So, $5500 I was hoping to get within the next couple of months isn't happening. The opportunity that came up came back with a "no."

So repairing the laptop? Not happening. Getting a new desktop? Not happening. Getting a netbook as a cheap replacement? Not happening. Replacing the phone plan I have now? Not happening. Figuring out how to pay for going back for some classes. Dicey at best.

Basically every plan I had for anything, not happening. Once again I'm back to square zero.

To make things even better, my sub runs out this week. Lovely. I am not a happy person going into December.

I'd like take a moment to celebrate a terrific event for my family. My uncle just won a Latin Grammy.

Carlos Franzetti won in the category of Best Instrumental Album.



AWESOME!

We don't get to go trick or treating. We don't get free candy. We don't believe in ghosts and vampires. We are not so easily scared.

Yet well into adulthood, we still celebrate Halloween. Why?

I'll tell you.






God I love Halloween!

After four polls [link] [link] [link] [link] we have the winners of each poll that shall now go in a run off vote against each other. The top two from each poll will run against each other.

One beer stands out as not being on any of those polls, and not the final either. That is the Samuel Adams Boston Brick Red. This is a terrific ale, one of my favorite styles, but one which most of you cannot have. It is only available in and directly around Boston. Hell, I live far enough out of the city that I can't get it around me, I have to go into the city to have any. Most of you live nowhere near Boston, so it is most unlikely that you have ever had the opportunity to try this beer. If you ever come up here, hit me up, and I'll show you some good places to have some.

Without further delay, I bring you the "final" poll, unless I decide we need another one. [link]

So in case you haven't realized it yet, I've got a new poll series going. This is a poll of my watchers favorite variety of Samuel Adams, one of the best beers in America. Probably the best non-craft or non-local micro-brew in America.

For my international watchers, don't let the fact that this is an American brew fool you. This stuff is good, VERY good. Their premier product, the Boston Lager, was the first American beer to pass German purity laws, and went on to beat international beers in competition. The many varieties since have similar stories, winning gold after gold in competition with foreign beers.

I suppose you could call Samuel Adams the "Napa Valley" of American beers. Everyone in the world, especially the French, had written off American wine production as always sub-par, then Napa Valley shows up, and beats the pants off of French wines at a competition in France, with French judges. Samuel Adams is kind of the same thing. No one in the world thought America could produce a good beer, many still don't. Well, Samuel Adams equals them at their own game, in competitions in their own countries, with their own judges.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Samuel Adams is the "best beer in the world." That probably can't even be said to be a mass production beer anyways, as opposed to a very well made local micro-brew. That said, even in the mass production world, I'm sure there are probably some better beers. I'm just saying that Sam Adams is actually among the better beers in the world.

Samuel Adams comes in nearly 30 varieties. The polls will vote between selections of them, and the top votes on those polls will run off against each other. What I'll do with this? I don't know, possibly nothing, possibly go out and buy a six pack (especially if I've never had it before).

So have at it. Here are the links to the polls already up [link] [link]

Have at them.

I've already ordered mine, but I figured I'd direct the rest of you. The first 1000 Premium Members (subscribers) to ask for free stickers from dA, you get them! Completely free, no shipping charges or anything. More info in this [link]

Go get'em before they're gone.

I shall now return to my apathy regarding dA.

My dog, Tess, passed away tonight. A West Highland White Terrier, we have had Tess since I was seven years old. She lived to be seventeen years old herself.



^{_{Tess, at her happiest, rolling in the grass}}

Tess had been weak for nearly two years now.

I cannot imagine a better last day for her. In the morning, my father took her on a walk in the woods. He wore the bug repellent that always excited her throughout life. Every Saturday, he'd take her on a long walk in the woods, and she would started running around at the front door as soon as she smelled the bug repellent. Throughout the day, all three of us here were petting her and nuzzling her. While she had stopped reacting to my smell and licking my hand this week, today she would still fold her ears bag and look happy to be pet, and pick her head up to look around if we stopped.

After a bath, Tess was given some Smartfood popcorn, her very favorite food in the entire world. This ended up being her last meal, and she gobbled it down. To keep her warm after her bath, she was covered in a blanket while lying in the den with all of us. Tess went to sleep, and passed comfortably, with no pain.

We are having Tess cremated. With her for burial, we are picking a number of objects from all of us, such as her yellow dumbbell toy that she would always carry around whenever she was sad (like if my father wasn't home), her felt frisbee and hedgehog toys, and a bag decorative bag with Smartfood. Each of us is also adding personal things.

From me, I'm giving her a USS Enterprise-B Micro Machines toy, and a rawhide stick. The Enterprise toy is my last Star Trek Micro Machine that is an Excelsior class, as a puppy Tess ate all of my others. Now she can have the last one. The rawhide stick is from the last bag of them that I had bought for her. I used to come home with them and give them to her, then laugh at how incredibly protective and guarding with them she was. If ever I came near her while she had one, she growl louder and louder and then snap at me, just about the only thing that would make her do that to me instead of her normal loving nature. It was always fun to play with her like this, try and get it from her. She had a great sense of satisfaction at keeping it from me.

