Chrisb

Music meme thanks jenk

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:32:36 GMT

Go to musicoutfitters.com
- Search on the year you graduated from high school and get the list of 100 most popular songs of that year
- Bold the songs you like
- Italicize the songs you liked then, but don't now (I also included the ones that are kinda "eh" now...)
- Strike through the ones you hate (I included "didn't like", because I don't really hate most of these)
- Underline your favorites.
- Do nothing to the ones you don't remember.

~~1. Shadow Dancing, Andy Gibb~~
2. Night Fever, Bee Gees
3. You Light Up My Life, Debby Boone
~~4. Stayin' Alive, Bee Gees~~
~~5. Kiss You All Over, Exile~~
~~6. How Deep Is Your Love, Bee Gees~~
7. Baby Come Back, Player
~~8. (Love Is) Thicker Than Water, Andy Gibb~~
9. Boogie Oogie Oogie, A Taste Of Honey
10. Three Times A Lady, Commodores
11. Grease, Frankie Valli
12. I Go Crazy, Paul Davis
~~13. You're The One That I Want, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John~~
14. Emotion, Samantha Sang
15. Lay Down Sally, Eric Clapton
16. Miss You, Rolling Stones
17. Just The Way You Are, Billy Joel
~~18. With A Little Luck, Wings~~
19. If I Can't Have You, Yvonne Elliman
20. Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah), Chic
21. Feels So Good, Chuck Mangione
22. Hot Child In The City, Nick Gilder
~~23. Love Is Like Oxygen, Sweet~~
~~24. It's A Heartache, Bonnie Tyler~~
25. We Are The Champions/We Will Rock You, Queen
26. Baker Street, Gerry Rafferty
~~27. Can't Smile Without You, Barry Manilow~~
28. Too Much, Too Little, Too Late, Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams
29. Dance With Me, Peter Brown
~~30. Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad, Meat Loaf~~
31. Jack And Jill, Raydio
~~32. Take A Chance On Me, Abba~~
~~33. Sometimes When We Touch, Dan Hill~~
~~34. Last Dance, Donna Summer~~
~~35. Hopelessly Devoted To You, Olivia Newton-John~~
~~36. Hot Blooded, Foreigner~~
~~37. You're In My Heart, Rod Stewart~~
38. The Closer I Get To You, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway
39. Dust In The Wind, Kansas
~~40. Magnet And Steel, Walter Egan~~
41. Short People, Randy Newman
42. Use Ta Be My Girl, O'Jays
43. Our Love, Natalie Cole
44. Love Will Find A Way, Pablo Cruise
45. An Everlasting Love, Andy Gibb
46. Love Is In The Air, John Paul Young
47. Goodbye Girl, David Gates
48. Slip Slidin' Away, Paul Simon
49. The Groove Line, Heatwave
50. Thunder Island, Jay Ferguson
51. Imaginary Lover, Atlanta Rhythm Section
52. Still The Same, Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band
53. My Angel Baby, Toby Beau
54. Disco Inferno, Trammps
55. On Broadway, George Benson
~~56. Come Sail Away, Styx~~
57. Back In Love Again, L.T.D.
58. This Time I'm In It For Love, Player
59. You Belong To Me, Carly Simon
60. Here You Come Again, Dolly Parton
61. Blue Bayou, Linda Ronstadt
62. Peg, Steely Dan
~~63. You Needed Me, Anne Murray~~
64. Shame, Evelyn "Champagne" King
65. Reminiscing, Little River Band
66. Count On Me, Jefferson Starship
~~67. Baby Hold On, Eddie Money~~
68. Hey Deanie, Shaun Cassidy
69. Summer Nights, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-john
~~70. What's Your Name, Lynyrd Skynyrd~~
~~71. Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, Crystal Gayle~~
72. Because The Night, Patti Smith
73. Every Kinda People, Robert Palmer
~~74. Copacabana, Barry Manilow~~
75. Always And Forever, Heatwave
76. You And I, Rick James
77. Serpentine Fire, Earth, Wind and Fire
78. Sentimental Lady, Bob Welch
79. Falling, LeBlanc and Carr
80. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, Santa Esmeralda
81. Bluer Than Blue, Michael Johnson
82. Running On Empty, Jackson Browne
83. Whenever I Call You "Friend", Kenny Loggins
84. Fool (If You Think It's Over), Chris Rea
85. Get Off, Foxy
86. Sweet Talking Woman, Electric Light Orchestra
87. Life's Been Good, Joe Walsh
88. I Love The Night Life, Alicia Bridges
89. You Can't Turn Me Off (In The Middle Of Turning Me On), High Inergy
~~90. It's So Easy, Linda Ronstadt~~
91. Native New Yorker, Odyssey
92. Flashlight, Parliament
93. Don't Look Back, Boston
94. Turn To Stone, Electric Light Orchestra
95. I Can't Stand The Rain, Eruption
96. Ebony Eyes, Bob Welch
97. The Name Of The Game, Abba
98. We're All Alone, Rita Coolidge
~~99. Hollywood Nights, Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band~~
100. Deacon Blues, Steely Dan

