He states that this is true of other religions, as well: the beliefs that establish the authority of holy scriptures are less important than the cognitive consequence of establishing an unassailable ground for the authority of them, and in fact, contradictory beliefs about the source of that authority can coexist without any problem so long as the contradicting beliefs all lead to the same cognitive consequence of faith in the holy scripture. He goes on to reemphasize how the Bible is used as a reference point for all beliefs and as a font of inspiration for evangelicals, which keeps the tradition vibrant and dynamic, but that it's important that the tradition not become a mere matter of preserving a strict, pre-determined, and rigidly literal reading of the Bible, as this would make the tradition quickly become static and stale. By creating a situation in which people expect to find a great deal of meaning within a sizable and traditional category of texts, evangelicals have created a vibrant tradition in which people continually find relevance and meaning within a broad network of committed communities.

I found the book interesting, though it largely simply reinforced understandings I already had. The rewards were in the details, for me, such as when Malley described the activity in which very young children were taught to pat their Bibles while singing a song, as a way to inculcate affection for the book. His carefully argued thesis did a great deal to illuminate the practical, social, and psychological structure of evangelical belief systems. In the end, I felt myself more sympathetic with evangelical communities and more understanding of the importance they hold to the individuals committed to them. Malley has done a great deal to help us understand the function and structure of the fastest growing form of religion in United States.

For all that, I only recommend this one to people with a strong interest in anthropology or religion. It's a dense book filled with a lot of tedious detail, mostly only interesting to those interested in the science of religion or the workings of the evangelical movement.

All U. S. television is going digital -- old TVs will become obsolete

2007-08-01T19:12:00.000-05:00

And this is happening rather soon: February 18,2009. After that, you either have to buy an "inexpensive" converter box to put on your old analog TV or by a brand new digital TV. Oi!

So, I'm starting to price new TVs . . .

Finished reading the new Harry Potter . . .

2007-07-24T09:56:00.000-05:00

. . . and damn, it was all kind of good.

I anticipated a few things she did, but surely got surprised by a lot of the plot twists. The ending was incredibly satisfying. :-) Not a super-shocker, but so so sooooo satisfying. Lots of sadness, but lots of joy, too.

I don't want to ruin it for anybody. So, I'll reserve any spoilers for discussions that may take place in the comments. If you're avoiding spoilers, DON'T READ THE COMMENTS!!!

Amazon delivered on their promise . . . though they failed to deliver Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2007-07-21T19:25:00.000-05:00

Still, I'm essentially satisfied. Amazon came through for me, even if UPS and the USPS totally dropped the ball!!!!

So, today was the big release date for the new Harry Potter novel. Back on April 2nd, I was getting hyped and decided to order it from Amazon using their "Guaranteed Release-Date Delivery." And as today approached, I just got more and more hyped, even though I began to realize that this meant I was sitting at home today until the book arrived. Dull way to spend a Saturday, but I figured not so bad . . . I did some laundry, caught-up on a little paperwork, lazed about, kept stepping outside to see if I'd missed any deliveries or anything, stayed in my night-clothes all day, and generally got more and more frustrated as the day wore on . . . Finally, it was 6 PM. Delivery was guaranteed by 6 PM. A notice showed-up on the Amazon site saying, gee, sorry, some of 'em are late, but we're trying to get them to you by 7 PM. By this time, I'd called UPS with my tracking number and they informed me that they'd delivered the package to the USPS for final delivery. OK. Then I checked my status on their web-site. Then I saw this:

Location: BATON ROUGE, LA, US
Date: 07/21/2007
Local Time: 1:18 P.M.
Description: NOTICE LEFT / PACKAGE WILL BE DELIVERED NEXT BUSINESS DAY-NO SATURDAY GUARANTEE

OK, so NOW I'm pissed. I've been sitting home all fuckin' day waiting on my package to arrive. There is no notice outside (as I've checked about twenty-five fuckin' times for something like that), there was no audible knock on my door (especially not around 1:18 PM), and I damn well still qualify for my Saturday guarantee. I was beginning to think that the USPS, UPS, and Amazon were colluding to screw me out of my Saturday and still not get me my promised refund.

I called UPS back (at 1-800-PICK-UPS). I was again cheerily told that the package had been handed over to the USPS for delivery. I asked for the USPS package ID. That seemed to trip-up my operator. She said that she could not provide that and that the USPS was responsible for any failed delivery. Now, I ask you, dear reader: Would they have status info from the final delivery if there was no USPS tracking number? Aren't they responsible for choosing whom to sub-contract for a task? I stated clearly (politely, but firmly) to the operator that I held everyone in the chain of ownership to be responsible. She again seemed to hesitate. So, she gives me a number to contact the USPS (1-800-ASK-USPS) and I (foolishly) took her up on this option and thanked her for her time. (I suspect she took a big sigh of relief after getting me off the phone. I was not givin' any ground 'til that point, after all.) So, I call the USPS and it's an automated service. At every turn, it asks me for my package number. When I gave it my UPS package number (since the useless UPS help desk could not accurately give me the USPS package number that was attached to the order when it was transferred to their hands), the phone service would do the electronic equivalent of choking on it and asking REPEATEDLY again and again for the package number. It would not transfer me to a live human being. Which is probably good for any live human being they might have hired: my main demand would have been that they change the erroneous report made back to UPS above. The complete inability of UPS to take responsibility for its own actions and the utter failure of our nation's postal service to provide me with a way to dispute their own incompetence had me pretty mad. I'd waited at home for this ALL GODDAMN DAY. I centered my whole day on this one delivery and they ERRONEOUSLY reported on the status of the order: no notice of a failure to deliver was left with me and I sure as FUCK was GODDAMN HOME ALL AFTERNOON, INCLUDING AT 1:18 FUCKIN' PM. No attempt to deliver the product had been made. So, raspberries and dirty-arsed moons to UPS and the USPS: y'all fucked up. Also, y'all were no damn help.

So, I'm very angry, feelin' geeky and stupid to have centered my whole day on this, and not at all satisfied with my Amazon experience. This is really suckin' big time. BIG time.