Tess, I will always love you, and always remember you. I can't imagine the family without you around. Stay happy in heaven and be patient for the long wait of us coming to pet you again. Roll around in all of the grass and bird poo you can find, stand in every gust of wind smelling the air.

Yay for quiz time. Here is how this goes.

Name 5 guilty pleasures of TV shows or movies that you are embarrassed to be known that you watch. That way, everyone can laugh at you

Then, tag 4 people.

1) "Cybill"
Yes, Cybill. This show was wacky awesome fun. It is a half an hour I can just sit there and laugh my head off.

2) "Matrix Revolutions"
Yeah, the ending wasn't great, but I'm sorry, I liked the movie. Action action action, mechanized walkers, and Matrix fighting. Not as good as the original, but not something that makes me wish I was not alive.

3) "Anime"
I mean it, anime. Lots of anime. I've been spending hours late into the night watching anime with friends. Gundam, Hellsing, and more. Yeah, there is a lot of bad anime out there, yeah, there are some fans who take it really too far. I don't think I'm Japanese, I don't try to speak it. I'm not drawing fantard crap. I do like anime.

4) "Scrubs"
Yes, incredibly popular, so why am I embarrassed? I don't know, but I just am. The Frasier and NOVA watcher in me just feels it is somehow cheap, unintelligent laughs, I guess. Certainly there is a lot of great story, too, but there is a lot of Family Guy level jokes.


I tag =k-a-t-w-a-l-k, =thetifftiff, =JosephBenton, and ~brashieel.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
-High Flight, John Gillespie Magee, Jr, 1941

Any pilot reading this poem surely has its meaning resonate with them, yet even more to the dozen men who have landed on the moon. They truly passed where no lark or eagle flew, into the untrespassed sanctity of space. Whether you are religious or atheist, you must recognize the historical religious context given to the heavens, and to the moon. Exactly 40 years ago, we stretched out our hand and touched the very face of the heavens, and walked upon them. We walked on the moon. Human beings leaving the cradle upon which we formed to explore a truly New World.

We did this by our own will and Herculean effort. Barely half a century after first taking aloft in flying machines that defied the very forces of nature, we defied the very bonds holding us to this world and the air we breath. Barely a decade after we first made the tiny hop of a beach ball sphere into Earth's orbit, we sent three men hundreds of thousands of miles away. One man set out a goal of making it to the Moon in that time, and the nation applied itself to that effort. This was truly a national effort, with the work of our top scientists, engineers, and down seamstresses. It galvanized a nation and inspired a generation to enter the top fields for future endeavors.

Yet what have we offered them? A space program with no strong goal since then. No equal effort in any other area or attempt to use the strength of our nation, of our species, to accomplish anything comparable. This is something we must change. For truly, that is what will unite us as humanity, when our accomplishments outweigh our disagreements, when our dreams are truly great, and when we see how much we can achieve together as opposed to separate. The Apollo missions came out of a period where mankind stood on the edge of annihilation, and as a competition between the powers that were so armed. Yet we all stood in awe as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped foot on the Sea of Tranquility. Russian, American, Chinese, British, French, all nations marveled at the accomplishment of mankind.

We did it once. Surely we can do it again. Surely we can accomplish truly great goals, and reach new heavens. Surely we can do more than merely try to repeat the successes of the past. God has created a universe for us to explore. Let us get back to that task.

Despite the spread of claims of his demise on Twitter and the rest of the net, Rick Astley is not dead. I do have a revelation to announce, though.






Rick Astley.





He's my dad. That's right, Rick Astley is my dad.

Dun dun duuuuuuuun!

With these threads, I declare that the Summer Invasion of 2009 has begun!

[link]

[link]

[link]

[link]

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that, if the Politics Forum and its Club Account lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'













In our case, not so likely.

*EDIT*

Complaints Forum, I have not forgotten you:

[link]

First, a fun little story for you all that isn't really the point of this journal. Watch, I bet the story ends up being the longest part.

I've been in a debate with someone on the merits and dangers of fluoridation of water. In the end, it can be more described as me saying "where is your proof, evidence, testing, methodology, sample groups, etc.?" and the other guy accusing me of being like those that "oppressed" Einstein, Newton, and Galileo. I pointed out that his methodology and reasons for "believing" a video far more resembled the 1500s Catholic Church than the practices of the scientific method promoted by Galileo and Newton, but to no end. Also, apparently 6 people control everything from pharmaceutical companies, scientific journals, the FDA, the government, and everything else. Never mind that 6 people are not immortal, and that I've actually worked in research labs (including on projects with pharmaceutical companies), and that my experience in no way resembles how he claims things work.

But that is not the point of this journal. That was just the cartoon entertainment.