20% chance of rain - my data might be off

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:53:44 GMT

Without actually collecting enough data to mark a true correlation, I have noticed that when *I* notice when the weatherman annouces a 20% chance of rain, it almost ALWAYS rains.

Is that like Bono saying "Every time I snap my fingers a child dies?" (Then stop doin ' it ye bastard!!)

Well there's another big strike against Obama

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:24:02 GMT

Ok, I was wrong. I fell for eloquence and my own assumptions that anyone who was teaching Constitutional law at the college level would not only understand his subject but do as he said he would and end Bush's pattern of abuses. *Expanding* the office of Faith Based Initiatives? Amerika deserves McCain. On the things that matter to me, Obama is just less and less something different. He is uinfortunately proving Nader right.

How the hell did the country that produced Jefferson, Madison, Sagan, Sanger - you know, the one that put the first human one the moon - get to point where this is the best we can come up with for a leader? Is Obama "Bush with a vocabulary?" Let's see: telecom immunity / FISA spying? Nope, same as George. Now this:

<lj-cut>

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1131ap_obama_faith.html?source=mypi

I realize ity appears to be mostly pandering - but in cases of religion, the symbols matter. Religion isn't anything but a bunch of ideas and symbols in the first place. Ideas that guide people's lives in some seriously fucked up way as well as the occasional insight into good works.

Will he be better than Hillary or McCain? I guess we'll find out. He's not the breath of fresh air *I* thought I was seeing.

I stated before I didn't like his religiousity - I just didn't think for moment that anyone with a brain made of anything but turds would continue the office of faith based initiatives inder this Constitution. I'm truly saddend by the symbolism of this.

