log entries of timotheus

Apparently she wasn’t aware that Africa was a continent, or who was in NAFTA..

What I think makes me the most pissed is the “I wish I could have told you, but it was all off the record until after the election”. See, I consider concrete examples of the VP candidate’s lack of knowledge and emotional instability to be quite critical to the election.

Fox News post-election

UPDATE: So, apparently, this news was fabricated. At least, the person who was supposed to have heard this doesn’t exist. I assumed since it was from Fox, and they bleed republican, they wouldn’t have reported on something like this unless they had checked it out.

I have a savings account with ING Direct, which is a mostly-online only savings and loan company. (They do have offices for their home mortgage division) Anyway, they’re pretty cool because right now the interest they give is 3%, which is pretty decent. It is compounded monthly, and any amount you have in there will earn interest for that month.

Their service has always been great for me, but the reason I write about them today is regarding the newsletter I just received from them. Here is the section that really surprised me:

While we don’t have an Orange crystal ball, we do expect the economy to remain fragile through 2009. The best course of action for our Customers is to be disciplined: avoid splurging; identify and cut out unnecessary expenses and save for what’s essential; and hedge against those tough times. We can all benefit by developing good spending habits: confront – and cut up – credit cards; use your home as a savings vehicle – not as an ATM; and establish and contribute regularly to an IRA or 401(k).

I was really impressed at this responsible advice coming from a financial institution. Most places try to downplay the current economic downturn, or try to convince you to get into more debt or something.

I haven’t mentioned it here on my blog, due to not knowing who might read it before the time, but I am moving to Baltimore, MD in April. A big move, almost 3000 miles.

Today they announced at work that I’m leaving the company April 4th. It is a good feeling not to have to hold all the thoughts in anymore. There was a lot of times I had things I wanted to talk about with co-workers about my moving plans, but couldn’t.

I’m getting a lot of well-wishing from everyone, which is nice. It’s a good group of people here, I will miss that. I’ve explained my reasons for quitting and moving, and the more I talk about it,the more excited I become. I’m psyching myself up, which is a little funny.

I think I’m going to work on a big post on all my reasons, both logical and crazy, on why I want to move to the east coast.. Yes, I’ll do that this evening in between my CoH play.

Anyway, now it’s nearing crunch time for me. My planned departure date is April 10th, which is 13 days away! I have a fair amount of stuff to do, but I think it’ll be doable.

The big things are:

- Move music and DVDs to big CD case

- Visit Berkeley friends the weekend of the 4th. Due to a dentist appt, I won’t be leaving here till like noon on saturday, but that’s ok.

- Go through clothes, donate what I don’t need anymore, ship the rest to my Uncles.

- Ship all my books, air purifier, old gaming comp, LCD monitor to Uncles.

- Unhook, clean, and pack all my tronics

- Wash and wax up my car.

- Get car tuned and ready for a 3K mile trip.

- Fill up my 4GB USB stick with stuff to listen to for the drive.

- Get my box of kitchen stuff packed.

- Get bathroom stuff packed.

That’s really all I have left to do. I think I could do most of it in two days if I needed to, but I’ll probably do a little every night to make it not so bad.

I’m working out my route and stuff for my drive out there. This kind of stuff is really fun for me. I <3 maps.

Anyway, so yes! Maryland peoples, rejoice! The coolest person in CA is moving near you.

Random news factiods I want to share.

TorrentSpy gets Luddite judge, loses case – I really don’t understand why they lost this case. Their servers are in the Netherlands, hence do not fall under US jurisdiction or law. Still, the judge demands the server logs of all the IP’s that used the site. TorrentSpy runners say the logs were stored in RAM, and they can’t retrieve them. (Since, you know, it’s RAM and it is wiped clean after every reboot. Smart server setup.)

The judge then asked for information from the Ram in their computers but the defendants failed in their attempt to argue the data was temporary and therefore could not be retained.

The defendants’ conduct was “obstreperous,” Judge Florence-Marie Cooper wrote in her decision.

“They have engaged in widespread and systematic efforts to destroy evidence and have provided false testimony under oath in a effort to hide evidence of such destruction.”

“A substantial number of items of evidence have been destroyed,” she wrote. “Defendants were on notice that this information would be of importance in this case.”

The ignorance here makes my mind implode.

My solution? A new breed of judge. A TechnoJudge, learned in all the computer and electronic ways.

Crowe axes slot machines in club – Russell Crowe earned points with me on this one. The Rugby team club he co-owns was planning on putting in slot machines. He thought it was a bad idea. He put it in a letter to club members, asking for their support.

In the letter, they said that excessive reliance on so-called “pokie” gambling machines would hurt Souths blue-collar catchment area of Redfern, in Sydney’s inner city.

“We are not moralising here, we just believe that low-income areas like Redfern need less poker machines rather than more,” they said.

“We believe a club can be successful if it caters for our members and the broad community; is a place where families can gather for conversation and good food; and the distracting din of pokies doesn’t stop the conversation or drown out live music.”

Good show!

Galaxy 3C321 at war with neighboring galaxy! – This will put you in your place. Think you are important? Really? An entire galaxy is getting pulverized out there. How incredibly small are we?

I got the big tif image of it, and made a nice png you could use for a desktop background. The galactic carnage is beautiful.

Now that it is actually nearing 2008, I am starting to follow the upcoming presidential election. I’ve been sort of listening half heartedly the past year or so to debates, but last night I spent several hours looking over candidates. The big surprise for me? Ron Paul. He’s a Republican, and I like the guy.