The point is that some changes may very well be coming in my life. Changes that mean I will be far less involved on DeviantART. I had an interview this weekend for a new position that would take me away from being able to be near a computer as much as I currently am. Passed jobs and positions have often involved me spending a lot of time on the computer, this one will probably not. I don't want to go into detail on what this position is, other than to say it fits well with my sense of civic duty. I'll say more if this pans out.

I have a second interview on Tuesday. I really hope this goes well, it will bring some welcome change and growth in my life, as well as help with affording to go back to school at some point. Education is a good thing, folks. Actually, that somewhat (read "very much") plays into what I would be doing with this position. Like I said, tell you more later.

Oh look, I can't make the mood thing change.

How are things going for all of you?

So I was cleaning through some stuff today, and I found my old arsenal.

When I say "arsenal," I mean a stash of sharpened sticks. These are from roughly the second grade, where playground combat had progressed from simple physical violence into an arms race. He with the largest army of kids, armed with the most sticks, was likely to win.

So digging through my closet, I found what remains of my arsenal. I certainly hope that in comparison to Sam and the others that were my opponents, I win at this point. Should they still be making sticks, there is a serious problem.

A song that has been on my mind recently. Points to anyone who can figure out what it is about.


By the time we're done with dancing,
Elsewhere darling you'll be glancing
And the night's a river-torrent tearing us apart.
Merely melody entwined us,
Easily the ties that bind us
Break in fibrillations of the heart.
Don't cry out or cling in terror
Darling that's a fatal error
Clinging to a somebody you thought you knew was yours.
Dispossession by attrition is a permanent condition
That the wretched modern world endures.

You drift away, you're carried by a stream.
Refugee a wanderer you roam;
You lose your way, so it will come to seem:
No Place in Particular is home.
You glance away, your house has disappeared,
The sweater you've been knitting has unpurled.
You live adrift, and everything you feared
Comes to you in this undoing world.

Copper-plated, nailed together, buffeted by ocean weather
Stands the Queen of Exiles and our mother she may be.
Hollow-breasted broken-hearted watching for her dear departed
For her children cast upon the sea.
At her back the great idyllic land of justice
For exilic peoples ponders making justice private property.
Darling never dream another woman might
Have been your mother
Someday you may be a refugee.

A refugee, who's running from the wars,
Hiding from the fire-bombs they're hurled;
Eternally a stranger out-of-doors,
Desperate in this undoing world.

Mother for your derelicted
Children from your womb evicted
Grant us shelter harbor solace safety
Let us in!
Let us tell you where we travelled
How our hopes our lives unravelled
How unwelcome everywhere we've been.

I've been meaning to share these lyrics for awhile now. Might help some people understand some things.

Last night, I stood in line for, and saw, the first showing of the new movie, Star Trek.

Let me say this, I had an EXCELLENT experience. I was very entertained, enjoyed myself, and loved watching it. I plan to watch it again, if I can drag someone. I saw it an an IMAX theater, which only added to the experience. I recommend this movie, and not just to Trekkies. General public, watch this movie. You will like it, and this movie genuinely does not require you to be a Trek geek and know all the Trek lore. You don't need to know the canon, have watched all the episodes, or read the books. You'll be all set to enjoy yourself once you sit down in the theater seat.

Now, that said, hardcore fans (including me) will have some problems with this movie. You'll still enjoy yourself, you'll still rate this an excellent movie, but you might go home with a mixture of excitement and being troubled.


Before we go on, mild spoilers follow.


It actually does not violate canon, as feared, so much as it has found a way to change everything WITHOUT violating canon. Basically, the movie sets itself up as an alternate timeline. That means all of the characters (which are the TOS crew, in case you didn't know) have different lives, backgrounds, and in some cases behaviors from that differing experience than the ones you've come to know and love. Again, these differences are all explained. Some time travel is in the mix, the result of which being changes in the timeline.

This is going to trouble hardcore fans, as some really MAJOR differences exist, and I've already seen some saying "this means all of the post-Enterprise Star Trek we've seen has been erased!" Well, that isn't even how time travel has always worked in Star Trek. This could be a parallel timeline, or whatever.

In the end, doesn't matter. The fact is, and I'm among those to blame as all of the other hardcore fans are, there was too much Trek canon built up. Do you realize that before this movie, there were 726 episodes and movies of various kinds released into canon? That's TOS, TAS, 6 TOS movies, TNG, 4 TNG movies, DS9, VOY, and ENT. It was very difficult to expand on this without running into conflict with what was already there and still come up with it being "creative." Fans would hate you for any mistake. With this movie, that's a thing of the past. They have a clean slate to work from, while still carrying a legacy of what we know and love.

