They'll send us to the spice mines of Kessel for Sure!
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Summer General
I'm back from my annual trek to NYC for 4 July. Except for the lack of fireworks in my weekend it was really awesome. It was great to be able to drive this time and not be bound by the timetables of the bus system.

My [soon to be] father-in-law's boat reminds me of the Millenium Falcon in Star Wars. It's generally a really great working boat. But it's got some slight anchor problems. Basically 90% of the time one of us had to go and fiddle with the anchor in order for it to go up or down. For some reason, it reminded me of Star Wars where the Falcon was generally an awesome ship but just had a couple of things wrong. Fortunately, we weren't running from the Empire, just trying to find some fish. They weren't biting as much as in previous summers - at least that's how it seemed to me. In fact, we had to be out so long that I actually got some sun burns on my shoulders since I couldn't find the sun screen.

In other personal news, I'm currently writing a business proposal for my servers. I may just be opening up for business about a year early. Once I'm done with my business proposal, I'll see if I can raise some capital. If so, you'll probably see the first ad here in my blog and all of you will be welcome to join. q:o) It's a lot of fun to write it up and I'm getting some good skills for when I have an enterprise that will require a lot more capital. You can check out the pilot sites on my current server here.
For July I've had visitors from:
US
Canada
Germany
Kazakhstan
Russian Federation

Not bad, eh?

Happy Birthday America!!
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Summer General
Happy Birthday USA. I know that 4 July is as official a birthday as 25 Dec is for Jesus. However, the exact date isn't the important thing, it's the meaning behind it.

So go enjoy today and keep yourself in one piece. I also hope today's a day of peace.

Say What?!?
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: "Dip it Low" - Christina Milian
Topic: Summer General
I know that I'm getting old because I'm having a hard time keeping up with slang. I always had a bit of trouble when I was younger because it seemed that whoever was inventing slang was determined to ensure that no one else would be able to understand what they were saying. I came to this conclusion because it seemed that as soon as slang would become mainstream it would change again. As an example, I was trying to figure out what the chorus to "dip it low" was about.
----
Dip it low
Pick it up slow
Roll it all around
Poke it out like your back broke
Pop pop pop that thing
----
Obviously this is about sex that's obvious from the rest of the song, but what exactly are they saying to do? Dip what low? Hips? Head? Roll it all around...this one makes sense. But poke it out liek your back broke. Um...I guess this involves contortions of some kind or something like that. Pop that thing? Pop what? I can think of a few possibilities, but I can't narrow it down to only one.

I guess that I just won't be able to go to rap music for sex tips anymore. q;o)

Sad, Sorry State We're In
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Summer General
I have to say that things are in piss poor shape when I know more than the tech support guys. I'm not an uber-geek, I don't hack and can't overclock my system. I'm just a guy who's been using computers since he was 11 or so. From that time until I started college I had plenty of time to fiddle with computers so I becamse adept at interacting with them. It's almost like becoming accustomed to a new culture. In fact, that's exactly what it is because you're, on a second hand level, adjusting to geek culture. (And w/ MS they need a term beyond uber-geek) So I learned how to take the cryptic messages and turn them into something I understood. That's why I'm the computer tech for my family and my (soon to be) in-laws.

Since I know computers so well, it's a rare case that I call tech support. First of all, I know that the first fifteen minutes will be useless. They'll run through a little script which is either at the level or below the level of what I was trying to do before calling them. I absolutely hate it when they ask me if the darned thing is turned on. I know there are ppl like that, but for me that was only once the case and it's because I'd turned the component off and on so many times in an attempt to make it work that I'd lost track of what state it was in.

