House Xmas Decorations for Lighting Designers

Look what you can do with midi controller, a hundred or so DMX channels, lots of addressable light strings, and a ton of time......http://www.houseblinger.com/bling-rock.php

Quote of the Day

Given the rhetoric spewing forth recently from Cheney, McCarthy-apologist and cheerleader Ann Coulter, hate-monger Hannity and others, who said the following?

"Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

Bush? Rove? Mehlman? Frist? All logical choices, but no, it was Hermann Goering, Hitler's Reich-Marshall at the Nuremberg Trials.

I Can't Ever Forgive Trump

Thanks to The Apprentice, of all things Trump unleashed upon an unsuspecting public, easily the most annoying is the phrase-meme: step up to the plate; stepping up; et al.
Please, if you find yourself using this phrase or variants, just stop now!

Yes, I Live in one of the dumbest states

Inexplicably, more than half of us still support our idiot president.

Thank You Pat Robertson

For background, just in case you haven't heard, American Taliban Mullah and right-wing religious bat-shit crazy Pat Robertson, advisor to lame-duck Bush, said this about Dover PA after voters tossed out all 8 of the flat earth morons on the school board who were adamant about force-feeding "intelligent design" in the school curricula:

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city. And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there."

Now, haven't all the ID proponents been repeating the talking point that ID is not creationism or have anything to do with god? Yet here we have a (supposedly) religious christian man saying that god's wrath will come down on a town that voted against the assclowns that push ID as a valid theory. Thank you Pat Robertson, for just admitting that ID is all about teaching our kids about the chirstian god and the myth of creation.

OK, I know this is difficult for FOX News watchers and anyone who still somehow supports Bush to follow, but try...Pattyboy just put a big nail in the ID coffin.

Neighbor Noise

I don't like hearing the neighbors. Fortunately our two neighbors are exceptionally quiet, so that's not an issue. OTOH, we live in pretty dense suburbia and are much closer to a bunch of people than we were in CT, so the ambient neighbor noise is quite a bit higher.

If I have to hear the neighbors, I really don't want it to be cupcake laden wholesomeness like "Kids! Time to go to church!" I'd much rather it be drunken fights - things like "YOU BITCH!!! I'm bleeding!!! I can't believe you hit me with that!"

It's far more entertaining.

Band Names From Spam

Lately I've been getting a lot of spam for penny stock pump-and-dump schemes. The algorithmicly generated subject line is of the form "Fwd: two words" or "Greeting of some type: two words" where the "two words" are seemingly random combinations from a dictionary. Some of them would make great band names:

heisenberg canvas

basketball sapiens

dunce chateau

salutary bullfrog

acrobat arson

dissident pancake

and my favorite

jurassic gunmen

Looky! A Deer In The Headlights!

Edit: there was a photo of our moronic idiot of a president here that was hosted on another site. It was removed from that site.

The Countdown Continues

Hot Stock Spam

No doubt many if not most folks have received at least one "hot new stock tip" spam. Ever wonder how much money you'd have made if you invested in those? Wonder no more:
http://www.spamstocktracker.com/

The webmaster of that site purchased an imaginary 1000 shares of every sock mentioned in a spam e-mail.

Bottom line (as of 5 oct 05):
Total Cash Outlay: $17,405.00
Total Current Value: $8,616.90
Net Profit: - ($8,788.10)

The data feed is automated, thus the figures are current.

Winner of This Months DUH! Award

Seems that Minneapolis boarded up a supposedly abandoned house for non-paymet of taxes. Eight months later, the body of the owner was discoved inside. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Pirtle, who had been a sorter for American Linen Co., just hibernated in her upstairs bedroom. That's where she was found dead this summer, eight months after her house was boarded up.

It may never be clear whether the 79-year-old was alive or dead when the city shut up the tiny house at 3216 Garfield Av., the Hennepin County medical examiner said.

Pirtle's death went unnoticed for so long partly because of her own reclusiveness, but also because city inspectors aren't required to walk through buildings before boarding them up.

Although authorities initially said the contractor was expected to walk through the property before boarding it up in November, that wasn't part of the contract. The city official who manages such properties said the city is considering whether to change the policy.

"Somebody should have checked," Hastings said. "I'm still trying to deal with it."

Gee, ya think?
[ Full story here ]

The Same Riff?

Was just cruising around Amazon and listening to some samples.....came across The Best of the English Beat and clicked on the second cut, Best Friend. I'll swear the intro riff was used by the Pretenders for Night in my Vein.

Is It Really That Difficult?

Apparently so. There are lots of discussion fora on the net covering a vast array of topics and interest areas. Obiously most people only look at/participate in a minute fraction of them. We all use the subject line as a filter to select the topics of interest. I'd think most are aware of this. Then why, in mid-2005, do people insist on using meaningless subject lines like......

• Need help
• A few questions......
• Good Question
• What does this mean
• Help me please!
• Windows XP <---- this in a forum titled "Windows XP"
• This is New to Me
• Weird Problem
• Help or I am Screwed
• Having a Ton of Trouble Here

It seems that this is most prevalent on tech support fora or in beginner sections, but by no means limited to those. Really folks, is it that difficult to come up with a subject line that actually relates what the post might be about?

Movie Plot Generator

A movie version of Bewitched. A film version of The Honeymooners. Second, third, fifth, and seventh sequels. Hollywood is officially out of ideas. Time for the rest of us to get to work developing plots.The movie plot generator solves all of our problems. Here's the result from my first go:

Helium Ninja
an original screenplay concept
by Marc

Science Fiction: A shell-shocked war vet teams up with a well-built female cyborg to discover America. In the process they accidentally kill a gay interior decorator. By the end of the movie they blow up 98 ewoks and end up winning the admiration of their kind hearted prostitute, living happily ever after. Think Waterworld meets forbidden planet.

Is That Like What You Do To A Dog?