So like I said, the characters are different, they have different backstories, etc. Yet it was lots of fun waiting to see where/when/how the next character was going to be introduced! My favorite was probably Scotty's introduction. Zachary Quinto also did an excellent Spock. In fact, overall they all did great jobs with their characters. Nero, the main enemy, was also an interesting change from past enemies. We've faced a lot of military masterminds in Trek, from Kor (though we love him as a friend), Sela, Dukat, Weyoun, Chang, and Shinzon. Nero is not one of these. His motivations in the movie are not that of a combat general, and his behavior is decidedly unmilitary (while still a terrific threat). At first, this confused me, but his own backstory makes this not only good, but the only way to have done the character well and not be cliche.

The movie was action packed, had great characters, was visually stunning, and a lot of fun. Story was great too. Go see it.


Oh, my experience of the pre-movie was also fun. Jordan's Furniture did a Trek Trivia game, and I answered the first question, first to try answering it, and got it. "Worf's father was Mogh, but who was Mogh's father?" The answer, of course, is Colonel Worf, the defense attorney for Kirk and McCoy in Star Trek VI.


One last thing. The new Uhura is HOT!!!!

Did we ever stop to think who we were hurting when we executed him? Whose livelihood depended on him? No, not one of us ever thought about it for a second.

I present you with Jerry Haleva. Ol'Jerry has played Saddam Hussein in every single credited role he has ever had.

Hot Shots! -1991
Hot Shots! Part Deux -1993
The Big Lebowski -1998
Jane Austen's Mafia! -1998
The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest -2002 (as "Hologram Saddam")
Live from Baghdad -2002

Every single role, he played Saddam Hussein, dictator of Iraq. Have you noticed anything? He hasn't had a single role since Saddam Hussein was executed! He can't get any work now!

We never think about the consequences of our actions, who we are hurting.

I have discovered that there exists a 5 minute chocolate cake recipe.

Seriously, 5 minutes, and you are eating a chocolate cake.

You add the ingredients to large mug or a small bowl, stir for 2 minutes, then microwave it for 3 minutes.

Then you eat.

YOU EAT CHOCOLATE CAKE!

I'm going to have so much cake. All mine. I'm not sharing with any of you. Well, maybe ~M-dogyo.

Maybe this will fatten me up. Nothing else seems to be doing it.

In other news, my subscription is running out in about a week. Interestingly enough, my birthday us also during this week.

Anyone want to buy me a birthday present of a sub?

Too those among the very few who did not figure it out (I pity you), yesterday's journal and forum behavior were my April Fools Joke. I am, of course, not ~maddmatt...




...or am I?





No, I'm not.

Friday, I am heading out to New Jersey. We'll be celebrating Pesach (Passover) and having the seder down there with my grand parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, distant cousins, and friends. Tons and tons of people. The first seder night is Wednesday, but I am heading out this Friday to help with all of the preparation work. I'm going out extra early because my grandmother broke her foot, so they need the extra help.

My internet activity will probably be down during this time.

So did anyone have any good April Fools experiences?

Hey folks, haven't updated in awhile.

I'm back on my Star Wars reading, now W-Xing: The Krytos Trap.

I went to a friend's to see the finale of Battlestar Galactica. At some point, I might discuss the finale. For now, without spoilers, I'll say that it was generally awesome, and that I probably enjoyed plot points that others did not. The whole experience was funny, because I've spent the entire run of BSG not caught up, usually a season or two behind broadcast. I only caught up for the last two episodes, and waiting between the two was torture. I look forward to The Plan, and most especially to Caprica. I hope no one is expecting an action show out of Caprica, I'm not.

Saturday, I went out to the Springfield/Easthampton for a couple of things. First off, I went to the Massachusetts Wing of Civil Air Patrol yearly conference. I couldn't afford to attend most of it this year, so I only went to General Assembly, usually agreed to be "the boring part." I had been hoping to receive a couple of awards during the assembly, but in one case they decided to present it later during Banquet, which would have cost a lot of money for me to attend. As it turned out, I did not receive that award, the Frank G Brewer award for Aerospace Educators. I've received two of these awards as a cadet, and I was hoping to get my first as a senior member. Oh well, I'll just have to try harder for next year. The other award was not presented at all, I am told that this was due to not enough prep time between the award request and the wing conference. I won't go into further details on this yet, as it is still in motion, and even once I do details I can give will be sketchy due to confidentiality of what was involved in earning it.

So conference itself was a bit of a bust for me. I did get to have a few personal conversations with other officers that will help set some future plans of mine in motion, such as getting orientation flights for my cadets next month, and hopefully running an Integrated Leadership School next year.

In Easthampton, I attended the The New England Webcomics Weekend. It was a good convention thing, but also a bit of a bust for me. I didn't have enough money to buy anything good, or anything at all. I didn't really know what to say to the webcomic artists that were there, or get into conversations with them, and a few that I was hoping to meet weren't there (came Sunday, the day I wasn't there). I didn't know any of the general attendees either. There was a seminar with a demonstration of the power of the Cintiq, which was basically a bunch of comic artists like Scott Kurtz (PvP) drawing requests on a giant projector. That was awesome, with things like a penguin/dolphin knife fight, a squid penis, etc. I didn't have the gas money to go out again on Sunday. I'd only justified going that far because I was in the area for the Civil Air Patrol conference. That was a bit funny, as when I arrived at the Webcomics Weekend, I was still in my Service Dress Blues uniform, walking the halls finding a bathroom to change into civies. Got a few looks from people, and at least one person I passed in the hall recognized me as Civil Air Patrol, not Air Force proper. Obviously I got into civies as fast as I could.



