Braaaaiiins!

As you may or may not know, part of my job entails one-week stints of being on call, rotated out with three other guys. Some weeks, the Bad Phone™, as we call it, is peaceful, and some weeks it's just no fun at all. Except when Chris has it. It's got some sort of karmic lack of manners where he's concerned.

Anyway, today was one of the fun ones. Due to, I believe, a hardware failure, one of our games misbehaved for a solid seven hours today, crashing and restarting like a coked-up squirrel trying to make love to an angry rubber band. That was fun. That came on the heels of being woken up early (for a Sunday) this morning to deal with a player who was stuck in twenty-five (25) days of roundtime.

Those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, smile and nod. The rest of you may snicker if you like.

Astute readers may notice a new link in the menu to the left: PCS uploader. I mentioned finding one of these back in June, and I'm afraid it's taken me this long to get around to checking it out. Referring liberally to the PHP code from the original, I have managed to create my own, which you should feel free to make use of if you use a Sprint PCS phone which accepts that sort of thing, ringers and such. I have only used it for images and midi ringers, so if you upload a java midlet or something and it goes awry, please do let me know. I take no responsibility for anything that happens to your phone...Spice Girls ringers and such.

If you're interested in the PHP code, you can get Tyler Akins' version here. Note that since I downloaded it, he's gone to a database-driven format which is a good deal more complex than is necessary for the basic functionality.

Also, someone made a brain! That's pretty neat. Insert Dubya and/or zombie joke here.

Currently listening to: the Formula One race in Brazil

A Minor Note Of Unimaginable Import

A couple of weeks ago, I said the following, regarding the Thrills:

Speaking of thrills...don't quit your dayjobs quite yet, The Thrills. The only one of you that has any stage presence is the singer, and he reminded me of someone's dad doing karaoke for the first time after a bit of extra scotch.

Out of literally nowhere, it occurred to me that I meant somebody else's dad. My dad doing karaoke after a bit of extra scotch would probably be pretty awesome, at the very least far surpassing any entertainment value I might get from said Thrills.

Also, Nancy Sinatra's dad would have probably done a good job of it, as well.

Anyhoo.

Tomorrow, assuming I remember, I shall be ordering a second hard drive for our TiVO, as a means of backing up the current one so I can install telnet access on it (for no particular reason, Hollywood production studios!), and following that, expanding its recording time.

Been working all evening on LFM, and now it is time to go out and drink for Jason Chu's birthday. Snoop Dogg's, as well, although I'm not positive he'll be there tonight. Yippee-yo-yippee-yay, just the same.

Currently listening to: "Barroom Hero", Dropkick Murphys

Geeky Quiz

Which File Extension are You?

Who's Your Big Bad Voodoo Daddy?

As Josh's carefully worded post implies, we (me, Denise, Josh and Sara) saw Big Bad Voodoo Daddy last night at the Voodoo Lounge*. They threw down some mad swing for a couple of hours, much to our enjoyment. It was almost enough to make me want to dance. The singer, Scotty, was a lot of fun, very charismatic. I told Sara at one point that it was "like if the mafia had a marching band". All in all, a very good time.

Also, I just posted a lot of new phonecam snaps.

Currently listening to: "The Young Merlins", The Changelings

* Despite any perceived similarities in the names of the band and the venue, there is no relation.

A Look At The Numbers That Shape Your World

No significance. I was just curious.

A gallon of...		Costs about...
Store-brand bottled water		$0.59
92 octane gas		$2.09
Mountain Dew (8-pack)		$3.68
Milk (Pevely, 1/2 gallon)		$3.78
Shiner Bock® beer		$10.64
Mocha Frappuccino®		$16.84
Stoli® vodka		$100.89
1988 Dom Perignon Rose		$1064.96

So now you know.

Currently listening to: "God Is A Bullet", Concrete Blonde

Government, You Are Disappointing Me

I'm pretty disappointed that the House passed H.R. 10. Majority Whip Roy Blunt noted that it "passed by a strong, bipartisan majority of 282 to 134". I find it interesting that in this particular case, 96% of Republicans voted against our civil liberties, as opposed to 36% of Democrats (I was also surprised to note that we have an Independent representative, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has the distinct honor of being the longest-serving Independent representative. You go, Mr. Sanders.) Now, one might take that statement as an indictment of the Republican branch of government, which it certainly is. One might also take it as praise for the Democrats, which it is not. I think one of the biggest problems in our government today is the overwhelmingly bipartisan system.

Those of you who know me - and if you don't, why are you reading this? - know that I am not particularly outspoken on matters of politics. Indeed, I'm really not that politically active or knowledgeable. Lately, I've been trying to change that, at least insofar as the lack of knowledge goes...and I've run into a problem: I just don't trust any of these sources to tell me the truth. The political candidates and incumbents themselves, I wouldn't trust farther than I could throw a small house, but really, I don't think I trust the media either. If anyone has any reliable sources of information, I'd love to hear them. Lately, I've taken to reading the Guardian, but I don't really know whether it's unbiased or not.

