Mood: awake
Music: Pixies – Something Against You

Also, why don’t they offer alternatives or certain types of processes that are less detrimental to the environment? I mean…what is the alternative? starve? No thanks.

• FOOD: The War on Soy: Why the 'Miracle Food' May Be a Health Risk and Environmental Nightmare
  Counterpoints are always interesting. We should not ignore China's cultural legacy concerning soy.
  (tags: food soy AlterNet articles China health)
• COMEDY: Facebook in real life
  A funny clip by a BBC show showing how peculiar it would be if we did things in real life like we do on Facebook.
  (tags: media video shorts comedy Facebook parody realLife FacebookInRealLife BBC Funny-City videos)
• COMEDY: MOVIES: Pee-Wee's Big Adventure trailer re-cut as a horror movie
  In the spirit of "Shining" and "Scary Mary" :)
  (tags: media video movies trailers comedy parodies remixes re-cut Pee-WeeHerman Pee-Wee'sBigAdventure PaulReubens NightmareOnElmScreen horror fakeTrailers fake YouTube videos)
• AUDIO: Can We Really Tell Lossless From MP3?
  In general, signs point to no. People convince themselves certain formats are better — but in blind tests, they can't even pick their own format. As usual, my conclusion is that versatility is the most important thing.
  (tags: audio audiophiles software mp3s compression formats music FLAC LAME comparisons tests listeningTests bitrates Slashdot articles)
• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: Arkansas police Taser 10-year-old girl for not getting in the shower
  Yet another amazing example — and yet there are still people who agree with the officer on this!

  He has since been suspended. Not for the incident, but because he didn't have the taser camera on/attached at the time, and was supposed to be recording that.

  It's amazing that child abuse is legal when an officer does it. I'd love to see how the police would react to a mother tasing her child. It's never okay. If douchebag Officer Dustin Bradshaw can't arrest a 10-year-old girl, he should go be a rent-a-cop at a mall instead. He has no business being an officer. What a pussy.

  This is apparently the same department that tased a 16-year-old for refusing to comply with orders. He fell off a 30 foot overpass and had broken his neck. Sounds like great training they have there [/sarcasm].

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority tasers children 10-year-old parents PoliceBrutality brutality police DustinBradshaw AnthonyMedlock Ozark Arkansas CarlosMiller blog articles)
• CHILDREN/COMEDY: 7 Things "Good Parents" Do (That Screw Kids Up for Life)
  As usual, another informative list from Cracked.com, peppered with hilarious comedy. But there's truth in this.
  (tags: comedy lists Cracked.com children parents 7 things parenting names research studies sports strangers StrangerDanger praise EducationalVideos TV television BabyEinstein fromParthena)
• HEALTH VS. COMEDY: The 6 Most Terrifying Medical Malpractice Cases Ever
  Anyone who thinks that lawsuits should have limits lower than the amount to care for someone's malpractice-related injury for the rest of their life should consider what life might be like as some of these people. Would you cut your penis off for $10M? No? The maybe you should be able to sue for that much!
  (tags: comedy lists Cracked.com health doctors malpractice penis acid circumcision FranciscoJavierValentineyOrtiz NaumCiomu MargaretBean-Bayog psychiatrists suicides vaginas reconstruction surgeries vaginalReconstruction Dr.JamesBurt non-consensual KennethOlson multiplePersonalities ArturoIturralde DonaldDudley StephenDrummond)
• RELIGION: Scientology allegedly tortured, kidnapped, blackmailed people — even forced women to have abortions
  Scientology is a dangerous cult that must be destroyed. Hail Xenu!

  Wow — Scientologists call non-Scientologists "wogs". Reminds me of "muggles" from Harry Potter…

  (tags: politics religion cults Scientology Xenu Australia blackmail women kidnappings torture abortions children ChildAbuse abuse wogs whistleblowers TheAustralian news articles)

Yard saleing season is over, yet Carolyn said she’d seen a sign on a local road indicating a sale today. Rousing out of bed past 11AM, we figured this would give us an excuse to get in a car, thereby making a taco bell breakfast trip more worth the effort. Turns out the idiots with the sign didn’t even have the sale their sign was advertising, but we ran into another.

Total spent $2.00 plus ~$0 gas (we were already going to Taco Bell) for a total of $2.00. We bought 1 item – for an estimated value of $28, leading to a profit of $26. We only spent about 10 minutes detouring to the yardsale, so technically we made $156/hr as a couple or $78/hr per person. And to earn $26 after taxes you’d really have to earn ~$37; money saved (by not having to spend it) is actually worth more than we realize when the government’s cut is taken into consideration.

$2.00 – Vick’s vaporizer made to put Vick’s VapoRub (VapoSteam) into the air. A $48 product, but it’s sold on sale for $28.

Click here for other Yard Sale-related postings.

Mood: glad internet came back
Music: ixies – Vamos (live)

At least their platform is more sane.

But basically, Republicans are my enemies, and Democrats are my frienemies. Not much better, really.

People who I once thought were leaders have turned out to actually be followers… And my cynicism continues to grow. :)

Thanks for the NPR update!

• APPLE: Apple Voiding Smokers Warranties?
  Wow. Just when you thought the snobby elitism of Apple's corporate culture couldn't get any higher, you find out they are voiding people's warranties and hiding behind OSHA as a fake reason to.

  Hate to break the news to the anti-smoking crowd, but second hand cigarette smoke is NOT an OSHA violation.

  "Field studies of environmental tobacco smoke indicate that under normal conditions, the components in tobacco smoke are diluted below existing Permissible Exposure Levels (PELS.) as referenced in the Air Contaminant Standard (29 CFR 1910.1000)…It would be very rare to find a workplace with so much smoking that any individual PEL would be exceeded."
  -Letter From Greg Watchman, Acting Ass't Sec'y, OSHA, To Leroy J Pletten, PHD, July 8, 1997

  Certainly not the "thirdhand" smoke that would be in someone's laptop. What B.S., Apple. Your hardware already costs more, so now you're going to try to reduce costs by screwing your customers. Real nice.

  Next up? Cat owners!