Things I've done

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:36:38 GMT

01. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said "I love you" and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
19. Touched an iceberg
20. Slept under the stars
21. Changed a baby's diaper
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23. Watched a meteor shower
24. Gotten drunk on champagne
25. Given more than you can afford to charity
26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
28. Had a food fight
29. Bet on a winning horse
30. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
31. Asked out a stranger
32. Had a snowball fight
33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
35. Held a lamb
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. Taken an ice cold bath
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40. Seen a total eclipse
41. Ridden a roller coaster
42. Hit a home run
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day
46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
47. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
48. Had two hard drives for your computer
49. Visited all 50 states.
50. Loved your job for all accounts
51. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
53. Had amazing friends
54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
55. Watched wild whales
56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe
58. Taken a road-trip
59. Rock climbing
60. Lied to foreign government's official in that country to avoid notice
61. Midnight walk on the beach
62. Sky diving
63. Visited Ireland
64. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
66. Visited Japan
67. Bench pressed your own weight
68. Milked a cow
69. Alphabetized your records
70. Pretended to be a superhero
71. Sung karaoke
72. Lounged around in bed all day
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Scuba diving
75. Got it on to "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye
76. Kissed in the rain
77. Played in the mud
78. Played in the rain
79. Gone to a drive-in theatre
80. Done something you should regret, but don't regret it
81. Visited the Great Wall of China
82. Discovered that someone who's not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog
83. Dropped Windows in favour of something better
84. Started a business
85. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
86. Toured ancient sites
87. Taken a martial arts class
88. Sword fought for the honour of a woman
89. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
90. Gotten married
91. Been in a movie
92. Crashed a party
93. Loved someone you shouldn't have
94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy
95. Gotten divorced
96. Had sex at the office
97. Gone without food for 5 days
98. Made cookies from scratch
99. Won first prize in a costume contest
100. Ridden a gondola in Venice
101. Gotten a tattoo
102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on
103. Rafted the Snake River
104. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
105. Got flowers for no reason
106. Masturbated in a public place
107. Got so drunk you don't remember anything
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
109. Performed on stage
110. Been to Las Vegas
111. Recorded music
112. Eaten shark
113. Had a one-night stand
114. Gone to Thailand
115. Seen Siouxsie live
116. Bought a house
117. Been in a combat zone
118. Buried one/both of your parents
119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off
120. Been on a cruise ship
121. Spoken more than one language fluently
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123. Bounced a check
124. Performed in Rocky Horror
125. Read - and understood - your credit report
126. Raised children
127. Recently bought and played with a favourite childhood toy
128. Followed your favourite band/singer on tour
129. Created and named your own constellation of stars
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
132. Called or written your Member of Congress
132a. Had them write back
133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
134. ... more than once?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
137. Had an abortion or your female partner did
138. Had plastic surgery
139. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived
140. Wrote articles for a large publication
141. Lost over 100 pounds
142. Held someone while they were having a flashback
143. Piloted an airplane
144. Petted a stingray
145. Broken someone's heart
146. Helped an animal give birth
147. Been fired or laid off from a job
148. Won money on a TV game show
149. Broken a bone
150. Killed a human being
151. Gone on an African photo safari
152. Ridden a motorcycle
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100mph
154. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
155. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
157. Ridden a horse
158. Had major surgery
159. Had sex on a moving train
160. Had a snake as a pet
161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
162. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
164. Visited more foreign countries than US states
165. Visited all 7 continents
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
167. Eaten kangaroo meat
168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
169. Been a sperm or egg donor (thought about it in college, but didn't do it.)
170. Eaten sushi
171. Had your picture in the newspaper
172. Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime
173. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
174. Gotten someone fired for their actions
175. Gone back to school
176. Parasailed
177. Changed your name
178. Petted a cockroach
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes
180. Read The Iliad
181. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school and read
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them
183. ... and gotten 86'ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
184. Taught yourself art from scratch
185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187. Skipped all your school reunions (so far...)
188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
189. Been elected to public office
190. Written your own computer language
191. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
192. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
193. Built your own PC from parts (I had help)
194. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
195. Had a booth at a street fair
196. Dyed your hair
197. Been a DJ
198. Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal
199. Written your own role playing game
200. Been arrested

LIfe is good

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:34:55 GMT

The stage at Faerieworlds is going to be crowded. I am very happy.

I have this idea that won't fit on the stage, but I'd like to see it and it might be more effective on the ground anyway: dancers who can do full spins (you know, where you keep your face focused on one point so you don't get dizzy?) winding up with Turtles All the Way Down"

Turtles is a slow mo' Tai Chi kind of dance, eventually spinning out faster and faster into infinity... and why do the women have snakes in their hands?

Welcome to the enshrined surveilance state

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:00:59 GMT

I knew it was likely but it still makes me sad, angry, nuts, disgusted.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153ap_terrorist_surveillance.html?source=mypi

"WASHINGTON -- The House Friday easily approved a compromise bill setting new electronic surveillance rules that effectively shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits arising from the government's terrorism-era warrantless eavesdropping on phone and computer lines in this country.

The bill, which was passed on a 293-129 vote, does more than just protect the telecoms. The update to the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is an attempt to balance privacy rights with the government's responsibility to protect the country against attack, taking into account changes in telecommunications technologies."