So, I poked around on the Amazon web-site and found their "Help" link in the upper right hand corner. There's a "Contact Us" box in the right-hand column with a "Customer Service" button. I sure needed some service, so I clicked the button, signed in with my Amazon account, selected the "Phone" tab, and pressed the "Call Me" button. I then entered my telephone number in the pop-up, selected that I wanted to be called "Right now," pressed "Submit" . . . And I'll be damned if the phone didn't ring right then!! (Got to give 'em some credit: that's pretty damn slick.) It was an automated service, but I was speaking to a live person (without using a menu) within two or three minutes. (That's real good service. Kudos to Amazon.) And then I launched into my explanation of events as calmly as I could, though perhaps not entirely calmly at this point, and finally said that I thought I deserved my refund for failed delivery. And he agreed with me. And by the terms of the agreement, he refunded me the $17.99. It should be deposited in my account within a few days. And I still get the book.

So, kudos to Amazon. They said they'd get me the book today or get me a refund. The book didn't arrive, and despite the fact that the USPS stated that I had violated the delivery agreement by not being at home and did not leave notice as they said they had, Amazon trusted me more than the USPS and made good on our agreement: they gave me my refund. If only UPS and the USPS had customer service as efficient as Amazon's, I wouldn't have gotten all that perturbed at all. Hell, had the post office even actually left a notice, I would have simply trusted that I had zoned out and failed to hear a knock on the door. I'd've let it go and GOT ON WITH MY DAY (by about 1:30 PM, actually, which would have left me with a lot of the day left). The only problem I have with the whole situation is that (1) I wound up sitting home all day for nothing and (2) I had such a damn annoying experience of and received no help from UPS and the USPS.

In any case, I hope this helps others who find themselves in my situation. Also, although Amazon left me satisfied and retained my business with their gracious and honorable behavior, I won't attempt to take them up on any special offers resembling this one in the future. I've long know my local USPS office is unreliable, and yet it appears that Amazon, UPS, and many other providers must rely upon them to get packages to me. I will simply accept in the future that there is NO WAY anything can be delivered to my house on a tight schedule in a timely fashion, especially on a Saturday. Further, I need to remain aware that my local post office personnel are apparently liars. I was home and no notice was left, yet they reported exactly otherwise. I never even heard anyone turn into my gravel drive-way or knock on my door. (I almost always hear both.) They could not have accurately reported what occurred. Shame on that postal carrier!

Bottom line: Amazon is still an honorable and trusted company. They did what they said they would. Cheers to Amazon.

(Now, should I go ahead and buy another copy of HPatDH so I can start reading it now or should I just wait 'til I get my copy (eventually) from the USPS . . . Hmmmmmmm.)

Creating a "Modem Tool" in Xfce 4.4 (particularly as part of Xubuntu)

2007-06-24T21:11:00.000-05:00

This is intended as a brief note for anybody using an Xfce Linux desktop and a modem.

When I recently installed Xubuntu 7.04, I had to use a modem for Internet connectivity for a while. I began researching to find good modem applets that could be used in the Xfce Panel. I quickly found I didn't like the options available to me. The Xfce Modem Lights plugin isn't really ready. Using the Xfapplet plugin in combination with the GNOME modem plugin did not give satisfying results, especially as the Network Administration Tool was not configuring the modem properly. After some tinkering, I devised a more satisfying work around using 'wvdial' and an Xfce Panel Launcher. I'll present it here and I hope it can help somebody (though probably not my regular blog readers).

(BTW, to install 'wvdial' on Xubuntu, run 'sudo apt-get install wvdial' at the command prompt, or alternatively, run Synaptic from the Applications menu and select the 'wvdial' package for install beneath the main Communication section. If you're using a non-Ubuntu distribution of Linux, you'll need to look at that distribution's documentation or mailing lists for how to install WvDial or compile WvDial from source.)

First, configure 'wvdial' by running 'sudo wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf' and then editing the resulting '/etc/wvdial.conf' file to add your Internet Service Provider's [ISP's] phone number, your login name, and your password. (If you don't know the phone number, login name, or password, call your ISP to find out.) You can use your modem's documentation and WvDial reference materials to further customize your '/etc/wvdial.conf' file, if desired. (I provide the example of my own '/etc/wvdial.conf' file below. However, that file almost certainly will not suit your needs.) You might want to run 'man wvdial.conf' to figure out more about configuring 'wvdial'. In particular, you might want to consider creating multiple dialer profiles. For instance, one for dialing your ISP with the modem's speaker on (so you can listen to the progress) and one for dialing your ISP with the speaker disabled (so you don't bother any guests you may have with a loud modem dialer). A series of 'wvdial' profiles can help you account for many possibilities . . . For more detail on 'wvdial' configuration, though, you should search the web and perhaps read the FAQ at the WvDial home page. Once you're confident you've got 'wvdial' configured and you can dial into your ISP from the command-line, you're ready to build your graphical dialer tool in Xfce!

To begin, figure out where on your Xfce Panel you want your "modem dialing applet" to be. Right-click the item to the left of it and select "Add New Item". Select "Launcher: Program launcher with optional menu" from the resulting dialog box's list (it should be the first item) and then press "Add". You'll then notice the "gear-wheel" icon of the new, empty launcher appearing on your Panel, along with the "Program Launcher" dialog box before you.

Now, we'll configure the first item in the new launcher. In the "Command" entry, put 'wvdial' (if you put all your dialer info in the '[Dialer Defaults]' stanza of '/etc/wvdial.conf') or 'wvdial <profile name>' (if you did not place all your dialer info in the default stanza, use the name of your primary 'wvdial' profile, as specified in the name of its stanza in '/etc/wvdial.conf' (e.g. '[Dialer AOhelL]'), in the place of '<profile name>' (e.g. 'wvdial AOhelL'); this is what I recommend, as it is more flexible later). In the "Name" and "Description" entries, use something that lets you know the function of this entry (which is dialing into the Internet). You should also pick out an appropriate icon. You don't need to change anything else. This gives you your primary dialer icon and it should be already visible in the Xfce Panel in which you are configuring it.

Next, press the square button containing a '+' in a circle. This creates a new item in your Launcher (and you should notice a small downward-pointing triangle appear next to the Laucher within the Xfce Panel) that we are going to configure so that you can hang-up your modem. In the "Command" entry, put 'skill HUP -c wvdial -c pppd', which will disconnect your modem connection gracefully. In the "Name" and "Description" entries, use something that lets you know the function of this entry (which is hanging-up your Internet connection), and pick out an appropriate icon. You now have the basics of a modem tool in Xfce!!! This alone should be enough to allow you to make and break a modem connection.

