Archive for January 2008


Interesting quote on Evil.

January 30th, 2008 — 10:50am

“The simple fact is that non-violent means do not work against Evil. Gandhi’s non-violent resistance against the British occupiers had some effect because Britain was wrong, but not Evil. The same is true of the success of non-violent civil rights resistance against de jure racism. Most people, including those in power, knew that what was being done was wrong. But Evil is an entirely different beast. Gandhi would have gone to the ovens had he attempted non-violent resistance against the Nazis. When one encounters Evil, the only solution is violence, actual or threatened. That’s all Evil understands.”

– Robert Bruce Thompson
(HT: Overcoming Bias)

I thought this was interesting. At first glance, I agreed with it. However, the big danger I see to viewing violence as the only solution to Evil, is it simplifies complex situations into a simple formula. If a thing or person is Evil, actual or threatened violence is the solution, and that is that. The thinking stops once you put it in that context. Also, this makes it an Us vs. Them mentality, and the ‘Them’ in question will only respond to violence. I could see ‘Us’ forgiving some heinous actions towards ‘Them’, since they ARE Evil, and we ALL know they only respond to violence.

I could see that operating off of this philosophy might eventually just reduce to a “Are they/it evil? If so, violence.” thought process, and once we catalogue something/someone as Evil, there is no other option but violence.

It seems too simple a thesis to operate from for such a big concept as Evil.

Comment » | editorial

The quest for Exitorn; or things I found while looking for something else.

January 21st, 2008 — 2:55pm

Yesterday (1.20.08) I went up to my parents house for the afternoon, and of course some home-cooked dinner. After a lovely meal consisting of salad, Soy Chicken patties and macaroni and cheese, I was talking to my parents about a book series I remembered.

It was the ‘Exitorn adventures’ by Peggy Downing, and the first fantasy series I’d ever read. It was a six book series, and I’d read the whole thing at least twice by the time I was ten. The heroes in the books, Brill and Segra, were very well fleshed out, and had good morals to glean from. The more I’d been thinking about them, the more I realized how much inspiration I’d drawn from that series. The world Exitorn never lost its fairy-tale feel for me. Sometimes, fantasy stories, the longer you read them, become not quite so ‘Long ago and Far Away’ feeling, but these never did.

The biggest component of the series that impacted me, however, was the authors use of gemstones. Many times in the series, they’d use gems from the dress of a princess, or a chest of diamonds they’d find to pay for their stay at the inn, or even to fund a private army. You’d read about Segra pulling a square emerald from a small pouch of gems, and handing it to the shop owner, who would stare in wonder. I don’t know why that connected with me as much as it did, but ever since I’ve always been fascinated with gemstones in literature. The way magic works in my fantasy stories is based on a gemstone system, and many other story ideas have ‘gems of power’ or some such thing. Can’t get enough of them. :)

I was pretty sure I’d kept the book series. I wanted to get them out and read them again (for the first time in 15 years or so) to see if it was something amazing the author did to make the stories seem so alive to me, or if it was just my imagination making up the difference.

My Mom, being the helpful lady she is, went down in the garage with me, and we spent 40 minutes going through our book boxes, trying to locate the series. I found several boxes that I thought contained them, but it was to no avail. Sadly, I didn’t find them. There are some other places I can look however, and next week I’m going up again to search some more. I have to find them; ordering them is pretty much out of the question. I’d have to order from like 6 different used bookstores around the country to get them. Still, if I can’t locate them anywhere else, that might become an option. This six book series is one of the things I would be ok with hauling around in my travels. It’s earned the right.

Still, the 40 minutes of digging wasn’t a total loss. I found an old copy of ‘The Seven-Per-Cent Solution’, a followup to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ adventures. I have been meaning to get it from the library; I forgot we had a copy.

I also found my old army jacket! (M65 Field Jacket) Well, it’s actually my Dad’s, but he gave it to me when I was sixteen. Problem was, I worked at a computer store and got husky enough that it didn’t fit me for a while. Well, I’m happy to say it fits again, and once my Mom washes it for me (She offered!) then I’ll be wearing that around.