But usually I bear w/ the BS until they finally get to the next level which is where they can be helpful to me. Once we're at this level they can usually help me out within twenty minutes. USUALLY

Today I'm in NYC visiting the [STB] in-laws. My first task whenever I visit is to repair whatever havoc has been wreaked upon the wireless internet system. I don't quite know how, but it always manages to get messed up. Well, I think it's because my fiancee's parents are up there in age and spent most of their lives devoid of computers. Therefore, they don't have the experience that even my father has with them. (Plus my dad is an engineer and her dad, while very smart, does not have a technical background) So today it's being exceptionally stubborn. From about 12p until 1p I still can't get it to work. So I called tech support from both the aol and the router. Both were useless. They had me go through the same steps that I had already done and then declared the problem unsolvable. Only a PhD could fix this mess. I knew this to be BS because I had it working last time I was here. So I kept at it and finally got it working.

But the basic point of this rant is this, if the whole point of buying software is to get support, what good is it if the support is lousy? I mean, that's the whole point behind shareware and some GNU licenses. You can get the program free, but if you want support you need to cough up the dough. I don't mind doing so - if they will know more than me. But if it's someone that's never used it...well that's another story.

And while I'm at it - what does it take to talk to an American anymore? I have nothing against the nice support people in India and I have quite a few Indian friends at school. But it's so freakin' hard to understand, especially over the phone. I'm just not good with accents unless I get to know the person and I'm not going to get to know every tech support rep in India. It's really ridiculous nowadays. Sometimes I just keep calling until I get an American. Today, I even got an example of what I've been reading in the news. They teach the outsourcers to speak like americans and stuff. The girl today was asking me about the Yankees and other BS while waiting for my computer to reboot. Aiya!

Well, that's enough ranting....no need to put out excessively negative energy....

A quick proof
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: General Religion
If
1. God is everywhere
2. Everything is somewhere
then
God is in everything.

As a necessary precondition to statement 1 we can ignore the Newtonian notion that two objects cannot occupy the same space. This is fine because with Quantum and Sub-Quantum (with some extra dimensions thrown in) infinite objects can occupy the same space.

I hope to have time to expound on this later, but I had to get it out.

Slick!
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: News
The handover of power has already occurred. While we were sleeping here in the USA, the transfer of power to the Iraqis occurred. No one was told other than the Iraqis themselves. Personally, I think this was a really slick idea. Because on the day it was supposed to happen I bet that the terrorist groups were planning to attack and spoil the events. By doing it early and without fanfare, they were able to avoid that. Way to go US! I bet Al Qaida is really ticked! hahaha!

I've been praying for the safety of the Iraqi officials for a few weeks now and I believe that this is one of the results. In some future posts I will be speaking more about what I've been learning about how the world works, but we all have the power to create and shape the destiny of the world through meditation and prayer. If enough people were also meditating that the officials would be safe, then I feel that this is a direct result of that.

It's coming...
Mood:  chatty
Topic: News
Today's the 27th and we hand over the government to Iraq on the 30th. That leaves just three days between. I think it's apparent by now that the US isn't going to back down. The stakes are WAY too high at this point. With the escalation of the violence and the parade of government officials who have touted the 30th changeover date it would be disastrous for us to change our minds. I think the only acceptable excuse would be the simultanious murder or capture of the entire governing council.

Here's my prediction for the next few years. First of all, the closer we get to the date, the more violence there will be in Iraq. After the date, violence will probably go down relatively speaking as people realize that they can't use the excuse that the US is tricking them. However, the violence will never go away. Iraq will become like Latin American countries. I bet that they will probably most closely mimic Columbia. The democracy will probably remain stable from the 30th onwards, but like the FARC in Columbia they'll probably continue to have the oil pipes blown up and people kidnapped. Then, the terrorists will evolve like the FARC to try and become a political party because they will see that while people hate terrorism, they hate giving in a lot more. So whatever they want to do they will decide to try negotiations and/or playing politics.

