Sunday, April 30, 2006
Amateur lightsabre battle
I gotta say, for being amateurs, and amateur kids at that, it's pretty damn impressive. Well choreographed and everything.
No.
Look. I'm all in favor of having a restaurant where female waitresses willingly turn themselves into sexual objects for my gratification. Hell, I might even stay in a hotel dedicated to that purpose in Vegas.
But if you're going to build a Hooters in an exotic location, the _last_ place you should build one is in China. Is this just wishful thinking on the part of Chinese businessmen? Like, if you put skimpy clothing on Asian women, they'll magically get, well, hooters?
But if you're going to build a Hooters in an exotic location, the _last_ place you should build one is in China. Is this just wishful thinking on the part of Chinese businessmen? Like, if you put skimpy clothing on Asian women, they'll magically get, well, hooters?
A quote that had to be shared
No opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.
- WH Auden
That pretty much sums up my distaste for both opera and musicals. I think West Side Story is the most quintessentially dumb musical in this regard. How can you have a story about rival gangs that involves dancing and ballads? Lost teeth, cigarette burns, gang rape, and being bound in a gasoline-soaked tire and set on fire, yes. Dancing? No. Not so much. Very few Tupac songs about how crappy a rival gang's choreography was in South Central...
- WH Auden
That pretty much sums up my distaste for both opera and musicals. I think West Side Story is the most quintessentially dumb musical in this regard. How can you have a story about rival gangs that involves dancing and ballads? Lost teeth, cigarette burns, gang rape, and being bound in a gasoline-soaked tire and set on fire, yes. Dancing? No. Not so much. Very few Tupac songs about how crappy a rival gang's choreography was in South Central...
A fickle god
John Kenneth Galbraith apparently just bit it. My uncle actually lives right next to him, so probably the neighborhood is a zoo at the moment.
Why is it that God seems to be striking down the good and meanwhile letting evil thrive?
Why is it that God seems to be striking down the good and meanwhile letting evil thrive?
Saturday, April 29, 2006
I am a photographic genius!
Okay, not really. But I did have a few nice pics on my camera. Others here.
San Diego
I-280 in the Bay Area
I-280 in the Bay Area
Friday, April 28, 2006
When your family's long history of making bone-headed financial decisions comes back to haunt you
After this little gem, I think I just lost about $5000 between stock and options. Fucking Microsoft. Fucking Wall Street.
I had meant to exercise my options earlier, but of course I didn't get around to it. I thought to myself, "Well, what's the big deal? Microsoft stock doesn't really move much anyway..."
My family has a long history of making stupid financial decisions, so in some sense I'm doomed. My grandmother lost an original cell from Snow White (which is probably worth tens of thousands of dollars at this point), and my family also sold all its Eastman stock just before the merger that caused it to become Eastman-Kodak.
I had meant to exercise my options earlier, but of course I didn't get around to it. I thought to myself, "Well, what's the big deal? Microsoft stock doesn't really move much anyway..."
My family has a long history of making stupid financial decisions, so in some sense I'm doomed. My grandmother lost an original cell from Snow White (which is probably worth tens of thousands of dollars at this point), and my family also sold all its Eastman stock just before the merger that caused it to become Eastman-Kodak.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Why is this so hard?
Guys, look...I know each of you has your infrastructure all set up to use your respective next-gen DVD format, but come on...there has to be a sum of money or deal you can broker to get one of you to use the other's format. Your idiotic and stubborn greed is going to force the rest of the world to suffer a format war, and you'll be harming your own profit margin while most consumers wait for the winner to emerge before commiting to an entirely new format. This is a classic lose-lose when it could easily be turned into a win-win if you could get your heads out of your asses.
Dicks.
Dicks.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Yet another reason I come from the good Carolina
The southern, lesser one wants to ban sex toys.
Don't these people have better things to do? Is feeding the poor really less urgent that eliminating vibrators? Really?
Don't these people have better things to do? Is feeding the poor really less urgent that eliminating vibrators? Really?
When you download music, the terrorists win
Are you shitting me? Is this the mantra now? Anything somebody doesn't like can be construed as funding terrorists?
Somehow I don't think Al-Qaeda is getting rich off of bootleg Kelly Clarkson CDs.
Somehow I don't think Al-Qaeda is getting rich off of bootleg Kelly Clarkson CDs.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Oh, right, I forgot...
Republicans are still douchebags.
Republican operating procedure:
If you don't like the idea, insist on endless studies to "get the facts."
If you do like the idea, immediately close off all debate on the topic and label those who oppose you obstructionist.
Republican operating procedure:
If you don't like the idea, insist on endless studies to "get the facts."
If you do like the idea, immediately close off all debate on the topic and label those who oppose you obstructionist.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
A quick musical critique
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are fantastic musicians and terrible poets/lyricists. I love a bunch of their music, but their lyrics always make me cringe. Because they're trite and retarded. The lyrics, I mean. I don't know about the guys. One of them _is_ named Flea though.
That is all.
That is all.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Linus is an asshole
The Linux Linus, not the Charlie Brown one.
This is what I hate about some kinds of engineers and developers. They turn arguments about programming personal, and they think that just because they think they know better than everyone else gives them license to behave like an asshole. It doesn't. Civility and respect for one's peers doesn't evaporate because you can do math well.
