Hey LJers,

I just wanted to let you all know that we are going to be performing some mogilefs maintenance over the next few days. We will be upgrading our current version to latest stable as well as changing some db config information to better handle the amount of files we are currently hosting. This shouldn't cause a big impact on site stability, but you may see some minor delays with userpic / scrapbook images appearing or other requests associated with our mogilefs. We would love to not have that happen, but unfortunately with some of the steps we need to take we have to cause a delay with images. I figured this was a better solution than taking down all of LiveJournal because well lets face it, we all need our daily LJ fix ;)

Thanks,

This is pathetic.



It is not courageous, nor profound.  It is not powerful.  It is most certainly not rad.

What this is .. is a sad, strange, waste of talent and money. 

Also a great big warning sign to prospective mates: This chick lives in Crazy Town - turn back now.

The White Goddess

Palin takes John Kerry to task for his joke about those who don’t study getting “stuck in Iraq,” but the story of her own son proves that he was right. Track joined the military after deciding that he didn’t want to bum around after high school like his friends. This implies that he wasn’t smart enough for college.

We've managed a neat trick in this country: to raise up generation upon generation who never know what it is to sacrifice for something bigger than themselves.  People whose biggest inconvenience is a long commute to an office.  People who see and read a great deal but understand nothing about how the world works.

Richard Hoste, you will never know, nor understand how profoundly ignorant you are.

You have my pity.

Seattle police officer shoots, kills Maurice Clemmons, suspect in murders of 4 cops in coffee shop

A lone patrolman ended Washington State's biggest-ever manhunt Tuesday when he stumbled upon the suspected killer of four cops on the side of a road and shot him down.

Now police are going after several family members who helped crazed ex-con Maurice Clemmons while he was on the lam.

I'm going to say that the juxtaposition there implies something unintended about what the police are going to do when they find the family members.

In honor of today's article in Variety about how Summit is progressing in regards to plants for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, I link you all to this hilarious editorial, which was linked to me as well: "Why Breaking Dawn MUST Be Made Into a Movie."

• 07:33 @TimCAD New CAD site is very nice. The best part is that it loads much, much faster. Good job! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

This entry was originally posted at http://radarrider.dreamwidth.org/576917.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I will soon be in possession of a 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis, white, automatic, 4.6 liter V8, alloy wheels, in excellent condition.

This is a car from which I would normally run screaming.

16mpg is not an ideal situation for me, and I hate automatics because of how the transmissions fail. That would be catastrophically instead of gradually, for those keeping score. But at the same time, it's damned hard to argue with free.

See, my mom's tenant responded to a little contest at his workplace. He submitted an idea for company improvement. He won. He's had his salary tripled and been transferred to New York, as soon as possible. In lieu of giving 30 days' notice, he's giving my mom his car, and she's kicking it down to me. He claims it values at no more than $500, but some research reveals something closer to $2,000. Wow.

On a practical level, I hate everything about this car. It's a sedan, not a wagon or hatch. It gets shit mileage. It's big and therefore hard to park. It's American. BUT IT'S FREE. I've decided to treat it like a big, new toy. This will be my pimpin' car. I'll pimp to work and around town, and pay for the pimpin' gas and do the pimpin' repairs as necessary for a few months at least. My Black Friday consisted almost solely of buying SAE tools at Sears (my previous stock was all metric). $40 for a 12pc set of combination wrenches and a socket set (including a 3/8" drive if-it-breaks-we-replace-it-no-questions-asked ratchet)? Sign me up. I've even begun figuring out what music is most appropriate to blast out of this car whilst I cruise. A trusted source falls to the standby late-90s hip-hop, but I'm more partial to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63WhE1_wzYg
[1]

I'll post pics when I get title. And maybe after I fix the one glaring flaw—the dreaded missing turn signal cover (that stuff always costs bank; I may fabricate it with materials from work—it's only a transparent shield, and there are benefits to working in a packaging shop).

____________________
[1] And hey, if you're a military geek, check this shit out.

Is the name of the band who does this song. Embedding disabled by request. I'll probably burn out on it quick but it's refreshingly innocent, bordering on vapid, and fun for the moment.

Almost the definition of pop music.

