Happy f***ing New Year!

No... SERIOUSLY... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WITH TEETH IS FINISHED
THE BAND IS REHEARSING
I CAN'T WAIT TO PRESENT THIS MUSIC TO YOU -
ON YOUR STEREO AND IN YOUR TOWN
HAPPY NEW YEAR -
TR
12.31.04

F***ing finally...

I have to be among the first people to see this. nin.com is set as my homepage, and I opened IE immediately after starting up my computer. I just checked my history, and I went to Yahoo mail at 7:55 which was the first thing I did after I started IE, so that's when I saw nin.com and it still said December 10th on the front page. I just opened the browser again, not 20 minutes later and there it was. However... though I'm still engrossed in the initial excitement of this news, there is still a small bit of pessimistic doubt in my mind. The font used for this announcement and for the date on the front page is completely different than the monospaced, typewriter font they've been using since the website changed. This leads me to think that maybe, just maybe, this might actually be a hoax, and that someone hacked the site and did that. However, I'm sticking with the happy thoughts that the album will be in my hands in the next month or two.

Happy New Year and stuff.

Update: It appears that it isn't a hoax, because the post is still up there, and it's been almost a week now. F***in' right, dude.

Have a Political Christmas.

I got Fahrenheit 9/11 for Christmas. It was an accident; my aunt got mixed up as to which movie I asked for, which was Michael Moore Hates America. I just found out tonight, though, that the movie isn't actually out yet, as it was delayed. Originally, it was supposed to come out in mid-December, but it appears to have been pushed back a month. So, I just have to go exchange Fahrenheit 9/11 for something non-fiction, like Highlander.

My immediate family does our gift-giving on Christmas Eve, because we do the big family thing on Christmas Day. So last night, my brother Scott gave me The Political Machine. It's a sim about presidential elections. For my first game, I made my own candidate, myself, and ran against Hillary Clinton. I lost, but I got the hang of the game and ran again against Mister Cardboard-Cut-Out himself, Al Gore. I won with like 300-some electoral votes. Of course, that was with a random setting. You can have the electoral map randomized, so all the states have different electoral vote values, different populations of liberals and conservatives, and so on. But I smoked him, because I convinced the masses that he was for Government-Run TV and that I was against Backyard Oil Drilling (The issues were also randomized). It's a pretty fun game. Matter of fact, I think I'm going to go play another campaign. Let's see how I fair against John Kerry.

Oh, other phat l3wtz was a DVD Burner (Dual Format including Dual Layer), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (12-hour, 12-disc, ubernerd edition), a sweet pedal for my guitar that does all sorts of nifty shiznit, a copy of my friend Dave's movie "Exquisite Corpse," some clothing, some money, some gift certificates. Well, everyone have a happy week of limbo between Christmas and New Years.

Happy Holidays

Happy Christmas... Happy Hanukkah (even if it's already over)... Happy Kwanza (even if it hasn't started yet)... Happy Free-Day-Off Day, to the athiests... Happy... whatever those scientologist weirdos do around this time of year... Happy Tet (whenever that one is)... Ramadan is over (I learned the Muslim calendar is based on the lunar phases, so Ramadan actually moves throughout the year, so it isn't exactly a set, winter holiday like the others...), but I hope it was happy as well... Whoever I'm forgetting... Happy whatever-you're-doing-today. And to everyone a happy whatever-you're-doing-tomorrow.

Washington only wishes it could be Florida

Those pesky votes are always in the last place you look.

(CNN) -- Unofficial results from a manual recount of ballots in King County have tilted the result of the unsettled Washington governor's race for the first time to Democrat Christine Gregoire.

Republican governor-elect Dino Rossi now faces the prospect of losing a race he led after two previous ballot counts.

Except...

King County, which includes Seattle, is a Democratic stronghold where Gregoire won 58 percent of the vote to Rossi's 40 percent.

So... we had a manual recount in a Democratic safe-haven that pushed her over the edge. Let's start the manual recount in a couple big Republican strongholds and just see where it leads them. If this were the other way around, I'd say the same thing. I'm just mentioning this story once, and leaving it at that. Except maybe an update if one of them finally wins. I don't live in WA, so I'm not going to stick my nose in other people's business, you know, like Jesse Jackson in Ohio. What I do find interesting is how, now that they've manually recounted one county that was likely to give Gregoire an edge, the Dems are calling on Rossi to concede.