The jacket has a long history. It was bought for my Dad by his friend in the Army, back in ’76 from the Annex. So it’s over thirty years old. Is it frayed in areas? Yes, and that makes it more special.

Among the items I found was a small notebook that was my ‘Private Journal for 1998′. I barely did ten entries before I burned out, but it was still very interesting. Reading an entry from January 15th 1998, almost exactly ten years ago, was a neat experience. I think if I ever have a kid, I’ll force the little bugger to make a log entry somewhere once a month at least.

Anyway, I didn’t find what I was looking for, but found some neat things regardless. Hopefully this weekend I will be reunited with the books from my past.

2 comments » | Random

From io9 to Datura experiences.. the internet is magical.

January 18th, 2008 — 3:56pm

I had one of those wake-up moments on the internets just now. One of those, ‘how the heck did I end up reading personal stories on trips while taking Datura??!?’ moments. I retraced my steps, and came up with this.

io9 article ‘It Came From The Red States’ (Which is incidently a really cool news/blog site to subscribe to.)

to

Wikipedia article on The Stuff

to

Wikipedia article on Zombies

to

Wikipedia article on Clairvius Narcisse

to

Random site on Zombie lore, Narcisse

to

Wikipedia article on Datura

to

Ingestion of Datura reports

Crazy stuff, Datura.

Comment » | Random

Learn from me. Set up your RAID before you do anything else.

January 17th, 2008 — 10:14am

I’ve spent 2 days working on fixing my web server RAID here at work. Here is what my SATA RAID fiasco was all about.

When I bought the web server from Steve, he made it sound like the RAID 1 was already set up. So I installed Windows SBS 2003, configured the MySQL, PHP, IIS, ODBC.. Days of work. Then I noticed I could see the other blank drive in Computer Management. I went into the BIOS, and saw the SATA as RAID option was Disabled. I figured, no problem, when I have a couple hours to spare, I’ll setup the RAID and mirror the drive over.

A two years later I figure I REALLY should get on this. :)

Come to find out, you cannot use a drive with an OS installed to use as the ‘master to clone from’ in an array. It will blue screen, because the drive is booting from an unknown controller card.. After much reading, and two 4hr rabbit trails, I figured it out.

-Clone the SATA drive with the good OS install to an IDE drive.

-Unhook the good SATA drive, and put in another blank, so now there are two blank drives in the RAID.

-Enable the RAID card, and boot to the IDE drive.

-Let Windows 2003 Server detect the card, and install the drivers for it.

-Ghost the image of the good OS install from the IDE drive to the blank RAID 1.

-If it boots to Windows 2003 just fine off the RAID, then you’re almost there.

-Break the mirror, and install the original SATA good OS install drive back in there, and unhook your temp drive. Rebuild the RAID 1, writing overtop the good SATA drive.

-Now your original SATA drives are in there for the RAID, with the OS knowing about the RAID controller, and boots fine.

It was a pain. Lesson learned, ALWAYS check to be sure the RAID is set up.

Comment » | Random

Recap January 7 to 14

January 14th, 2008 — 9:55am

I had a brain flash this weekend. I think I’m going to write up a recap of my week, every week. Besides just keeping a simple log of what happened, there will be some accountability here. Now, when I say I want to do something, I’ll have that added peer pressure of having everyone know I didn’t do what I wanted to. It’s a good thing, I tend to be a little lazy. So, without further adieu..

January 7-14 recap.

Monday: Went to work. That night took a 45 min jog, then read some of ‘The Professor and the Madman’. Watched two eps of ‘Bleach’.

Tuesday: Went to work. Finished reading ‘The Professor and the Madman’, read some of ‘Ivanhoe’. Watched two eps of ‘Lucky Star’.

Wednesday: Went to work. Left early to pick up UPS for Moe’s computer at work. Stopped in Dropzone Computers to pick it up, shot the breeze with Steve for a while. Got my first haircut in 9 months on the way home, which actually turned out ok. Watched some ‘Bleach’, ‘Lucky Star’ and another show I can’t remember the name of. It is pretty good though, a 14 ep show. Oh, also went for a 45 min run.