  (tags: politics drugs smoking cigarettes nicotine tobacco corporations Apple secondhandSmoke OSHA bullshit excuses warranties voided hardware computers)
• CENSORSIHP: 11 Dirty TV Moments That Slipped Past the Censors [video included]
  "Finger Prince? I don't think so." -Animaniacs
  "Another head? What would I need 3 of them for?" -Barney Rubble
  (tags: censorship UnderTheRadar lists YouTube videos media video TV shows cartoons Animaniacs Prince RobinWilliams PamDawber Mork&Mindy cunnilingus Flintstones BarneyRubble 30Rock Lemonparty TheSimpsons Simpsons VeronicaMars GoldenShowers DirtySanchez Rocko'sModernLife dogs sex RedRocket PrematureEjaculation motels blumpkin TheNormShow TheGongShow twins Popsicles SpectacularSpider-Man semen ArrestedDevelopment pussy comedy 11points)
• CAPITALISM: Pittsburgh To Tax Students
  Because of course students should pay for their own, and nobody else should contribute. That would be socialism! Oh no! Much better that the poor are made to be dumber in the name of our overly-capitalist-worshiping ideals.
  (tags: politics capitalism Pittsburg Pennsylvania taxes students collegeStudents CarnegieMellon money economy finance education government Slashdot news articles)
• CORPORATIONS: CENSORSHIP: MICROSOFT: Bing Censoring All Simplified Chinese Language Queries
  Fuck that. Just because you speak Chinese doesn't mean your search results should be censored. And fuck Microsoft for going along with that.
  The greed of capitalism combined with the non-humanity of corporations means that profit == oppression in many situations — and this is one of them.
  (tags: politics censorship TechnologyWar internet freedom information corporations Microsoft China Chinese Bing searchEngines HumanRights rights Slashdot news articles)

• Health, home and happiness: Homemade Vaposteam Humidifier additive
  Make your own Vick's VapoSteam
  (tags: health do-it-yourself)

@ Clint- weird story about that Ewok…. :)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link] Carolyn HAD rated this 2 stars on Netflix and didn’t remember it from being a kid. I *think* I may have seen it, but absolutely NOTHING in it rang a bell, so I COULD be wrong. Parthena said it was one of her fave movies as a kid, so she got to watch it with us.

LIMERICK REVIEW: There once was a fantasy called Willow.
A baby found floating in a river — D’oh!
Keeping it alive was a pain.
To the queen, it was a bane.
A sorceress is quite a formidable foe.

HAIKU REVIEW: Willow’s a midget?!?!?!
The things you forget with age!
Nice to revisit.

PEOPLE: Directed by Ron Howard (the narrator from Arrested Development!), written by George Lucas and Bob Dolman. Val Kilmer certainly makes the ladies happy, but he was still better in Real Genius. Did you know Joanne Whalley (Sorsha) was a groupee in the Pink Floyd movie? Her career is still going, but I don’t think she’s done anything as well-known as Willow since then. Nor has she ever looked as good, judging by her IMDB pictures. Maybe that’s why Val Kilmer divorced her? (OHHH, I totally went there.)

The baby (Ruth/Kate Greenfield) was actually the best baby actor I’ve ever seen–which really just means they spent many hours photographing it until it did the right things. And they were never in a movie again… And little people. Tons of little people, and some of the standard familiar faces. This is the most little people in any movie since The Wizard Of Oz, and they had to advertise nationally to get that many. (Some trivia: At a party, I once saw a little person smoking pot, asked around, and she was friends of some friends and had been an Ewok in Star Wars episode 6: Return Of The Jedi. So I’ve seen an Ewok smoke pot! Who else can brag about this?)

QUIRKS: Most of your standard fantasy movie tropes apply here. Formulaic to a tee; yet exceeding expectations and out-doing many of the similar movies that came out in the early 80s. More of these quirks are discussed in the “SIMILAR MOVIES” section below, where I compare it to Lord Of The Rings.

There are two Wilhelm Screams in this movie.

And some mis-treatment of babies.. always a plus. lol

And some comic relief from the 2 “very tiny” people, the Smurf-sized “brownies”. They really reminded me of the worms from Worms 3-D (the X-box version, not the PS2 version).

VISUALS: The fantasy world here is much richer than most 1980s fantasy movies. Closer to the caliber of the Lord Of The Rings movies in terms of having a rich world filled with many different kinds of creatures. Special effects have come a long way since then, but they still did a good job.

MORALS: Even reluctant tiny people can be heroes. But we all knew this when we read Lord Of The Rings…

BAD STUFF: The only thing bad about it is that it was kind of “generic” in the sense of following many established tropes for Fantasy movies. But this movie didn’t win out (versus the others) in uniqueness of ideas, it won out by executing these ideas in a better way. It doesn’t get boring like Legend. Solutions to problems are, as usual, “conveniently convenient”, but not as badly as in other movies.

CONCLUSION: I think by re-watching it I bumped it up from 3 stars to 4 stars on Netflix, and up to 7/10 on IMDB. After seeing so many sub-par fantasy movies like Legend and Krull … It’s nice to see one that is better than a “generic pass”.

RECOMMENDATION: Fantasy lovers and 80s movie lovers should definitely watch (or re-watch) this.

SIMILAR MOVIES: Lord Of The Rings!!! I was cracking jokes the whole time about how ever character was almost directly analogous to a character in Lord Of The Rings. The Nelwyns are the hobbits. Willow is Frodo. The baby is the ring. Bad people in horses come after them like the Nazgul. A “fellowship” is formed. Cherlindrea is “Galadriel” and gives “Frodo” (Willow) a magic wand instead of a strand of her hair, and then gets really creepy just like Galadriel talking about how horrible she could be if she had the ring. The Brownies are the “elves”, only 2 inches tall but still able to take you via bow & arrow in the middle of the forest. The “orcs” are simply a human army. Val Kilmer/Madmartigan is Aragorn. Bavmorda may as well be Sauron (and didn’t land another movie role for 12 years, until she was “The Queens” in Monarch). Nockmaar may as well have been Mordor; Tir Asleen may as well have been Minas Tirith. And there’s even a dragon, like in The Hobbit.

It is also of course somewhat similar to a lot of the 80s fantasy movies that came out, like Krull, Legend, The NeverEnding Story, or Labyrinth. And has parallels to Star Wars as well.

MOVIE QUOTE: Cherlindrea: Elora Danan must survive. She must fulfill her destiny and bring about the downfall of Queen Bavmorda. Her powers are growing like an evil plague. Unless she is stopped, Bavmorda will control the lives of your village, your children, everyone. All creatures of good heart need your help, Willow. The choice is yours.

COINCIDENCES: Supergirl, Willow. 2 1980’s movies in a row with love potions.

FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Christie and Chris H/Lisa loved it. Ian & Tatiana really liked it. Christian H & Jordan & Benj liked it. Chris Z didn’t like it. Becky hated it.

Mood: full
Music: Kreator – Awakening Of The Gods

Sadly, though, it does make me better understand that irrational faith that conservatives had had in Bush during the last 8 years, after now seeing it in a group that I (foolishly) self-identify with. Just one more reason to correct that mistaken self-association.

Oh, and I looked up the “NPR and Monsanto” thing to provide you a link or two, and it turns out I’m wrong (as per NPR Is Not Running Monsanto Spots). It turns out that American Public Media, which produces “Marketplace”, is the one that is heavily backed by Monsanto. I mistakenly thought that “Marketplace” was a product of NPR, since they run back-to-back on my local public station, but they’re actually not linked at all.

Still, I’m sure I’m not the only person who has conflated the two and has either a) decreased their faith in NPR due to perceived association with Monsanto, or b) increased their faith in Monsanto due to perceived association with NPR. Luckily, NPR is trying to correct that, and also has links to a campaign asking American Public Media to stop its association with Monsanto.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brian-Bates/197798509459

He linked it with the text:

”
Here is a link to a long and excellent review of Sabbat’s album based on The Way of Wyrd. The review links the music (each of the tracks one by one!) to incidents in the book. Thrash music may or not be to your taste, but the lyrics and the review are interesting nevertheless. This book has inspired many musicians – th…ere are several albums out there based on it. I think that perhaps the ideas and the passion of the wisdom can be carried by music in ways that can’t be by words alone – and vice versa.”