You can do a few things to enhance this modem tool a little further. First of all, if you created more than one profile in '/etc/wvdial.conf', you can create icons for your additional profiles by creating further items in your launcher, as you did in the previous two paragraphs. (I provide the example of how I created icons in relation to my own '/etc/wvdial.conf' file below.)

You can also place a network monitoring applet beside your new Launcher to see your network usage across the modem. To do this, right-click on your new modem Launcher and select "Add New Item". Select "Network Monitor: Show network traffic" from the resulting dialog box's list and then press "Add". You'll notice the word "Net" appear to the right of your Launcher icon with two blank bars next to it and an "Edit Properties; Network Monitor" dialog box will appear. The main thing is to specify a "Network device" of 'ppp0' (which will almost certainly be the network device created when you dial into your ISP; check the output of 'ifconfig' after dialing into your ISP, to ensure this is correct). I also changed "Text to display" to 'Dialer' and then unchecked the box on the left of "Text to display" anyway. Here's what my configuration looked like for the Network Monitor applet:

<unchecked> Text to display: Dialer
Network device: ppp0
Update interval: 0.25 s
-----------------------------
<checked> Automatic maximum
Maximum (incoming): 4.00 kByte/s
Maximum (outgoing): 4.00 kByte/s
-----------------------------
Bar color (incoming): <default orange>
Bar color (outgoing): <default yellow>

Click the "Close" button to finish configuring the Network Monitor applet. If you are not connected to your ISP when you configure the Network Monitor applet, a few errors with the following text will pop-up: "Xfce4-Netload-Plugin: Error in initalizing: Interface was not found." Click "Close" on each one of them (there will probably be three of them). If you did get the errors, don't worry about them: the applet should still work when you connect. You should now see two blank bars to the right of your modem Launcher menu. These bars will display the incoming and outgoing network traffic after you dial into your ISP and will help to indicate to you if your connection is working properly. (Note: if you're on a very slow system (with an old processor or very little memory), you may not want to configure the Network Monitor applet as part of your modem tool: it does use some memory and some resources!)

To use your new Xfce modem tool, press the Launcher icon on the Xfce Panel to start making the connection. Once the connection is made, press the small arrow to the right of the icon and the hang-up icon will appear in a menu beneath your first icon. Press the hang-up icon and your connection should close immediately, so that your phone line is again free for other uses. You're in business!

For the sake of reference and example, here's my '/etc/wvdial.conf' file (slightly altered for the sake of anonymity):


[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 L1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 &U17 +FCLASS=0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
ISDN = 0
New PPPD = yes
Modem = /dev/ttyS2
Baud = 115200

[Dialer AOhelL]
Phone = !!!!,,*70W3862277
Username = fondfire
Password = PaSSw0rD

[Dialer AOhelL_quiet]
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 L0 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 &U17 +FCLASS=0
Phone = !!!!,,*70W3862277
Username = fondfire
Password = PaSSw0rD

This file is very unlikely to work for you! Keep in mind that you need to check your modem documentation to figure out the init strings that your modem will recognize as valid commands and what dialing commands you can use in the "Phone" string, but the ones in this example have worked well for me. Also, keep in mind that your local telephone system will dictate certain dialing codes. (In my local telephone system, '*70' disables call waiting for the duration of the phone call. This means callers trying to reach me will not knock me off the Internet when they call me.) Call your telephone provider to learn about the dialing codes on your telephone system. And again, search the web for more detail on configuring '/etc/wvdial.conf'. Or get some help from your local geek. ;-)

(Configuring WvDial is definitely the hardest part of this.)

Further, here is how I configured my own Xfce Launcher (on Xubuntu 7.04):

First Item:
Name: Dialer
Description: Dial-up with WvDial
Icon: /usr/share/icons/gnome/32x32/devices/gnome-modem.png
Command: wvdial AOhelL
<nothing checked>

Second Item:
Name: Hang-up
Description: End WvDial connection
Icon: /usr/share/icons/gnome/32x32/status/connect_no.png
Command: skill HUP -c wvdial -c pppd
<nothing checked>

Third Item:
Name: Quiet Dialer
Description: Dial-up silently with WvDial
Icon: /usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/status/stock_volume-mute.svg
Command: wvdial AOhelL_quiet
<'Run in terminal' checked; all else remains unchecked>

To conclude, here's a screenshot of the modem "applet" "in-use" on my desktop with the Launcher's configuration box open, a close-up of the modem "applet", and a screenshot of the modem "applet" when it's not in use. It has worked very well for me and modem dialing is easy for me now, as it should be.

If you have any questions about this, post them as comments. I may not be able to help you, but I'll try.

My life in high geekdom -- the last two months

2007-06-07T08:58:00.001-05:00

Hi, everyone! Sorry I've "been away" for so long.

Things have been quite busy since April wrapped-up. At work, the budget ballooned near the end of our fiscal year (it ends on June 30th) and they wanted to acquire a lot of new things while the money is available. The meetings and configuration double-checking has taken-up a lot of time. Preparatory upgrades and installs have taken-up more. And everything is arriving right now! And then we have to actually implement it. Things have been crazy!

At home, the new computer has proven immensely distracting. Though I did not receive exactly what I thought I was going to receive in my earlier post (most importantly, I misunderstood the memory configuration; instead of 4 2GB memory cards, I received four memory cards for a total of 2 GB :-p ), I've really immensely enjoyed installing and configuring the new workstation. Xubuntu absolutely rocks, as does the wider Ubuntu distribution and its community, generally. It's the best form of Linux I've ever used for personal home computing. One of it's many distractions is a multitude of free video games! I beat one called Project: Starfighter that was immensely fun, and before I got sucked into that one, I spent a lot of time playing Freedroid, too, as well as half a dozen little minor games. I haven't just been playing, though. I've also been configuring odds and ends of it. For one thing, I'm using the AMD64 version of Ubuntu rather than the i386 version. It's very nice to be using truly 64-bit software, but there were some compatibility problems I had to work around, particularly with playing video and audio files, but that's mostly resolved now. Oh, and I spent a lot of time installing Xubuntu onto my old computer so that my uncle could use it. (I finally got the Lexmark z600 printer driver for Linux installed on his computer last night; converting that package into Debian format and configuring his Lexmark X1150 to work with Linux was a massive pain in the ass!!! I'm so glad that's through!!) In any case, I've been in geek ecstacies, both at work and at home. I can't remember the last time I geeked out this much for this long!!

