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Since sometimes I choose not to speak in generalities, many of my latest posts are friends only. Leave a comment if you want to be added. I really wonder how many random people actually stumble over this journal. I've had a random person add me which I've noticed recently. Other than that I have an exam at 5, another at 10:20 tomorrow and another Friday afternoon. The semester is definitely in full swing. That is, if semesters can swing. I have also realized that stuff that used to bother me doesn't anymore, and stuff that does bother me I can get over much quicker. There are only a few things I actually care about these days. Thus ends my procrastination. |
I just came in from investigating the explosions outside. It seems as a memorial, the town decided to put on a fireworks display. At first I was appalled and confused. Explosions on 9-11 would cause anyone to suspect a repeat of the terrorist attacks, and they did. Outside a few people remarked that they thought another attack had begun. However, once one gets past the immediate confusion, it's as an appropriate memorial as any. The fireworks where set off one by one, like solitary cannon shots. There was a dignity to the event. On 9-11, everyone in the immediate area of NYC stepped outside and stared in confusion at smoke on the horizon. While the beauty of a fireworks display is a stark contrast to the smoke rising from the burning buildings, once again the explosions drew everyone to from their residences to stare at the horizon. Even on the 4th of July, fireworks are the symbol of violent conflict and remind us of the wars that were fought to protect our liberties. As everyone has heard in countless memorial speeches, those that died on 9-11 were simply exercising their liberty to go to work and support their way of life. To further extend the metaphor each explosion could be a reminder of the brilliance of each of the lives lost.
Much has changed in 4 years. When I think back, it seems like one very long year. There was an election somewhere in there. The United States is still fighting a war on two fronts. While I wasn't against either war, I think, like many Americans that the war in Iraq could have been much more successful if more troops and equipment were deployed from the start. While the initial strike was successful, it should have been obvious to anyone following the news reports that the Americans had completed a blitzkrieg and were now outrunning their supply lines and could not secure areas that they had taken. Furthermore, while I never believed that the war in Iraq was a war on terror, although it was billed as such, it is obvious that the United States is fighting every Islamic extremest in the region, and therefore is a war on Islamic extremist terrorism. Furthermore, many complications in Iraq I believe to be the result of the reliance on independent contractors for missions which should be carried out by the US Military. While I don't believe that the United States has failed in Iraq, the current strategies have turned a tricky situation into a bad situation which can't be allowed to get any worse.
The price of gas is still obnoxiously high. Many people now refer to a sequence of events which pushes a situation to it's maximum comprehensible limit a ``perfect storm". The ``perfect storm" called Hurricane Katrina seems to be the making yet another bad situation even worse. My conventional wisdom tells me that the already high price of oil has been the result of increasing demand of a population that won't stop buying SUV's and light trucks, the lack of new refineries because of companies that refuse to implement stricter environmental policies that they feel are cost prohibitive, an administration that is willing to ignore the bad habits of oil companies and even give them tax breaks, a growing Chinese economy with a thirst for oil that can't be quenched and speculation fueled by the consistent instability in the Middle East. Add the worst natural disaster in the United States in recent memory, and the situation becomes one where insult is added to injury. Some new reports have noted that gas stations have been further making the situation by profiteering from price gouging. I believe that after an administration change in a few years, there will be investigations into the business practices and ethics of the oil companies. I still find it amazing that a few years ago the FTC allowed the merger of Exxon Mobil and BP Amoco. The oil companies are being allowed to coalesce back into the monopolies that existed before the Roosevelt/Taft anti-trust legislation and law suits. The current strangle hold of oil on the economy is similar to the rolling blackouts and artificial scarcity created by Enron in California. Oil companies, if they are allowed to merge to the point of becoming near monopolies, should be required to keep the same standards as any public utility, because as a near monopoly they need an incentive to act in the public interest. However, the government is content to look the other way as in telecommunications and entertainment, which skirt regulations and create new monopolies in the name of deregulation. The administration needs to realize that in a complete laissez faire faire economy, barriers to entry in many industries will create monopolies and oligopolies, and these businesses need to be watched carefully because they will act in their own best interest, unchecked by competition. Or more likely, the people in charge of these companies know this and are choosing to ignore it in the name of short term profit. No market is perfect, and without rules, our markets will fail.
