I saw Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the author of Infidel, on Bill Maher's show some time back, and I was struck by her quiet strength and intelligence. I was looking for something on amazon today and came across her book, and the section on the page with the Washington Post review is well worth reading, even if you never read the book.
While I'm tilting more toward Sam Harris these days with respect to religion - a lot more, in fact, since I've been in Lynchburg - I've always been offended to see Muslim families in the west where the males dress in Western clothes and the females dress in burqas, because this is a clear example of a religion making women inferior.
So, while all religion sucks - except for pastafarianism, of course - Islam, even the "progressive" versions, sucks worse.
09 March 2007
25 February 2007
Random thought
I'm watching a History Channel show on the samurai, and they just went over the beautiful armor. The swords are beautiful as well, especially when you see the details of the surface finish. All of which got me to thinking about the general reputation the Japanese have for appreciating subtlety, and I wonder if this is because in a culture where there was a great uniformity of appearance and behavior, the subtle distinctions are not so subtle any more...
DWI, mobile emergency numbers
I came across an article on how New Mexico is setting up a #DWI cell number so people can call in drunk drivers.
I like the idea, so I wrote FHP and asked them if they had something similar in the works.
They don't - write your state representative and senator, and Charlie, too! - but they sent along a couple of useful links.
Florida has *FHP (*347).
There's also a national list of mobile emergency numbers.
Now, if only they'd actually permanently take away licenses, at least on the second conviction. If nothing else, you'd have a growing group of people keenly interested in improving mass transportation...
I like the idea, so I wrote FHP and asked them if they had something similar in the works.
They don't - write your state representative and senator, and Charlie, too! - but they sent along a couple of useful links.
Florida has *FHP (*347).
There's also a national list of mobile emergency numbers.
Now, if only they'd actually permanently take away licenses, at least on the second conviction. If nothing else, you'd have a growing group of people keenly interested in improving mass transportation...
Random humorous sayings
God loves you just the way you are... but that doesn't mean he wants you to stay like that.
It's best to keep your troubles pretty much to yourself, 'cause half the people you tell 'em to won't give a damn, and the other half will be glad to hear you've got 'em.
Ain't never seen a wild critter feelin' sorry for itself.
Never lie unless you have to, and if you don't have a damn good lie, stick to the truth.
It's best to keep your troubles pretty much to yourself, 'cause half the people you tell 'em to won't give a damn, and the other half will be glad to hear you've got 'em.
Ain't never seen a wild critter feelin' sorry for itself.
Never lie unless you have to, and if you don't have a damn good lie, stick to the truth.
Cool site: travel videos, aural vacations
Travelistic. Some of the videos are done by tourism agencies, but some are done by amateurs. My favorite, even though it lacks a soundtrack and the video quality is fair, is Canyon de Chelly. I'd love to visit there and Hovenweep and Mesa Verde and about a hundred other spots in the Southwest.
quiet american's one minute vacation Audio recordings from all over the world. Great with headphones.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention John Farr's live recordings, and be sure to check out FarrFeed as well.
quiet american's one minute vacation Audio recordings from all over the world. Great with headphones.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention John Farr's live recordings, and be sure to check out FarrFeed as well.
Autism, colossal squid
Subjects are entirely unrelated. ;-)
I read the autism post and watched the video after coming across a mention on Ottmar Leibert's blog, and then saw the squid story on a most-emailed list on the same site (which I've now added to Google Reader).
The autism story is one of those things that jarred me. Her commentary in the video made some good points.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Indeed. I of all people should know that.
On to large cephalapods. The colossal squid story is fascinating. The comments are interesting, especially the "killjoy" one.
Update: more on Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni here on the BBC website.
The BBC also have a related story with video about how another large squid species - Taningia danae - flashes light when it attacks. Amazing stuff.
Finally, the premier online reference for all things cephalopod seems to be TONMO.
Calimari will never be the same...