No blood for a remedying a humanitarian crisis!!1

If anyone wants to read about the quagmire in Iraq, Opinion Journal is the place to be. I really want to support our troops, but when I hear that we're rebuilding Iraqi schools, improving their power grid, and on the brink of providing thousands with clean water... I just... It just makes me sick. (/sarcasm off)

Seriously... It's a huge article (no, seriously... it's a huge article) about the underreported good things that are happening in Saddam's old stomping ground.

According to the left, they all hate us...

Hey, guess what? They don't all hate us.

One afternoon I was explaining the passive tense of verbs, and I used an example that came to mind from American culture. I asked them if they knew who was nominated by the two main parties to run for president. "John Kerry was nominated by the Democratic Party, and George Bush was nominated by the Republicans," replied one of the brightest in the class, a veiled Muslim engineering student named Rahaf. "Very good," I said. "Now, who do you think will be elected?" "Bush," cried several of the students at once, smiling. Abandoning my lesson plan for the moment, but curious at this sudden display of interest in the election, I ventured: "Who do you want to win?" "Bush," said Rahaf, while a number of others nodded in solid agreement. I pressed them further for a few minutes, asking individual students why they liked Bush. The same ideas came up again and again: he is a strong leader, an honest man, and, most of all, a believer. Like the winning margin of American voters this year, these Middle Easterners related to Bush's sense of religious conviction and his confident steering of a nation and culture they admired.

And the next paragraph brought up one of the things that bugged the crap out of me during the election campaign.

"But doesn't he scare you?" I asked finally, unable to contain my personal feelings and throwing the lesson plan out the window. "Because of Bush's ideas many people in my country think that all of you are terrorists." Rahaf and most of the others just shrugged. Maybe that was all true, they said, but he was still a good president.

Bush has never tried to make me hate Arabs or convince me they're all terrorists. If you think all muslims are terrorists, you already had some personal issues beforehand, and Bush didn't make anyone hate Arabs. There were no posters up with warm things to say such as "The only good raghead is a DEAD raghead!" There were no commercials saying "Join the Marines and waste some sand nigger scum!" I don't hate Arabs, and I know full well that there are only a teeny group of fundamentalists out there that are twisting their religion for their own ends. Leaders that are squandering their countries and sending the message to their citizens that it's the U.S.'s fault. It isn't the people. People are all born with a clean slate, and the ones that are turning them into terrorist 'martyrs' are the ones that we're trying to weed out. Another thing the article points out...

Though Democrats are often quick to criticize their opponents for seeing the issues in stark black and white, "us and them" terms, perhaps they ought to step back from their own obsession with "red" and "blue" dichotomies and recognize this nuance of Middle Eastern reality.

That's what I found ironic during the days after November 2nd. There was all this horseshit flying around the internet about the differences between Bush voters and Kerry voters, and red states and blue states. Things are not always black and white. No, they're red or blue. No shades of purple... just red and blue, and it's the Democrats that are pushing the message. It's moderate "South Park Republicans" like myself who are willing to reach out and talk to those on the left. From my personal experience, it's typically the way-left liberals are the ones that are one-dimensional, intolerant, closed-minded and angry, and anyone who doesn't toe the socialist line is a brainwashed, Nazi follower of Bushitler. Just shut up and get over it already. Especially you, Jesse Jackson.

Gaseous Anomaly

I filled my gas tank for under 20 dollars ($17.72 to be precise) for the first time in quite a while. We've all heard the jibber-jabber about how the Iraq war was fought over oil, even though gas prices went up instead of down, and no anti-war hippie could explain it. Until they decided to blame the higher prices on Bush as well, but this time it was mishandling of the economy. So, "he was going after oil, but he couldn't even steal oil properly," is basically what these idiots were saying.

Well, gas is sliding down again, slowly but surely. It's consistently slid downward over the last month since Election Day, with one little jump before Thanksgiving, which is quite safe to assume was because of the demand of Holiday travelers. Obviously, this is because we're stealing oil in Iraq again.

