| (no subject) |
[Oct. 26th, 2009|09:18 am] |
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So apparently a man got arrested for making coffee in his house while naked. Excuse me, are we not allowed to be naked in our own homes? If I forget to draw the drapes before changing to take a shower, is that going to end with me in jail? There are times I absolutely despise my puritanical stick-up-our-pristine-white-fucking-asses country. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 8th, 2009|12:48 pm] |
Politically, I am a registered independent who almost always votes Democrat, but who has a libertarian sympathy (while also thinking that the Libertarian party itself is a little bit scary). I am an extreme social liberal--as far as I'm concerned there should be no censorship or decency laws and marriage should be abolished--and my fiscal beliefs teeter between progressive and totalitarianistic. I didn't realize how terrified I was that Obama would lose until he won. I couldn't stop smiling afterward.
I like to think that in general I appreciate both sides of an issue. I am pro-choice, but I do understand the feelings of those who consider abortion murder. I believe in a public health insurance option, but I agree that we don't want to box ourselves in to having long waiting periods for "elective" procedures, like at MRI to find out why one's shoulder is excruciatingly painful all the time.
But I have to say, nearly every time any conservative Republican opens his or her mouth these days, they seem to me to be childish, whiny, not constructive, bitter, and mean. I feel that basically everything I hear from them is not just something I disagree with, but genuinely stupid and/or wrong on facts. "Get your government hands off my Medicare" takes the cake, but I feel like the intelligent, well-argued Republican is becoming scarce. And the fact that a huge swath of the country wants that Palin woman to be president makes me want to move to England.
What I wish I knew is, would I feel this way if I agreed with their side? Is this just my reaction to disagreeing with them, or are they actually acting like bratty children putting their fingers in their ears and screaming "no, no, no, no!"? Would I view Palin's inarticulateness as endearing (the way I do Biden's gaffe's) if she supported health-care reform and clean energy? I really think that right now my side is the only one conducting themselves with a modicum of decency, but maybe that's just what everyone always thinks. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 2nd, 2008|01:08 pm] |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) thedan posted this, and I think it's totally worth watching (with apologies to our mutual friends who now have it twice on their friends pages).
Register to vote!
Though in point of fact, I pretty strongly believe that uninformed people should not vote. I personally don't vote in elections where I don't know anything about the candidates or situation, and I think the fact that GWB is in office with such a low approval rating shows that a lot of people didn't know enough when they voted four years ago.
But my friends are smart informed people. You all should vote. :) |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 2nd, 2008|01:04 pm] |
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Do you think Katie Couric has any personal feelings of animosity against Palin at this point? Like, does she get up in the morning thinking "damn, I have to interview that f***ing moron from Alaska again today"? I absolutely love that she pins the chick down on specifics (or tries to, since Palin can't actually say anything specific ever), but I wonder if someone who has respect for Alaska nitwit would think it was disrespectful or abrasive? |
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| Yet another reason I should not have children |
[Sep. 25th, 2008|07:59 pm] |
The Sarah Palin meme. (Or, how cruel can you be to your children?)
Sarah Palin married her high school boyfriend, Todd Palin, on August 29, 1988. The Palin family lives in Wasilla, about 45 miles (72 km) north of Anchorage. The Palins have two sons (Track, 19, and Trig, four months) and three daughters (Bristol, 17; Willow, 14; and Piper, 7) [ages as of August 2008]. Todd Palin has said Track's name came from the interest Sarah's parents had in the sport and the fact that he was born in the sport's season; Bristol was named after Bristol Bay in Alaska, where Todd grew up and where he does commercial fishing; Willow was named after Willow, Alaska; Piper got her name because it is uncommon and "a cool name"; Trig's name is Norse for "strength".
1)Your first-born will be named after your favorite sport:
Hockey
2)Your second-born will be named after a nearby area that you're not from but you like the sound of part of the name, and maybe you have nostalgic memories of said place:
Niagara
3)Your third-born will be named after another nearby place, for no reason other than you already have two children and don't have time to put much thought into another name:
Lockport
4)Your fourth gets a "cool" name:
Zelda
5)Your fifth gets something mythological, possibly straight out of Lord of the Rings:
Brigid
Who do you think life would suck for more: Hockey, Zelda, or Lockport? |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 26th, 2008|10:45 am] |
I've mentioned this to several people individually so I think it's worth a public service announcement.