Anyway, as I may have mentioned, I wrote my district's Congressman, Todd Akin, a few weeks ago regarding my concerns with the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act (i.e. H.R. 10). Imagine my surprise when I got a reply. Granted, it was just "from the Office of" Todd Akin, but still, I thought to myself, "Neat, someone there actually read my email and took the time to reply." Whoops, no. My original email, which was sent through a form so can only be paraphrased at this point, was something like this:

Honorable Todd Akin,

It has come to my attention that the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act (H.R. 10) contains a number of sections which severely curtail civil liberties for Americans, both citizen and noncitizen alike.

Of primary concern to me are Section 3032(a), which imbues the office of the Secretary of Homeland Security with the power to deport aliens to countries where they will be tortured or imprisoned, and Section 3032(b), which removes any and all court jurisdiction over such proceedings, essentially granting autonomous power to a section of our government.

[Blah, blah, blah, due process, human rights.]

I would like you to consider voting against H.R. 10 until such time as these valid concerns have been addressed.

Mind you, at the time, I wasn't even aware of the section which creates a standardized national ID card, by which a great deal of your information and activities can be tracked electronically.

The reply I received was:

I disagree. In fact, I strongly support the provisions of HR 10 dealing with border security and travel documents. I find it hard to believe in this age of terrorism Americans would, among other things, be opposed to establishing standards for identification required of aliens; dramatically increasing the number of Border Patrol agents; expediting removal of aliens that enter the United States illegally; and improve security for driver's licenses and personal identification.

Could I just say, what the motherfuck? Seriously, thank you, office of Congressman Todd Akin, for the courtesy of a reply, but let's examine this.

DO:

Disagree with me if that's what your party says you should do. I can take it.

Provide me with reasons why you find my request unfeasible.

Provide me with avenues to get more information.

DO NOT:

Imply that I am somehow un-American for questioning a piece of legislation, when in fact, I would be remiss in my duty as an American if I did not.

Attempt to scare me with that tired old "THERE ARE TERRORISTS UNDER THE BED" crap. I know there are terrorists out there. Christ, you guys have nailed that one home, okay? I'm getting to be more afraid of our government at this point.

Treat your constituents like idiots! I have seen this everywhere I have seen a pro-summary of this bill presented. Detailing a few innocuous "common-sense" portions of the act does nothing to alleviate the concerns I actually brought up. Either address what I said personally, create enough of a variety in your canned responses that it fits my letter, or just leave off entirely.

I wrote up this reply...

Thank you, office of Congressman Todd Akin, for taking the time to reply. It is appreciated, and I'm sure you are extremely busy.

That said, I'm not entirely sure what part of my original correspondance you disagree with, as it gave no indication that I am opposed to any of the points you "find it hard to believe" that I would be opposed to. I have read the bill as proposed, and I'm all for increased security, so long as the methods used to obtain it are virtuous in their own right. However, the points you have outlined below are not representative of the full impact of HR 10, nor are they unachievable without the sections I originally mentioned.

Again, the points that concern me the most are:

Sec. 3032(a)(3), which states that an applicant must "establish by clear and convincing evidence" that he or she will be tortured if deported/removed.

I'm sure you can imagine how difficult "clear and convincing evidence" might be to come up with under a great many circumstances, especially if applied retroactively to someone who has been here for several years, as is provided for in the bill. Regardless of whether someone entrusted with this power can be trusted not to abuse it, I firmly believe that the world's perception of such a passage will be extremely negative, and a negative view of America certainly does not help Americans.

Sec. 3032(b), which states that "no court shall have jurisdiction to review the regulations adopted to implement this section".

I must be misreading that passage, because it sounds like it gives autonomous power to the Secretary of Homeland Security to implement whatever laws he or she sees fit, so long as they marginally support any part of Section 3032. I would find that notion as least as unsettling as terrorism. I'm probably missing something. We wouldn't give one person that much power.

As I originally stated, I am in no way suggesting that we abandon the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. I was and am still asking that this bill not be rushed through, until some very justified concerns are addressed. Unfortunately, that is exactly what appears to be happening.

...but the email address they used does not accept replies.

I had something non-ranty/political to say, but I've forgotten what it was, this is long enough already, and now I must leave work to go and drink. Sorry!

Weekendishness

My weekend in a big wordy nutshell...

Primarily worked on Lock Mastery. Currently writing a system to automatically generate semi-randomized areas on the fly, for the next set of ranks to be released. It'd be quicker to just make one area and reuse it, but that'd be lame. I hope to get this stuff out sometime this week, but I know better than to make that an actual ETA.

Took down my old printer and scanner, which will be finding a new home with the lovely and talented Josh and Sara, and set up my new printer/scanner combo. I like it. It's black, so it matches all my other stuff, and it's freakin' fast at printing. Plus, it takes less space, although it did involve some rearranging of existing junk.