A few of you have expressed concern over my possible leaving dA, mainly from that poll I set up. First off, I want to say that it has nothing to do with any of you, any of my watchers. Certain someone who asked, I am alright, and you aren't the reason I'm thinking of doing this. It just may be time for me to consider leaving. It isn't something immediately coming, and I'll give everyone fair warning before I go. I'm not going to just disappear one day.

So last night, I finished reading "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War" by Max Brooks. He previously wrote "The Zombie Survival Guide," which I have not read.

The Guide is often placed in the comedy section of book stores, and from what I know of it that is fitting. A guide book on how to survive a zombie apocalypse, with advice like "go up stairs, then destroy said stairs." Funny stuff. "World War Z" is in an entirely other league. This is not a comedy book, this is not happy reading. It is gruesome, detailed, often with sad endings and making everything go wrong in just about the worse way you can imagine. It is not uplifting, not even an ending that has us "winning" the war. I suppose I can say that without it being a spoiler, right? None of you thought the zombies won, right? Meh, doesn't matter, you would have gotten the idea in the first page that humanity "wins."

While not being a comedy, this is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It's been a long time since I was so absorbed in a book as I was with "World War Z," so enamored by the apocalyptic world created, and how civilization reacted to it. Maybe "enamored" isn't the right word, but "sucked in" would be. The political interplay between nations in the lead up to the "war" and even during it, the internal conflicts between the survivors, the actions of refugees that seem so obviously self-destructive yet so obviously fitting with what one would expect from desperate human behavior.

This book is written as a series of "interviews" of people from all around the globe, telling their memories of the war, what they did, and how it progressed throughout from the first zombie sightings to the various "victories" on the various continents and islands. It is set about a decade after the official "end" of the war. Max Brooks seems to me to have done his research, the way different nations reacted and behaved, and how they ended up existing in the post war period, almost all seemed very fitting to me. I mean to say that what Russia becomes was a very Russian way of doing things, what survivors on Japan did was a very Japanese response, how Israel reacted to the threat was a very Israeli reaction (though I have one or two problems there that I won't get into so as not to give spoilers), etc.

I'd recommend this as a read. I'm normally not into apocalyptic fiction. I'll watch the Terminator movies, but now that they've gone from being pre-apocalypse to during the apocalypse, I'm weary of them. I don't get into tons of apocalyptic fiction. The closest I've really gotten in video games would be Deus Ex and Commander & Conquer 2: Tiberian Sun. I suppose one of these days I'll play Fallout, but I haven't yet. This book did it well, though. Maybe the fact that the world is obviously emerging from the apocalypse is why I still like it.

So I was watching Top Gear, and I think I have found an amazing car that I seriously want. It is small, fuel efficient, powerful, fun to drive, has the hatchback bodyform that allows for stowage space if you aren't driving many others, it has 4 seats if I want to drive with friends, and it is cheap.

In other words, the perfect car for the average young adult American who generally doesn't drive in the mountains of Colorado. I present you with the Fiat 500:



Before you say anything about my taste in cars, =k-a-t-w-a-l-k, I want you to know that even Jeremy Clarkson loved this car. Loved it. In fact, his main concern was that he could not find the "catch" that would ruin it as had been the case with the other small Fiat offerings.

135 hp in a package smaller than most American cars that only have 108 hp. Up to 150 hp if you go for the turbocharged models.

So which one of you is buying me this car when it comes to America? Only $10,000-$13,000 American.

Tagged by ~Agent-Sarah at my demand. You'll see why.

A : Easy to fall in love with.
B : You like people.
C : You are really silly.
D : One in a million.
E : Great in bed.
F : You love to drink
G : You never let people tell you what to do.
H : You are Quirky.
I : You are popular with all types of people.
J : People Adore you.
K : You're wild and crazy.
L : Unbelievably great in bed.
M : Best kisser ever.
N : You like to drink.
O : Crazy
P : Great in bed.
Q : You are a hypocrite.
S : You are dead sexy.
R : Fucking crazy.
T : You are very Loyal to the ones you love.
U : You really like to chill.
V : You are not judgmental.
W : You are very broad minded.
X : You never let people tell you what to do.
Y : Best boy/girl friend any one can ask for.
Z : Always ready.