Despite the suffering that we will all face as a result of business abuse, it is nothing compared to the suffering of those facing natural disaster, war or terrorism. I can't hope to quantify it. I can only empathize at a distance. As good Americans and good citizens, on a good day, we do our best to help, donate, and give sympathy, but sometimes all one can do is stare at the smoke on the horizon or the explosion in the night sky, powerless to do anything else.Current Music: The American Analog Set- The Fun of Watching Fireworks |
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Why send yourself a birthday card that says what you want it to, when instead you can post a link in your journal that accurately expresses your thoughts. I really would enjoy a card that said "Happy twenty fifth birthday, if you're not schizophrenic yet you probably won't be!" (Not that I would ever send myself a birthday card.) |
hint
(just kidding)
I found this linked on slashdot. Something tells me that every geek in the slashdot community is linking this off his or her blog/journal. |
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People must actually have lives. No one is around, or online. Ever. Supposedly, I was going to hang out with people this summer. It's almost July, and August is coming quickly. I want to say I did something other than work and read this summer. I wonder if anyone reads this journal anymore. I'd rather catch up with people at a diner than put down details of my life in a friends only entry hoping that people would read it. |
You know the type. He wears discount golf apparel his wife bought at an outlet store in Pennsylvania. He has a beer gut that has been supplemented with extra value meals. His voice trails up at the end of statements to feign friendliness. His tone of voice stops running through ascending scales when he is only in the company of men and assumes a more direct deep and staccato voice, which is more common among tow truck drivers and fireman. This voice would be appropriately be punctuated by laughter resulting from feigned and exaggerated bewilderment. He casually makes comments about his family, as if you are supposed to give him mental bonus points for being a devoted husband and father. He has an obnoxious quality that you just can't put your finger on. He seems nice enough, but truly nice people don't try that hard. He speaks well enough so that you don't immediately assume that he's a complete idiot, despite his gold chains. There's at least 2 million more just like him in New Jersey. They are proud to be uncultured and take their ignorance as a badge of masculinity, but will in turn lecture you on virtually anything. Unfortunately these men are the perfect complement to empty headed women with low self esteem. When these men and women breed, a new generation of low expectations and mediocrity is perpetuated. These people must be stopped.
Fathers day is approaching. I went through the ritual of buying greeting cards, not because fathers need a piece of paper to let them know they are appreciated, but because if a piece of cardstock is not presented to them on the appropriate day, mothers will nag for the rest of the year. Why should we celebrate fathers day? Are parents supposed to be congratulated for attempting to provide for their children? I'm not ungrateful, I'm glad my parents have tried to provide for me. However, if they didn't they would be bad parents. So I'm supposed to celebrate a holiday, because my parents decided to have a child, which they decided not to leave on someones doorstep, and instead attempted to feed, clothe, and raise. Furthermore, I was not consulted when the decision was made to begin my existence. The grass might be greener on the other side of the fence, but I may have been more content in the netherworld of non existence than in the world of terrorism, carcinogens, idiotic co-workers, college loans, failed relationships and used cars. Maybe I should just hand my dad a post it note saying "Thanks for giving me the means to figure out that life completely sucks.
This summer I don't have exclusive control of the TV, I've been exposed to channels other than Comedy Central, The History Channel, The Science Channel, Cartoon Network and PBS. My TV was broken last semester. So coming back to TV has been a jarring experience. The 2 most popular types of TV shows are the so called reality based and the crime drama. I don't understand what the fascination is with crime drama. According to my away messages, girls have a thing for Law and Order. I also know quite a few girls who enjoy CSI. Any guy I know will only watch Law and Order if there is nothing else on. I find this female appeal strange since these shows frequently show dead bodies, autopsies, and discuss details of rape and murder that can even churn my stomach. This is not to say that women are weak, but many girls refuse to be in the same county as a spider. I also think that these shows have grown stale, despite the gore and frank discussion of rape. During hour long crime dramas, I watch the clock to predict when the sudden plot twist that ties the script together will occur. Even Stargate, which I've been enjoying in rerun, gets old after the galaxy is yet again saved 20 minutes before the hour. I have nothing against passive entertainment, but I'm tired of movies and TV shows that are not just formulaic, but so bad and self absorbed that I need to actively suspend my disbelief in order to continue viewing.
I guess that's all for now... |
After doing some browsing on the hacking traditions of MIT students, I found this humorous description of Our Lady of the All Night tool on everything2.com. (For those not familiar with "everything", it's a user edited collection of topics, ideas, and descriptions with a heavy geek/nerd bias. It's similar to Wikipedia, but is much older and open-ended.) The description of the 0x10 commandments in this node, struck a resounding chord with me. So I decided to update and modify them to reflect my own experiences. I give thee the "new and improved" law:
The 0x10 commandments of the electrical and computer engineer at RU
Tablet 0
0x0 - Thou shalt arrive at the bus stop 0.5 hours early, lest thou arrive at class 0.5 hours late.