People like to talk about how democratic Linux and Open Source is, but in fact it's really more like a monarchy or dictatorship with an arguably benevolent dictator. Ultimately, a very few number of people have control about which patches get into the Linux kernel and which ones don't. At best that is a representative democracy with no checks and balances. But I don't know that Linus actually ever faces elections over his control of the kernel.
This is what I hate about some kinds of engineers and developers. They turn arguments about programming personal, and they think that just because they think they know better than everyone else gives them license to behave like an asshole. It doesn't. Civility and respect for one's peers doesn't evaporate because you can do math well.
People like to talk about how democratic Linux and Open Source is, but in fact it's really more like a monarchy or dictatorship with an arguably benevolent dictator. Ultimately, a very few number of people have control about which patches get into the Linux kernel and which ones don't. At best that is a representative democracy with no checks and balances. But I don't know that Linus actually ever faces elections over his control of the kernel.
Stupid United
Why must there be inflation in frequent flyer miles required for award tickets? It's not like San Francisco is moving farther away from New York every year, for fuck's sake...
A phrase you don't expect to read
Did they really just say the animals were "radioactive...but otherwise healthy"?
No...no no no...see, glowing and radioactive is not a minor physiological quirk. One cannot be "healthy" and "radioactive" at the same time. If you glow in the dark and emit a low humming sound when standing perfectly still, I think it's safe to say you are very, very far from healthy.
No...no no no...see, glowing and radioactive is not a minor physiological quirk. One cannot be "healthy" and "radioactive" at the same time. If you glow in the dark and emit a low humming sound when standing perfectly still, I think it's safe to say you are very, very far from healthy.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
No sympathy
Fer fuck's sake...do I even need to say it?! Frankly, I think he should be able to use the fact that the two women let him in as a defense.
"Look, your honor...I, looking like the creepy old man I am, went around door-to-door asking women if they wanted free breast exams. They voluntarily let me in. They thought to themselves, 'You know, I _have_ needed a breast exam for a while, and I don't find it at all odd that an overweight old man is wandering around neighborhoods offering to fondle women's breasts. Come in, good sir!' I think it's only fair that I get to touch boob if I have to deal with the fact that there are people that stupid still alive in the modern world."
My impulse to protect people from being taken advantage of has limits, boys and girls. At some point, for the good of the gene pool, natural selection should be allowed to take its course.
"Look, your honor...I, looking like the creepy old man I am, went around door-to-door asking women if they wanted free breast exams. They voluntarily let me in. They thought to themselves, 'You know, I _have_ needed a breast exam for a while, and I don't find it at all odd that an overweight old man is wandering around neighborhoods offering to fondle women's breasts. Come in, good sir!' I think it's only fair that I get to touch boob if I have to deal with the fact that there are people that stupid still alive in the modern world."
My impulse to protect people from being taken advantage of has limits, boys and girls. At some point, for the good of the gene pool, natural selection should be allowed to take its course.
Go away
You had your chance Mr. Kerry. You, and the rest of the Democrats, blew it. And now you're a loser in the collective consciousness. Do us all a favor and don't fuck up two consecutive elections. Please?
Your daily idiotic patent
Microsoft's guilty of patent infringement. The patent? Using a product key.
Are you shitting me? The patent system has gotten ridiculous...
Are you shitting me? The patent system has gotten ridiculous...
Are you fucking shitting me?
Yes. That's it. Everything would be fine if we just reinstituted the draft. You fucking retard.
1) Iran's crazy nuclear talk is all just posturing for the sake of domestic public opinion. Nothing galvanizes a country behind a leader, no matter how crazy or inept he is, more than a credible external threat. Just ask Mr. Bush. The _worst_ thing you can do at this point is to provoke them.
2) You actually wrote this in something that you knew was going to be published in the New York Times: "President Bush has the perfect credentials overseas to execute this move, and little political capital at home to lose at this stage. Polls confirm that a wide majority of people in many countries view him and the United States as the major threat to global peace. Why let them down on this count? Go with the flow."
I...did you?...wow. Have you ever been so dumbfounded by a confrontation with stupid that you're left speechless?
3) You called Reagan a master of strategy. Just like Bush is a master of oratory? The man was a fucking retard. He had alzheimers, and he was a dick. If you're looking to him for foreign policy, that tells me you're an idiot with a dangerous failure to grasp the differences between the Cold War and the Middle East.
Please go back to jacking off to Rambo movies and stop cluttering the Times opinion section. Idiocy like yours just isn't as fun when it's so overt.
1) Iran's crazy nuclear talk is all just posturing for the sake of domestic public opinion. Nothing galvanizes a country behind a leader, no matter how crazy or inept he is, more than a credible external threat. Just ask Mr. Bush. The _worst_ thing you can do at this point is to provoke them.
2) You actually wrote this in something that you knew was going to be published in the New York Times: "President Bush has the perfect credentials overseas to execute this move, and little political capital at home to lose at this stage. Polls confirm that a wide majority of people in many countries view him and the United States as the major threat to global peace. Why let them down on this count? Go with the flow."
I...did you?...wow. Have you ever been so dumbfounded by a confrontation with stupid that you're left speechless?
3) You called Reagan a master of strategy. Just like Bush is a master of oratory? The man was a fucking retard. He had alzheimers, and he was a dick. If you're looking to him for foreign policy, that tells me you're an idiot with a dangerous failure to grasp the differences between the Cold War and the Middle East.
Please go back to jacking off to Rambo movies and stop cluttering the Times opinion section. Idiocy like yours just isn't as fun when it's so overt.
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