I read the autism post and watched the video after coming across a mention on Ottmar Leibert's blog, and then saw the squid story on a most-emailed list on the same site (which I've now added to Google Reader).
The autism story is one of those things that jarred me. Her commentary in the video made some good points.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Indeed. I of all people should know that.
On to large cephalapods. The colossal squid story is fascinating. The comments are interesting, especially the "killjoy" one.
Update: more on Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni here on the BBC website.
The BBC also have a related story with video about how another large squid species - Taningia danae - flashes light when it attacks. Amazing stuff.
Finally, the premier online reference for all things cephalopod seems to be TONMO.
Calimari will never be the same...
29 January 2007
28 January 2007
Carter at Brandeis
I'm watching President Carter's speech/Q&A session at Brandeis on C-SPAN; it'll be followed by <sigh> Alan Dershowitz's rebuttal, which I'll probably skip. Carter's amazing: he's done more good in the world and shown more courage and leadership since his presidency than Shrub and his daddy - and the Gipper, for that matter - did in their entire lives. Sadly, I don't see anyone in the running for 2008 who has that potential, although Bill Richardson is kinda interesting: NewMexiKen gives some good reasons why. I had hopes for McCain until he began courting Bush's wingnut Christian fundamentalist base, and I have no real interest in Clinton or Edwards. Maybe this time I'll just write in a vote for Edward Abbey instead of wasting a vote on Ralph Nader. ;-)
27 January 2007
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time
Time to get back in the saddle.
Pegasus Imaging is history and ended not with a bang but with a whimper. After putting in four years of dedicated service, not once - not once! - did they either try to get me to stay or (more importantly) ask what went wrong. Being part of the "management team" - sort of; I was kept away from staff meetings - was kinda like seeing how laws or sausage are made: you can no longer make excuses for people after you start to realize how inept and arrogant they are. The straw, though, came when I wanted to do a performance review for my sole employee and my boss decided to sit on it and hope she'd leave. Of course, when she did leave - without notice, heh; she was smart enough to use up her vacation before leaving, unlike me - she became another traitor/scapegoat, as I'm sure I now am. Whatever... I wish them well, and the only thing I regret is losing respect for the people who run the place.
Oh, and I also regret being screwed out of 9 days of vacation. Not that I'm bitter...
So, I'm now in Lynchburg, VA working at Tyco Electronics on management software for private land mobile radio networks. The work is great - all C#, .NET 2.0/3.0, custom user controls, web services, integration with SharePoint, etc., all good stuff - the people are very good, they have a good process and toolset, and the work environment is good, so I'm quite happy with work.
Lynchburg, though... I like the countryside, the rolling hills and these little things they call mountains here, and I can be on the AT or the Blue Ridge Parkway in 30 minutes. The weather is mild and the cost of living is good: you can get a pretty nice house for $200K, while they're still $275K on up back in Valrico. The schools are decent, and the people are friendly enough, but you have to go quite a ways to get away from the podunk parts: Barbara was alarmed to see a girl at a register counting on her fingers to calculate change. And then there is the religious conservatism...
I try really hard to overlook the presence and influence of Jerry Falwell and Tim Lahaye and their ilk. I try not to start looking for bolts of lightning whenever I drive by Liberty University. I try not to freak when someone tells me they homeschool their kids and I eventually come to understand it's not to provide a better education but rather an alternate, sanitized Christian education, one as free of secular humanist influences as possible. I'm glad I was careful about the stickers I put on my car; this one would not go over well. They're not bad people - well, Falwell and Lahaye are - but they're not our kind of people, and this is not our kind of town. Charlottesville was an option, possibly working at VGT, but the cost of living there is as ridiculous as it is in Valrico, and at least in Valrico we can have a pool and use it most of the year.
So, when this contract ends, it's back in the job pool for me. In my usual conflicted style, I'm working my way through MCPD certification while simultaneously spending evenings poring over Cocoa books and working on a plan to start living the life. For the .NET stuff, though, I'm definitely staying in contracting: no more being an "exempt" employee.