I then went on to tell him how long (years) it took me to get a hold of the book, and he responded:

“Hi Clint, yes it was a very long blog! And as i said earlier, an excellent one. Glad you finally got hold of a copy of The Way of Wyrd, a testament to your persistence! The book’s pretty much been in continuous publication now for a couple of decades, but did fade out at a couple of stages and became harder to find. It’s now published in all English-speaking areas in an edition by Hay House.”

I’m awesome.

And no, I’m not buying it:)

2) NPR is backed by Monsanto? FUCK.

Kids who were born after the Nixon administration can pretty much repeat the claim of Oceana in Nineteen Eighty-Four:

We’ve always been at war.

• HARDWARE: Netbooks Have Higher Failure Rate Than Laptops made by Asus, Toshiba, Sony
  Whaaaat? Apple fanboys told me that if I bought an Apple, all my problems would vanish. It would never crash, it would mow my lawn, and it would cure my dog’s cancer. But the reality is: Apple laptops are only the 4th best. And people herd to them like sheep because they respond to B.S. marketing rather than actual data. Of course, as Ian pointed out, 3 other brands are selling better, so aren’t those people even bigger sheep? That could very well be, but Windows users aren’t typically as brand-loyal to specific hardware brands as Apple users. After all, during the evolution of Windows, many hardware manufacturers have risen and fallen. So I tend to think of these people as less sheep, and more aimless wanderers — zombies or fools, if you will. Which I find slightly preferable to sheep. The real people who get my respect are those who spec out individual parts and build their own machines. However, I’m not sure how one would do this with a laptop…

   

  (tags: hardware Apple computers laptops Netbooks failureRates Slashdot reliability articles)
• MOVIES: The 30 Most Disturbing Twilight Products
  Hahahaha. Too bad the format for the page requires waiting for each click, though. Made me not look at them all.
  (tags: comedy lists media video movies Twilight products disturbing)

• Windows 2000 Gaming • View topic – Quick-Installguide OldCigarette's 2000 XP API Wrapper
  Win2k OldCigarette's 2000 XP API Wrapper – I needed this to get QuakeLive to work now
  (tags: technical games)

The corporations ARE our government. (That’s actually one of the signs of facism.) Here’s another example. According to the article, this guy played an instrumental role in introducing genetically modified milk and known carcinogens into the U.S. food supply.
What a great adviser for the fDA!

And I’m sure, at next week’s Drinking Liberally, I’ll be hearing about how Obama is so different than Bush and that, if I’d just give him some more time, Obama would show how his 32-dimensional chess will make the above make sense. Sure.

BTW, it really irked me when I realized that the “liberal” NPR (actually the only news I can get in Dayton that’s in the political center, making it seem “socialist” to most around here) was backed heavily by Monsanto. No surprise that we didn’t hear the above news on NPR.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0330044pot1.html
http://hamptonroads.com/node/510056

The worst is the first, which has this money-shot:

“Eight armed narcs raided the Dagy home on March 19 and found absolutely nothing. No evidence of pot anywhere, not even stashed in the children’s toys. Seems that the coppers mistook the family’s constant use of the dishwasher, washer/dryer, three computers, four ceiling fans, and other electronic devices as evidence of a felony drug operation. Oops. The Dagys–Mom’s a homemaker and Dad’s a general manager of 21 Shell stations–would like an apology from the Carlsbad Police Department. Sadly, we’d recommend that the Dagys not hold their collective breath.”

Note that that’s “eight armed narcs”, kicking in the door, scaring the living shit out of the kids, making everyone get down on the floor with their hands behind their heads, all while those damned bastards rip apart every item that family owns and kicking in walls to check behind the drywall… And making sure that those kids never believe another civics lesson that they receive. They’ll know from personal experience that “if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about” is complete bullshit in the police state that America has turned into. Because, to them, fuck you and fuck your civil rights: someone, somewhere, might be smoking a naturally growing weed and enjoying it, and that weed might not be tobacco.

Robert Anton Wilson had it right when he constantly refered to this as “The War on Some Drugs” and G. Gordon Gordon (of the Church of the SubGenius) had it right when he said that the War On Some Drugs is the biggest threat to our civil liberties (back in the ’80s) because it gives the “authorities” an excuse that they can use anywhere, anytime, for anything.

• COMEDY: Drunkest Guy Ever Blaster Battle Video
  A remix of the “drunk guy spends 5 minutes trying to find beer” video, done as a video game. Having seen the first video, this is the most hilarious shit I’ve seen all week!
  (tags: comedy media video reality Break.com videos Drunk guy buyingBeer DrunkGuy VideoGames remixes)

• MOVIES: CARTOONS: Queer Duck: The Movie (2006) (V)
  Why haven’t I heard of this? Mark Hamill, Kevin Michael Richardson, Tim Curry, Andy Dick, Maurice LaMarche, Jeff Bennett, Conan O’Brien, David Duchovny as… TINY JESUS? Fuck, I have to see this.
  (tags: media video movies cartoons ducks gay QueerDuck IMDB)

• HEALTH CARE REFORM: Sick and Wrong : Rolling Stone article
  This goes into why Obama’s Health Care reforms are pretty much meaningless. Democrats are in bed with big business–just like Republicans. Reform is an illusion so that 2-party people can wave flags for their team, while ignoring the fact that even after these reforms, we’ll still have one of the most ass-backward systems in the world.Step 1:Aim low.
  Step 2:Gut the public option.
  Step 3:Pack it with loopholes.
  Step 4:Provide no leadership.
  Step 5:Blow the math.

  Obama only supports a single-payer system if he were “starting over”, but wont now because it would “disrupt” the insurance industry. Oh, Poor poor wittle insurance industry! I guess commerce is more important to health–even to the idol-worshiped Obama. “The president and the Democrats decided not to press for the only plan that makes sense for everyone, in order to preserve an industry that is not only cruel and stupid and dysfunctional, but through its rank inefficiency has necessitated the very reforms now being debated”

  (tags: politics ObamaAdministration medical health healthCare healthCareReform patients insurance hospitals government NancyPelosi MaxBaucus TedKennedy BarackObama Congress legal legislation SenateFinanceCommittee Democrats Republicans PublicOption corporations GroupOfSix singlePayerSystem LynnWoolsey MargaretFlowers protesters PharmaceuticalResearchAndManufacturersOfAmerica Obamacare ProgressiveCaucus BlueDogs BusinessAsUsual WorstOfBothWorlds capitalism loopholes HR3200 WalMart Medicare Medicaid FreeChoiceAct employerMandate UniversalHealthCare socializedMedicine RollingStone MattTaibbi editorial news articles)

