My brain is strange. As evidence, consider the fact of the following. I’m not sure which is worse - that face that I thought to type these, or the fact that I think it’s funny.
$ man god
No manual entry for god.
$ which god
no god in /usr/bin /usr/ucb /etc /usr/local/bin /usr/openwin/bin /usr/sbin . /usr/local/mysql/bin
$
It’s along the same line as this:
$ make love
make: Fatal error: Don’t know how to make target `love’
$
$26,591.91.
That’s how much was stolen from me in 2007 by the federal government of the United States, and the government of the state of Georgia. This does not include sales tax and property taxes - this number is simply the amount of withholding for income, Social “Security,” and Medicare.
I’m not even wealthy. I’m fairly well-off because I’m single, I have a decent job, and I try not to overextend myself with debt.I’ll get a refund when I file my tax return, but that doesn’t change the fact that the money was kept from me by force. Maybe I will add up all the taxes I can think of - property, sales, income, etc. - once everything is filed and done.
This will not change as long as people expect the government to do stuff for them. I would be in favor of the Fair Tax, except that it tackles a symptom and doesn’t address the fundamental problem. Our culture is the problem, because most people do not understand individual rights. That’s what needs to change.
I’m ranting. I need to stop before I get myself even more pissed off.
That’s how long it took to boot up, log in, and get Outlook started this morning. I work in a corporate environment and whatever our MIS is doing to our computers slows them down so much that it takes 11 minutes of waiting, with hourglass screens, to boot up, log in, run startup scripts, and start Outlook.
They’re probably installing corporate spyware and key-logging programs, so someone might be watching what I’m typing right now. Howdy, MIS! 
I don’t feel 43! Actually, I feel about like I did when I was 23. I just have more memories now than I did then. And I have to actually warm up before I work out, instead of just jumping into some intense exercise.
The bad thing is, I’m not 42 any more. I think I’ll have to start giving my age as “42 plus 1.”
Grrr….
I want my document writing software to do exactly what I tell it to do.
Don’t mess around with what I paste into it. (I’m trying to paste some images into a document and write notes for each image, but it’s not working because the images keep disappearing. They’re not removed from the document, they just don’t display.)
Don’t automatically correct things unless I have specifically created autocorrection rules.
If I start typing bullets, don’t guess at some weird autoformatting that I then can’t back out of with the backspace button.
If I select a bunch of text and then delete it, delete all of the invisible formatting too.
OK, end of rant.
66 years ago today.
I don’t really have much to say about it. My uncle Bill was there. I remember him once describing walking up a hill so he could see what was going on. I don’t think he took any part in the battle. He did, however, spend the rest of the war in the Air Force as an engineer in Dayton. I wish I had known him better. Maybe I’ll write down some of the stories my family has that he told them.
One thing about WWII that I am happy about - that we nuked Japan when we could. It ended the war early enough so my father didn’t have to see combat in the Pacific. He had just turned 19 a couple of months before the war was over, and his squadron was scheduled to go to the Pacific when they pulled my dad out and replaced him with a photographer. (My dad was an Aviation Ordnanceman.) If the war had gone longer, maybe he wouldn’t have lived through it, and I wouldn’t be here.
One other thing - the time from Pearl Harbor to the surrender of Japan was less than 4 years. Here we are now, with 9/11 over 6 years ago, and no end in sight for the “War” on Terror. Our culture, and our leaders, need to understand the morality of self defense, and how to fight a war to win. If we don’t re-learn this then we are screwed.
Calls in Sudan for execution of Briton
It comes down to this: Religion and faith represent a fundamental rejection of reality and reason. The result is death. I’m not going to go into philosophical depth here - others have done that. But the results are not hard to see for anyone honest enough to look at the news. Look at the history of the past few thousand years if you need more evidence.
Unreason is the root of all evil.
It’s true that some good people are also religious - but their virtue is in spite of their faith, not because of it.
Each of us faces a choice - to follow reason, or not. The course our lives take will result from that choice. Those who choose unreason in any form - faith in god; faith in Marx or Lenin or some other collectivist “leader;” or plain old destructive nihilism - are the enemy of those of us who choose reason. Anyone who consistently follows faith of any sort is a threat to my life.
Read about it Here
I have noticed that a good up-to-the-minute barometer of my diet is my heart rate. For example, this morning I counted my pulse and it was 52 beats/minute. Just now, after eating a Zone-friendly lunch of jerky, a Powerbar, and some nuts, it’s at 60. If I binge on anything, especially candy or other junk food, my heart rate will soar up to around 80. Add caffeine and it goes even higher.
I don’t know if this is universal, or something about how my body processes food. But it is something I can use as a self-monitor. I might even do some experimenting by eating measured amounts of candy and checking my heart rate every few minutes. All in the interest of science, of course!
OK, that’s a rationalization because I have a sweet tooth. But I can also keep my long-term values in mind, and if I remember that my long-term health and happiness is more important than short-term pleasure, I’m less likely to grab a handful of candy from my boss’s office.
Another Crossfit Total tonight. I scored a total of 975 lb, with 365 on the squat, 185 on the shoulder press, and 425 on the deadlift. I felt like I could have done more on the squat and deadlift. I think I’ll break 1000 soon!