It's been compounded by the fact that I can't stand reading non-fiction or anything serious lately. I've been reading a lot of sci-fi, instead. Ursala K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed was incredible; it integrated ideas about politics, art, science, and culture into a seemless unity that cannot be described adequately at second-hand. A true masterpiece! I finally read the copy of Zelazney's Lord of Light that I picked-up at a sci-fi bookshop in Berkeley when I visited the San Francisco Bay area for a Solaris class three years ago. That one was a little hokey at times, but the basic concept was intriguing, though perhaps terribly impious for Hindus. After that, I read Niven's Ringworld, which got downright silly at times, but easily kept my interests captivated between the alien psychologies, their civilizations, and the mind-blowing concept of a ringworld itself. At the moment, I'm trudging through Dick's The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, which isn't really (or at least, not during the first 80%; I'm not through yet) sci-fi at all, though almost everything else he published is. This was the last novel he wrote before dying and it is quite bleak. Yet for me (and other PKD fans), there are so many bittersweet moments and so much joy between the agonies and apathies he portrays. (A lot of movies have been made from Dick stories; most notably, "Blade Runner," "Minority Report," and "Total Recall.") ToTA is loosely based on the life of controversial Episcopal Bishop James Pike, who was a friend of Dick's. Death looms large in the novel and the narator relates the death of all her friends (she is Archer's daughter-in-law) one-by-one, interspersing it with lots of speculation and analysis that draws on her education as an English major at UC Berkeley. Almost all of the novel is set in Berkeley and its '70s post-hippie atmosphere. Only pick-up this one if you're in an indestructably good mood!! It's very good writing (to me), but it's a downer. In any case, I think I'm going to continue this light reading trend for a while. I've lost my taste for heavier fare, for at least a little while longer.

There's also been a lot of little events taking-up time. The usual May-June stuff: one of my cousin's got married to a really good guy and I used that as an opportunity to buy a new suit (the last one was bought eighty or ninety pounds ago); my nephew graduated fundie-Baptist Kindergarten (and I'm glad his favorite Bible-verse was announced to be "God is Love," though the kids who picked things about God smiting liars or God granting gifts to the faithful who ask made me smile); my youngest brother is about to purchase a house. And I've made a few other big purchases: I bought a futon and a new, efficient window-unit A/C for my bedroom (which works almost TOO well). I went and helped the Nepali family who runs my favorite restaurant get their computer scrubbed of spyware. Gone out here and there with a few friends. Oh, and I've been making a point to get out of Pride on Saturdays and go walk around the "lakes" (really, very large ponds) at LSU, if possible. (Gods & angels, I want to move to that area some day!)

I will be doing my best to refocus some attention back on my poor, neglected, long-distance friends soon! So, for now, HELLO ALL YOU LOVERLY PEOPLE!!! HOW ARE YOU???? :-D

Genetic pre-disposition to obesity?

2007-04-13T14:45:00.000-05:00

It would seem quite possibly so. Here's an article from the Discovery Channel web-site that explains it better than I do. Of course, few studies of people can account for all the data, but I find this very interesting.

My New Computer -- Shipping Soon!

2007-04-01T12:43:00.000-05:00

As I've complained a few times before, my computer at home has become terribly obsolete. It really wasn't all that impressive when I bought it in 2000. It is an old Compaq Presario with an 466 MHz Intel Celeron processor. When I bought it, there was only one 64 MB memory chip inside, but there was a second empty slot for another memory chip. I eventually put a 128 MB memory chip in that one (the largest it would support), giving the maching its current 192 MB of memory. (I kicked around replacing the 64 MB card with a 128 MB one, to max out the machine at 256 MB of RAM, but I never did.) That helped a lot at the time, but it kept falling behind. I somehow screwed up my hard drive the last time I moved in May of 2003 and I replaced the preceding 10 GB hard drive with a 30 GB drive. At that time, this computer was getting a little slow and unbearable. I was running SuSE Linux 8.2 atop it and I decided the performance was acceptable. Later I upgraded to SUSE Linux 9.2, though, and it's been dragging every since. SUSE Linux 9.2 also didn't come with working CD burning software (as I'm sure Autogato remembers . . .) and I never did make the time to compile a working CD burner. During the early time change this month, Novell didn't even bother to release a timezone patch for SUSE Linux 9.2, which let me know that they aren't really supporting it any more. I could download and create a package with the new timezone files to continue using my drag-ass computer, but I couldn't see the point. I don't think my current machine would handle an upgrade of the O/S very well at all. I looked at my bank account and the Dell web-site and a very comfortable compromise was reached instead! :-)

Yesterday, I spent most of the afternoon picking out the specs on a new machine and I decided not to go with the ecomonomy model this time. It will be a Dell Precision 490 workstation. It will contain two 1.60 GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon processors, 8 GB of memory, a 128 MB nVidia Quadro FX 550 graphics card (my current PC doesn't even have a graphics card (just the sucky on-board graphics attached to the motherboard)), and two 160 GB hard drives that will be mirrored to each other using RAID 1. It'll also come with a slender, light-weight 17" flat-panel monitor that will be worlds more pleasant than my current bulky, heavy 14" monitor that just barely squeezes into my computer cabinet. This sexy little monkey is going to dance to the music for me, bay-B!! Not to mention the fact that this ought to be a very easy machine to upgrade with new parts in the future!! Though I'm sure it will feel commonplace all too soon, I'm very excited about it right now!

My big connundrum at the moment is what O/S to use for this puppy. No software out of Redmond, Washington can properly make my new puppy purr. So, I'm shopping about among the open alternatives . . . I'm leaning towards Kubuntu 6.10 at the moment, as I hear many good things about Ubuntu family of Linux distributions. I'm also considering openSUSE 10.2, as I've been using SUSE Linux since version 6.4 (which I used to start dual-booting my current machine in late 2000; back then I was primarily using Windows 98, but partitioned the 10 GB disk to start playing with Linux) and use Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server at work, so I know that platform well. (For similar reasons, I might consider Fedora, but I've never been a huge Red Hat fan . . .) Besides Linux distributions, I've been hearing some really good stuff about OpenBSD, too, and was very interested to learn recently that Darwin, the core of Mac OS X, is freely available (and has been ported to PC (x86) processors as GNU-Darwin)! (I might want to take a look at FreeBSD and some other BSD variants, too.) Of course, I still think I will probably go with Kubuntu, though, and just install Xen to create VMs running each of these O/Ses . . . Heck, I might even create a Windows XP VM, just for experiments.