• SUBGENIUS: What the Cameras Recorded at Brushwood on July 5, 7 A.M., Con Year 1998 – alt.slack
  A text transcript of the craziness that ensued during the original Church Of The SubGenius “X-Day 1″, in 1998. But then it was later determined that the year was NOT 1998 (perhaps it was upside-down, and really 8661), since the saucers did not come.
  Would have loved to have been there! But X-Day is still happening and we’ll be there this upcoming summer.
  (tags: SubGenius X-Day transcripts alt.slack IvanStang Rupture)
• WHOA: New World-Record Stick Bomb — 2250 Sticks!
  I didn’t even know what a “stick bomb” was. It’s like dominoes, only with more chaos. MOAR CHAOOOOSSSS!!!!!!!!!!
  (tags: media video reality YouTube videos WorldRecords records StickBombs popsicleSticks tongueDepressors eyeCandy wow)

• BOOKS: Idiot Letters (9780385475082): Paul Rosa: Books
  I had to save this link, because MULTIPLE times I’ve brought this book up in conversation but not been able to remember what it is called. Hilarious stuff.My favorite is the Wilford Brimley letter, but the first review reminded me of my OTHER favorite part:

  “One of his letters is to the m&m company, in which he complains that their slogan “Melts in your mouth, but not in your hands” is discriminatory and insensitive to those who don’t have one or more hands. He then goes on to explain how he lost his arms in an encounter with a grizzly bear, and suggests that they change their slogan to “Melts in your mouth but not in your hand(s) (if you have any).”"

  (tags: media books IdiotLetters letters pranks prankLetters PaulRosa)
• TECHNOLOGY WAR: Smart Grid Could Pose Threat To Privacy
  I agree.How about addressing renewable energy now, rather than playing the rationing game with people?

  I don’t want crooked people at the power company to be able to tell their burglar associates when my wife & I are out of the house by looking at electricity consumption graphs.

  Such breaches of privacy DO occur… More often than people realize.

  This also makes marijuana grow houses more likely to be discovered… Which is a bad thing to anyone who is against prohibition of victimless crimes.

  Getting warrants for excessive electricity use is routine in USA (see links in comments).

  The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and this is an example. In the name of the environment, we’re going to sacrifice our privacy. Bad.

  Someone commented that our only choice is to remain Luddites, or join the Hive Mind. Hell, I’d rather sacrifice electricity entirely than join any fucking hive mind. We’re not goddamned insects.

  (tags: politics TechnologyWar privacy homeowners PropertyRights WashingtonPost Slashdot news articles SmartGrid electricity energy surveillance policeState BigBrother government)
• ECONOMY: 32% Inflation in UCLA Tuition Causes Riots
  Am I dick for the fact that the first thought that comes to mind is, “Saddam Hussein gave free college to whoever wanted. It was state sponsored.” These riots are a result of our anti-socialist obsession with capitalism and everyone being responsible for only themselves. A real society would freely educate its citizens SO THEY AREN’T SO FUCKING STUPID. After all, that’s why we have public K-12. But why does it stop there? Sure, private schools are always better, but the rich who can afford them can afford higher taxes too.So now we have riots over inflation and tuition.

  I recall reading something that in 1970, a college degree meant you’d make 50% more. By 1995, a college degree meant you’d only make 15% more. Meanwhile, the cost in inflation-adjusted dollars had tripled.

  It’s almost like there’s no ROI on college investment. It’s no wonder people get fucking pissed when it goes up 32% in 1 year. And this is in Beverly Hills! Imagine how bad actual poor people must feel.

  (tags: politics economics students colleges tuition NationalInflationAssociation media video YouTube videos riots police protest protesters BeverlyHills inflation UCLA NIA news articles)
• CORPORATIONS VS. GOVERNMENT: Former Monsanto Lawyer Hired by FDA as Key Advisor
  The corporations ARE our government. (That’s actually one of the signs of facism.) Here’s another example. According to the article, this guy played an instrumental role in introducing genetically modified milk and known carcinogens into the U.S. food supply.
  What a great adviser for the fDA!
  (tags: politics corporations government Monsanto lobbyists FDA MichaelTaylor MargaretHamburg food health safety NaturalNews news articles)

Jesus, that was a pain. I noticed a bunch of my wordpress flickr-embedded videos were no longer working — such as my awesome post of my college video experiments — despite me following embed instructions.

1) I sent notes to WordPress support, who basically told me it was Flickr’s problem. I was pretty damn convinced they were wrong, as I had changed nothing on my side. They kindly investigated further at my behest, and it turns out that Flickr had set my account to not be in public searches — which had the undocumented side-effect of making my embedded videos no longer worked.

2) I had to send a note to Flickr’s help. I then waited 5 business days after they said to wait 3 business days — they had escalated my issue up the chain, according to them — and sent another email, which was also ignored. Finally on day 6 I opened up a 2nd ticket with reference to my 1st ticket, and was rewarded with a prompt response a couple hours later:

[Flickr Case 1368805] Other issues
Hello,
I have classified your account as “public”/”safe”.
Regards,
-Terrence

What?!?! My account wasn’t “public”/”safe”???? Greeeeat.

By examining random photos from my FlickR, I see that most do not have the “hide from public searches” checkbox checked anymore! Yay! But does this mean that the pictures *I really want hidden* are no longer checked? I don’t know! I had tried to avoid the wrath of various corporate entities by hiding selected photos that are otherwise public.

Anyway, I always thought my stats were pretty good… But I had noticed a dropoff to about 2500-5000 views a day, whereas in the past I got closer to 7500. However, despite being hidden from public searches, I still got a lot of referral traffic from both Flickr and Yahoo Photos [Yahoo owns flickr], so it seems like “hide from public seraches” still leaves you open to plenty of other referral methods. Anyway, hopefully these stats improve now that my account is no longer censored:

And yes, it bugs me to be a paying user and to be censored. But if I were to make my own photo album off of flickr, nobody would view it. Sort of how my blog gets read through Facebook a lot, but hardly anyone actually goes to it directly. People need to get over their technical laziness. Our technical laziness funnels us into social sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr — thereby putting us under the umbrella of corporate and community censorship. If only we could all just run our own stuff on our own hardware, nobody could censor us! But it would be much harder for us to all stay together. Maybe that is an issue that Web 3.0 will address. . .

Mood: argh
Music: Pixies – Vamos (live)

• RELIGION: CATHOLIC BISHOPS: Gay marriage hurts society
  More hate in the name of God. Why join an organization that discriminates based on 2,000 year old texts? Catholocism is a far greater threat to humanity and freedom than homosexuality.
  (tags: politics religion Christianity Christians Catholocism Catholics SexualFreedom GayMarriage homosexuals marriage sex freedom Bishops Baltimore Maryland MSNBC news articles)
• DRUGS: More Good News on THC and Cancer
  Yup, another scientific study [linked to by the article] showing the anti-cancer effects of THC, the main ingredient in marijuana.

  You think the pharmaceutical industry wants people growing their own medicine? Synthetic marinol pills cost $600/month. Non-synthetic THC grows like, well…. A weed. The establishment does not want natural medicine, but how much longer can they ignore the mounting scientific pro-pot evidence that keeps coming out?

  Even the AMA has finally changed their position.