Tell me why again I need AT&T cellphones? Comcast cable for the VOIP landline? Why do I feel like 90% of the money I spend goes to corporations who in turn fuck us every chance they get?

Remeber the next time you pull the lever: DEMOCRATS did this.

On another front, Obama is campaigning with Hillary. My worst fear (with I think, good cause) is that this a precurser to him choosing her as his running mate. This is stupid for many reasons - not the least is already made commercials with Hillary saying McCain (and Billary) would be a better president than Obama, her landing in Bosnia under sniper fire lie, "Shame on you Barack Obama" and I'm sure others - but it's also a cave in to the DLC and everything he alleged to be running against.

Why do Dems start out with an election that is theirs to lose and then do exactly that almost every time? If Hillary is on the ticket, I'm going to sell bumper stickers that say "Democrats deserve McCain" - and the Amerikan system that brings us this garbage, deserves him as well.

It's dead, Jim. The hot tub. Dead.

Fri, 23 May 2008 04:26:22 GMT

Alas the huge fricking hot tub we got from Freecycle has broken past the point of reasonable repair. It has "rodents" living under it and is leaking and the leaking has shorted out parts that with labor will cost almost a thousand dollars to replace.

That's about 2/3rds the cost of a sauna kit, or half the cost of insulating Sue's studio or well, a grand.

It was an interesting and expensive experiment. Hot tubs are expensive. You can't just turn them off like a sauna. We didn't use it as much as we thought and didn't get as many visitors up to soak either.

So now, I drain the thing and we cut it up. We can recycle the steel, but man. Unless someone wants a project...

So we lose a tub and gain a patio. It's the only place on the property that gets enough sun to ripen tomatoes. We're seriously looking into a solar array...

Meanwhile, I'm about 250 measures into Mountains and Oceans (my orchestral peice) and I've started the paperwork for ticket sales for the October show... Tickets should go on sale by June 1st.

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:09:49 GMT

Reader mem thingy. Interesting to see how many of these I've read twice or more. I go back to the ones I like. I've found I liked most of them....

"What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish. Here's the twist: add (*) beside the ones you liked and would (or did) read again or recommend. Even if you read 'em for school in the first place."

The Aeneid
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
American Gods*
Anansi Boys*
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir*
Angels & Demons
Anna Karenina
Atlas Shrugged
Beloved
The Blind Assassin
Brave New World*
The Brothers Karamazov
The Canterbury Tales*
The Catcher in the Rye
Catch-22*
A Clockwork Orange*
Cloud Atlas
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
A Confederacy of Dunces
The Confusion*
The Corrections
The Count of Monte Cristo
Crime and Punishment
Cryptonomicon* (would read again)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
David Copperfield (not sure – we had the entire Dickens hardbound growing up, and I ended up with the collection – I’ve been very slowly working my through it.)
Don Quixote
Dracula*
Dubliners
Dune*
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Emma
Foucault’s Pendulum
The Fountainhead
Frankenstein
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything* (would read again and recommend)
The God of Small Things
The Grapes of Wrath* (should be mandatory reading fo social workers and politicians)
Gravity’s Rainbow
Great Expectations*
Gulliver’s Travels
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The Historian : a novel
The Hobbit*
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Iliad*
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
The Inferno
Jane Eyre
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
The Kite Runner
Les Misérables
Life of Pi : a novel
Lolita*
Love in the Time of Cholera
Madame Bovary
Mansfield Park
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlemarch
Middlesex
Mrs. Dalloway
The Mists of Avalon
Moby Dick
The Name of the Rose
Neverwhere*
1984*
Northanger Abbey
The Odyssey*
Oliver Twist
The Once and Future King*
One Hundred Years of Solitude
On the Road*
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest*
Oryx and Crake : a novel
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present*
Persuasion
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Pride and Prejudice
The Prince
Quicksilver*
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books * (would read again)
The Satanic Verses
The Scarlet Letter
Sense and Sensibility
A Short History of Nearly Everything
The Silmarillion
Slaughterhouse-five*
The Sound and the Fury
A Tale of Two Cities*
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
The Time Traveler’s Wife
To the Lighthouse
Treasure Island*
The Three Musketeers
Ulysses
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Vanity Fair
War and Peace
Watership Down
White Teeth
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West*
Wuthering Heights
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values*

Science Tats

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:54:17 GMT

Ok, rev_dr_ace sent this to me this morning. http://carlzimmer.typepad.com/

Very cool stuff - I like several of them... Talk about "tree of life"... as above, so below, with 3,000 branches...