Those of you without dental insurance should check out: http://www.dentalplans.com/moreinfo/dentalplans101.asp
Basically a discount dental plan is a card that costs on the order of $100 a year that makes your dental procedures cheaper. Sometimes is makes them cost $0, sometimes just less, and it mostly applies to routine sorts of things (check-ups, x-rays, fillings, etc), but there are many different ones. You need to find one that your dentist takes and that works for you, but if you go to the dentist twice a year (like you are supposed to) it will most likely save you money. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 21st, 2008|11:33 am] |
The Kennedy brain tumor seems to be the big news in Massachusetts for the last 24 hours. It is indeed tragic, as any human life poised on the edge of extinction is sad. Realistically, he probably only has six months, and that is a queer and uncomfortable prospect to contemplate.
It does, however, raise this question in my mind: exactly how many women do you have to kill before your death stops being tragic? Just curious, since the number is obviously larger than 1. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 10th, 2008|01:57 pm] |
Random thought of the day:
"Everyone lies" was a major theme and tagline in Babylon 5 long before it was House's motto. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 10th, 2008|12:08 pm] |
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In case anyone was wondering (and I know no one was): the Bruins are in the playoffs, their first game is tonight, and the game is not being televised here. Hockey gets so little love in this country. Except in Buffalo. And Detroit. And maybe Dallas. But definitely not in Boston. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 11th, 2008|10:45 am] |
One of my great pet peeves in life are "intermediate" level people. The two places I've really noticed this are bridge and dancing, but I'm pretty sure it's universally true.
Beginners tend to know that they are beginners, want to learn, aren't too upset when they fail, and take corrections with good grace. Advanced-level people have nothing left to prove, and so tend to be helpful to those who aren't at their level, and gracious when something doesn't go their way.
Intermediate-level people a desperately trying to believe that they are better than they are, offer questionable advice, blame others, and get upset when something goes against them. In bridge this manifests itself as asking annoying questions, ridiculous director calls, and petty sniping. In dancing this manifests itself as offering deeply questionable advice, and acting huffy when a follower doesn't know a move and thus messes it up.
This doesn't apply to people who are passing through intermediate on their way to advanced, just those who have been mired in the middle for a long time. People need to be more chill about life; that's my conclusion. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 5th, 2008|10:50 am] |
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Ok, I've decided I want Obama to win the nomination if for no other reason than this: if he gets the nomination we will be smack in the middle of the seventh season of the West Wing. Straight-talking Republican candidate who appeals to those in the center and didn't seem like he could get his party's nomination, dark-skinned minority Democratic senator who oozes with charisma and is the surprise come-from-nowhere nominee. If only Aaron Sorkin had thought to have Stockard Channing in the race, the analogy would be complete. Honestly, it's a good place to be. |
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| Miami Airport |
[Feb. 2nd, 2008|02:08 pm] |
Back from a rockin' vacation (quite literally, on several levels). More on that anon, perhaps, but at the moment I am most moved on the subject of the Miami airport, and Miami in general.
Now, the whole purpose of Miami, as near as I can tell, is to get people between the airport and the ocean. People go to the beach, and to cruises, and that's about it. Yet the entire city lacks any useful signs whatsoever. It began at the airport, where there are more than 30 luggage carousels and exactly 1 place where you can find out which one your luggage is on. There are shuttles to all the airport hotels, and they all pick up at a random unmarked spot on the second level that looks like all other spots. Coming back from the dock, we were apparently supposed to divine which of the queues to get into, and then we sat for 35 minutes wondering whether a bus would ever come or not. But all that is nothing to the horror that was the American Airlines ticketing area. Picture, if you will, a teeming mass of humanity, writhing about carrying heavy bags looking confused, and in no way being contained by that foolish apparatus that indicates where lines are supposed to form. We tried multiple times asking employees where to go, with the most helpful instruction being "go three counters down on the left," in a heavy accent. "Counter" in this case seemed to indicate a random and unidentifiable unit of space at the end of which we were meant to intuit that the line leading down into the unlabeled hallway was the one we should join. After forty minutes of standing there, cerylium decided to try the self check-in that we had been told we couldn't use before. Aha! Though slowed down by the myriads of people who had no need to use it, at least the self check-in had under 3,000 people; a property that no other line shared.