  How many have died over the establishment's resistance to even studying marijuana? This study came from Thailand, not USA…

  (tags: politics science drugs marijuana cancer anticancer medicine CholangiocarcinomaFoundation medical research studies bileDuct bileDuctCancer Thailand MPP news articles)
• COMEDY: Cat Vs. Cop
  I think he handled it pretty well, actually. No taser or nothin. He didn't even shoot or beat the cat. :)
  (tags: media video reality police animals cats Yahoo videos CatVs.Cop CopVs.Cat)

• Where Should I Eat?
  Fast Food Flowchart
  (tags: food flowchart comedy)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link] A great movie to see in HD.

PEOPLE: Same as the “first” Transformers movie. Michael Bay directs, Shia LaBeouf (worst…name…ever) and Megan Fox star. And of course, Peter Cullen reprises his role as the voice of Optimus Prime – a role he’s now played for 25 years.

QUIRKS: Epic robot battle action. Damn this movie has a lot of trivia!

VISUALS: Epic robot battle action.

BAD STUFF: I’m still annoyed at how they changed all the Transformers from the canon. It was really hard to tell who is who at times. In the opening battle, neither of us had any clue as to who was a good guy or a bad guy.

CONCLUSION: After accepting the flaws of how they changed the function and appearance of the Transformers, this movie is quite good. Running at a nice long length of 2.5hrs, there’s more than one challenge to be overcome. There is a LOT LOT LOT of action. As much as you may want to hate Michael Bay, this was pretty damn entertaining. Of course, I am looking through the eyes of nostalgia, which added a star to this movie. Carolyn was not quite as impressed.

RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 5/5 stars (nostalgia bonus!). IMDB: 8/10.
Carolyn: Netflix: 3/5 stars. IMDB: 6/10. Apparently Clint liked this way more. Go transformers!
The native public rating for this movie is Netflix: 4.0/5 stars (3.7/5 stars for people who rate like me), IMDB 6.2/10.

RECOMMENDATION: If you saw the 1st Transformers live-action movie, then you should definitely continue and check this one out.

Mood: annoyed at Windows XP for sucking so much worse than Windows 2000 Advance Server
Music: Nine Inch Nails – Zero-Sum

• MEDICAL: The Pied Piper of Mucus | Popular Science
  Lung flute! Makes your mucous leave your lungs! Available in other countries, but not here, because our FDA is too slow.

  I could really use one of these. I'm over the swine flu sickness, but it's evil still lurks deep within my lungs. /gross

  (tags: medical devices flutes LungFlute lungs mucus PopularScience science news articles fromRyanSomma)
• OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Court Orders Fed to Disclose Emergency Bank Loans — after fighting FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) lawsuit
  Why is this about Obama? Because Obama promised a new era of openness, issuing a statement "to adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure" when responding to FOIA requests. Yet the Board Of Governors Of The Federal Reserve sure as hell do not seem to be adhering to Obama's promise, and you can bet Obama is involved, what with re-appointing Bernanke. He could have put pressure on them, but he didn't, did he?

  A government of, by, and for the people dictates that such a government must be run openly. I wish I wasn't reading DAILY articles about Obama NOT being open. What passed as "shitty business as usual" under the Bush administration has the sting of hypocrisy under the Obama administration.

  After all, Obama just punched a hole in the FOIA last week!

  (tags: politics ObamaAdministration BusinessAsUsual government transparency FOIA freedom information bailout BenBernanke BarackObama lawsuits FederalReserve LorettaPreska legal rulings YourTaxDollarsAtWork AlanGrayson HouseFinancialServicesCommittee DavidSkidmore banks finance economy money corporations Citigroup AIG MatthewWinkler taxes ScottGarrett ReportersCommitteeForFreedomOfThePress freedomOfPress press BloombergLPV.BoardOfGovernorsOfTheFederalReserve NewYorkCity NewYork Bloomberg news articles)

In general, there is some consensus even among a fairly sizable group of veterinarians, which holds that cats’ domestication and breading for the various traits over the centuries have not resulted in any alteration in cats’ nutritional requirements. It is generally believed among biologists that cats’ digestive system has not evolved or adapted in the process of domestication and has not diverged from the digestive system of their wild counterparts. In the process of domestication, they have not become a separate species; they can interbreed with their wild counterparts and produce viable offspring. Looking at a disection of a wild vs. domestic cat’s digestive tract, you would not be able to tell the difference between the two. Cats are not omnivores; they are obligate carnivores, which means that their gut lacks the portion which makes plant matter nutritionally available and beneficial (the part that makes fermentation of the plant matter possible). So some of the carbs pass through their guts undigested (hence the stinky poop) and some, are digested but can actually tax their pancreas since it is not designed to allow for the digestion of high amounts of carbs. People who switch their cats to a grain-free, low-carb diet, note that their litter boxes become virtually unnoticeable smell-wise.

So, this is the follow-up, as promised. I am not trying to “convert” you or anyone, but if you are inclined to do some further reading, it is widely available. Good luck to you and your cats. Natalie

• MEMES: Tenso | Know Your Meme
  Actually… here it is.
  (tags: memes tenso KnowYourMeme)
• MEMES: Tenso generator
  You're just going to have to look it up. I finally gave in.
  (tags: memes generators TENSO)
• CARTOONS/MUSIC: Metalocalypse/Dethklok: Brendon Small’s Metalocalyptic Vision [INTERVIEW]
  Another great interview of Brendon Small, creator of Metalocalypse & Dethklok.
  (tags: media video TV shows cartoons CartoonNetwork AdultSwim Metalocalypse audio bands Dethklok musicians BrendonSmall interviews LAWeekly)
• REPUBLICANS: Rhode Island Governor Carcieri – You’re a Dick — veto'ed bill that would allow domestic partners to make funeral arrangements
  Just ask Ron Hanby what he thinks of Republican assholes like Govenor Carcieri.

  He was in a relationship for 17 yrs, had wills, living wills, power of attorney, and [gay] marriage certificates from Connecticut –but the authorities would not let him get the body cremated as per the wishes OF THE GUY WHO DIED. They would not recognize his documents.

  He had to fight for months just to get his lover buried properly.

  Don't you love how Republicans say that the government should be kept out of peoples' private lives? But then pull shit like this?

  (tags: politics Republicans sexualFreedom domesticPartnership bodies funeralArrangements cremations funerals RhodeIsland Carcieri RonHanby TheLegalSatyricon news articles)
• MEDIA: Synthetic Stone DVD Claimed To Last 1,000 Years
  This is good news. We put too much stock in digital formats; I think more people have lost more data since going digital than was lost in the analog days.
  (tags: media blankMedia blanks DVDs syntheticStone stone 1000Years Slashdot news articles dataStroage data storage backups)

• REPUBLICANS: Alabama legislator seeks to ban state funding of any state university that gives benefits to same-sex couples
  Fuck Alabama: Still pretty much against interracial marriage (40% voted against it … in the year 2000!), it’s no wonder you’re so ass-backward as to be against giving benefits to same-sex partners.And of course it is the Republicans who lead crusades of hate like this, hiding behind “family values” — family values of hate. And of course the Republican governor and gubernatorial candidate both stand behind this hate legislature as well.

