Eighty Years (or so) To The Big Zero

Hello All,

I’m doing a research paper and would like to get as many responses as I can to the survey I created on Survey Monkey.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=E_2f3KkzlmankQRP94m_2fClkw_3d_3d

It’s a one page survey (9 questions) and most of the questions are radio buttons and such. Any additional feedback you would like to provide is most appreciated.

The time limit on this is rather tight so if you could take a few moments and give some of your opinions it would be most appreciated.
Thank you.
 

Thinking out loud

to have different colored towels. It’s not just a bathroom decor issue.

You need different colored towels to match the dress shirts you put in the dryer so they come out freshly “ironed” without off-color towel threads everywhere.

Saves a lot of time. I’m sure Al Gore is pissed at me about this but damn it I can only iron so many shirts and I’m rushed for time at the moment. We can cuddle later.

Thinking out loud

Where the candidates stand. This is rather lengthy but it does have the answers people may be asking about the candidates when watching them on the telly.*

http://www.ontheissues.org/Barack_Obama.htm
http://www.ontheissues.org/John_McCain.htm

This entry is in response to a concern brought to my attention the other day about candidates flip-flopping on the issues - specifically about timetables and energy policies.

It’s interesting because only in politics are you not allowed to weigh evidence and adjust your thinking on an issue based on that evidence. Any other job it would be considered an asset to be able to adapt to new situations and conditions on the ground.  But in politics if you hold a position on an issue one day and the next day evidence comes out that modifies the reasons you held the original position and you change your mind, you’re a flip-flopper. You can’t lead because you don’t hold to your convictions. What bullshit is that?

I am of course talking about issues that lend themselves to evidence collection. Issues that are made purely for moral convictions are simply based on principles you hold to be truths. (These are usually religious influences or simply how you were brought up.) Even if those principles are contrary to my priniciples and morals at least I understand why you are making that decision however I may disagree or agree. But stances on issues that are based on judgement and a reasoned evaluation of evidence are flexible depending on the evidence.

That’s why I still think this notion of Obama being inexperienced is a red herring. We are all inexperienced in many aspects of life. It’s our ability to respond to the challenges and changes of life that determine whether we are capable or not. I think both candidates are capable. I just think McCain brings more baggage** and favors from corporations than Obama. They both have ties it’s just that McCain’s ties are more like ropes and really don’t set him free to make the right decisions for the People, rather what is OK for people but BETTER for big business. What is good for corporate America is not what is good for Americans. This thinking has gotten all turned around in our society and it can’t stand. Obama is a chance at that change. Even if now his message isn’t as sharp as people may like, the point is it’s a different message. It’s a different leadership.

People are resistant to change in general. Change is hard and always comes across as dangerous and upsetting to the established order of things, but often times, change is necessary and crucial to growth. Sometimes you just have to jump and see where you land. I think with Obama we are all taking a calculated jump. The nation will survive. The people will survive. And who knows, perhaps a fresh perspective from a new location will be good for everyone? Or we can ’stay the course’ as the building burns down around us and taxpayers money gets thrown into un-fillable troughs for special projects and shortsighted futures that benefit only the already rich and established and keep the People running on the treadmill of the American Dream.

*On a side note am I the only one disgusted - literally disgusted and put off - by the hundreds of millions of dollars put into campaign advertising? Why aren’t these corporate donors putting millions of dollars into their local school systems, adult ed classes, drug prevention programs, teenage activities, local parks, etc. etc. etc.? Why aren’t all these ‘private donors’ who give one hundred dollars, or ten dollars, doing the same for their local communities? So basically only the richest among us and only those willing to get covered in the taint of corporate favoritism, can run for office in this country. No wonder we have such poor choices when it comes to leaders.

**Isn’t it amazing how the gas prices are dropping in this country after rising so steadily for so long even as people during that time were cutting back just like they are now. Do people really think there was a sudden influx of people riding bikes to work and the prices adjusted for the lack of demand? Or perhaps to help the candidate on one side of the election get elected this gas issue was taken off the table. I fully expect gas prices to be $3.50, if not lower, by November. And it has nothing to do with speculation and consumer demand. Oh and T.Boone Pickens - the guy stirring up all this trouble by bringing up the whole wind issue - he’s old. You noticed that right? I think he may develop some heart issues that could affect his plans in the near future. Completely natural causes of course. Old people do have health problems. Darn. Guess wind really isn’t a solution after all. Well, back to drilling.

Thinking out loud

I was offered the job today. I go in at 11 to be shown around the shop before they want my final decision.

If all goes well, I’ll start on Monday. There’s a new project starting Monday with Active Directory (Dell is setting it up) and they want me in on it from the ground floor.

I leave in fifteen minutes.

Just have to keep calm, don’t say anything stupid, and all should be fine.

Salary will be 2.5 times what I was making before.*blink* *blink* Stay calm. Breath.

Remember you’re good enough. You’re smart enough. And dog gonnit, people like you.

Sits: 7 (daily)
Push: 4 (daily)

A Whole New You, Thinking out loud

I’ve known this for a long time. It’s a great and straight forward music player from way back. And when I say way back I mean early 2000’s and even into the late 90’s. Yeah that far back.

It started getting a little too commercially for my taste a while back but I’ve always loved the features it brought to the table. Something many of the other music players don’t even try to do.