Allright! St. Crispy is LIVE!

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 06:10:04 GMT

Ok folks! http://www.stcrispy.com is live... at least the initial version...

Come get yr St Crispy mugs :-)

The future holds podcasts and other stuff, but right now, we just have the story and mugs...

Yay!

Sue will tell you all soon...

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:21:26 GMT

She is a mighty dead-possum warrior!

We have to figure out a way to make the environment under the house unaatractive to living things. Then they won't go there to die.

Preparing myself to vote for John McCain

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:00:39 GMT

While there is still a long way to go and Obama is still ahead (as of this point in the evening he's lost the TX primary but is ahead in the TX caucuses) the primary is not yet the knockout I'd hoped for.

The more I delve into Obama's votes, the more I like the guy. Hillary pulling out all the stops, and playing every dirty card she's been able to find has proved herself entirely unworthy of the office she seeks.

I'm not looking forward to another installment of the Reagan / Bush / Clinton / Bush / Clinton? soap opera that is Amerika (TM)the total merger of corporations and government. The idea od listening to this shrill harpy give the conservatives everything they want for the next four to eight years may be too much to keep me tied to the US.

The only thing that gives me ANY kind of hope is that should McCain get elected, he won't have to spend the presidency proving to the conservatives that his dick is bigger than anyone else's - which I believe in every part of my being what Hillary is going to do - and thus *might* stand a chance of pulling us out of Iraq. Hillary coming from the side of the party that shows it's strong by capitulating to the neocons, will have us there for 1000 year reich. How many deals do you think No-protest-zone-Billary had to make to escape impeachment?

I'm not saying Obama is a definate - all he his is a *chance* to put someone in power who doesn't have years of deal making with the traitors that have sold this country into the shitpile it's become. I disagtree with 90% of everything McCain stands for, but atc least I know the bastard isn't going to tell me he's on my side.

A divided Congress with a majority of Dems and McCain as pres would be better than a unified government with Hillary in the button chair. God, this shit just makes me sick.

Three Essential Books

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:02:13 GMT

Ok - maybe someone has already done this, but I think it would be a cool meme to spread.

If you could get a basically educated populace to read three books, what would those books be, and why would you have everyone read them, in order of importance. This is assuming functional levels of literacy, basic math skills, rudiments of world history, bits of science, music, theatre, a basic understanding of important works of fiction (works one should know to understand the culture) in other words enough high school to get by.

Mine would be:

1) Carl Sagan's "Demon Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark."
Sagan's ability to make the scientific method not only understood by ANYONE as something so easy to apply to your life and thinking (science as the marriage of skepticism and wonder") but also the sheer joy he communicates in his clarity make this such a standout piece of work that it should be taught in every school in the world. The clear guidleines for bullshit detection, how "psychics" do a cold "read" would put every preacher and faith healing charlatan out of business.

2) Gary Snyder's "Practice of the Wild" Gary Snyder vies for Sagan as one of the two most sane minds that ever put pen to paper. Gary's thoughts on understanding our sense of place and our relationship with the natural world just make an enormous amount of sense to me. This is a poet who has also walked the walk on sustainability in his personal life - he's made his idealism practical. I really like his poetry as well which comes out of much of his experience. This was guy who hung out with Ginsberg and Kerouac made a name for himself as a POET, and then got a job as an oil room pipe cleaner on a freighter to get himself to Japan to study Zen. Stayed for ten years and came back and attended the Gathering of the Tribes in Berkeley 1968 and wrote of the subculture in mythical terms. I'd pretty much recommend ALL of Snyder, but if I was choosing essays vs poetry, "Practice of the Wild" is the one I'd go with.