In totally unrelated news, the next G3 tour will be Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, and - yay!- Paul Gilbert. I've really gotten into Gilbert the last month or so, and he's funny as hell and quite unassuming (unlike that Malmsteen blowhard). Check out his website; he does it himself. It'll be a shame not to see Steve Vai, but Barbara and I saw him at the Tampa Theater a couple of years ago and it was magnificent. Well, I dug on Steve and she dug on Eric Sardinas, but let's not go into that right now... ;-)
Paul Gilbert kinda breaks the pattern for American guitar gods being from Long Island (Vai, Satriani, and Petrucci), by the way. Look up some videos on Youtube; the guy's a riot.
Pegasus Imaging is history and ended not with a bang but with a whimper. After putting in four years of dedicated service, not once - not once! - did they either try to get me to stay or (more importantly) ask what went wrong. Being part of the "management team" - sort of; I was kept away from staff meetings - was kinda like seeing how laws or sausage are made: you can no longer make excuses for people after you start to realize how inept and arrogant they are. The straw, though, came when I wanted to do a performance review for my sole employee and my boss decided to sit on it and hope she'd leave. Of course, when she did leave - without notice, heh; she was smart enough to use up her vacation before leaving, unlike me - she became another traitor/scapegoat, as I'm sure I now am. Whatever... I wish them well, and the only thing I regret is losing respect for the people who run the place.
Oh, and I also regret being screwed out of 9 days of vacation. Not that I'm bitter...
So, I'm now in Lynchburg, VA working at Tyco Electronics on management software for private land mobile radio networks. The work is great - all C#, .NET 2.0/3.0, custom user controls, web services, integration with SharePoint, etc., all good stuff - the people are very good, they have a good process and toolset, and the work environment is good, so I'm quite happy with work.
Lynchburg, though... I like the countryside, the rolling hills and these little things they call mountains here, and I can be on the AT or the Blue Ridge Parkway in 30 minutes. The weather is mild and the cost of living is good: you can get a pretty nice house for $200K, while they're still $275K on up back in Valrico. The schools are decent, and the people are friendly enough, but you have to go quite a ways to get away from the podunk parts: Barbara was alarmed to see a girl at a register counting on her fingers to calculate change. And then there is the religious conservatism...
I try really hard to overlook the presence and influence of Jerry Falwell and Tim Lahaye and their ilk. I try not to start looking for bolts of lightning whenever I drive by Liberty University. I try not to freak when someone tells me they homeschool their kids and I eventually come to understand it's not to provide a better education but rather an alternate, sanitized Christian education, one as free of secular humanist influences as possible. I'm glad I was careful about the stickers I put on my car; this one would not go over well. They're not bad people - well, Falwell and Lahaye are - but they're not our kind of people, and this is not our kind of town. Charlottesville was an option, possibly working at VGT, but the cost of living there is as ridiculous as it is in Valrico, and at least in Valrico we can have a pool and use it most of the year.
So, when this contract ends, it's back in the job pool for me. In my usual conflicted style, I'm working my way through MCPD certification while simultaneously spending evenings poring over Cocoa books and working on a plan to start living the life. For the .NET stuff, though, I'm definitely staying in contracting: no more being an "exempt" employee.
In totally unrelated news, the next G3 tour will be Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, and - yay!- Paul Gilbert. I've really gotten into Gilbert the last month or so, and he's funny as hell and quite unassuming (unlike that Malmsteen blowhard). Check out his website; he does it himself. It'll be a shame not to see Steve Vai, but Barbara and I saw him at the Tampa Theater a couple of years ago and it was magnificent. Well, I dug on Steve and she dug on Eric Sardinas, but let's not go into that right now... ;-)
Paul Gilbert kinda breaks the pattern for American guitar gods being from Long Island (Vai, Satriani, and Petrucci), by the way. Look up some videos on Youtube; the guy's a riot.
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