  DuWayne Bridges, Bob Riley, and Tim James should all get in a fatal car accident. Preferably with each other. Let’s cross our fingers; the world isn’t going to be better until the haters and discriminators are gone.

  (tags: politics SexualFreedom discrimination gayMarriage marriage benefits Alabama Republicans DuWayneBridges universities UniversityOfAlabama TimJames BobRiley colleges Al.com blog news articles)
• SUBGENIUS: The “Bob” Belt – Google Maps
  A Google Map with the locations of SubGenius members. Kinda surprising that I was already on this :)
  (tags: maps GoogleMaps SubGenius BobBelt)
• WAR ON DRUGS: First U.S. marijuana cafe opens in Portland
  Let’s see how this works out. Obama said no federal raids if they weren’t breaking state law, but that’s actually rather meaningless, as 99% of drug prosecutions occur at the state level anyway, and all a local authority has to do to get feds to raid is claim state law is being broken [even if it's not].This is a good test case. We shall watch this cafe closely and see how things develop.
  (tags: politics WarOnDrugs drugs freedom medical marijuana MedicalMarijuana Oregon cafe CannabisCafe Portland NORML Reuters news articless)
• TV SHOWS: STAR TREK: Never-before-seen ‘Star Trek’ pilot found
  Wow. A THIRD (more or less), “lost” Star Trek pilot? Neat! Look forward to seeing this on bluray.
  (tags: media video TV shows StarTrek pilots lost episodes WilliamShatner WhereNoManHasGoneBefore Thrfeed news articles)
• CENSORSHIP: Idiot Danvers High School Principal Thomas Murry and Assistance Principal Mark Strout can go MEEP themselves.
  Why not send them an email telling them to meep themselves and their mothers?

   

  murry@danvers.org

  strout@danvers.org

  I did. I also told them how inconsequential principals really are in today’s society. Power-hungry asshole principals need to be reminded that they don’t actually have any real power — they’re just tax-paid babysitters.

  (tags: politics censorship students meep ThomasMurray MarkStrout TheLegalSatyricon blog news articles 1stAmendment FirstAmendment ConstitutionalRights rights children DanversHigh DanversHighSchool Massachusetts)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link]

LIMERICK REVIEW: There once was a hero named Superman.
They’re still trying to make as many “Super”-movies as they can.
This one was the blandest–
Tho we still managed to stand it.
It’s only really worth watching if you’re a big fan.

HAIKU REVIEW: Superman franchise:
So many incarnations…
This one was the worst!

PEOPLE: Helen Slater, who went on to play Lara-El in Smallville, as well as tons of guest spots in TV shows, and 10+ crappy 90s movies (only 3 movies in the 2000s). She never did return to being a brunette after that. Faye Dunaway as the annoying “evil witch full of herself” character, and Brenda Vaccaro (Midnight Cowboy) as her lackey/henchwoman. Peter O’Toole and Mia Farrow are in this as well. Marc McClure plays Jimmy Olsen, as he did in the other 4 1980s Superman movies. Peter Cook.

QUIRKS: Bad 1980s special effects. The Phantom Zone. Witchcraft (!!!). Kryptonians who survived Krypton blowing up. Schoolgirls (why?). Monster tractors destroying a town (but not nearly as bad as in The Terminator 3). Lucy Lane instead of Lois Lane.

VISUALS: Really not that good at all. The first 2 Star Trek movies had far better visuals than this movie, and they came out sooner!

BAD STUFF: The movie was kind of slow. Granted we watched the Director’s Cut, but still… The dialog was kind of stilted, the acting very “generic 80s”, and all-in-all this is probably the worst “super” endeavor we’ve ever seen.

CONCLUSION: 3/5 stars on Netflix, 5/10 on IMDB. It was still moderately enjoyable to see Kara/Supergirl in another incarnation, as Carolyn & I are Superman fanboys (me, moreso). But overall the movie is not that great, and kind of long (director’s cut adds 21 minutes, but removes some scenes as well). It only scrapes by with a 5 on IMDB — barely — and a 3 on Netflix — barely — because it’s so “super” (thanks for asking).

RECOMMENDATION: See this only if your intention is to see everything Superman-related, especially from the “Christopher Reeve Era” of the Superman mythos. Reeve was gonna be in it, but bowed out at the last minute, as did Demi Moore (who was going to play Lucy Lane). This could have been better…but it wasn’t.

Mood: digesting delicious Carolyn cooking
Music: Kreator – Lambs To Slaughter

Then he came and picked it up. That’s like 4 hrs of driving or something!

Topics included:

Causality Violation: The Mark I Adjacent Day NoVa Theorem has been violated/disproven.

Phones are easy to forget. Keep them in your pocket.

Mark only watched 2 shows in the 1980s that I didn’t: Gimme A Break!

My So-Called Life is just another system of control that Mark can’t stand, even when it uses music that he likes in it.

Screech’s sex tape was called “Saved By The Smell”.

Carrie Prejean is a stupid bitch.

Mark found random chocolate.

If you got hit by lightning 7 times, you probably wouldn’t _talk_ about it every day, but you probably *would* _think_ about it every day.

Clint: “Your mom was in Phrygian mode last night.”

Clint: “I’m afraid your bleeding heart has seeped into your dreamscape.”

Opeth covering Alice In Chains (Would) sounds pretty much the same, but more atmospheric. “Laurence Of Arabia” -Mark

Mood: full as fuck and ready to party

Music: Nine Inch Nails – March Of The Fuckheads

clumsy best man ruins the wedding:

Jon Lajoie: 2 Girls 1 Cup Song … Amazing:

Jon Lajoie: High As Fuck … it gets better toward the end. Better as in WTF INSANE!:

But my favorite was probably the Slap Chop rap… We have one of these, actually, from Pampered Chef. They’re good products. But remixing an infomercial into a “rap” music video? Pretty damn funny!!:

Show Me Your Gentiles was pretty funny:

…and it reminded me of another classic — I Just Want Bang Bang Bang:

Parthena likes Jesus videos?
1) Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter:

2) Jesus 2000:

Ass-licking Smurfs video — I’d seen this before:

Kermit The Frog covers Hurt by Nine Inch Nails (a classic):

And while on the subject of classics, neither Parthena nor Erin had seen Chocolate Rain!!!

I mean.. there was a whole South Park about this guy! :)


The South Park episode is called Canada On Strike [wiki link].

While I’m here, here’s Obama promising something that never happened… Ran into this on Facebook while posting these other videos:

When Bush sent us to war using false assumptions (chemical weapons, 911 connection), everyone whined that “Bush Lied, People Died”. But Obama promised to send the troops home and didn’t too… So “Obama Lied, People Died” too. Both parties cause innocent people AND American soldiers to be killed.

Mood: awake
Music: Jane’s Addiction – Pigs In Zen (live)

• CATHOLOCISM: DC Archdiocese threatens to discontinue social support for 70,000 people if DC passes anti-discrimination law
  Religion: Making sure discrimination stays. Using DC's poor and homeless as a bargaining chip in their political gain.