I specifically ordered this workstation with this sort of heavy-duty experimenting in mind, as we're doing a lot of things at the office that it might be nice to try first at home. We're about to go heavily into VMware VI and it would be nice if we could eventually replace that with inexpensive Xen. Red Hat's investing heavily in Xen, trying to make that happen, as they could be major beneficieries and the fact that VMware's virtualization platforms have been built on modified Red Hat versions lets them know that it can easily be done!! Plus, I keep telling myself I'm going to teach myself some more intensive programming languages and learn more about developing software on UNIX platforms . . .

Anyway, as you can see, I'm in a happy little geek tailspin!!! I might be blogging more about this in the future, but I don't think my regular readers need to worry about this becoming my main focus in blogging. :-)

Goin' Out Dancin'!

2007-03-30T09:57:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's been too long since I've gone out clubbing. My man Leif has come through, though, and I'm going to accompany he, his girlfriend, and perhaps some others to go see Reception Is Suspected tonight. It ought to be a blast, and it will probably be remembered in the future as the beginning of all the new coolness and fun in our city . . . After all, it won't start unless I'm there to witness it, right? ;-)

If you're in town and reading this, I hope to see you there! :-)

Steve Jobs unveils the new . . . iRack!!!

2007-03-29T16:59:00.000-05:00

"Yes, yes, that's the way to implement something . . . Yes, yes, it makes so much sense now!!"

Enjoy! ;-)

Imagini's "Visual DNA"

2007-03-28T18:17:00.000-05:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

So, that's it! I had to do it, since m'dear T-Queen did so!

This did a reasonably good job of capturing who I am, I guess. They may exagerate my tendency to "stylishness," as I'm not a very style conscious person, though I do have a taste for an aesthetic of simplicity combined with the off-beat. Otherwise, I suppose it's just way too obvious what's on my mind . . .

Time to Spruce-Up the Ol' Template

2007-03-21T16:24:00.000-05:00

OK, so, I got tired of looking at the title of my blog sliding off the top of the page in IE 7 and realized that a template update could solve my problem. It did, and as any regular readers can see, I decided to (essentially) keep my old template using the new Googelicious formating. The new template tools are nice, though not quite as flexible as it was when you could edit HTML and really get into the nitty gritty on things. But it's now immensely easier to use and you can customize many, many things about your template with far less grief.

I hope everybody has as easy a time of it as I had. (I suspect it will be a nightmare for Sara to convert to one of their new templates, though! Good luck with that Sara (if you ever choose to do it)!! I'm sure you're more than up to it, but I don't envy you the task . . .)

The Urges and Insights of a Dork

2007-03-09T09:29:00.000-06:00

Yes, boys and girls, I'm afraid my brain really works a bit like this . . .

Chalmers Johnson on NPR's Talk of the Nation

2007-03-01T14:22:00.000-06:00

(Remember, I put the relevant link in the title of the post.)

I thought everybody should have some exposure to the insights of Chalmers Johnson, so go ahead and listen to this if you can find twenty minutes or so. Johnson is a prominent critic of U.S. foreign policy who thinks our Imperialist tendencies could wind up undermining our republican democracy. He speculates that we have become a bit like Rome during the century before Augustus became the "First Citizen" of that "republic" and began the political entity now called the Roman Empire.

A lot of people will think Johnson sounds absolutely mad or that he's intentionally exagerating, but I don't think that's the case at all. We have hundreds of military bases all over the world. (Can you imagine any other country having extensive military bases in the U.S.?) We have a military might entirely unmatched in the world. Our leadership need pay heed to few outside entities when making foreign policy decisions (as was clear at the beginning of the Iraq War). With about 5% of the world's population, we consume somewhere at least one quarter of some of the world's key resources (including oil). By many definitions, we are clearly an Imperial state, no matter how repulsive we may find the idea.

If you haven't given this a lot of thought, or find it implausible, please give this a listen and consider reading one of Johnson's books: Blowback, The Sorrows of Empire, and his newest, Nemesis. In that last book, particularly, he reflects on the danger of all this to the people of the U.S. themselves, as well as all others. I haven't read any of these, but they're on my reading list now.

Julia Sweeney's Letting Go of God

2007-02-12T15:07:00.000-06:00

I recently bought this CD from Sweeney's web-site, along with the companion booklet. I listened to it two or three times this past weekend and laughed a lot! Although her story of her move from lifelong, happy-go-lucky Catholicism to a completely naturalistic worldview in three years was pretty different from my own drawn out move from Catholicism to secular skepticism in fifteen years, her story helped me make more sense of my own than almost anything else I've encountered in years.

Sweeney liked Catholicism a whole lot more than I did as a child. This isn't really surprising: the Catholic experience of somebody living in the wake of post-Vatican Catholicism, especially when you left Catholic schools at age ten for seven years of CCD classes, was totally different from the experience of growing up Catholic in the late '50s and early '60s. Almost everyone I know in Sweeney's generation felt their Catholic childhood was far more positive than not! (And many people in my generation felt that way, too: Autogato, for example. Some of my cousins seem to have had a good time of it, too.) Ultimately, for me, leaving Catholicism left a long residue of anger and resentment (which I'm working through now; it seems to be subsiding). For Sweeney, leaving Catholicism (and ultimately, all religion) led to panic, sadness, acceptance, and then greater maturity. On the way out of religious practice, she did essentially what I did, too: instead of giving up on the supernatural entirely, she took a long time in trying to find another faith before realizing that all faiths tend to share the same flaws. You have to believe with no evidence, and before long (if you keep your eyes open), in the face of countervailing evidence. She talks about going through phases of enthusiasms for Karen Armstrong, the New Age, Buddhism, a kind of pantheism, and Deepak Chopra before finally starting to read about science because of Chopra's invocation of quantum mechanics as an explanation of how many spiritual truths operate. She quickly realized that Deepak Chopra didn't really make a lot of sense, but that science did! And she started reading about the science of religious experiences, and ultimately she let go of God.

I have just summarized one of the most humane, honest, hilarious, heartfelt, and helpful CDs I've ever encountered in the driest manner possible. I really cannot do it justice. To get a taste of what it's like, go listen to the second half of the episode of This American Life entitled "Godless America" where they play a summarized version of Sweeney's show. It gives the outline of what happened to her, though it skips over many of the most honest and hilarious details. Her intelligence and curiousity pours out of the whole performance, letting you know that this has been the journey of a person with a very sound mind who decided to look deep and had the equipment to do so.