MusicMatch was really good with renaming files and looking up the information based on a file name but MM was a total and utter piece of electronic goo. It was bloat ware at its worse and consumed so many resources it basically prevented other applications from running. (Short story. You can skip this if you want. Incidentally I told them this many many times and eventually they gave up and were bought out then canceled. Coincidence? I think not. I mean really, there’s a check box that says “DO NOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET” inside the program. You check it expecting that you won’t need the internet to play music right. At the time I was on dial-up, so I knew if I was online or not. Well fired up MM and it tried to go to the internet. What?! I called, and wrote them and they assured me that MM does not connect to the internet. I wrote back with my undeniable proof that when I fire up MM it tries to get online. What is it doing? They wouldn’t say and insisted I was infected with a virus. Oh and while MM was waiting to go online, which I wouldn’t let it do, I couldn’t use my computer. It locked up all other windows and wouldn’t unfocus on the MM screen. I always had to End Task to get out. I go online before hand, fire up MM and all worked fine. Took about 30 seconds. Anywho… I’m way off track with this little tale so back to my recent conversion.)

I recently converted all my .WAV files to .MP3 so I could stream them to a pc in my living room. But I wasn’t sharing my iTunes library with the other computer, and I had previously spent a long time getting all the music ripped into iTunes. iTunes does not convert backward to MP3 once it’s a wav file so I used this program called cdex convertor to convert all the .wav files to MP3. Unfornuately even though all the .wav files are named Album_Track#_TrackTitle_Artist and in a folder with the artist name I couldn’t get that information into the mp3 files.

So I went to Windows Media Player. I was looking for an option to import using the convention above. Nothing. When it imported them they were all unknown artists. Stupid.

So I tried Winamp. Bam! Done! It’s pulling all the music into the library, querying an onlie db based on a logical understanding of the file name and inserting the ID3 tags into the MP3 file. All free. And simple. And easy. And totally what everyone else should be able to do but don’t. How hard is a db look-up for a company like Microsoft, or Apple?

I think I might throw Winamp some money when I get a job again just as a way of thanks. Speaking of which, I have an interview on Wednesday with the Sheriff’s office. Did I already mention that?

Anywhoo…. Winamp is awesome. It has a slew of features and useful functions built into the program and best of all it’s under 10 megs in size. How many gigs is Windows Media Player or iTunes?

At least 12038.3 gigs. Minimum. Seriously. Check out Winamp.  Well worth it.

Thinking out loud

The international community has been bending over backwards for China so the Olympics wouldn’t be distracted and people can focus on the games and yet in my mind the Olympics is already tarnished for this round.

All this year has done is shine a huge light on all that is wrong with this country’s government: environmental issues (air pollution - although American is no stellar performer on that front), human rights abuses, internet censorship, and now rounding up anyone who may give the country some grief while everyone is watching. Which is what the theory was behind having the Olympics in China, to shine that light and then they will have to change under international pressure. What? International pressure. What pressure? A debt collector has more pressure than the international community.

I’m not entirely sure where this entry is going I’m just disgusted by international politics. Does anyone seem to understand that you don’t get people/governments to chance by rewarding them and giving them a free pass? What’s going on with this world? Appeasement seems to be the dominant political tool in the tool box these days.

Maybe I’m old school but there are some things that are just wrong and killing your own people to maintain power is one of them; whether you’re a communist country or a democratic one. Although the “masses” are often rather dim so perhaps the power shouldn’t be given to them either. But you shouldn’t kill them to maintain it period. If stupid people make a stupid decision and vote in the wrong people, bad things will happen but the country hopefully will survive enough to see the next election and get a better choice. Although you’d expect any person of power (ie president, vice president, Congressmen/women, Senator, Attorney General) in a democractic country that clearly does things outside the rules of law and basically runs amuck over that country’s constitution and people’s rights to be put in check by the congress. But that’s assuming the people in the congress have any backbone to speak of all and aren’t in it just for themselves.

Back on topic - China is doing nothing worthy of holding the Olympics and this generous opportunity to shine the light of the world on them in hopes that they will change their ways out of embrassment doesn’t seem to be working. It seems that China has simply swept dirt under the rug, pushed everything else into the closet, straightened the bed and proudly proclaimed, “See our room is clean.”

I’m not looking for war with China or boycotting its products (although I have to say it’s getting harder and harder to find products not made in China. I’ve been looking.) but does no one else see the status the Olympics has given this country and its government? The legitimacy and by extension approval of its policies and human rights stance shown to this country by allowing it to maintain the Olympics has basicaly given the government a free pass. All in the name of putting on a good show. (For the Olympics that is, not of the country. China could care less what people think of its government. Just keep buying its products, there’s nothing harmful in our manufacturing policies.)

I think the Olympic Committee allowed the internet censorship because they were now too far into it. (I imagine the day after the announcement that China would host the Olympic games, a few members of that board had an “Oh shit.” moment.) What are they gonna say “No Olympics this year. China is blocking the internet for journalist.”? Hardly. They already sold their rights and everything is in motion. No turning back. It’s for the athletes is a common mantra. Reminds me of when politicians use the phrase, “For the children.” When actually they mean, “It’s politically correct for me to push this position and my lobbist say it’ll make their companies a lot of money and by extension that means more money for my campaign to keep me in office.”

As a political tool the Olympics are a disaster. Here’s why:

When you read about all the abuses and practices China is engaging in to keep its people “nice” for the visitors and not to stir any pots what do you do? What do your elected officials do? Go ahead I’ll give you a moment to write them all down. What? You’re done already. Oh yeah. Me too.

That’s what I’m saying. Pressure.

UPDATE( Someone sent me this. I read this entire article. This was very well done. I didn’t know they did this. I’ve never been a “fan” of the olympics and less so every year. It’s become a money making scheme and corrupt from the inside. It has clearly lost its way. At least to my mind it has.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/opinion/03boylan.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=45b81b31f8cd5704&ex=1218427200&emc=eta1 )

Thinking out loud