Now for my username:

O : Crazy (well we all knew that)
U : You really like to chill. (I do?)
R : Fucking crazy. (just make sure you got it the first time)
O : Crazy ()
B : You like people. (they are tasty)
O : Crazy ()
R : Fucking crazy. ( )
O : Crazy (I didn't think I was that crazy)
S : You are dead sexy. (damn straight!)
C : You are really silly. (only when I'm drunk or happy)
O : Crazy (again!)
B : You like people. (but they seem to think I'm crazy)
R : Fucking crazy. (see! I told you.)
A : Easy to fall in love with. (yeah...)



So apparently I am crazy, fucking crazy, crazy, crazy, fucking crazy, crazy, crazy, fucking crazy. I'm noticing a pattern here.

Do you all really think I am that crazy?

(3:13:23 PM) thetifftiff: why is phonezoo advertising a dating site for gay men to me?
(3:13:56 PM) OuroborosCobra: THE SECRET IS OUT!



Phonezoo.com discovered the truth!

I just had the oddest dream last night.

It started with me working in a store, and one of my co-workers wasn't doing much any work. In fact, basically all she was doing was playing with rolling paper. Eventually, she turned out to be Karen Walker from "Will & Grace," and she gave me two joints of marijuana. Mind you, I was extremely skeptical in the dream, and concerned about the safety of the pot I was being given. I questioned her on it. I remember being convinced it was alright, but I also remember never smoking it in the dream.

One of the other co-workers was a rather attractive girl about my age who I was being very friendly with. Somehow I only knew her name as "Katee," but at the end of the work shift she told me her name was "Katee Sackhoff." Now here is where it gets a little funny. She looked exactly like Katee Sackhoff, or roughly how she looked when she was my age. In the dream, she was Katee Sackhoff's daughter, but named after her mother. I say this is "weird" because it did not occur to me in the dream that this would mean the real Katee Sackhoff having a daughter at the age of about 5.

We'll call the one in my dream "Katee Sackhoff Jr.," I guess. She and I actually ended up hitting it off rather well, with her being happy that I had not immediately realized who she was related to, meaning I was interested in her for her and not her mother. In retrospect, I'm not sure how I hadn't made the connection, but this was a dream, after all.

Basically, after that, I remember going to a roof of a building and watching a beautiful sunset with her.

This was a really weird dream. Not altogether a bad one, though

I've organized a DevMeet in Cambridge (right near Boston) for Thursday, 29 January. Here is a link to a thread on it.

[link]

Any of you around should come! Seriously, come and meet people! We've got a few from MA, and at least one from NH.

Come on out, folks.

First off, I'd like to thank all of you for voting me as the "Best in Politics" in this years Forum Newsletter Gala. Though it is quite sad in some ways to get recognized as the "best" of that den of sin.

I have a feeling my winning mostly came out of name recognition. The other candidates don't spend much time in other forums, or involved in the drama of other deviants. I try not to do too much of that, but I know I am "well known" around these parts.

So my prize is a nifty stamp.



Cool beans, huh?

Thanks again, folks.

In other news, I may be making a new chat channel for the Politics Forum, since the current one is having a problem with certain people abusing their power "for the lulz" and not realizing why some people might take offense to getting kicked, repeatedly, when someone else says "eat my dick, faggot."




In other news, my subscription runs out shortly. I hate that.



Lastly, I'll be pretty busy for the next few days, and might not be online much. I have my standard CAP meeting today, as well as the middle school "aviation and space" club I help run tomorrow. Might be online a bit those days. Friday evening thru Sunday evening, I am commanding a Leadership School, so I'll likely not be online at all during that time.

I'm a dick.

=thetifftiff and I are apparently the newest "item" on dA. We've been listed as "it's complicated" on Facebook for a couple of weeks now.

A bunch of you have been oblivious, despite very many obvious signs on dA.



Most definitely



should have been a good hint.

Yet here you are, being dumb. [link]

You apparently are oblivious

Here's how to get him:

(4:13:03 AM) Timmy64: I'd go straight for Monica Bellucci
(4:13:38 AM) Timmy64:
(4:14:31 AM) OuroborosCobra: really
(4:14:49 AM) Timmy64: only woman I would
(4:15:10 AM) Timmy64: I'd also go straight if faced with Tom Cruise, but that's for other reasons
(4:15:24 AM) OuroborosCobra:


You heard it here first. That's what you need to, girls. Be Monica Bellucci.

Well, do you have Twitter? Note me if you do.

I'm sorry =thetifftiff, but I can't live a lie anymore!

I can't keep hiding the truth from all of DeviantART!


Here it is, everyone. have been staying up late every night, spending hours on MSN with each other.

We are plotting to take over Equatorial Guinea.

There, I'm free from the secret!

So, I'm headed off to Virginia (DC area) for Thanksgiving tomorrow. We'll be staying with my aunt and uncle, and celebrating with them. I've never been to their house, so I have no idea what the internet access is like, if they have wifi, etc.

I'm looking forward to this trip. I haven't gotten to see my uncle much in my life, and haven't met my aunt that many times (two that I can think of). While down there, I'm also hoping to get a chance to see some of the DC area. Maybe some of the Smithsonian, or the Capital, etc. Might also like to see Arlington.

