Saturn, not Uranus

Get it, Uranus? Like your-anus! Just a little planetary humor there for you.

There is a picture here of the planet Saturn that is the latest true-color photo of the ringed world. The picture was taken by the Cassini spacecraft as it approaches Saturn.

"The End is very f-ing nigh"

My C++ project is in. My Advanced C Final has been taken. The only things left to do are to tweak my final project for advanced C and take the C++ final. (And the quote that is my title to this entry is from words written in a church from the movie "28 Days Later".)

A word of advice: Do not take two programming languages at the same time while working fulltime. You just have to go through so much code. So much code...Did you I know I dreamed of code. Just millions of lines of code streaming across my dreams. Weird, huh?

After graduation, I think I'll write a novel. After Hotchpotch has been squared away and I take the A+ certification exam. And fix the shutter on the house and the plumbing in the master bedroom's bathroom and I clean out and organize the garage. Oh, and add a new hard drive to my PC so I can run Linux and Windows. And I think that's it, but I have to ask my wife, because I am sure I have forgotten something and she will have remembered . . . remembered . . . that I have to put up those new curtains in the livingroom (can you hear me snapping my fingers in revelation). Damn!

Hotchpotch update

I've received word form Sten that the publisher, Paquet Editions, has set a timetable for us to produce a finished book for an end of the year release. I have been given coordinator duties, which include chronological character appearances descriptions and some more editing of panels to fit into 7 to 10 panel framework. I'm hoping to keep one page that has 12 panels the way it is for storytelling and pacing reasons, but we'll see.

Money Trail

Always follow the money.

Microsoft may be indirectly throwing money into SCO through an investment company that has very loose affiliations with Microsoft. Shortly after these investments, SCO claimed ownership of the UNIX operating system and is currently engaged in billion-dollar lawsuits against IBM, Linux, and several other corporations.

Who stands to gain the most from these lawsuits? Is it Microsoft? Or is it SCO? And what effect will these lawsuits have on the open-source contenders to the operating system crown that is currently worn by Microsoft's Windows OS?

"Because we can, bitch!" Or "Orwell was off by a few years"

Remember in the beginning of The Godfather when Enzo the baker goes to Don Corleone to ask for revenge for his daughter's rape at the hands of two rich American boys? Enzo says, "I believe in America." A sentence that every American should be saying to themselves, especially now, when people in power are taking things from us without our permission. First it was an election, now it's our freedom - It's what that big green lady in New York's harbor stands for.

And my point is that the government is asking tech companies to make their consumer products easier for the feds to listen in on and gather information. And the final insult is that they want the extra costs of this enterprise to be passed on to the consumer.

Nervous doggies

Dogs that are nervous and neurotic can be calmed by using a pheromone that reminds them of when they were a puppy. This pheromone is available in France, where almost everyone has a dog (Do the French make their dogs nervous? Am I making mine?). I hope this comes out here, because my dog Sally is one nervous bitch and I read somewhere that nervous dogs, like people, don't live as long as calm, cool, collected dogs.

Jack on the other hand could use the occasional upper or espresso. Jack just likes to chillllll. And lick what used to be his balls.

Steam Boy

Boing Boing posted this piece about a new Anime movie coming out soon called Steam Boy. It is from the creator of Akira, which has been burned into my brain since I first watched it in 1990. Check out the Boing Boing piece and take a look at the preview for Steam Boy.

The Science of Mind Control

Mind altering drugs and beams of hypersonic sound are just a few of the ways of "hijacking" a person's mind or consciousness. The Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics in California is keeping an eye on the technology and its implementation by the medical community and the government, just in case somebody wants to use these tools in an unscrupulous manner.

You can forget your days of lobotomies, electroshock therapy, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Chief - It's a brave new world.

Now say in your best Agent Smith voice, "Good-bye Mr. Anderson."