3) I'm torn between several for book number three, but I think I'm going to go with Carl Zimmer's "Evolution, the Triumph of an Idea." In spite of it's abysmal title, it's the most comprehensive layman's book on evolution that I've read, and I really do think I understand the basics of natural selection at this point. My good friend rev_dr_ace gave me almost of all of his writing and I've sucked them down whole, for the most part. I think if everyone understood the basics of evolution, the human race would get it's priorities straightened out.

So, like I said, these recommendations assume something like a 9th or10th grade education - they could be (and maybe in some places ARE) part of a high school curricculam, but they make great reads at pretty much any age where they could be understood. If you haven't read them yet, Especially the first two might really change your thinking. For me they were like "coming home."

What are your three?

Joining the Movie Game

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:08:20 GMT

See if you can be the first to guess right.. Which movie does the line come from?

1) "In heaven everything is fine."
2) "Is your mouth all glued up with cunny juice? I assed you a question!"
3) "Is it atomic?! Yes! It's VERY atomic!"
4)"...and I believe in long, slow, sweet wet kisses that last for three days."
5) "Yes! Yes! Say it! He vas my boyfriend!"
6)"This is the real weepy and like, tragic part of the story begining, oh my brothers and only friends."
7)"The queen said she was gonna ream us with 20 inch cattle prods and I'm still waiting!."
8) "I'm a sophisticated sex robot sent back through time to change the future for one lucky lady."
9) "Oh you got a murderous rage in you and I like it!"
10)"Say Bill, do you think you could rub some of this powder on my lips?"

Happy Darwin Day!

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:19:50 GMT

Stolen form various folks...

http://www.darwinday.org/

Trojan downloader . xs

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:46:26 GMT

I will say it here and full veiw of the public: If I ever come into contact with someone that I know has written a virus that has been loosed intto the wild - like the trojan downloader that Sue has on her machine, I will risk jail to kill them so dead, they'll wish they could die again.

We just don't have time to deal with this right now. It's hijacked the clipboard so we can't even save data. And of course we're shaking in our boots that it might come across the network if we try to copy from my machine.

Oh, and Trend Micro's alledged chat support is open til 4pm, their phone service til 6.

Caucus results

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 02:25:21 GMT

Well with 42% of the precincts reporting, Obama is winning by about a three to one margin against Hillary.

My experience seems similar to many: no undecideds in my precinct, no minds were changed and people voted 22 to 10 in favor of Obama. That plays out to 4 delegates for Obama, 1 for Clinton.

I hope this plays out later in the evening and our "super delegate" Senators buy a clue get on the Obama train.

I'm cautious in my optimism. We'll see how the rest of the state plays out.

Why I'm Caucusing for Obama tommorrow

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:47:57 GMT

Hey folks - political junky that I am, I still don't send out "missives" to people I know very often. But this Saturday's primary caucus may decide who will become the next President. Anyone that knows me, knows I'm a lefty.
A perspective that rings true for me is Lakoff's definittion of
liberal: "Using the common wealth, for the common good so that individuals can meet their goals."

It's a hard time to be any kind of idealist these days and we're now down to Obama v Hillary.

I'm disturbed by a few things that Obama has done and said. I don't like his religiosity, I don't like some of the political stances he's taken
around gay marriage, even though he supports civil unions. I do like
much of what's he accomplished in his time in the Senates of both Illinois and the US Congress which is substantive compared to Hillary. I like that
he's taught Constitutional law and that he's techlogically literate. If
you have 20 minutes, Lawrence Lessig makes the argument far better than I in
the second video at http://www.lessig.org/blog/

And anyone who writes lines like "Cynics have warned us against creating a false sense of hope, but in the unlikely experiment that is
America, there has never been anything false about hope." says a lot to
me about understanding that elections are as much or more about the general direction of the country than they are about specific policies. I like that
he's been candid about his drug use in his youth. Like more than 25% of
the population, he experiemented and moved on.