Is surprise. If you weren't aware of the deaths of four cops in a coffee shop in Washington well here's the link. The accused murderer apparently walked to the counter of a restaurant and made as if to order. He then reached into his coat, produced an automatic pistol, and turned and shot four officers dead. Two were evidently killed before they realized they were in a fight. The third ( a woman) was killed rising from her seat, and the fourth evidently struggled with the killer before being fatally shot himself.

I got in a fairly creepy discussion with a coworker who almost tried to justify the killings, saying that cops are fairly well hated and need to be on constant guard. I'm not buying this. Hating someone s no excuse for murder. Even if it were I'd like to see evidence that he actually knew the officers he shot, and had reason to hate them. Hell if hatred's the only criterion for justifying homicide I've got a little list myself.

You can't be ready all the time. Surprise is an incredibly powerful weapon in it's own right. Combined with the desire to kill, and a decent weapon, surprise can beat really long odds. Four to one against cops who were prepared would have been nearly impossible, with likely only one officer killed and another injured before the backup started firing back.

In a world where bloggers and the media keep slapping Droid against the iPhone, a guy who likes windows mobile smart phones (HTC specifically) sure does get to chuckle an awful lot.

Itty bitty patch release.

* Intel is sponsoring some Writer's Block questions, so their ads now display to the appropriate people

* Many updates for the Cyrillic game thingy coming next year
* Cyrillic ads: SUP office IP addresses are Russian now
* GeoLocation: Display Russian cities' names in Cyrillic

So I saw today that Burger King is selling gift cards with images of the three New Moon leads on them. You can buy an Edward card that says "Team Edward," a Jacob card that says "Team Jacob," or a Bella card that says "Team Bella."

Wait. What?

There's a Team Bella now?!

Since each Twilight "team" is, at its core, about who you ship with Bella or who you find the hottest, Team Bella is therefore about finding Bella hot or, perhaps more logically, shipping her with absolutely no one.

In truth, I LOVE this. Because it makes me think of Kelly from Beverly Hills 90210 when she had to choose between Brandon and Dylan, and wound up choosing neither of them by delcaring "I choose ME." And yes, I just whipped out 90210 on your sorry asses. Recognize.

In essence, then, I think that "Team Bella" is about rooting for Bella to pull a Kelly and choose herself. It's about wanting Bella to stop obsessing over her supernatural beaus and focus on becoming a fully realized human being instead - a department in which she SORELY lacks. That is my interpretation of the concept. As such, perhaps you can count me as a member of "Team Bella." Go forth, Bella, and build yourself into a complete person free of vampiric obsessions and self-absorbed thoughts!

··· Remember Steven Bierfeldt, the guy I blogged about a bit back? Well, his ACLU lawsuit hit gold. Before the defendant was even required to respond, i.e. because the lawsuit was ever brought, the TSA made an explicit policy change. From the article:

What a difference a lawsuit makes. Eight days before the government's response was due in our case, TSA issued a new policy directive making clear that its safety screening procedures would be strictly limited to passenger searches for the purpose of safeguarding flight safety. In combination with other directives issued in the wake of our lawsuit, TSA's policy now makes clear that passengers should not experience the kind of suspicionless detention and questioning I had been subjected to.

In light of this victory, yesterday the ACLU informed the court of our intention to voluntarily dismiss the suit. The Constitution draws a critical distinction, which these new directives reflect: when subjecting individuals to blanket, suspicionless searches, TSA agents must adhere to their limited mandate of protecting flights against weapons or explosives. The new policy is clear: passengers are no longer forced to check their constitutional rights at the airport counter, and that is a victory for all.

This happened pretty quietly, but it is much more important than might be immediately apparent. Previously, the TSA was treating itself as a de facto law enforcement body, with internal regulation and restraint that was not only loose, but largely nonexistent. People could be detained or prevented from flying for reasons completely unrelated to the security of airline travel, reasons that were never enumerated and had no specified boundaries. Basically, TSA agents were just making shit up as they went along, and a lot of them were far from genius level (and still are). Listen to the audio of Steven Bierfeldt's questioning in my initial linkdump referenced above if you haven't already. It's fairly uncomfortable, to say the least. This ACLU lawsuit forced the TSA's hand, and made it confine its operations to those for which we, as taxpayers, fund it, namely to keep transportation safe. Full stop. They aren't cops, they aren't FBI, they're transportation security officers—nothing more and nothing less.