0x1 - Thou shalt not take the name of Fourier in vain.
0x2 - Thou shalt not eat at Brower.
0x3 - Honor the DC hub, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest have music, movies and porn.
0x4 - Thou shalt cram at SERC before every exam.
0x5 - Thou shalt not decrease entropy.
0x6 - Thou shalt not connect PWR to GND.
0x7 - Thou shalt comment thy code.
Tablet 1
0x8 - Thou shalt not exceed the speed of light.
0x9 - Remember thy Sunday exams.
0xA - At RU, thou art screwed.
0xB - Thou shalt not sleep.
0xC - Thou shalt consume caffeine.
0xD - Thou shalt take humantities electives to raise thy GPA.
0xE - Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's TI-89.
0xF - Thou shalt not divide by zero. |
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"I don't blame you for giving up. No, I blame myself for giving in." |
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Whenever you have free time, none of your friends will. Futhermore, whenever you friends have free time, you won't. |
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This break is a waste. I'd rather be back at school, being productive and maintaining the rythym I've gotten into this semester. Instead I'm stuck at home, with shitty weather and just enough free time to ruminate about my life and demotivate myself from doing the things I need to. |
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Some people and things never change. |
The past couple of days have been enjoyable. I believe I'm finally dealing with my surroundings on my own terms. Granted, not everything is perfect, but I am actually getting somewhere. I haven't been this happy in quite some time.Current Music: Les Savy Fav |
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I'm a footnote in other people's lives. |
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Not suprisingly, Pitchfork lives up to their reputation for quality writing with one of the best editorials on Hunter S. Thompson. |
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At night, I feel more comfortable with the curtains open, and I'm not an exhibitionist. |
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers ... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. [...] The only thing that worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge.
--Raoul Duke, from Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Earlier this evening, Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide and thus joined other luminaries like Ernest Hemingway and Kurt Cobain in extinguishing his own flame. Thompson was not only a skillful writer but lived the stories he told. He will undoubtably be remembered for his heroic use of narcotics, but Thompson's life and work is a testament to an uncompromising commitment to freedom. America will be a darker place without his spark.Feeling:  sad |
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-me
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Feb. 19th, 2005 @ 11:52 pm
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Quotations are man's primary way of feigning intelligence. |
This morning I watched the sun rise, after staying up the entire night talking to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) gionta182. Mornings can be kind of amazing when one doesn't have to rush to class. |
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Wired News has a review of Brand Name Bullies, which documents how corporations use copyright law to infringe on the rights of individuals. The review provides a synopsis of some of the more absurd examples of corporate manipulation of law and the courts. Academics and open source computer geeks are the only circles where concepts like free culture are important. However, with the current trend of using intellectual property law to enforce monopoly, every writer, software developer, artist and small business owner needs to be aware that in this environment the extent of one's rights is proportional to one's legal fund. |
(23:40:10) undefinedlimit: now i want to go into my exam tomorrow
(23:40:14) undefinedlimit: and make a pirate hat out of it
(23:40:18) MartinDevs: lol
(23:40:23) undefinedlimit: and run around squirting taco bell packets
(23:40:24) undefinedlimit: yelling
(23:40:27) undefinedlimit: ARGH
(23:40:33) undefinedlimit: i'm the mexican taco pirate
(23:40:38) MartinDevs: hahhahahahah
(23:40:59) undefinedlimit: no really
(23:41:04) undefinedlimit: i am the mexican taco pirate
(23:41:24) undefinedlimit: <----has lost it
(23:41:38) MartinDevs: hahahahah
(23:41:46) undefinedlimit: come on
(23:41:53) undefinedlimit: wouldn't you like to see a front page
(23:42:18) MartinDevs: well if you need a break we can hit up taco bell and you can make hats out of the gordita wrappers
(23:42:21) undefinedlimit: ahha
(23:42:30) undefinedlimit: i'd explode if i ate more food
(23:42:38) undefinedlimit: and i really am taking my break right now
(23:42:48) MartinDevs: i'd love to see a properly done front page
(23:42:53) undefinedlimit: haha
(23:42:57) undefinedlimit: but yeah
(23:43:01) undefinedlimit: i was going to say
(23:43:03) undefinedlimit: on the front page
(23:43:36) undefinedlimit: "mexican taco pirate massacres innocents in hot sauce shoot out"Feeling:  exhausted Current Music: Yo la Tengo |
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