I think I figured it out. Whatever goes wrong... blame Bush! AHA!!

I lost my job; BLAME BUSH!

Gas prices are higher; BLAME BUSH!

My dog ran away; BLAME BUSH!

I stubbed my toe; BLAME BUSH AND CHENEY BECAUSE IT REALLY HURT!!

Makes sense to me. I can't finish the second-to-the-last level in Rogue Leader on GameCube, and it's no question in my mind that it's because of this administration.

Update: I finished that level, obviously because of the dissenting Democrats in the Senate, but unfortunately Bush is continuing to push his right-wing agenda on me, and I can't finish the last level. It's a sad day to be an American.

Update: Gas went down 2 more cents sometime on the 11th or 12th, to $1.679 per gallon. Remember though, it is completely impossible that Bush had anything to do with it. Only when it goes up is it Bush's fault. (Even though the president actually has little to no influence over gas prices.)

Update: Gas jumped up a hair... a week before Christmas. The holiday, I'm sure, had nothing to do with it. It's just Curious George fumbling over which valve flushes the toilet or steals the oil. This will be the last update, too, because it jumped up last weekend and slid down a bit, once again, to $1.699. Oh, and being a delivery person, I pump gas everyday. So... yeah, I get daily updates on the gas prices. (Oh and if you're interested, gas is cheaper in Owatonna, too, so if you somehow think it would be worth it to drive from Rochester to get cheaper gas, that's where to go. C'mon, it's only about 40 miles away.)

Gotta keep 'em seperated

Apparently, integration is not as widely accepted as we thought.

A decision by Wells College (search), which has been all-women since 1868, to begin admitting male students in order to boost enrollment has riled female students.

Many students are threatening to leave the upstate New York college, but two have moved beyond threats and filed a lawsuit that says the decision to enroll men constitutes a breach of contract and fraud.

Those jarhead's come over here and gad-dammit, they took our schools!! (Tuk 'r skoolz!!) (Derk a derr!!)

To be honest, I wonder why any man would want to go to an historically-all-female college, but it sounds like they're just opening their doors to men, as opposed to some man fighting for the right to go. I do have a feeling, though, that the ones that end up going there right away would not be burly, macho date-rapists. But... that just so happens to be exactly what they're afraid of...

"We all leave our doors unlocked. We can run around in our nighties. It's all girls and we feel really safe and that will change," said student Starbuck Hersey.

You leave your doors unlocked? Damn, next time I get my typical-male urges to rape a woman, I should head over there, but I'm not due for another month or so. I guess, with a name like "Starbuck Hersey" you were already screwed from the get-go. I mean, her mom named her after a male character in a horrible sci-fi show from the 70's. That girl ain't gonna come out right.

What...

the...

[explitive deleted]

What's in a name?

Have a look at this.

South Park Republicans are true Republicans, though they do not look or act like Pat Robertson. They believe in liberty, not conformity. They can enjoy watching The Sopranos even if they are New Jersey Italians. They can appreciate the tight abs of Britney Spears or Brad Pitt without worrying about the nation's decaying moral fiber. They strongly believe in liberty, personal responsibility, limited government, and free markets. However, they do not live by the edicts of political correctness.

The South Park Republicans are an incredibly diverse group encompassing a variety of nontraditional conservatives, such as the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Bruce Willis supported Republicans because of their commitment to lower taxes and fiscal discipline. Rap artist and movie actor LL Cool J recently endorsed NY governor George Pataki.

I like the term "South Park Republican." You can call me that, if you want. I was thinking about "Progressive Republican," but I wouldn't want people to think I'm a "progressive" in the traditional political definition. I agree with the progressives up to a certain point, but most of them take it waaaay too far.

Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Arnold... They're my boys. The other night, I saw a GOP lawmaker from Alabama by the name of Gerald Allen on FoxNews who wants to basically ban all books referencing gay characters such as The Color Purple. He's not my boy. Although, my sense of fairness surfaces again, and I have to let everyone know that Gerald Allen is specifically saying that public funds should not be used in purchasing these books. Though I still don't agree with him by a longshot, he isn't trying to hold a book-burning. And for the FoxNews-haters, they were not praising him, Alan Colmes was grilling Allen faster than he could string words together, though I prefer the No Spin Zone m'self.

