December 5, 2005
Now and Then Playing
I've managed to play some or all of Fable, a couple CSIs, Uplink: Hacker Elite, Star Wars: Battlefront, Pirates, Grand Theft Auto 3, Missing Since January, and Still Life since I last posted a review. This post is my half-promise to get reviews up within the next month.
December 6, 2005
House of Mirth
So Livia got sick in early November, and Genevieve got sick shortly thereafter, resulting in bad sleep for all of us. Meanwhile I was beginning a very tough month at work, an ambitious schedule and lots of overtime. Liv and Gen worked their way back to health, without a lot of help from me, and were getting better around Thanksgiving when I got sick just in time for the holiday break, spending Thanksgiving in bed. I was back at work the next week, sniffling and coughing, trying to work through a stuffy head. Sleep was still pretty hard to come by for all of us, since Livia and I are prone to lingering coughs for weeks after we get sick. A few days later, Livia and Gen were both diagnosed with ear infections and went on antibiotics, and I dove into the last week of the milestone, working until 4am Saturday morning. Today I took a pleasant day off, and Liv and Gen finished their antibiotics.
Tonight, poor Gen has developed a fever again, and it sounds like she's not sleeping too well...
Anyway, how are things with you?
December 14, 2005
I've introduced the "Everyone Breath Air" Act. Are you with me or against me?
I'd normally love to post some good reasons not to renew the USA Patriot act, but I'd hate to give the impression that I'm unpatriotic.
December 16, 2005
Someone had to take that bastard down!
(My apologies to non-LucasArts alumni. This post won't make any sense.)
So there I am on my lunch hour, taking jobs in Uplink: Hacker Elite, and I get a new mission to take down a troublesome hacker.
The ID of my target came as a shock.
This was truly a surprise. Last I had heard, my former colleague had gone to New York, settled down, started doing contract work. Uh huh. Right.
Now that I knew the true identity of the notorious hacker known as "Brownheart", I knew what I had to do. Routing through no less than 30 systems, I broke into the Global Criminal Database, called up his file, and added Murder, Robbery, and Impersonating a Scottish Folk Hero to his otherwise spotless record. Within 3 hours, the FBI swooped in, and Brownheart was off to a 6 by 10 cell.
Regrets? None. Sorry Duncan; I'm a professional.
December 19, 2005
Zen Spam of the Month
"on. But wait! There's more! Pluck"I'd like to make Zen Spam of the Month a regular thing, but some months are a lot more Zen than others.
Got your own candidate for ZSotM? Please, send it along!
December 20, 2005
Oh Really?
Awesome catch from one of Atrios' readers.
From an April 20th, 2004 speech by our President:
Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution
I think Scott McLellan is gonna have a rough week...
December 24, 2005
Last minute Shopping tip
Want to save on Christmas presents?
December 25, 2005
Merry Christmas!
(And to you, Mr. O'Reilly, a most gladsome Saturnalia.)
December 28, 2005
Crazy like a Fox viewer
I wasn't sure I wanted to post on the "War on Christmas", because arguing about it benefits only the demagogues who drum it up annually. But check out the results of the steady drumbeat.
42 percent. Huh.
Perhaps they'll commision another poll about whether people's satellite dishes hinder Santa Claus' chances of landing safely.
December 29, 2005
This doesn't mean something
Stolen from Daily Kos:
Percent of GQ readers who think the Bush daughters should volunteer for military service: 49%
Percent who would give up sex for a year if it would end the war in Iraq: 66%
(Source: GQ)
Percent of GQ readers who have "given up" sex for the past year without actually intending to: Unknown
December 30, 2005
Don't read these memos!
I urge all readers of conscience not to read these memos.
The British Government is trying to prevent publication of them, most likely for a good reason, like national security or something. The common person has no reason to know about the torture of detainees in Uzbekistan, the information passed to the CIA, and then given to British intelligence.
And yet, perfidious UK bloggers are have arranged a coordinated, widespread leak of the memos in outright defiance of the wishes of their duly elected leaders.
Even if the British government succeeds, it will be somewhat harder for them to prevent American bloggers from posting these ostensibly fascinating but really quite dull and eminently skippable memos.
The enemies of freedom depend on these childish acts of rebellion. Don't participate!
Feminaziism redefined
I'm doing more "link farming" than I prefer these days, but I've gotta point people toward this post on Pandagon, about the increasing disparity between male and female enrollment at college. Turns out, women outnumber men in college by a considerable margin. This, my friends, is a social development of seismic proportions.
But the reason I bring it up is that Amanda's post crosses into territory that feminism isn't particularly noteworthy for in the mainstream - concern for men. In my experience, which is not to be sniffed at, feminism is grounded in humanism. There are exceedingly strong links between feminism and gay rights, the handicapped, children's welfare, poverty issues, racial equality, etc.
When Limbaugh and his ilk started making fun of "Feminazis", they were capitalizing on the fear that women were trying to do what men had been doing for years: assume power. This is what they do better than anything: divide the world conceptually into warring factions, by painting people involved in any given issue as engaged in a zero-sum game. The environmentalists value trees over people; the "gay agenda" is to convert the world to their lifestyle; those wanting to maintain a secular government are out to destroy Christianity; any attempt to reduce poverty institutionally is actually an attempt to bring back Communism!
The feminists I know are indeed trying to alter society, by appealing to the largest possible constituency: half the population (and the men who support their full equality). But most of them envision a just, cooperative world with everyone equal. They like men, they want men to be in their lives, many are inspired by positive examples of male self-assurance. They just want the same rights and opportunities men enjoy.
Well, enough of my commentary. Amanda's post is the place to go.