  While the 1st Amendment does grant religion the freedom to do what it wants, it does NOT grant institutions the right to discriminate.

  A Catholic church — as an employer — COULD NOT, for example, refuse to employ black people.

  This is no different. Get with the times, Catholics. All religions profess to be about love, but truly are about hate when they use 2000-year-old writings as something to hide behind when blatantly discriminating against people.

  "How dare the government tell Catholic institutions they can't discriminate!" [/sarcasm]

  (tags: politics religion Christianity Christians Catholocism Catholics archdiocese ultimatums WashingtonDC Washington DC discrimination laws legal WashingtonPost news articles)
• CORPORATIONS: Rachel Maddow: Corporations Are "Child Labor-Endorsing, Pro-Slavery Freaks" for Trying to Skirt Trade Laws
  "How will the corporations save themselves from that onerous rule that you can‘t use slaves and prisoners and children to make your products"? Yup. Corporations are complaining about proposed regulations that would make it illegal to deal in products made from forced labor or child labor.

  But wait.. Corporations help our lives so much!!!!! THey can do no wrong!! We should all be happy!! [/sarcasm]

  (tags: politics corporation labor HumanRights rights children inmates forcedLabor RachelMaddow businessGroups specialInterestGroups childLabor sweatshops HeritageFoundation ChldLaborSafetyAct Alternet news articles)

• F2OD4CIO2WEP27RM3Z.pdf (application/pdf Object)
  Count in binary
  (tags: technical)

• VIDEO: Chandra The Woman attacked by Chimp on Oprah 11 11 2009
  Ouch. Her face just looks like potatoes now that she was attacked by her pet chimp. And she doesn't have all her fingers?!

  Disturbing. Advance to the 2-minute point where she takes off her veil. Monkeys are not your friend!

  I love that they used Nine Inch Nails for the audio. Great song choice.

  (tags: media video TV shows Oprah victims animals monkeys chimps attacks attackVictims YouTube videos NineInchNails)
• COMEDY: Windows Vista represented as C++ class
  Operating system / programming / geek humor at its best! Non-programmers should be able to read this and get some of it, too.
  (tags: comedy pictures Haluze computers operatingSystems Microsoft Windows WindowsVista Vista C++ classes class)

I think it’s particularly awesome (and annoying) when you’re watching some action movie that has lots of explosions… And then right after the explosions stop, something near the speaker falls down on the ground (sometimes/preferably smashing into bits). It’s amazing that an explosion can be so faithfully reproduced that it actually hurts real objects in your house, even though the movie isn’t real.

…AWESOME!!!

(I used to knock pictures off the walls of adjacent dorm rooms in Pritchard Hall at Virginia Tech by playing Ministry’s “So What?” as loud as I could… haha)

Mood: your mom.. that’s what

Music: Kreator – Toxic Trance

• COMEDY: VIDEO GAMES VS. DRUGS: Super Mario Bros. – what REALLY happened
  Awesome.
  (tags: media pictures comedy drugs videoGames games Mario MarioBros. SuperMarioBros. mushrooms WhatReallyHappened Mikropikol)
• CARTOONS VS. DRUG CULTURE: Simpsons "Blurst Agin!" parody of R. Crumb's "Stoned Agin"
  Since I own the R. Crumb version, this became an instant fave on Flickr! Very obvious parody!
  (tags: comedy drugs drugCulture StonedAGain STonedAgin Blurst Simpsons TheSimpsons BartSimpson Flickr pictures parodies parody R.Crumb)
• RELIGION: Religion Unequivocally Inspires Murder
  Another good blogpost from my uncle Sean.
  (tags: politics religion violence murders deaths Islam Muslims GeorgeTiller SexualFreedom Jews Judaism Christians Christianity Catholics Catholocism SeanProphet blog posts)
• WIKIPEDIA: List of common misconceptions
  An interesting list!
  (tags: wikipedia lists common misconceptions)

Dogs are not cats, and their teeth are quite different. Dogs have molars, which are meant for chewing and grinding. Cats don’t. Their teeth are meant for cutting and slicing. They don’t “chew” per say, so while meat on a bone may be beneficial for a dog, it would not have the same effect for a cat. More like slice and swallow. Their jaws can’t move side to side.

While studies have shown that dry food does not clean the teeth by “scraping”, some(but not all) studies have also shown that dry food may create tartar(most likely due to reduced moisture). Feel free to do your own research.

Now on to nutrition and the need for water from the diet. The claim is that a “wild” cat in its natural habitat would eat a certain diet. The cats we have today are not “wild” cats. Humans have been domesticating and breeding cats for specific traits for over 7000 years, so the cats we have today can hardly be compared to their wild ancestors from the desert. The domestic house cat is also the only cat species that hunts purely for “fun” and often has no intention of eating it’s prey. Cats have evolved.

As a statistician, you would know that we can only make inferences based on the data we have, and an incomplete or biased data set would skew the results. It would be very interesting to see a study comparing the life expectancy of a modern house cat eating only it’s natural diet(mice, birds, etc …) vs. a cat on a raw diet(i.e chicken, beef…), vs a cat on commercial wet food vs. a cat on commercial dry food.

As you mentioned, millions of cats do well on dry food, and many millions probably don’t. Without the numbers I can’t be swayed one way or the other and listen to the advice of my vet. Every cat and breed is unique.

More food for thought

• Willing to give up blue skies for climate fix? – Climate Change- msnbc.com
  This sounds really scary to me. Like something we shouldn't be messing with…. It seems like a drastic measure to me that might not fix the problem anyway.

  This is the first I've heard of geoengineering. Maybe I just haven't been paying attention until a headline like "give up blue skies for climate fix" catches my eye. I'll have to read up on this and form a more-informed opinion.

  (tags: environment)

• HTC Dream – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This is my new phone.
• (tags: technical)

• Flickr: The Anaglyph (Red-Cyan 3D Pictures) Pool
  3-D flickr group.
  (tags: fun 3-D 3d FlickR)

1. What time did you get up this morning?
Around 11am, but I kinda lazed around in bed snoozing off and on until 1pm

2. How do you like your steak?
Medium

3. What was the last movie you saw?
The Wonder Woman animated movie

4. What is your favorite TV show?
24

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
no clue. I like where I’m at.

6. What did you have for breakfast today?
I skipped breakfast and ate a huge meal at Outback Steakhouse

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
Mexican

8. What foods do you dislike?
ramen noodles. Those things are disgusting.

9. Favorite Place to Eat?
Subway

10. Favorite dressing?
ranch or italian.

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive?
1994 Pontiac Grand Am

12. What are your favorite clothes?
jeans and a shirt

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
someplace warm where the water is blue

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?
1/2 full

15. Where would you want to retire?
haven’t thought that far ahead, but somewhere warm would be nice

16. Favorite time of day?
evening

17. Where were you born?
Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge VA

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?
watching sports is BORING.