Note: I forgot Allen's name, so I had to look it up on the net, and the article I found quoted a board member of Equality Alabama (a gay-rights organization... in... ALABAMA) who said Allen might be "attempting to become the George Wallace of homosexuality." I thought I might remind everyone that Wallace was a Democrat. THPTPHPTHPTHPT.

Whine Inch Nails

Trent's still got sand in his vagina about Bush's re-election.

question submitted by delia:

what do you think is the future or fate of the music industry? what will happen to big labels and cds and traditional distribution? is it all moving to the internet or is it just a fad?

response from trent:

who knows and who cares? bush's win made me feel like there's no real hope against the big corporations (yet). the only thing i feel empowered to do at this point is make the best music i possibly can and punch some holes in the foundation from that side.

First of all, get the f*** over it, Trent Moore. You don't have shit to complain about. Your pockets aren't running dry anytime soon, no matter what the evil korporations do. No one's stifling your creativity. Go home and stroke to another Chomsky book, get some rest, wake up and finish the f***ing album.

Really, I'm... frightened to say the least. One of the other questions askes if the tracks will be 'pieces or songs.' Sure, it's a dumb question, but Trent says "songs." Which... seems to at least leave the possibility open for his next album to be politically-charged drivel. Hopefully it won't... hopefully.

Oh noes, teh dR4Ft iz f0r sh0r3!!!1

Hey, Donnie Rumsfeld just laughed about the draft in an interview with Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly asked him if they could have a draft just for the ACLU and Rumsfeld chuckled and said with a smile, "I'm against the draft. That's one of these myths that went around during the campaign." I suppose if you flat-out distrust the government for no other reason than because your candidate lost due to an antiquated electoral system, it would be impossible for said government to quell your unfounded fears.

The most asinine fear I've heard is that the administration is going to round up the liberals and throw them into camps, and that Bush is plotting a "take over." How f***ing stupid are you people? So in four years, when Giuliani is president, the world hasn't ended, there hasn't been a draft, there hasn't been a "take over," and you aren't in a liberal camp, then what are you going to say? I guess you won't be thinking much about it when you're sitting in another Post-Election-Selection Trauma group meeting after Hillary get's backhanded at the polls. Closed fist. She should have stayed in the kitchen. I'm kidding... (you crazy, whacked-out broad.)

Update: I found the transcript of O'Reilly's interview with Rumsfeld on FoxNews.com, so I added the link to his quote in the above paragraph. Also, in the name of full-disclosure (even though I'm not a real journalist and no one is actually reading this), I also corrected the quote by adding the "... during the campaign" part which I forgot when I originally wrote this post.

Yessa, dis be da 80GB IDE hard drive

Political correctness loves to pop up in the weirdest places sometimes, and the Global Language Monitor has found the 10 silliest examples. A PC issue about PCs (pardon the pun) made the #1 spot:

In computer terminology, "master/slave" refers to primary and secondary hard disk drives. But a Los Angeles county purchasing department told vendors in late 2003 that the term was offensive and violated the region's cultural diversity. The county's department of affirmative action undertook a hunt to replace it on packages.

I think it speaks for itself. No need for my comments on the utter stupidity of political correctness.

But, turning to the boring anecdote... I kind of wish I'd saved my persuasive speech I did in 10th grade which was against political correctness. In retrospect, I'm suprised I got the class award for the best speech in that catagory, considering the subtle liberal programming going on in public schools. I say subtle, not because it's like an underground coup to brainwash the kids. I say it because of how they seem to be trying to plant a few small nuggets of liberal thinking in every kid that passes through. This is not always a bad thing either, but, again in retrospect, it's suprising that my speech was so highly commended by the teacher for a speech that was anti-politically-correct-agenda. Oh, and forgive the dash of racism in the title, but political correctness is retarded. Oh damn, I did it again.

Who did what??

Is it any wonder why we're up to our eyebrows in shit?