And then I look at Hillary.

I like that she's female. It seems like we ought to give a woman a shot at the top job. The problem is I don't want Maggie Thatcher regardless of gender. I voted for Ferraro in 1984.

The top reasons I'm voting against Hillary:

1) Her pivitol role in the Republican-lite Democratic Leadership Council. She and guys like her husband and Joe Lieberman are the reason there is no left wing in American poltics.
They are the reason the Democratic party abandoned the working class in favor of big business and "free trade" and embraced
the show politics of "safe" selected special interest groups.
If we're going to end up with a country that has ANY sense of fairness left in it, we need to un-elect the "third way" Democrats and their version of "Republican-lite"

2) Her vote for the war in Iraq. She (with Harry Reid and Nancy
Pelosi) is a poster child for Democratic capitualtion. The woman has no integrity.

3) Her so-called "health plan" is nothing more than a bonus for profit oriented private insurances companies. It comes down to making it illegal to not pay for health insurance.
Brilliant. She wants to Thatcherize single payer, before it even
gets off the ground. We'll pay more for our insurance, but she won't
"raise taxes."

4) She's pro RIAA, copyrights for big business while screwing the artists.

5) Hillary was on the board of directors of union-busting WalMart for six years. You don't sit on the BOD that long without drinking the Koolaid.

6) She voted FOR the PATRIOT Act. TWICE.

7) She voted for the so-called bancruptcy "reform"

8) If she gets the nomination, she will unite the right wing and polarize the Democrats.

9) She "waffles" on torture.

The big question is: "Will our country be better off four years after this election?"

If McCain wins, we know we're screwed.

In my book, if Hillary wins, we know we're screwed and SHES A DEMOCRAT. I'm really tired of my party stabbing me in the back.

Obama, is the lesser of two evils AND the guy has the charisma to carry the vote.

Please go to your caucus this weekend and vote Obama. Your vote may actually make a difference this time.

Best,

Chrisb

Network solutions cybersquats

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:28:31 GMT

I learned the hard way that if you use network solutions to try to see if a domain name is avilable, they put an automatic hold on it for five days - so you can only buy it from them. Isn't that nice?

I've been building the new website for Dragonfly Champagne and did a search just to make sure it was still availble. It was, so I went to ol' trusty hostbaby and said "Fire it up." That was when I found out about the hold. Go Daddy and 100 other registrars charge $6 to $12 a domain name. Network Solutions charges $35.

Let us all say it togther now: BOYCOTT NETWORK SOLUTIONS. A few years ago I went through the most ridiculous of times trying to transfer gc.com from network solutions to cheaper domain registrator. I swore then that I would never use them again. Ah, but little did I know what evil lurks in the ways of some domain companies.

Un. Be. Leave. Abull.

Call for projector

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:05:39 GMT

Hey, does anyone out here in our friends list have a digital oprjector we can use to project jpgs behind the band for the show on the 16th?

We have some really neat things that we'll be able to do if we have one...

Thanks!

Twenty Dollar Pell Grant for poor kids

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:40:55 GMT

I'm on Greg Palast's mailing list. I think the guy rocks - he might be the last real reporter left on earth. He's got a masters in Economics, studying with Milton Friedman, mister laissez fair trickle down economics HIMSELF, so when the guy makes a critique, he knows what he's talking about.

The pint of his e-mail today: there are roughly 15 million kids living in poverrty in the US, and coinicidently, roughly 15 million in the highest tax bracket in the US. In George's speech last night, he wants to cut some programs and give every poor in the country DRUMROLL..... TWENTY DOLLARS! (I'm not sure if this is over ten years or one year, I'll assume one.) The tax cuts he wants to continue to give the wealthiest 15 million Americans? $287,000 over ten years, or $28,700... (4.3 TRILLLION dollars over ten years)

Compassionate conservatism's finest hour.