Dog Executioner

Bastard Florida Grey Hound racing owners decided to cut costs by taking their old greyhounds to an Alabama farmer who would "dispose" of the aging animals for half the money it would cost a vet to do the job. I guess .22 caliber bullets are cheap, because that's what this sadistic-prick farmer would use to euthanize the dogs.

Wrong. So very, very wrong.

NASA's thermometer shows a fever

NASA has been reading the planet's temperature for years now and the evidence is pointing to a global warming trend (as if we did not know, but our government firmly states that there is no conclusive proof supporting this claim).

Einstein, dimples in space, and a probing

The recent launch of the gravity probe will be used to test certain ideas about gravity and its affect on time and space.

If you like your science quantumly strange, check out this article. Also included in the article are some cool diagrams of the probe that you come to expect from Popular Science magazine.

Alan Parson's Project or France's new laser

France is now using a laserbeam at one of its airports to keep birds from crashing into planes.

"Why don't you and the frikkin' laser get a frikkin' room!" - Dr. Evil

Tooth you, you toothing toother

After we discovered a way to make pictures move, one of the first movies made was a pornographic one. Whenever we are presented with new technology, it seems that we immediately find a way to use it to satisfy our baser and sometimes more exciting natures. Hence the new toothing craze. All I will tell you about toothing is that it involves sex and wireless Bluetooth technology. Think of it as a high-tech Red Shoe Diaries - type encounter. Now cue the heavy saxophone-laden music and connect.

An Interview

Here's a link to an interview I did for the upcoming Hotchpotch graphic novel. I wasn't aware that it was up yet, but Jacqui's friend at work, Rand, found this on the Stenarts sight (thanks Rand).

Kill Bill Volume 1

So I rented Kill Bill Volume 1 on Friday night because I could use some entertainment and I had this neato 99 cent coupon that I received in my email from Blockbuster. So I rented the movie and decided to also buy Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which some stupid schmuck traded into said store for a new movie.

Idiot! Don't you know what gold you gave away for some crap like the 2Fast 2Furious! It's mine, all mine. I also picked up Pirates of the Caribbean:COTBP because I have not seen it since it was in the theaters last summer and also because the deal was buy two previously-viewed movies for $20.

But back to Kill Bill Vol 1. I have to say that Mr. Taratino impressed me. Loved the story, loved the Manga scene, loved the fights, and laughed hilariously at the gallons of blood spewing out of peoples bodies! Holy crap! It was like an Evil Dead or Mony Python flick! Just all of this red, red blood shooting out of people's wounds. But really, the story was great, as well as the movie.

I am warning you about the blood. Jacqui couldn't handle it and left the room for a scene or two.

Spyware is evil and must be destroyed

I hate spyware. At my job, I am constantly fighting the installation of spyware on our company's PCs. It's a pain in the butt because these damn programs run in the background and take away from your processor speed, making your PC run slower than it should. And in my company, which is using Windows 95 (ahh, 20th century tech), the smaller processors on our systems can't take the load and freeze-up.

And that is why I hate, hate, hate spyware.

Have you ever seen the Smoky Mountains?

I've been to Gatlinburg, Tennessee and seen the Smoky Mountains. They were beautiful in their lush, green covered sides with the mists surrounding them. You don't realize what clean, fresh air really is until you breathe in a deep breath of the real thing. And that is what you get, or used to get when you went to Gatlinburg - crisp mountain air. The first time I had ever seen mountains was when I visited Gatlinburg in the early 1980s and I remember thinking that this is what we mean when we sing the song "America the Beautiful," which has always meant a little more to me than "The Star Spangled Banner". There is something truly poetic about the former, and not the latter song that reminds me of what a beautiful country this use to be and maybe could be again.

And now thanks to our own national avarice and the present administrations ignoring of the global warming conditions and its rendering of the EPA into an impotent agency, we just might be kissing the Smoky Mountains goodbye.

The shape of the universe

Our universe may be shaped like a horn. And if it is shaped like a cone or horn, it is named after my favorite Enterprise captain: Picard. If this is true, that means our reality is not only finite, but hollow throughout the middle.