If you are an atheist who is trying to explain how and why you let go of God, or if you're just trying to understand why people do so, you could do far worse than to get a copy of this show and get a feeling for one person's honest and admirable journey from believer to empiricist. Maybe the answers aren't so "Pat" after all! Do yourself a favor, get this CD, and find out . . .

Jesus Camp

2007-02-12T09:28:00.000-06:00

I saw this documentary when it came out in theatres a few months back . . . It is a portrayal of the activities at a charismatic Pentecostal summer camp that focuses on training future Christian leaders. The movie included an interview with Ted Haggard before the "drugs & gay sex" allegations were made against him when some of the kids from the summer camp visit his megachurch. (Haggard used to be an associate pastor at Bethany, a megachurch in my neck of the woods.)

The film details the incredibly bizarre beliefs and practices of radical Christian sects in the U.S., including scenes where the kids are encouraged to express their willingness to die for Christ and their extreme grief over fetuses lost to abortion. Though it's clear the kids learn a lot of positive things from the camp (like how to confidently express their opinion), it would be hard for most people to support the cult-like atmosphere of the place. The camp portrayed in the film has closed since the film was released, but I suspect there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of institutions out there just like it doing untold damage to future generations of American children.

This could be exhibit A in explaining what spiritual abuse of a developing mind looks like! I encourage you to watch this film, but steel yourself before you do.

Schmall change

2007-02-09T15:29:00.000-06:00

Yeah, I took down my old profile pic of what I actually look like. I've decided a little more anonymity would be a good thing. (Though it may be too late; who knows who's figured out it's my blog by now? Also, a lot of old friends know me as "fondfire" on the web . . .) Anyway, I realize the new pic isn't all that . . . I'll look into changing that when I can . . .

[Book Review] The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton

2007-01-17T15:49:00.000-06:00

Ah, this one was a treat!

Alain de Botton is a somewhat whimsical writer with an intellectual bent. He began his career with fiction, but really hit his stride with his non-fiction. This book is about how the thoughts of some philosophers can provide some consolation for specific problems in life: unpopularity, romantic failure, low self-esteem, and such. He draws on the work and life examples of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche to illustrate his points. My favorite chapter was the one on romantic diffuculties, where he used Schopenhauer's ideas about the instinctive and irrational nature of romance as a consolation for any failures. He weaves the chapter around a little romantic story, stopping at key points to explain Schopenhauer's life and ideas. Though Schopenhauer is known as the grand-daddy pessimist of all philosophers, de Botton really makes his ideas on love and sexuality a comfort to the jilted. The chapters on Epicurus (a consolation for lack of money) and Montaigne (a consolation for inadequacy) were also very good.

I was especially pleased with the chain of philosophical influence he followed. Each succeeding philosopher had (more or less) been influenced by the ones in the preceding chapters, most of them substantially so. As readers of my blog may have discerned before, I am particularly a fan of Epicurean philosophy and that was (indirectly) what led me to this book. (I'm not quite sure he is accurate in describing the ancient Epicureans as living in a kind of commune together, but otherwise his description was good; among other things, the Epicureans rejected the idea of communal property ownership, which was something the Pythagoreans emphasized.) I suggest it to anyone who prefers to be consoled by lofty ideas rather than motivational speaking and pithy psychological mantras. It would also probably be fun for any fans of any of the six philosophers mentioned in the book. (OK, so many wouldn't actually consider Montaigne an actual philosopher, but for the purposes of this book, he counts.)

If anybody reads it, let me know what you think here. ;-)

Quirkyslutdom

2007-01-17T10:22:00.000-06:00

My old Church Critics partner in crime, Astra Skadi, sent me a link to a web-site that she said suits me. She has a point! ;-) I would say you could definitely call me the "quirkyalone" type. I certainly don't need a relationship. I usually get restless within a month or two, unless I'm really clicking well with someone on some level. (That's happened about three times in my whole life; clicking with somebody really well, I mean.)

So, are you a quirkyalone? (Keep in mind, this is more a personality type than a relationship status, so you might actually be in a relationship and still be a quirky alone. My take? I really doubt if you are one if you've never been single and not dating for at least six months at some time since turning twenty . . .)

Internet Explorer 7 -- the new microwank

2007-01-10T13:53:00.000-06:00

So, we updated to IE7 at work today. I'm glad to finally have tabs again (which I lost when I had to uninstall Mozilla Firefox), but wow, they've still got a ways to go . . .

Blogger annoyance: now when I look at the blogs of everyone who has swapped over to "it's-not-beta-any-more-we-swear" Blogger has the top few inches of their blog cut off by the Blogger bar. :-p

I'm glad I use Linux at the house . . . (But I've got to get broadband at home . . . And something newer than my low-end '99 hardware, which is really crawling these days . . .) Maybe I can get the new IE to run under Wine . . . You know, you'd think a big geek like me would keep the home system swank and flying, but after keeping up with all the computer stuff at the office all day, I always put off fooling with it at the house . . .

And you know, I really do want to like the new Blogger, and it looks good in Firefox at the house, but if I hit the wrong link, it can lock-up my PC!!! (Do you know how rare it is to have something lock up my PC? Linux doesn't lock-up easily . . .) I bet it'll look great in six months. Until then? <groan>

Nun-Devouring Fiend?

2006-11-30T08:48:00.000-06:00

I think I'll refrain from letting my aunt know I'm a nun-devouring fiend . . . And I guess there's at least two ways of interpretting that statement . . .

Get Your Monster Name

Door-to-door evangelical atheism as a response to Mormon evangelism

2006-11-28T15:12:00.000-06:00

A co-worker sent this to me and it's quite hilarious.

The way Mormons respond to a door-to-door evangelical atheist strikes me as rather hypocritical, no? (I'm tempted to do this, but I'd probably get killed if I tried it in the South.)

Interesting conversation about post-feminism and "raunch culture"

2006-11-28T15:07:00.000-06:00

Today's episode of Fresh Air has an intriguing conversation I thought I'd share with all of you.