Did a fair amount of stuff around the house, along the lines of washing dishes, cleaning and vacuuming the office, and I'm currently doing some laundry.

Went out drinking Friday night at Millstream, and last night at Applebee's. Found another beer: Amber Bock.

Worked a little bit on a song my Dad and I had started recording when they were up here last weekend. I should mention that I had a good time when my parents were up, and it is always a pleasure to see them. Oh, I just did.

Also laid down most of a heavy version of House of Pain's "Jump Around". While looking for confirmation on parts of the lyrics, I discovered to my chagrin that Limp Bizkit had also done one of these, but Fred Durst is an idiot, so that invalidates basically anything they do. Denise will probably come home and slap down some tracks for it on her Warwick. Chick bassists are teh hot.

Speaking of House of Pain...sort of...I was watching Mark Osburne's classic short film "More" a couple of weeks ago, thanks to Fazed, and it reminded me of the video Tool did for "Sober". So much that I couldn't remember whether the Sober video was just a bunch of excerpts from "More". Anyway, as I'm sure you know, it's not, but I did discover that you can watch a crapload of old videos that you would normally never see again, on Yahoo's Launch service. It's free, although it requires registration with Yahoo to watch more than one or two. The only way that really relates to House of Pain is that I just went and watched the video for "Jump Around".

Also, I played a little bit more Doom 3. I'm in Delta Labs Sector 2a now. Literally!



Yeah, okay, Sara's right, that was gay. I had a specific reason for it, but it's none of your business what it was.

Also, I bought Burnout 3 last weekend, thanks to Bubba. Thinking about finally opening that up tonight. Further bulletins as events warrant.

Currently listening to: "Beer", Reel Big Fish

Pixie Fix

Dear Morons,

If you show up to a concert on time, you won't have to fetch an usher-type person with a flashlight to find your seat for you, thus annoying everyone else in the area. It's not as though the seats are particularly difficult to find in any case. It's a seating chart, not a star chart.

Usher-type people: A mini-maglite can be turned off, focused into a tight beam, and/or not shined at the people who managed to find their own seats and are trying to enjoy the fucking concert. If you have to come down into the seats to oust someone, that's one thing, but try to keep a little bit of a leash on that flashlight otherwise. It's distracting. Also, carrying an Airsoft gun might keep you from having to go down into the seats at all, as well as serving out some measure of justice.

Other morons: there are no "squatter's rights" at a concert. An empty seat is not an invitation to stake a claim, especially before the concert even begins. If your ticket does not include a direct reference to that seat, then genius, it's just not your seat. On a tour which has been selling out venues basically everywhere it goes, chances are very good that someone is just going to have to move you, and you have thus proven yourself to be an ass, as if there was any doubt to begin with.

Furthermore, if you are of the "i'm totally cool, hyuk, hyuk, see how many beers i can shotgun, i live for intermural sports and doing greek" variety of fratboy*, do everyone a favor and stay home. Nobody finds you entertaining except your fellow abercrombie** sheep, and most of them don't really like you. If you do decide to venture out into the world, recognize that I have no moral dilemma whatsoever with kicking you in the back and sending you down several flights of stairs for making fun of people for dancing at a concert, even if I don't know those people and they are poor dancers. Normally, nothing would thrill me more than seeing you torn apart by a pack of slavering emo kids, but it would interrupt my concert, so just STFU and watch the show.

Speaking of thrills...don't quit your dayjobs quite yet, The Thrills. The only one of you that has any stage presence is the singer, and he reminded me of someone's dad doing karaoke for the first time after a bit of extra scotch. I personally found your music to be insipid, in a radio-friendly Bruce Springsteen-meets-emo-meets-every-flash-in-the-pan-British-pop-band-ever sort of way. That said, the tattooed and pierced guy next to me said you were "Okay", and somehow you got a spot opening for the Pixies, so well done there. Not my cup of tea, but obviously you're doing something right.

Pixies, you guys were perfect. All there is to it. Thank you for playing basically all of Come On Pilgrim. Call me. We'll do lunch.

Currently listening to: "The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire (Part: III)", Bal-Sagoth

Yeah, you heard me. Bal-Sagoth.

* It should be noted that not all members of fraternities are automatically jackasses. I have known several that I would put out if they were on fire, and would even claim to be friends with some. However, I stereotype gleefully and with reason. You don't like it? Change the image.

** What the hell exactly is an Abercrombie, anyway?

Radio Free Santa Cruz

Do not pass go, do not collect $200, and keep your damn mouth shut.

In other news, I guess someone pissed off Mount St. Helens.

In other other news, it looks like H.R. 10 is taking a mild beating, or at least getting sent back for amendments. Hopefully of the removal-of-torture-allowing-legislation variety. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Amnesty International has a good starting point.

Currently listening to: "Politics of Starving", Against Me!