Taken from his site http://www.ronpaul2008.com

Brief Overview of Congressman Paul’s Record:

• He has never voted to raise taxes.
• He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
• He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
• He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
• He has never taken a government-paid junket.
• He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
• He voted against the Patriot Act.
• He voted against regulating the Internet.
• He voted against the Iraq war.
• He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
• He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.
• Congressman Paul introduces numerous pieces of substantive legislation each year, probably more than any single member of Congress.

At the Republican debate, most honest reason why 9/11 happened, blew me away:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cQrwKr_b4Lg

Here is a youtube video that highlights a lot of his stands on issues:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IWfIhFhelm8

There are some points on which I disagree with him (environment being one), but he comes across to me as a sane Republican. He wants small federal government, no IRS, no income tax, stop policing the world, military for just defensive use.. He’s a little bumbly, but it’s like I’ve been hearing slick politicians emit sound bytes forever, and this nice older gentlemen is standing in the middle, trying to say what he thinks is right.

Maybe I’m just a sucker. What do you guys think?

I came across the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. That is a great resource.

Doing some simple reading on the site has motivated me to go home and do some deep reading.

Actually, thinking some more, I’ve realized that lately, I’ve strayed from my earlier philosophic goals. The past couple of months or so I’ve been just drifting along, not accomplishing much. I mean, I accomplish things at work, but my personal projects have fallen to the wayside, for the most part.

I did a tremendous amount of reading last month, but it was mostly fiction. I need to delve into some literature that stimulates the mind, and acquaint myself with some previously unknown information.

Also, my plan for pruning down my material possessions hasn’t done much lately. I haven’t accrued anything new, but haven’t lightened the load either.

This weekend I’m going to get rid of several boxes from my closet. How will I do this, you may ask. Well, it’s simple. They’re boxes filled with computer games, and music. I’m going to buy several CD binders, and start filling them up. I figure I can replace my four boxes with 3-4 binders.

Then I need to pick up my room. It’s gotten cluttered with mostly papers and random giblets, and those need to go. Also, I should get rid of my Pentium III computer, since I never use it, and it just sits in the middle of my room.

This post sort of went all over the place, but that’s ok. To my readers, I call upon you to not let this weekend go to waste. Get something done off your list.

Did anyone see this story? Apparently, John P. “Pat” Philbin, FEMA’s former external affairs director, held a fake press conference last tuesday regarding the Southern California fires, complete with FEMA staff members posing as reporters..

No genuine journalists attended, although they were given a conference call number they could use to listen in — but not ask questions. A half-dozen questions were asked at the event — by FEMA staff members posing as reporters.

“At the end of the briefing, questions were asked. I should have intervened and I didn’t,” Philbin said.

Philbin said he may have asked a question at the very end of the briefing because, at that point, “the ships had sailed.”

“We’ve worked really hard over the past year to improve our transparency,” Philbin said. Philbin took over in March, as FEMA was going through a major reorganization because of its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “I feel absolutely horrible that this happened,” he said.

“I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I’ve seen since I’ve been in government,” Chertoff said over the weekend.

I don’t know who is doing the PR for polar bears, but it doesn’t get much better than this.

Polar Bears playing

So cute!

An interesting story from the New York Times regarding the parallels in how we define our “torture that isn’t torture” in prisons, and how the Gestapo utilized nearly the same wording.

Ten days ago The Times unearthed yet another round of secret Department of Justice memos countenancing torture. President Bush gave his standard response: “This government does not torture people.” Of course, it all depends on what the meaning of “torture” is. The whole point of these memos is to repeatedly recalibrate the definition so Mr. Bush can keep pleading innocent.

By any legal standards except those rubber-stamped by Alberto Gonzales, we are practicing torture, and we have known we are doing so ever since photographic proof emerged from Abu Ghraib more than three years ago. As Andrew Sullivan, once a Bush cheerleader, observed last weekend in The Sunday Times of London, America’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques have a grotesque provenance: “Verschärfte Vernehmung, enhanced or intensified interrogation, was the exact term innovated by the Gestapo to describe what became known as the ‘third degree.’ It left no marks. It included hypothermia, stress positions and long-time sleep deprivation.”

Did anyone watch 60 Minutes last night, with the interview of MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, the President of Iran? Well I didn’t, but I did read the transcript.

My initial response is that Scott Pelley (the 60 Minutes interviewer) managed to hurt the worlds opinion of Americans even more that it already is.

Read the transcripts. Which person sounds like an educated man patiently trying to explain his point, and which person sounds like a rabid sound-byte loving follower of this administration? Yes, it’s Pelley that sounds like an idiot. He lumps all Americans (as in, “But the American people, sir, believe that your country is a terrorist nation, exporting terrorism in the world.”) in so many questions, it’s shocking. AHMADINEJAD calls him out on it several times, with a “Well, I’m amazed. How can you speak for the whole of the American nation?” And I have to agree with him.

Pelley is a reporter, not a politician. Instead of giving a position-neutral interview, it is very obvious this guy is very pro-war and anti-Iran.

I’m not saying I am pro-Iran necessarily, but this guy Pelley is so rude if I was AHMADINEJAD I would have just walked out before I got angry. I mean, no matter what you think of him, AHMADINEJAD is the President of a nation. Would Pelley be so harsh to, say, Bush? No. Many times Pelley refers to his talks with Bush like they’re best buds or something, and that just makes the predijuce more obvious.

These type of questions though just blew me away. “At the moment, our two countries may very well be walking down the road to war. How do you convince President Bush, how do you convince other nations in the West . . . . ” And AHMADINEJAD is like “um, why?”. It was like Pelley was declaring war or something, and this guy is just a reporter. He doesn’t speak for all of us.

Basically, Scott Pelley was being an arrogant American to a President who was being a gentlemen. And since Pelley was representing us by being there, it was insulting to me.