I haven't listened to the whole conversation myself yet, but the topic alone intrigued me. I suppose it's a debate I've had in my own head more than a few times. Is a woman flaunting her sexuality blatantly something to be admired or censured? Is sex work something legitimate, even potentially empowering, or something inherently degrading to a person? Is pornography a fantasy genre to enjoy or a force tearing down the fabric of romantic intimacy in our culture?

I'll enjoy reading your comments.

Global Orgasm for Peace

2006-11-20T16:28:00.000-06:00

Well, you feel like you're having trouble doing something for peace. You're busy with work or school. You have a lot of other things on your plate and not much free time. There's the kids, book discussion groups, work-outs, hobbies, favorite TV shows, dating, the second job, World of Warcraft . . . There's always something interfering, right?

Well, maybe you'll make time for this. You have to be smokin' some kinda doobie to think this could actually have any effect (beyond publicity stunt status), but you know, then again, better to be on the safe side, right? It won't take too much time out of your busy day. Just find some time on Friday, December 22nd, to get a little privacy with a partner (or your favorite masturbatory technique) and see how much amazing coming you can do to end all this armed conflict. I mean, it really is about the least you can possibly do.

If anybody wants to post detailed and lurid descriptions of their participation, well, I'm willing to donate the comments section of this post for any accounts you feel you must share . . . ;-)

Enjoy the Solstice everybody! Because the Solstice really is the reason for the holiday season!!! ;-)

Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses (presented by Swine Palace)

2006-11-13T10:12:00.000-06:00

This past Thursday night (we lucky state employees had off last Friday for the observance of Veteran's Day after getting off work Tuesday, as well, for the election!), I gave myself a special treat: I took myself and three friends to go see Metamorphoses, a play based on the ancient Roman poet Ovid's long poem of the same name. Ovid's poem recounts a great many ancient myths about the transformation of one thing into another. Zimmerman managed to create a play that makes the power and majesty of ancient myth completely contemporary and I loved every second of it.

The central stage was dominated by a large, shallow swimming pool, a wonderful central symbol of the transformative and the maleable source of life. The actors splashed into it almost immediately, and began recreating Ovid's various myths of transformation. Sometimes narators were on stage, standing beside the pool and having conversations with each other about the story being reenacted, and often offering interpretations, in a few cases even debating the proper interpretation. The play recounts less than a dozen of the most popular and striking myths from the original, making each one completely contemporary in the retelling. A teenage Phaeton lounges in the pool while telling you about how his distant father, the Sun, tries to make-up for being absent during his childhood by granting him a privilege he cannot handle. He uses copious amounts of contemporary slang and typically modern teenage irony while spilling out the tale, reminding you of every spoiled boy-man you've ever met who had something to prove. Bacchus wiggles around as it to techno rhythms and parties with Silenus like they're high at a trendy nightclub. Aphrodite wears a slinky red dress and smokes with a cigarette holder. These gods didn't die fifteen hundred years ago; they inhabit the twenty-first century, like the gods of a Neal Gaiman novel or reminscent of the contemporary mythic awareness of Ginette Paris. To me, it was alive and glorious.

Nobody who went with me was that inspired by the play, though. One friend of mine found the narations (especially the analytical ones) really annoying. Another found the contemporization of the stories to feel phoney and flip, detracting from the majesty and power of Ovid's original. They didn't seem to get that same feeling of something that spoke right at them that I got. I was wearing a silly grin the whole time and feeling touched, even though I was steadily getting more and more sick as the night progressed. (My ears were filling with fluid, my head was stuffing up, and my throat was sore.) Perhaps the magic I felt was idiosyncratic, though reviews I read online seem to show that others also felt some of what I felt when seeing other productions of the play.

If you ever get a chance to see this play performed, I recommend you take yourself up on it, particularly if you like Gaiman's Sandman graphic novels or have read either Paris' Pagan Grace or her Pagan Meditations and thought they were good. This place was just my style: transcendent, contemporary, suffused with ancient meaning, and heavy with a symbolism relevant to everyday life. (At least, to mine.) Zimmerman has created a wonder and Swine Palace brought it to life very well!

"Fall Festival"

2006-11-01T10:40:00.000-06:00

OK, Halloween is the second-most popular holiday in the U. S. It's something that almost all of us enjoyed as kids, dressing up in goulish or silly costumes and pretending to be some monster or super-hero or fantasy just-so character. We all loved going around and scooping up the candy from our neighbors. We all have memorable stories from this night, when somebody managed to scare somebody, but good, or when we got some fantastic candy or something.

This last year, though, the forces of Puritanical religiousity seem to have become ascendent on October 31st. Here in my (government) office, we did not celebrate the secular holiday of Halloween. We celebrated "fall festival." All the evangelical churches in town have developed "fall festival" celebrations, as they dismiss Haloween as a holiday devoted to promoting the occult and other evils. So, they encourage everyone to dismiss Halloween, and instead they've sanitized the hell out of it and we're all supposed to have candy and sing Kumbaya with nobody dressed as a ghost or a magician or a goul or a superhero. They're encouraged to dress as Bible characters instead.

Now, bowdlerization is a very old process. It happens often. It recurs perenially, to protect the supposedly vulnerable from an authentic understanding of traditions of sexuality or horror or blasphemy. The censorious and puritanical seem to bloom again in every age. But dammit, when you apply it to Halloween, you're really taking away the last enclave of authorized mischeif in our culture. You're really going too far. You're really denying something with a sacredness all its own.

I hope that at some point in the future, we can accept and embrace Haloween in my city again. I suppose a lot of it just has to do with exactly where I live around my city (think rural) and the exactly character of the people now running my office (think prissy).

I just don't think it's f**king healthy to deny the gouls, the magicians, the unnatural, and the horrible all year long. Every culture needs a Saturnalia.

Toki Pona

2006-10-17T22:50:00.000-05:00

I had never heard of this before and it's completely freaking cool!!!!

There's this pidgin language that was designed in 2001 named Toki Pona (good language), based on principles of simplicity and straightforwardness. I'm really interested in learning to speak this! I've wanted to learn another language for a long time and this looks like a good place to start. It's not terribly useful, but it does look fun. Maybe if I get any mastery of it, I could con somebody else into learning it and have a secret language with somebody!!! :-D

Anyway, I really thought more people should know about this.

Ruby's child warping skillz

2006-10-17T11:28:00.000-05:00

My friend Ruby has a terribly cute daughter, and by all indications, Rubes is a fantastic mom. But every mom has an off day. And sometimes that off day is just one of the funniest stories you've heard in a while . . . (Hey! I'm sheltered!)

