Rainy Wednesday

That describes the condition outside.

Just rain.

And lots of it.

And PA will still turn around and tell everyone that we are in a drought.

They do it every year.

It’s like tradition now or something.

Gmail Turns 5

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As a Gmail user, I congratulate Google on coming up with an email system that doesn’t suck.

See the whole press release here.

Five years ago yesterday, Gmail starting giving people a gig. What started as an internal tool for Google employees is now used by tens of millions of people around the world in 52 languages.

In honor of the occasion, you may have noticed a little cake on the Gmail homepage today.

My iPod Thingie is Gone

For my first post of April, I submit the following.

I have lost the iPod (currently reading) widget sidebar thing.

It asked me to update, so I did and then it went away.

WTF?

BSG: Daybreak, Part 3

I had no idea there would be or was a part 3.

My bad.

All that bad stuff I’ve been saying about Ron Moore…

…I take it back.

Part 3 answered questions and was a brilliant ending to the series.

Yeah, I said it.

BSG: Daybreak, Part 2

Stupid. Only makes sense if you smoke a lot of pot.

Closure? Ah, none.

That can’t be the very last episode can it?

Humans: Give us Hera back.

Cylons: Give us resurrection back.

Humans: Deal.

Cylons: Deal.

The end.

The Curious Case of…

…common sense.

I’ve been saying for as long as I can remember that removing essential foods from our diet is more likely to have a negative impact than the positive impact the industry who makes fake butter (for instance) is hoping to achieve.

We remove butter from our diet because we think it’s bad for us without ever realizing that butter contains a basic component that we require to live a healthy life. With that being said, I give you the “cure” for peanut allergies.

What’s the cure? You ask.

Peanuts. Imagine that.

The new therapy works similarly to allergy shots, which haven’t proved safe against food allergies. Exposure to increasing amounts of peanut flour gradually builds up tolerance. Blood tests show that the immune system begins to ignore the peanut flour instead of attacking it.

Thank you Captain Obvious.

BSG: Daybreak, Part 1

Getting down to the last Battlestar Galactica episode has become a painful television experience.

Daybreak isn’t a bad episode at all. I really enjoyed the Caprica flashback that showed Laura Roslin’s family tragedy and find myself wondering if there will be any relevance in the end.

The last episode will be shown this week and in all honesty, I may just completely forget to watch it.

I find myself wondering what Starbuck is. I guess the two questions that will need to be answered are the Starbuck thing and what Hera means to all of this. Does Starbuck’s song have anything to do with the ending or what she is? Ok, that’s a third question.

This show had real promise in the beginning even with flipping the sex of two characters and changing the race of another. Baltar was not the Baltar he was in the original series and this showing makes you almost feel sorry for him.

Colonel Tigh used to be black, dependable as all get out, and a straight shooter not a white alcoholic who later finds out that he’s a Cylon married to another Cylon.

Was it symbolic to bring Richard Hatch into the series only to shoot him as a traitor a few episodes back? Wow.

Liberalism is a very dark place. A very liberal type penned this inclination of a great story and drove the concepts, characters, and storyline into the ground while making you feel so bad about yourself at the same time.

The only reason that I would ever give Ronald Moore another franchise to work with would be if my intention was well, to kill it.

“Gimme a f*cking break”

Funny stuff.

via the Examiner

Vice President Joe Biden was caught saying the dreaded f-word on a “hot mic” on Friday, speaking to a former Senate colleague who called him “Mr. Vice President.” Biden is heard to say “gimme a f*cking break.”

If you click on the link above, you can hear an audio clip of what he said. Sounds like Mark Levin found it.

In The iPod

You may have noticed that what I’m reading in the sidebar hasn’t really changed.

That’s because it’s taking me FOREVER to get through Hyperion.

I don’t know if I’m just growing tired of it.

I’m not sure if I’m just subconsciously dismissing everything else until David Weber’s next book comes out.

He wrote it a while ago and the bastard is making me wait.

I mean that in a good way David. 🙂

Battlestar Update #672

It hasn’t gotten any better.

If it gets any darker, we’ll have to slit our wrists.

There must be a Hollywood contest going on. The first person to take a happy and positive franchise and run it into the ground wins.

Ronald D. Moore is well in the lead.

For my Aunt

Prayers are needed. She lost her job. I’m not sure when this happened but my parents just informed me of it.

Please keep those prayers coming.

We all need them.