Former American fugitive Marc Rich was a middleman for several of Iraq's suspect oil deals in February 2001, just one month after his pardon from President Clinton, according to oil industry shipping records obtained by ABC News.

And I thought all he did was defile the Oval Office. No no, I know. I don't give a crap. If he wants to get a beej in the Oral Office, fine, whatever, oops-we-found-out. He pardoned this guy and most everyone knew about that, too. Fine, whatever. But when I see stuff like this, it makes it a bit harder for me to back up Clinton to the conservatives I talk to. And I already said I have little-to-no faith in the Untied Nations. (not a typo)

It's been a month

The world hasn't ended yet.

Above you, you will notice that the "STFU" light is on.

This just in

Here's a press release from the Ad Nauseam Bitchmaster General's Office:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 2, 2004, 1:44 AM

UNHAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM BK

Rochester, MN - The stupid, Office-Space-rip-off Burger King commercials are back for the holidays. Thanks, Burger King, for stinking up the airwaves with another barrage of this idiocy.

This will undoubtedly be the spark that will result in Ad Nauseam III. As soon as school is over.

This is pure gold

Coalition to Prevent Assault Weapon Violence

No, just keep reading...

Wow... just... wow...

Michael Moore was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this evening, and I must say it was... well it was scary. First of all, he cleaned himself up. He shaved, lost the hat, combed his hair, and he was wearing a suit. He said, "If you can't beat 'em, you might as well look like them." There was a small part where he cracked a few seriously light-hearted Leno-style jokes about Bush. He even joked about himself. It almost seems like he's taking the advice of the bloggers. He didn't flip out about Kerry's loss or about how Bush stole the election. He acknowledged that the Democratic party didn't have anything to offer the people other than that he wasn't Bush. He was downright humble. When Leno asked him what he thinks happened in Ohio, he actually concedes, "I think Bush got more votes."

Now, the second part wasn't quite so humble. Leno mentioned Bin Laden's tape, where he refers to the "My Pet Goat" scene in Fahrenheit 9/11, and Moore really just sort of dodged the question and brought up that the media didn't show the whole "My Pet Goat" footage from Fahrenheit 9/11. Of course, he doesn't mention it was primarily because it was several minutes of dead air. He leaves you to make your own decision. For the most part, I would honestly have to say he was reasonable, but he did make it a point to plug his book by reading a passage.

I have to mention this thing, that I caught. He says he got 3,000 letters from soldiers in Iraq, that he threw together to sell to people (aka, his latest book, "Will They Ever Trust Us Again?"). But remember, even if those came from 3,000 individual soldiers, there are what 100-200 thousand soldiers there? I forget the figure at the moment, and I can't seem to find a statistic on the net. I want to say there's 200 thousand there, but there may only be 100 thousand. Regardless, say it's only 100 thousand. The letters he got, if they're all from individual soldiers, represent 3% of the soldiers there. If there are more than 100 thousand, then it's less than 3%. He's still on the fringe.

But, I'll get back to the good. He didn't mention "Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2" or "Sicko." He didn't mention bogus voter fraud allegations in Florida or Ohio. He didn't whine and complain. I gotta give him credit for growing up, at least for his first appearance since the election. I really want to say that I can finally drop it, and let Michael Moore go. But I'm hesitant to accept that he won't be back. We'll see.

Update: It's rather obvious that it's all an act, and a thinly veiled bid for an Oscar nod. But I'm still going to say... whatever. While his website still makes mention of voter fraud in Ohio, he told a bigger audience that "Bush got more votes." Good enough for me.

What's the difference between me and you?

This article came up on Yahoo! and it reminded me of one of the big differences between Westerners and the Islamic fundamentalist nations that sponsor and support terrorism.

Nichols, 49, is serving life sentences without parole for separate convictions in state and federal courts for his role in the bombings. Juries in 1997's federal trial and the state trial this June deadlocked over whether he should be sentenced to death.

First of all, if a nation like pre-war Afghanistan had found a terrorist in their midst that bombed an American building, they'd be applauded. We catch them and punish them.

The other difference is that Nichols assisted in the killing of 168 Americans and we have juries "deadlocked over whether he should be sentenced to death." If someone in Iraq decided to merely speak out against Saddam, he would have been fragged then and there.