I'll be coming home on Friday.

Imagine it. Influenza and tetanus viruses flowing through the bloodstream. The immune system responds, but it has an advantage, a deadly advantage.

The viruses are "dead." They are incapable (mostly) of making the victim actually get sick. After this fight, the door to future infection will get slammed shut for later viruses.

For this was a vaccination.


Yup, I got vaccinated against influenza (the flu) and tetanus. I got it for free, too. Well, free in that I spent seven or so hours working at a public flu clinic. I had another senior member with me, and three of my cadets. Our assignment was to ride the buses to and from the various town senior citizen centers, and help them on and off the buses, help them get where they needed to go, and keep our eyes out for people that need even more help.

It ended up not being very busy. Four hours of riding the bus after two hours of setting up, and we only picked up two people. Basically, almost everyone already had their flu shots in earlier weeks, or they drove themselves to the clinic. The last hour was help with cleanup, and taking everything down.



We were there to help, and did. Whether it was busy or not, the goal was to help the community. Of course, my arm is now sore from the tetanus shot

My cadets did performed well. I'm very happy with this, as this was the first time we had worked with the town's local emergency services group since we moved the squadron here a couple of years ago. They are interested in continuing to work with us on various exercises.

So I've seen Max Payne and Quantum of Solace recently. Anyone want reviews?

I'm done.

Seriously, no more.

If I have another day like today, I'm out. There is a limit to how much I can put up with my parents issues with each other. There is a limit to how much I can be supportive for my mother, too.

I won't go overly into details, but today was it. Too much. I can't keep doing this.

It will kill me if I keep this up.

So, I was not told that I was picking someone up from the doctor's visit until 15 minutes before they needed picking up, giving me no time for breakfast.

I got there, only to see that someone else was already there to drive them.

I helped someone pick up a prescription, only to find that the doctor had not put a date on it, meaning we couldn't pick it up. 30 minutes of waiting for phone calls didn't help either.

I went to Cambridge, only to find that the street I used to get from the subway station to my destination no longer existed. Mind you, I had seen this street a couple of days before.

I waited in the store for two hours, waiting for my sister to arrive per the plans that apparently never existed.

I discovered that a phone call I am sure happened apparently did not.

Once she arrived, I dealt with the madness of the suggestion of using dice instead of poker chips for counting gold, as well as trying to get my head around how dice only last one year.

Oh yeah, there was also the room that appeared out of nowhere.

At least I won my first ever game of Three Dragon Ante, and got some G33k B33r out of the experience.

So how was your day?

OK, I've decided to start a journal meme. I'm gonna tag people with the fun of this journal-ism. Why, we could even call it "journalism," though it isn't.

The rules:

Answer the two questions, and then tag 5 people.

Questions:


1) What weird OCD like behavior do you have?

My basement steps are plain wood. Whenever I go to the basement barefoot, I have to step on only the right side of the steps, and only the front edge. This is because I convinced myself when I was much younger that I had gotten all of the splinters possible out of the wood there, and was therefore safe from future splinters. Oddly enough, I've been right, and have never gotten anymore splinters since I started this practice.


2) What very odd thing does your body do?

I get heartburn whenever I eat blueberry pie. No other pies, just blueberry. The problem being, I love blueberry pie! I eat it knowing it will give me heartburn, yet I cannot stop.


So tag 5 people.
I tag:

From the magical world of MSN, in a conversation resulting from the following post [link]

(7:09:18 PM) p-u-r-i-n: the one reason that really weirds me out is something like
"boys want to look the same as their father"
when does the average little boy see their father's penis?

(7:09:47 PM) OuroborosCobra: when he is teaching them how to pee standing up

(7:10:17 PM) p-u-r-i-n: stop debunking the things i say with logical answers!

(7:10:32 PM) OuroborosCobra:

So I might be leaving the forums, or at least the politics forum, but not because of any drama, not because of being upset with others, or any crap like that.

The politics forum suddenly doesn't hold the same appeal to me, anymore.

I watched the results of the election on Tuesday like everyone else. I went to the watch party hosted by the candidate I voted for state senate.

He won. Obama won (obviously). At 11 PM, the room exploded at the news. I mean, most of us knew it was likely, or going to happen, Ohio pretty much guaranteed that. Still, though, seeing it on the screen, seeing the reality of it, just hits you. Hit all of us. The nightmare of 8 years was over. More than that, more than just getting a Democrat, we got this Democrat. Obama is an amazing person, someone who I hope goes down with people like Kennedy, LBJ (before he got sidetracked with Vietnam), and other greats of US history. This is history being made, in so many ways.

So why do I suddenly not feel like being on the forums? For the first time, there isn't a huge political goal, in terms of what party I want in office or something like that. The goal happened.