Clarification on Stem Cell Research

Stem cell research has never been banned by anyone.

The government won’t FULLY fund embryonic stem cell research which so far has produced nothing.

The government under Bush decided not to fully fund the research but not fully funding research isn’t banning the research. The government just isn’t paying for all of it.

I’ll say it again. Just because the government (our tax dollars) aren’t funding all stem cell research doesn’t equate to anyone banning it.

To say that it’s been banned by anyone is a complete and total lie.

There has been no court ruling and congress hasn’t passed a law against stem cell research.

Stop freaking lying about it.

For anyone who may be confused about the differences between Adult Stem Cell Research and Embryonic Stem Cell Research, I offer this video. Spend the 12 minutes and you’ll learn a great deal.

Jill, you can have your soap box back now.

Me The Ex and The Daughter

Just an old picture that I came across this morning. Probably one of the last pictures that Tina, Kayla, and I were ever in together.

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and no. I don’t think I was even 20 years old yet!

The FDA May Oversee Tobacco

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Former Presidents have dodged this issue because it was such a hot potato. At least, it was until now.

from Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration would gain new power to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products under legislation passed by a U.S. House of Representatives panel on Wednesday.

The proposal, which passed 39 to 13 but must still win approval by the full House and Senate, would authorize the FDA to oversee the controversial, multibillion-dollar tobacco industry, including its advertisements and product designs. The FDA already oversees drugs, devices, most foods, cosmetics and animal drugs.

If the term “government intrusion” doesn’t hold any meaning for you now.

It never will.

Moving Day and a Prayer

Today we move into the new house.

Not so big of a deal.

Today, my father is still in the hospital recovering from his heart bypass surgery and he’s still in a lot of pain.

Much bigger deal.

Please include him in your prayers.

Thanks.

Dirk Benedict and Me

Dirk Benedict Galactica Starbuck.jpg

Agree that Battlestar Galactica (the new one) is a big pile of crap.

I just read something he posted in 2004 before the show went on the air. His article in it’s entirety is definitely worth reading. This was before the new show even came out. We got the wild rumours that Starbuck was going to be a girl? Boomer wasn’t a black Viper pilot but now a female Asian?

Here’s part of what Dirk said…

For you see, TV Shows (and movies) are made and sold according to the
same business formula as hamburger franchises. So that it matters not
if the `best’ hamburger, what matters is that you `think’ it is the
best. And you do think it’s the best, because you have been told to;
because all of your favourite celebrities are seen munching it on TV.
The big money is not spent on making the hamburger or the television
show, but on the marketing of the hamburger/show. (One 60-second
commercial can cost more than it does to film a one-hour episode.) It
matters not to Suits if it is Starbuck or Stardoe, if the Cylons are
robots or lingerie models, if the show is full of optimism and
morality or pessimism and amorality. What matters is that it is
marketed well, so that all you people out there in TV land know that
you must see this show. And after you see it, you are told that you
should like it. That it is new and bold and sleek and sexy and best
of all… it is Re-imagined!

So grab a Coke from the fridge (not the Classic Coke, but the re-
imagined kind with fewer calories) and send out for a McDonald’s
Hamburger (the re-imagined one with fewer carbs) and tune in to
Stardoe and Cylon #6 (or was it #69?) and Enjoy The Show.

And if you don’t enjoy the show, or the hamburger and coke, it’s not
the fault of those re-imaginative technocrats that brought them to
you. It is your fault. You and your individual instincts, tastes,
judgement. Your refusal to let go of the memory of the show that once
was. You just don’t know what is good for you. But stay tuned. After
another 13 episodes (and millions of dollar of marketing), you will
see the light. You, your instincts, your judgement, are wrong.
McDonald’s is the best hamburger on the planet, Coca-Cola the best
drink. Stardoe is the best Viper Pilot in the Galaxy. And Battlestar
Galactica, contrary to what your memory tells you, never existed
before the Re-imagination of 2003.

I disagree. But perhaps, you had to be there.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The Problem with America…

…stems from the results of this poll on ZD Net.

It seems that Microsoft mis-calculated their severance packages for those folks that they’ve let go last week. Microsoft wants their money back.

At the end of the article, ZD Net ran a poll about what you, the reader, would do if you were a Microsoft employee and were overpaid.

Microsoft.png

Most of the people who responded said that they would keep the money and just let Microsoft sue them for it.

Clearly. The wrong answer.

Thus, the problem with America.