··· This sculpture is creepy and I like it. Actually, most of this guy's work is pretty neat.


··· Funny! Bad Dog Pate. Ever since the phrase "bacon-wrapped turds" exited the mouth of my ex-housemate as he ran down a list of concepts challenging my claim that nothing grosses me out, and I proceeded to make a lovely meat loaf dish that looked exactly like a series of bacon-wrapped turds, I've wanted to have a What the Fuck Pot Luck. You know, kitty litter cake, the meat head, etc. Bad Dog Pate would be fabulous for that.


··· Great Cyanide and Happiness comic.


··· I'm thinking about maybe doing the 2010 Seattle to Portland bike ride (link goes to 2009 info). I kind of like the idea of being home when I finish. I've also never ridden 100 miles in a day, let alone 200 miles in 2 days. I'll be spending some time considering this.


··· If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. Autotuned musical "A Glorious Dawn" lecture by Carl Sagan, featuring Stephen Hawking.
Also, T-Pain's autotuning iPhone app, as applied to the president on Jimmy Kimmel.


··· "Love Cake," a vaguely suggestive ukelele dessert anthem by Brit sensations Rocky and Balls. Via violet_tigress1.


··· Great one from passiveaggressivenotes.com. And another.

The Incredible Hulk (DS)
Professor Layton and The Curious Village (DS)
Wario Land: Shake It! (Wii)
Sonic the Hedgehog (SMS - VC)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS)
World of Goo (Wii)
Boom Blox (Wii)
Street Figher Alpha 3 (DC)
Kirby's Air Ride (GC)
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS)
Sonic Unleashed (Wii)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (SMS - VC)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sacrifice (DS)
Sonic and The Black Knight (Wii)
Dead Rising: Chop 'Till You Drop (Wii)
The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood (GBA)
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Wii)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (GBA)
The Terminator (Sega CD)
Doom 3 (Xbox)
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (DS)
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (Wii)
House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii)
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (DS)
Neo Contra (PS2)
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Wii)
Iron Man (DS)
Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire (GC)
Deadly Creatures (Wii)
Kong: 8th Wonder of the World (GBA)
Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban (GBA)
King of the Monsters (Neo Geo, via SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1)
Burning Fight (Neo Geo, via SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1)
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Wii)
Pitfall: The Lost Expedition (GC)
A Boy & His Blob (Wii)
Peggle (iPod)
Another Code: Two Memories (DS)
Antarctic Adventure (GB)
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (GB)

Anyone use VirtualBox on OS X? I don't feel like paying for the VMWare Fusion update.

Rode Yuki up north and left her at the dealer's for the 15K service, which includes new spark plugs and a valve check/adjustment among all the normal inspect this, tighten that stuff. I will go back next Sat and pick her up.

I was all mentally prepared for a fight about it, too. I've gotten the run around so much with these guys trying to get the bike scheduled for any kind of service, I had pretty much written it all off as a very expensive lesson. But, I also wasn't looking forward to disassembling half my motorcycle to do the valves and plugs. So I went up there, and mentally steeled for a confrontation with the manager. But it went super smooth: 'I want to drop the bike off for the 15K mileage' and they said, 'cool'. Burt and I walked around the store a bit, and as we left, Yuki was already up on a lift-stand.

Now, of course, like any time I take a vehicle in, I'm already paranoid about it. 'How will I know they actually checked and adjusted the valves? What if they fuck it up?' Oh well...their ass and my insurance, I suppose.

Does anyone have contact info for him?

Went to an open house today, new construction. The living room was specifically designed to mount a flat panel on the wall above the fireplace, with a media center built in to the other side of the room, with cables run.

Now, I can see that this is a popular thing, hanging up the TV, but I seriously don't like it. Hanging up a TV screams "sports bar!" to me, and I'm not into that.

Also, I tend to need more than occasional access to the input ports behind the TV. Unfortunately, I suppose. And since home theater is already a big enough pain in the ass, I don't want to deal with "and there's no blah-blah cable run from the media center to the TV" in the future, when the next thing comes out.

When the snow stakes show up one can no longer pretend that Winter is going to give us a miss this year.

So far, I'm not thrilled with the new "less Brock, more Hatred" situation.