Thursday: Went to work. On my lunch break, tried out a free MMORPG called Dofus. Silly name, but it was pretty fun. Came home, ran for 45 min. Watched more ‘Lucky Star’, ‘Bleach’, and that other new anime; will get the name when I arrive home today.

Friday: Went to work. For lunch, went with my Dad to El Puerto, which is my favorite place near work. That night, Burton wanted me to come over, but I didn’t feel like being social so I stayed home and watched 6 episodes of ‘The Wire’ Season 1. It’s based off the book ‘Homicide’ by David Simon. It’s about the Baltimore City Homicide division. The first season focuses on one particular case. It’s pretty good I think. Stayed up till 00:30, ooh!

Saturday: Got up around 8, showered and headed to the local Quest Diagnostics place. The Doc wanted me to get some bloodwork done, since I haven’t gotten anything checked for 5+ years. There was no wait; the lady took 4 vials of my most precious blood. I asked for it back when they were done, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Got to urinate in a plastic cup which is always interesting.

Around 11 I went over to Gregs house. We planned on watching football all day, which we did. Burton, Eric and Mark hung out too. Ate pizza ALL day, which was yummy. Had a couple beers, but kept things very much low key. Later that night, we walked over to ‘Vent’, this restaurant place. Hung out there for a while. I was feeling a little rotten from the pizza I’d eaten right before I left. I think it was the fact it was a sausage and pepperoni pizza, and I haven’t had that kind of fatty meat in forever. My body didn’t know what to do. Went back to Gregs place, we made some food. I decided to just sleep there; turned in around 01:00. Woke up at 03:00 to their doorbell going nuts. I thought it might be Amanda, one of the roommates who had went downtown that night. Still, didn’t she have a key? The neighborhood isn’t the best; they’ve had weird people doing that every now and then, so I was apprehensive. Then she started shouting in that she forgot her key, so I let her in. If I hadn’t been there, she’d still be outside hah.

Sunday: Woke up in the spare room in Gregs place around 9. Went home, showered, had some yummy bagels. Spent the afternoon watching the rest of Season 1 of ‘The Wire’. Around 16:00 went up to my parents house, hung out there, had some Costco pizza (yay pizza weekend!). Went home, turned in early because WORK started the next day.

Summary: Not a bad week. I had lots of plans to go through my books, etc which I didn’t end up doing. I will do it this week though.

To Do: Finish composing my ‘Greenish Expanse’ tracker. Finish ‘Ivanhoe’. Move all my CDs (Music & PC Games)to my two big binders. Clean room.

1 comment » | recap

Protect what is truly important.

January 3rd, 2008 — 2:18pm

I have a head cold, consisting of a runny nose, headache, and cough. This makes this announcement more meaningful.

This is an important announcement to anyone who uses Alka-Seltzer. Although the fizzing sound of the tablets dissolving is quite soothing in itself, that doesn’t mean you should become lax in noticing your surroundings.

You might find yourself walking out of your lunch room at work, a glass full of happily-fizzing Alka-Seltzer in one hand, a sandwich on a plate in the other. You are half an hour overdue in taking it, so you are really looking forward to the relief Alka-Seltzer will bring you. As you walk out, you focus keeps drifting to the euphoric sounds from your glass.

You turn a corner, your gaze still captivated by the upward rushing healing bubbles that is Alka-Seltzer, instead of what could be around the corner. Suddenly, a large object looms in your peripheral vision, on a direct collision course. Conscious thought is put on the back burner as pure animal instinct kicks in. Protect this bubbling glass of magical elixir at all costs.

Your non important arm will reach up, reflexively to intercept any sort of harm that might be incoming towards this chalice of healing. The fact that the monster in your view is really a co-worker, or that the ‘non important’ arm is holding your sandwich really holds no meaning in this moment. Your sandwich will be slingshot across the hall before gracefully setting down on the carpet.

There will be confusion and shock at first. This is normal. Remember two things.

1) Your fizzing tincture of Alka-Seltzer is safe, meaning relief from your maddening symptoms will soon be at hand.

2) The three-second rule applies, so pick up your sandwich fast.

1 comment » | writing

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