Super-Hero Machine!

2006-09-29T18:47:00.000-05:00

SaraS-P found the coolest dang thing!

I am a Super-Hero!!!

I don't have a name right now, though . . .

I'm anxious to see autogato's picture of the Ass Creatrix!!! (Surely that's a higher priority than a disertation, right? Surely . . .)

Foley gets caught with live boy

2006-09-29T15:42:00.000-05:00

Yes, it appears that a Republican member of Congress was flirting with a sixteen year old Congressional page. It's not unusual, I'm sure, for Congressmen to flirt with the pages, but not usually the male ones, so this has turned into quite a scandal. Foley has resigned his seat in Congress over it.

I think the lesson here (the point was first made by the former Governor of New Jersey, James E. McGreevey) is that if you want to be a gay politician, you should just plain come out of the closet, join the Democrats, move to San Francisco, and run from there. Or keep your involvements very ethical and exccedingly discreet. Just sayin' . . .

"The Chinese believe that eating penis can enhance your virility," says BBC News

2006-09-29T15:05:00.000-05:00

OK, so, I don't think of chowing down on animal dong is all that masculine, but you know, to each their own . . .

I have a co-worker who forwards outrageous news to me all day long. (I think he's on some sort of "weird news" list.) This one just struck me as bloggable . .. (The link is in the title.)

Steven Pinker article in this month's The Humanist

2006-09-22T18:29:00.000-05:00

I read this one at the bookstore and I've read similar things by him and others in the past. It's a quick article about the current thinking by evolutionary psychologists (a somewhat dubious, yet compelling and through provoking field) on why and how the human mind produces religious behavior. Essentially, he and others feel that we've evolved to be very likely to undertake religious practice.

For Pinker, this is probably best a tendency to avoid. Yet it's clearly a deep part of who we are . . . Stuff like this always gives me yummy food for thought!

Happy B-Day, Autogato!!!!

2006-09-22T09:09:00.000-05:00

Here's a big shout out to one of the best people I know! Our dearest Autogato!

I hope your B-Day is all that and a bag of chips, Bay-Bee!! And I hope you get at least a few blissful moments where you aren't thinking about any bit of graduate school at all today.

And thanks for being a great friend, love. :-)

New Darkening Cream

2006-09-20T16:47:00.000-05:00

OK, I know I'm a weird person, but the first thing that occurred to me when I saw this was the "whitening creams" that used to be marketed to black people. Of course, none of the whitening creams actually worked and this sounds like a product with practical applicaitons and without all the racist overtones. Possibly quite useful. But I guess there's some things that will simply strike my Southern fried brain before other things . . .

And hey, maybe all my friends of Irish descent can finally get a tan! ;-)

Carl McColman

2006-09-11T14:44:00.000-05:00

For a few years now, when anyone asked me what book they should use to get acquainted with Paganism, I'd point them to Carl McColman's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Paganism, a lighthearted but factually solid introduction to the diversity and depth of Pagan spirituality.

Well, today I was doing a little exploring (read: indulging far too much distraction) about this guy online. Apparently, he was raised Lutheran, became an Episcopalian, got disenchanted with Christianity entirely and became a Pagan, and then went back to Christianity (not sure if he has a denominational affiliation now, though). I'm intrigued by his journey! Thought some of you others might find it interesting, too . . .

The Passion of the Christ II

2006-09-02T14:00:00.000-05:00

Now that I am becoming (have become, maybe?) a Christian, I could never be irreverant about Jesus. He is the source of my salvation, the only way to His Father, the Way, the Truth, and the Light.

So, you must realize . . . The link in the title . . . THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT!!! ;-)

(BTW, this will take a LONG time to get on dial-up . . .)

Holy Communion

2006-08-30T09:53:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, during the lunch hour, I recieved holy communion for the first time in thirteen years or so. It was a small Episcopalian service in a chapel downtown here near work. The service was brief. The liturgy was droned out of the Book of Common Prayer with the usual enthusiasm of people who've been doing it for a few decades. The crowd of eight was meditative as St. Augustine's feast day was celebrated.

It was really rather trascendent, though. I felt very reconnected to Jesus again. This must sound terribly cheesy . . . It flies in the face of a lot of things I've said previously here. A lot of things I've been for half my life now.

I really don't have the time to try to put all of what I'm thinking and feeling on "paper." But it seems I've become (at least, in some fashion) a Christian again.

How to #*;%+@& Evacuate

2006-08-09T18:40:00.000-05:00

Essential fashions for N. O. survivors of Katrina!

Episcopalian priest becomes prominent Druid

2006-07-30T05:35:00.000-05:00

I found these two very interesting blog entries and I have to share. One is about former Episcopalian priest W. William Melnyk, who has become a druid leader after his Druid interests were exposed and became a "scandal". The other (actually, two) link is about the conservative Episcopalian response to gay essayist Maury Johnston's past (continuing?) Wiccan influences and Johnston's response.

Of course, the Archbishop of Canterbury has a Druidic link too, but they promise it's not Pagan. ;-)

I find that things I read in Bishop Spong's Why Christianity Must Change or Die are converging with things like this to increasingly get me intrigued about the Episcopalian Church. I've been reading portions of their Book of Common Prayer online, including the 1979 version of the chatechism, which was a significant improvement over it's predecessor.

<shrug>

I do not know what's up with me any more.

My "SelectSmart.com" Belief selector results

2006-07-27T18:25:00.000-05:00

I find that my results for this particular test change periodically, but for what it's worth . . .

According to the SelectSmart.com Belief System Selector, my #1 belief match is Unitarian Universalism.
What do you believe? Visit SelectSmart.com/RELIGION

I wouldn't put a lot of stock in this, folks. I found I was too particular to really enjoy the unpredictable nature of Unitarian-Universalist worship and congregational life. I crave a certain amount of predictability and calm, to be honest, that the UUs provide only sporadically. You have to be very open-minded and accepting to consistently enjoy participating in a UU church. You can't worry too much about exactly what's being said from the pulpit. It's a given that at least three members will dissent from everything. Even if a dozen people just formed the congregation.

I suppose a lot of what I'm griping about here isn't particular to UUs, but is true of churches in general. That's probably why I don't belong to any of them any more. (Though I did belong to the local UU church for a few years and it's the only one I ever joined of my own volition!)