Of course, there were a lot of insurgencies in US history such as Shay's rebellion. So it IS possible that Iraqi political history will mimic ours. But that region is very different from this one and people there interpret things in a very different way. Comparing 18th century British with 21st century arabs is huge leap. They have different sensibilities and fears. Also, they don't have the advantage of forming their government in a near vacuum like the US did. Nowadays countries' destinies are so intertwined that everyone always has to be in everyone else's business. (eg taking over Iraq to get rid of Saddam)

Time will tell what happens.

Do you really need to copyright/trademark that?
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: Track 10 - Punjabi Hit Squad
Topic: Summer General
My fiance told me that Corvette has a trademark on a color called "corvette red" and that no other car can be that specific shade of red. There are so many subtleties to color and I wondered about that.

Well, a few days ago I bothered to read the back of the package that holds the ear plugs we have to use at work to keep from going deaf and the company that we use has a trademark on using yellow for ear plugs. I couldn't believe it - I had to read it a few times.

So I wonder, what's the point in doing this? Well, for the ear plugs it's not too hard to figure out. You usually have them in your ears and when you don't they're so small and the strap holding the two pieces together is so small that there's no place to put the name of the company. Therefore they have to rely on the yellow colour for identification. So if someone is like, "wow, I really like these suckers" then they see that they're yellow and they know who made them. The other company's earplugs that we have there is orange, but I didn't check if they have orange trademarked.

However, for a Corvette you have many clues that it's a Corvette. First of all, they have that design where there are four huge lights on the car's butt. It looks VERY different from every other car's behind. Then there's the the general shape of the car. Finally, there's the fact that it says Corvette on it. You could say that people love red for fast cars, but I personally never new there was a "Corvette Red" I thought that any red car was the same red - give or take a little. I know some are more of a wine colour and some are more like an apple, but I thought that was more of a factor of the paint that happened to buy for their factory, not because someone had a particular shade trademarked.

All this makes me wonder now if all car companies have their particular shade of red/blue/etc trademarked or if it only matters for those nice cars like Corvettes. Like what about that sleak black of the Lincoln Continental? Is that particular black trademarked? Or Caddilac black or pink? Hmm...perhaps if I get bored after work I'll look it up on Google.

Come hither terrorists....we will not harm you.....
Mood:  chatty
Topic: News
Well, as most of you should have heard by now (this news item is a little old), Saudia Arabia has told terrorists in their country that they have one month to turn themselves in. If they do this and they haven't killed too many people then the government will pardon them and collect their weapons. So, is this the best thing to do with terrorists?

Well, Saudi Arabia's got a different story than Israel or the US. In those places the terrorists are primarily striking Americans and other foreigners. However, in Saudi Arabia there's a political group who's trying to use terrorism to undermine the monarchy. They want people to villify the Saudi government as a puppet of the US.

Therefore, Saudi Arabia is appealing to the masses. You see, this offer of amnesty to the terrorists aparently has pretty ancient roots. It goes back to the Koran and even recently (although I can't remember the case that the media cited) it's been used. So this is aparently not a very unusual proposition. It's also supposed to bring some legitimacy to the government because they're appealing to an Islamic tradition.

Also, for those terrorists who don't turn themselves in: all bets are off. The Saudi government will go after them and even kill them if they find them because they had a chance to turn themselves in. It's kinda like, "come now while we'll be nice to you or you'll regret it." Personally, I happen to like that. I'm not saying they should do that in the US, but I think it's a good policy for the Saudis.

some thoughts
Mood:  chatty
Topic: TM
Since we are all connected to each other through the unified field as Quantum Mechanics (and TM) tell us, then one person's anger is everyone's anger. It's localized at one point, but everyone feels it. Think of an earthquake. If the epicenter is in Japan their buildings will be razed, but the meters in California will still register the earthquake. In the same way, anger will have the largest effect on the person harboring it, however, it will affect everyone else in some small way. This is why some have suggested that positive attitudes and TM could go a long way towards world peace. The greater the number of people at peace, the greater the cumulative effect on humanity as a whole. I have to develop this more and see how it fits into other belief systems that I have, but I didn't want to forget it.