Just a thought. Now, I have no ill-feelings toward Muslims. I'm not a racist, and I'm not trying to make a broad generalization. This isn't about the so-called "little people." It's about the many Islamofacist dictators who are exploiting their beliefs and blaming the West for all of their own mistakes, spawning anti-American sentiment in the process.

On the Effectiveness of the U.N.

Iran's being a whiney little bitch about it's uranium enriching centrifuges, but don't worry. We have the mighty U.N. to take care of them...

Still, refusal by Tehran to drop demands to exempt equipment from the enrichment suspension could prompt a much harsher resolution that could include the threat of U.N. Security Council action.

I want to get a resolution from the U.N. Security Council. I hear it tickles.

Seriously, I want to see how this pans out. Maybe the ultra-left will figure out that diplomacy doesn't work the way it really should, and sometimes you have to put someone in a hurt locker to get them to stop what they're doing. Though, I sincerely hope this amounts to nothing, and diplomacy will prevail, I don't have a whole hell of a lot of faith in the U.N. anymore.

I'm already sick of it

Alright, people. You all drive like you've never seen snow before. Almost all of you are from Minnesota. You should have been expecting this shit two weeks ago. I can't even stand 12 hours of snow anymore... and this is going to continue through March? Heaven help me.

$#@%!&!?$#

Leave it to the weather man to make one accurate prediction a year. And it's the first snow. Excuse me while I go drive around town in it. This is going to suck.

Stupid Southpaws...

Why didn't I find this page before? If I'd have seen this, I probably wouldn't have been so adamant about spreading the word about how Bush wasn't as bad and Kerry wasn't as great as the liberals wanted to think. Their 11/1/04 prediction was 100% accurate. Nifty. Too bad some insane moonbats still won't accept the results. Get over it already, children. Some of you already are. But then there's Ted... I saw him at Kathy's last night and I said "Ted, I haven't seen you since the election... [Ted shakes his head] Come on, unity, man." and offered to shake his hand and he wouldn't shake hands with me. Ted, again, I'm sure you won't read this... but honestly, you're pretty much the one olive branch to the ultra-left for me... don't act like a little bitch. But what can you expect from someone who believes the "9/11 was staged" conspiracy theories?

Oh, I'm working on a debunking of the "States-with-higher-IQs-went-for-Kerry" hoax. However, while looking for information on it, I found out there are already some debunkings of it and other ones. I found out that the state average IQ list was based on iffy methods, basing average IQ on average income (which has a tendency to go together, but it doesn't take into account how the income/cost of living is higher on the coasts). I also found out that my theory was correct, that the reason the IQs are lower in the south is in part because of the Democratic voters there. (Southern blacks are unfortunately not as well-educated as blacks in the north, and blacks tend to vote Democratic.)

I managed to find a better list of state average IQs based on better methods (ACT/SAT scores, taking into account % of population tested and the like). The range is a lot closer together, and it actually indicates some potentially damning evidence for those Kerry voters who think they're all smarter... D.C. is actually near the bottom of the list, and D.C. is basically a single county with a highly populated city that was very lopsided for Kerry, and most counties with highly populated cities were the ones that were very lopsided for Kerry... so one could draw conclusions about the fact that counties that went for Kerry have lower average IQs than ones that went for Bush. One thing I noticed while number-crunching: it appears that Minnesota had the highest voter turnout, with approximately 74.1% of the 18+ population making it out to the polls (unfortunately my figure was of all people over 18, so I couldn't take into account felons who were ineligible to vote - and it was also the population estimate for 2003... not their projection for 2004... which was hidden in a complicated mess of .DAT files that I didn't care to mess with).

But all I'm really trying to do is prove to some nitwits that everyone has their own opinions and those opinions are just as important as others, and people who voted for who they thought was the better candidate are not stupid. The real stupid voters on both sides are the ones that put the campaign stickers on the back of their car and drive 5 under the speed limit in the fast lane. Those are the real threats to modern society. Not Al-Qaeda. We need to take them out. War on Bad Drivers, I say. I'll stop writing now... I'll leave what I was going to add for another post.