There are other mysteries of the Miami airport, such as why we had to walk our baggage fifty feet instead of putting it on the moving belt, or how it is that there are people who don't know to keep their boarding passes out during security. But the question I really have is this: has anyone ever chosen to use this airport twice? |
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| Runaround Bonus |
[Jan. 23rd, 2008|10:27 am] |
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That's a really cute idea. I've always hated how a maximum of three teams ever gets to see runaround, when some of them are really cool. I'm busy unfortunately, but I'm curious to know how many take up this offer. |
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| Obligatory Hunt Post |
[Jan. 22nd, 2008|02:24 pm] |
So first of all, let me say that I know how much work goes into writing a Hunt, and how much more work must have gone into writing *this* Hunt. There were a lot of great puzzles and puzzle ideas, and I absolutely adore some of the metas.
There are two things this Hunt affirmed for me: the 'one Aha!' rule, and the 'don't rely on flavortext' rule. There were a lot of puzzles in this Hunt where you did something totally reasonable, had a logical leap, did something else, and then had to make *another* leap to extract an answer. That was frustrating. There were more frustrations, like the fact that it felt like every time we figured out a grouping of people, that group was released to everyone. It made it seem like there was no point in trying.
Basically I think the flaws in this Hunt mainly came from underestimating the number of different plausible directions solvers could go, both in individual puzzles and in meta structure. What needed to be done wasn't *un*reasonable, but it didn't necessarily stick out as being better than anything else. Things like the answer extraction in Sphere seemed confusing and unmotivated; I feel as though it would have never made it into Hunt that way if more people on their team had seen it and understood how it worked. Our team spent a lot of time being somewhat demoralized, particularly on Friday, but I think we had quite a bit of fun Saturday and Sunday. I know I was looking forward to coming back each day.
I give Palindrome full credit for an interesting structure that used some different pieces of structures going back to Monopoly. The timing of it didn't work out exactly, but I think it was a neat idea. There were also some great puzzles; the ones that stand out for me are Picture Perfect, Let's Ask the Dead Guy, and the Hitori meta (which we didn't solve, and should have). I'm sure there were many other great puzzles, I'm just still in a sleepy fog that makes retrieving information difficult. :) |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 26th, 2007|09:53 pm] |
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What a deeply satisfying hockey night, Bruins and Sabres both. Though the Bruins did a little better at the aiming for the empty net at the end. :) |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 25th, 2007|09:27 pm] |
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This is approximately the funniest thing ever. And also very sad if it succeeds. Wonder if I should tell my mother to get Rocks the 80s sooner rather than later... |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 24th, 2007|09:16 am] |
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Apparently in the last week the Sabres have figured out how to score goals. This makes for a refreshing change. All we need now is for the Bills to learn about touchdowns... |
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| Bills-Patriots |
[Nov. 18th, 2007|08:42 pm] |
My prediction for this game before tonight was 14-54 in the obvious direction. Now I'm thinking that might have been too optimistic for the Bills.
As Reid said at 8:29 (when the tv was still on the Simpsons): "I'm afraid your team is losing." |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 8th, 2007|09:35 am] |
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I really feel that spam sent in November should not say "Summer is almost here." I mean seriously, is it so hard to seasonalize your mass emailing? |
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| football |
[Nov. 7th, 2007|10:45 am] |
Ok, final post of the morning in my effort to avoid doing work. I'm getting really sick of reading about the "running up the score" debate with regards to the Patriots. I honestly don't get why this is considered a problem at all. If you suck enough that the other team can do that to you, who are you to complain? Is it disrespectful to do it? Probably. But it's a disrespect that has been earned by the opposing team not playing well. If they don't like the score being run up, maybe they should prevent it with um... you know that thing... oh yeah, defense.
I'm not saying that Bellichek is not an ass, but complaining about this sort of thing seems ridiculous. Of course the players and the team want their stats to look good; it's to their credit that they are in a situation where they have such control over that. In salary cap land it's hard to claim that there's anything unfair about it (stupid Jets video, yes I know--huge lapse of judgement, but didn't really give them anything). |
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