In this fictional economy we live in, essentially dependent on credit card debt and continual spending, what do you think would "stimulate" the economy more over the next ten years - 28k for people who need to get educated, fed, clothed, and who gonna buy the same landfill fodder than creates "jobs" or someone that is going to put it into their 401K as a hedge against recession?

That's kind of the argument in the big picture, right? The "science" of economics claims to not be involved in moral decisions, but we're going to tax people no matter what and we're going to pay people no matter what. It's pretty clear to me where the money needs to go.

Interesting films

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 05:54:01 GMT

I know I should have been doing PSA's for the big show on Feb 16th, but I got distracted by this film.
Zeitgeist
http://zeitgeistmovie.com/

I also highly recommend "Money as debt"

Unfortunately there are a lot of factual errors in "Zeitgeist," especially with what I know about Egyptian gods and some others, but that doesn't discount the general thesis of the film: basically religion is used as one of many tools to control populations, and continual war is pushed on us fools by the international bankers and military industrial complex who profit mightly from them. He gets about 90% of his facts right as far as I can tell.

A few holes he filled that I would like to check for errors: his claim that Dick Cheney was actually overseeing the NORAD excercises that were taking place in 9/11 - which included a hijacking scenario similar to what is claimed to have happen. Another: how the crash of 1929 was orchestrated by bankers and then EXACERBATED by them.

More and more, to my thinking at least, the evidence of 9/11 says to me that it was Dick Cheney's Reichstag Fire. Cheney is the one who goes back to Nixon, who has the "experience" in government.

Does all this matter? People are mostly clear on pointing out the problems, but solutions are pretty hard to come by. This guy basically says the solution is to kill your television, know yourself and love people, wake up and renew your relationship with the natural world - all stuff I write about continually - but I think it's going to take a little more than that to deal with money as debt, the military industrial complex and the stranglehold mindfulck madness of religion and the omnipresent view of ourselves and other humans as "consumers."

All we've got is love right? Kinda. Moving toward a sustainable culture is so multifaceted - I used to think the biggest part of the solution was population, that there are just too many people, but the world population about half what it is now, when the Federal Reserve was started.

I keep going back to the idea that "winning" is living the life you dream of living regardless of the lunatics - dance naked, love who you love, say it out loud, live as free people and lead by example and yeah that's part of it. But one thing is certain; we're going to live through some very interesting times here in the New Amerikan Century and there is no place on the planet where anyone is really going to be able to sit it out.

Long term problems like over-population, starvation and the over-consumtion of finite resources are ultiumately self-correcting, but living through that - you know we ought to be able to do better than this....

Hey look! I'm Zoe too!

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:36:23 GMT

I always wanted to be a tall, beautiful, sexy woman who can kick ass and has serious lips and thighs :-)

Your results:
You are Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)

Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)		80%
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)		75%
Wash (Ship Pilot)		65%
Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)		55%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary)		40%
Inara Serra (Companion)		40%
River (Stowaway)		40%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)		35%
A Reaver (Cannibal)		25%
Alliance		15%
Derrial Book (Shepherd)		5%

Dependable and trustworthy.
You love your significant other and
you are a tough cookie when in a conflict.

Click here to take the "Which Serenity character are you?" quiz...

Suprise, not.

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:57:12 GMT

Who the hell is Mike Gravel?

If American corporations knew what the legalization of recreational drugs does to boost the illusion of freedom, the prisons would be almost empty.

93% Mike Gravel
88% Dennis Kucinich
78% John Edwards
74% Bill Richardson
72% Barack Obama
72% Chris Dodd
69% Hillary Clinton
68% Joe Biden
33% Ron Paul
33% Rudy Giuliani
29% Mike Huckabee
27% John McCain
26% Mitt Romney
19% Tom Tancredo
19% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Sick, need head pets

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:49:37 GMT

Well, first thing in Amsterdam, I get sick. Fever, cold, cough - REALLY kicked my ass.
But we're here with folks we love and life is good.
There seems to be a serious cultural fetish with sticks of dyamite for new year's celebration - and everyone is practicing. Whoda thunk it?

Sleeping lots... head pets are good...