Black Friday

So... my very first girlfriend got married today. That's trippy. At the reception, my mom said I need to find a nice girl so I can get married. My reply was as follows: "Finding a nice girl is like finding a magnetic monopole. The math says it has to exist, but no one's found it yet." A little physics humor for Black Friday.

Fudge the Po-lice

I got a speeding ticket last month, and something occurred to me. I had to check to be sure, so when I took out my checkbook to write out the check for it, it was confirmed. The last time I wrote a check was for the speeding ticket I got last March. I guess I don't use my checkbook very much, eh? I also got both tickets under the same circumstances. I was stuck behind idiot drivers and was speeding to get around and away from them. If the cop had been there a minute earlier or later, they wouldn't have pulled me over, because I was only speeding for about 10-15 seconds. Well, this time was because some idiots were playing their stupid driving games that the people on highway 14 like to play. They would be over the limit, but not keeping up with traffic. That is, everyone is going 75, but they're going 71 in the fast lane. So the dipstick finally changed lanes and I sped to get around the nimrod, because when he changed lanes, he sped up too. Dumbass. Thanks, jackass. Similar thing happened with the other, except it was just two morons going under the limit on North Broadway, sitting right next to each other, clogging up both lanes. Then when one of them went into a turn lane, I was already ticked, so I zipped out in front, just to get out of there and not strangle traffic anymore. Both times, there happened to be a cop in the oncoming lanes. I didn't argue, because I'm sure the dudes wouldn't see it my way. It's called proactive driving, not pussy driving (aka driving scared, aka "defensive driving"). This turned into a long post for something that was originally just an amusing anecdote. I'll stop ranting about things and leave you with my opinion that all speed limits should be raised by 10 mph, the fines should be raised, and then officers should no longer give a 5-10 mph leeway for speeding. That's it.

Like you cared

I was at the studio today, since 8 AM. I remembered something I pondered once, but never told anyone about. Simply that the datarate for CD audio is 44.1 khz, or 44,100 hz and sometime a while back I was thinking about it for some reason that's beyond even me, and I came to realize that 2 x 2 x 3 x 3 x 5 x 5 x 7 x 7 = 44,100. The datarate for the CD audio format is the squared product of the first four prime numbers. That is all for now. Hopefully this won't be my last words before I fall asleep at the wheel and kill 3 siblings on their way to a wedding or something on "highway" 14 (that happens, what? monthly now?)

And then along comes Samus

Ok... so today wasn't a great day for my wallet. Seriously, my wallet flipped me off and was bitching all the way home. See, I had to buy Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Aqua Teen Hunger Force Season 3, totalling just under 80 dollars. Oh, I just remembered I have to get my controller back from Irvin. MP2 has a multiplayer mode that sounds insane. Lord... I'm not even out of Los Santos yet and I already bought another game. Eff it. School can wait. I can do my homework anytime. I got the video games right now... or is it the other way around...

Most eXtreme Tax-Simplification Challenge

I heard about this yesterday morning, but I didn't make a new post about it. Here's an excerpt from the speech that President Bush gave at the rally here in Rochester. (I was actually there, too, so I heard this first-hand.)

Speaking about taxes, this tax code of ours is full of special interest loopholes. It's a complicated mess. It's a million words long. The American people spend six billion hours a year on taxes. I think we need to do something about the tax code. In a new term I'm going to bring Republicans and Democrats together to make this tax code more simple and more fair for the American people.

The president is already fittin' to make good on this promise with a big ol' sweeping tax reform, and our own local representative, Gil Gutknecht is one of the guys leading the charge.

"Think of a world where there is no income tax, where you get to keep everything you earn and you pay the tax man when you buy stuff," Gutknecht, R-Minn., told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

Legislation co-sponsored by Gutknecht would scrap federal income taxes and replace them with a 23 percent federal sales tax (in addition to existing state taxes.)

Oh glorious day. Sure, 23 percent sounds steep, especially if it's in addition to state taxes, making our local tax 30 percent. But, think about it... You won't be getting money taken out of your paycheck, and you won't have to pay-in at the end of the year. Rich people buy more expensive things, and often more of them. They'll pay more. The poor will pay less. And if people save their money, they'll pay less than someone who makes the same, but spends it all. It also looks like big businesses will be losing their little loopholes they grew so fond of, and they're none too happy.