Also, keep in mind the relationships between conic sections and ellipses, which maybe connected to gravities elliptical effect on the orbits of planets and other stellar objects. This also brings to mind most aboriginal art relating to power, creativity, and the world as being represented in spirals. And remember that Fibonacci numbers are connected to spirals also.

I don't know what it all means, but there is definitely a pattern to all of these shapes that make up very important pieces of nature and reality. Weird.

Timeline, time travel, and 24

I watched Timeline last night because I could not stand to watch Bush fumble through questions like a five year-old attempting to explain quantum physics and spit rhetoric back up to the press (count how many times he used the word "tyrrany" and "freedom" in last night's speech). And for this I missed 24? Timeline was pretty cool, by the by, but read the book, it is awesome!

And speaking of time travel, why am I suddenly living in the early-to-mid seventies again?

We're clubbing seals in mass quantities, gas prices are through the roof, Israel is getting its war on, we are occupying and losing a country that does not want us there, and we have a cheating-lying-bully in the White House. So who the hell set my time machine for 1974, huh?

Blame Canada or Get Your Seal Clubs Ready

I guess Canada is full of bastard politicians that like lobbyists money, too. The Canadian government, without any scientific data to back-up their actions, has ordered the culling of nearly a million seals in order to improve the Atlantic cod population. And as in most crimes, if you follow the money, you can find out who is behind the atrocity. In this case, it is the seal pelt industry who will gain the most from this, not fisherman.

Burger King gets weird

My friend sent me this link a few days ago (thanks Mark) and I finally got around to making the chicken do things for me. Then today, I saw this article from Wired.com about the subservient chicken web-cam and now I feel even dirtier about telling the chicken what to do. Now I think a need bath.

You won't tell my wife about this, will you?

Thunderbirds are go!!!

It's the Thunderbirds live-action movie! Wooohooo!

Proof that sororities and fraternities are evil

As if we didn't know that these groups bent on bending all those within their grasp into conforming with the will of the people in charge were evil, we have proof of it in the news. Seems those really nice, upstanding girls at Gamma Phi Beta have shown the dirty underbelly of their sorority as they threatened members to lie about health questions when giving blood. Which sort of defeats the purpose of giving blood, but definitely assists them in wining their blood drive contest.

God, I hate fucking sororities. And fraternities. I have never met more conniving, backstabbing people in my life who are willing to swear brotherhood/sisterhood as they talk trash or steal their own brothers/sisters significant others when they think no one is looking. They are all roving groups of rabid beasts that should be put down for the betterment of all mankind. Hell, they make Cujo look like a Maltese.

Minority Report - Welcome to the database tracking world

Several airlines have lied about the profiling of passengers and have been passing their database information about you to government contractors. But don't lose site of the fact that these companies have, at some point, lied to us and the government who oversees this kind of information handling.

Aren't big corporations fun? About as much fun as riding coach on a Trans-Atlantic flight in a middle seat behind a screaming three year-old. Ah, how I miss that bloody experience.

Plants may be sentient (sort of)

A new study shows that plants may be able to communicate and, in a plant biological way, ask for help when threatened. This makes that whole "circle of life thing" a lot more complicated and easier to digest. It also complicates the studies for biologists and enforces the theories behind complex systems research.

Wow, I think the little pseudo-scientist-geek in me just felt a chill.

Dogs get arthritis help from Canadian elk

Now dogs that have arthritis will be able to combat their pain and discomfort by being administered ground-up elk antler.

Lie to us some more

The Bush administration was yesterday striving to play down the political impact of a secret document it was forced to release warning the president, weeks before the September 11 attacks, about "patterns of suspicious activity" in the US "consistent with preparations for hijackings". - from the Guardian Unlimited

If you don't like it, don't listen to it

The thought-police are at it again, trying to tell everyone what is decent and indecent and what we are allowed to watch and listen to.

They do this becasue we are little, uneducated children posing as adults who can't make a decision for ourselves. And the scary thing is that seems to be exactly what we are, becasue we are letting them do this to us. Now excuse me, I have to go feed at the trough with my other bovine friends.