19. Who do you think will not tag you back?
N/A

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?
N/A

22. Bird watcher?
not really. I like them being around but I don’t go seek them out.

23. Are you a morning person or a night person?
I’d say night person

24. Do you have any pets?
2 cats that love to wrestle around with each other constantly. So cute!

25. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share?
not much going on right now

26. What did you want to be when you were little?
a pilot

27. What is your best childhood memory?
There are so many – I had a happy childhood.

28. Are you a cat or dog person?
cat… dogs are OK, but I prefer cats

29. Are you married?
yes, happily

30. Always wear your seat belt?
yes

31. Been in a car accident?
I have been rear-ended twice

32. Any pet peeves?
annoying asshole drivers

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings?
olives, bacon, pepperoni, mushrooms

34. Favorite Flower?
peonies

35. Favorite ice cream?
pistachio

36. Favorite fast food restaurant?
subway

37. How many times did you fail your driver’s test?
none

38. From whom did you get your last email?
Parthena

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
I hate shopping

40. Do anything spontaneous lately?
not really

41. Like your job?
yes, for the most part

42. Food you hate?
Isn’t this a repeat? oh, i see the other one was dislike. Well, I hate Ramen noodles… yuck.

43. What was your favorite vacation?
Assateague

44. Last person you went out to dinner with?
Clint’s family for his grandma’s birthday

45. What are you listening to right now?
usually music is playing 24/7

46. What is your favorite color?
purple. The other day, I put on my purple pajama pants, a purple pajama shirt from a different set of pajamas, a purple hoodie, and my purple crocs… Yes, I love purple

47. How many tattoos do you have?
None… I suspect I will have an allergic reaction to the ink anyway.

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz?
0

49. What time did you finish this quiz?
7:51 pm

50. Coffee Drinker?
yes, but decaf only since I’m not supposed to have caffeine (but I have been drinking caffeine more and more recently).

What annoys you the most?
tough call.. all work and no play is what I can come up with at this moment in time.

If you could, where would you go right now?
somewhere warm… I’m not ready for summer to end yet.

Generally speaking, how often do you think about love?
all the time. I love Clint!

Choose an element: earth, wind, air, fire, water
earth (what’s the difference between wind and air?)

Which would you rather have: Ability to fly, to breathe underwater, or to move things with your mind (Telekinesis)?
telekinesis – which includes flying because I’d move myself with my mind

Would you rather not have to sleep or eat and drink?
I love all those things… I like sleeping and dreaming, but I guess I enjoy eating and drinking more.

Do you believe in aliens, UFOs, ghosts, or any other supernatural beings/objects?
I think these things are possible. Space is in infinite thing so there is probably life out there somewhere. I’ve seen a possible ghost, and my sister and aunt have seen unexplained ghosty things.

Choose one: Love or money?
love

Infatuation or inspiration?
inspiration

Day or night?
both, but I’m more likely to be awake during the day.

Imagination or knowledge?
both..

Describe your “perfect” place of living.
I like where I’m at, but somewhere sunny and warm would be nice right about now. Stupid rainy cold day.

Lastly, is destruction a form of creation?
yes, something new comes in its place

So, Clint just did the “When you were 17..” survey, and so I decided to do it also…. then I noticed he linked to his senior year survey, and that reminded me that I had that survey sitting in my drafts since February 19th… So here’s both of them.

When I was 17…

1. My favorite musician was: NoMeansNo

2. My favorite song was: Who the hell knows at this point? We can just say “What Slayde Says” and leave it at that.

3. My favorite subject was: Algebra 2

4. My favorite teacher was: Either Mr. Linz the physics teacher or the Algebra 2 teacher. I think her name was Mrs. Potvin. I can’t remember for sure. But I would write little stupid things all over my papers and she’d write back. One time, the answer was 54, so I wrote, “Car 54, where are you?” next to it, and she wrote back being like, “You’re too young to remember that.” But the only reason I knew about it was from staying up all night watching Nick at Nite, so she had a point.

5. I had a crush on: Clint. I also had some psuedo-boyfriends while we had an open relationship, so I had a crush on a couple of guys before making the move on them.. Muahahaha, Bill The Cat, Ian (who, oddly enough, I can’t remember his bbs handle…. weird, huh?), Bob (same thing. I can’t remember his bbs handle, but he was Wishbringer’s neighbor).

6. Favorite food was: uhh, all food was delicious.

7. My favorite hangout was: Skate City, or hanging out at one of the Fearsome 6’s house.

8. I wished I could be: with Clint
9. My plans for the future were: to get into Virginia Tech so I could be with Clint

10. My favorite TV show was: I didn’t watch that much TV, but I think it was Seinfeld and Mad About You

11. I hated: being away from Clint

12. It was the year: 1993

13. best memory: hanging out with friends

14. Worst memory: I must have blocked it. Probably just being away from Clint in general.

When I was a senior…

1. Did you date someone from your school? Clint

2. Did you marry someone from your high school? Clint
3. Did you car pool to school? I drove my brother to school.

4. What kind of car did you have? I didn’t have my own car, but I drove my mom’s 1990 Mazda Miata, and pretty much considered it mine.

5. What kind of car do you have now? 1994 Pontiac Grand Am

6. Its Friday night. Football games or Party? I only occassionally went to football games my freshman and sophomore years. My junior & senior years, Friday nights were usually spent at Skate City in Manassas…

7. It is Saturday night? Probably hanging around with the Fearsome 6.

8. What kind of job did you have in high school? My junior and senior year, I had a part-time data entry job in the dining services of a retirement home. I got it through the Co-Op program. Best decision I ever made was to say “Yes” when my Information Technology teacher asked if I wanted a job. Leaving school at 1pm my senior year = WIN!

9. What kind of job do you have now? Government Credit Analyst

10. Were you a party animal? Nope. I drank alcohol once my senior year when I visited Clint at college

11. Were you considered a flirt? Nope. I got more flirty after college (same as Clint’s answer, oddly enough)

12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I was in orchestra in middle school

13. Were you a nerd? When I was called a nerd, I resented it. But I guess I was….

14. Did you get suspended or expelled? Never

15. Can you sing the fight song? Nope

16. Who was/were your favorite teacher? Mr. Linz is a good one, but I think I liked the information technology teacher better… How bad is it that I don’t remember her name?

17. Where did you sit during lunch? Bah, I think I sat on the floor in the hallway and ate ho-hos.. Not sure if that was freshman or senior year though. Sophomore year was with Clint, I think. I’d sometimes eat with my friend Tanya if our lunches coincided, but I think I was usually in the different lunch period than her. Grumble.

18. What was your school’s full name? Woodbridge Senior High School

19. When did you graduate? 1994

20. What was your school mascot? Viking
21. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Yes.

22. Did you have fun at Prom? Yes, because I was with Clint. I think I had more fun leading up to the proms and having the flower fiascos than the actual proms themselves.

23. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with? Yes. He is at home sleeping.
24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion? Sure, why not. I did go to my 10-year because Clint insisted that I’d regret it. I did not regret it – that made-to-order pasta was AWESOME!

25. Do you still talk to people from school? Not really, unless you count facebook. I did just add a bunch of old acquaintances to facebook… Oh, wait, AE and of course Clint.