Business groups are voicing concern that President Bush’s proposed reform of the tax code will do some of them more harm than good.

[...]

Many industries have well-established preferences built into the tax code that a broad reform effort could jeopardize. The real-estate industry and nonprofit groups, for instance, have benefited from tax deductions for mortgage interest and for charitable donations.

But... I thought Bush only sided with big business. Guess maybe not. Now some could argue that this will be bad for charities, which is the first thing I thought of. But honestly, if all these celebrities really care about the charities they're handing their tax dollars over to, they can afford to keep giving, can't they? We'll just have to see which ones actually care about their charities, rather than look at them as a source of tax deductions.

That's what you get, dumbass

Anyone who watches CSI religiously, like my parents, got a bit pissed last Wednesday when CBS interrupted the final minutes of the show to report that Yasser Arafat had finally kicked the bucket. Seconds after the credits ended, the news came on... reporting that Yasser Arafat had finally kicked the bucket. We apologize for the fault in CSI:NY. Those responsible have been sacked.

NEW YORK (AP) -- CBS News has fired the producer responsible for breaking into "CSI: NY" last week for a special report on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death, a CBS executive said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The news report came during the last five minutes of the forensics mystery last Wednesday, prompting viewer complaints and leading CBS to repeat the show Friday.

Too bad my dad had to go to Wisconsin, he missed the repeat of the episode. Oh well.

My god is it really 3:45? I guess I got so excited that I can post so MFing easily with this thing I just went to town. I already have something else I want to post... I'll do it tomorrow.

T-storms, come back, I didn't mean to hurt you, baby

I guess there are weather machines, but I was looking in the wrong place:

New York, Nov 16 (IANS) An India-born, US-based scientist has proved that large-scale installation of windmills to replace conventional sources of energy may cause drastic local weather changes.

According to a newly published study by The Journal of Geophysical Research quoted by the New York Times, a wind farm with thousands of wind turbines also removed an enormous amount of energy from the air.

Remember that animation I made back in July? (Scroll down the page to July 21 and click the link there... Freewebs appears to be fickle about outside links to images). It was put together with a few screenshots from a Doppler radar animation on The Weather Channel's website. To the west of Olmsted county, smack dab in the center of Dodge county, is Dodge Center (clever name, eh?). They have a windmill farm just south of town with 46 turbines that was set up over 2002 and 2003. I can't seem to find any real statistics on the trends of precipitation or severe weather activity in Rochester, so this is purely anecdotal... it seems to me that for the last few years, the most severe weather has come from the north. Usually, thunderstorms seem to come from the west-southwest into Rochester, but if it comes from a different direction it's a much ballsier storm. I wish I could find data on this, but the NCDC (like most other potentially comprehensive data websites) seems to either hide their data, charge for it, or compile it all into meaningless graphs for impatient people like myself to skim over and ignore.

Of course, I know this sounds like a stupid, Michael Moore conspiracy theory (except mine is less contrived, and all the facts given are in-context and true), except I know that if it is in fact true, it's not a conspiracy to make thunderstorms less frequent (or to make billions of dollars for Halliburton). It's just something to ponder, and if it is true, it's just another little reason to move somewhere where there aren't windmills triflin' with my favorite weather condition.

It's that easy?

So... I've been doing this pseudo-blog on my website... you know the one... And whilst dorking around on Google, looking for free stock footage (which isn't easy to do, when every stock footage website says "royalty-free" on it), I found this free blogging thingamabob. Yay. Now I don't have to cut and paste a dozen lines of HTML to make a new post.

So... here's the new blog. I'm probably going to save that old blog and use it strictly for site changes, like in the gallery and all that stuff that doesn't change. In other words, I probably won't use it that much, if at all. Now I have a place to bitch to high heavens that's a hundred times easier to upkeep. It even archives everything for me. And it's free. I'll still keep that old site, of course. It's just that now it will only be my portfolio... and it'll still have my tangents, too, so it won't be completely tirade-free.

Speaking of those tangents... I see an Ad Nauseam on the horizon...