"There is no Easter Bunny..."

This is the funniest thing! These crazy church actor-flakes tried to put on an edutainment special about Christ's suffering, ala The Passion, using the Easter Bunny as a Christ-figure. So these morons beat the crap out of the Easter Bunny, just like the Romans did to Christ, while trying to teach kids that Jesus matters, not the Easter Bunny!

So remember kids, the Easter Bunny died for your sins.

"I just love the smell of incense in the morning. It smells like...victory." - George W Bush as a purple chicken Peep, talking to Jim Caveziel as the Easter Bunny in Mel Gibson's The Passion of Apocalypse Now.

Sterling draws attention to the Earth

Bruce Sterling, an excellent speculative fiction writer, has another great article on Wired that discusses all of the strange discoveries we have made about our planet, Earth. But like most humans, we are looking elsewhere for answers to questions we probably shouldn't even be asking. Check out the article.

Author's Lost Plane Identified

Antoine de Saint-Exupery's lost plane has been found in the Mediterranean over 50 year's after the author went missing.

I love this book. When I was a kid, I wanted to be The Little Prince. When I was little, the movie was playing at Radio City Music Hall and my parents took me to see it. After the shoe, they had those little plastic swords for sale in the lobby and my parents bought one for me. For a very long time, that sword was my prized possession. Then I discovered Legos, but that's another story.

The toughest person in Mexico

This woman, who in labor, delivered her own child by administering a c-section to herself is the toughest person in Mexico.

Holy shit.

spring

Spring is here and it is time for Judeo-Christian resurrections and messiah bunnies carrying cold, colored hard-boiled eggs. Spring is here and it is time for a change and a rebirth, my own personal resurrection as it is, will be forever and ever, amen.

And what's to change, you ask? For starters, attitude. I am going to be the meaner, leaner, more focused Adrian. I have no choice, with a constant stream of out-of-town visitors, weddings, and two giant coding projects and finals all coming to a mushroom cloud head by the end of May, I have to be at the top of my game.

"April is the cruelest month," but its showers and hard work will bring May flowers and good grades and a degree. And then I start taking care of business, meaning I start looking for a job that pays what I am worth or I ask for the money I am worth, or both. Mercenary Adrian goes to the highest bidder because I am 33 and angry and have wasted much of my youth and am behind on where I need to be. And sure, I have been stressing myself out, but I have no choice. I am just going to have to take these bad dreams and sleepless nights in stride. Never mind that I want to scream at the top of my lungs right now, giving voice to all of my frustration and anger. Never mind that I feel like I am trying to knock down a brick wall by slamming my shoulder into it over an over again.

Hell, never mind this post.

Arrrrrrrr. Back to work.

Spotless Mind

We went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind over the weekend and it was very weird and cool. I love this low-tech approach to sci-fi and speculative fiction the director and Kaufman applied to this story. It makes the characters seem to matter more than they usually do and amps up the reality of all of the strangeness invading these people's lives.

Focus Features, the people who brought you Lost in Translation, look like they have taken the inventive-solid-story-telling crown from Miramax and are consistently producing very thought provoking cinema.

If you like indie movies and speculative fiction, check it out.

Intuitive or intrusive?

Google's new email will be able to scan your email texts for keywords and match advertising to your personal messages. Will you be able to resist the one gigabyte of space that Google is providing you to sign up for free email? And just how intrusive does an application have to be to be intuitive? I, myself, am not a big fan of ultra-intuitive software. Case and point; the annoying intuitive tendencies of Windows XP to try and predict what you want to do while in Word or what program you would like to use to perform a certain task.

Greedy bastards screwing over their own country

Merck pharmaceutical company has decided to cut thousands of jobs in the US, while hiring thousands more in other countries. The same country that allowed Merck to become a pharmaceutical giant is now being screwed because their greedy little drug hands want to widen their profit margin and better other country's economies while our's suffers even more.

Merck can bite me!