For the first time in my life, I am not in the opposition to any political office or body above, from my town selectman to the president of the nation. I'm the majority party in all of them. I am still processing this. It is like, in one day, my entire look at my government has shifted. It isn't like all of those levels changed at once, but it just hit me that they indeed have all changed.

When I came to the Politics Forum, two years ago, I had a Republican governor, Mitt Romney. I had fears that he would be my next president. I had a Republican controlled US House of Representatives, and a Republican controlled US Senate. Most of all, I had a Republican president and executive branch.

Now, I have a Democrat town Board of Selectmen, Democrat Massachusetts House of Representatives, Democrat Massachusetts General Court (state senate), Democrat Governor of Massachusetts, Democrat US House of Representatives, Democrat US Senate, Democrat US President and executive branch.

I'm not in the opposition, anywhere.

The forum doesn't seem the same to me without that feeling.

So first off, I has a new sub.






I likes =thetifftiff, even if I am a shameless begger. It did brighten up my day getting those. Also, guess what this means?

GREEN ALIENS!!!!

All of my journals will have green aliens.

_{You have been warned.}


OK, I'm considering starting a new literary project. This will be a work of non-fiction. Essentially, some writing that I'll be doing to dispel common myths regarding the American Revolution. I had been planning to do this related to the election, and intentionally prior to the election. It amazes me how many people have wrong ideas regarding the causes of the election and the principles that were fought for, and vote based on that. How many times have you heard people say that we fought the Revolution to end taxation? Nothing could be further from the truth. People will say, "No taxation without representation," but they don't listen to what they say.

Will anyone read my little essays? Probably not, but they give me something to do other than worry about all of the things going wrong in the world and my life.



I'll be spending tomorrow night at a local hotel, at an event to watch the results of the election being hosted by the guy I am voting for state senate. It is free, with free appetizers and stuff. Yay for being able to eat, and have fun with fellows of the political leanings

So assuming my mother's surgery goes well, I'll be going with *k-a-t-w-a-l-k to Salem for Halloween.

I'm thinking of making this a devMEET, if Kat and I can figure out the details. I know a few other deviants that live in the same general area.

I also need help trying to figure out what to do for a costume.

It needs to be something related to Martha Carrier.

[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]

Basically, she was one of those accused of witchcraft and executed at Salem. She also happens to be my great great great great great grandmother, or something.

I plan to have a list of my lineage to her on my costume, but past that I'm out of ideas. I don't think I have time or money to make some sort of crossdressing costume that will do justice, but I'd be willing to entertain the idea. I would personal prefer an idea that does not involve me dressing up as a woman.

I only have until Wednesday to come up with an idea. I'm going to Salem on Halloween, but I don't want to be working on this after the surgery.

Any ideas?


Also my subscription to dA ends tomorrow

I was going to say nothing about this, lay low or something, but I've already noticed my pageviews today spiking so I have a feeling that I'm being blamed for stuff somehow, or something.

I'll make my statement on the matter here. If I'm being blamed for stuff, you'll know it is false. I don't feel the need to defend any of my actions, since none of my actions led to today's "dArama".



As most of you know, !nihilSS was banned.

I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS

I did not file a report on !nihilSS. I didn't go to the help desk, and file a policy inquiry on her. I didn't report her to the staff.

I never have. I didn't in the past, I didn't during all of this. Her ban was not the result of me.

Yes, I know I am repeating myself quite a bit, but I feel that it all needs to sink in to certain people before the blame goes flying around.


I would remind people of some of what I said in my previous journals on Nazis. I said that I understood that they were allowed to be here, as long as they did not violate existing policies. I clearly said that I did not want these policies changed. I did not want the policies changed to make it "illegal" for Nazis to be here, as long as they didn't break the etiquette policies we already have.

For the record, during all of this crisis, I have only made two things resembling "reporting." I flat out reported one person to the help desk for posting hate speech on my page in blatant violation of the etiquette policy, that was !nihiline, NOT !nihilSS. In addition, I sent a private note to a staff member asking if something else was "worth" making a report to the help desk on. The answer I got was "probably not", so I let that go, didn't make a report. I'm not going to say who this was, or what action prompted this, but I'll tell you now that IT WAS NOT !nihilSS.




I don't know why she was banned. Am I sad to see her gone? No. Do I have reason to believe it was some mass conspiracy theory against Nazis and the like? No. $chix0r has made clear in many places that this simply is not the case, !nihilSS wasn't banned for a swastika avatar, etc. Something else happened here, something that !nihilSS did that was either in direct violation of policy, or a repeated action on her part that she refused to stop doing despite getting multiple warnings.

Like I said, I don't know the reason. Only that I had nothing to do with it.




Do I see this as a "victory" in my so called "war", which isn't even a war at all since the only action I had considered taking was leaving the site, not starting an anti-Nazi club, not writing complaints threads, not taking any action past my browsing habits.

No, this is not a victory for me.

If you read my journals on all of this, my problem wasn't with !nihilSS. Her presence on deviantART wasn't what was driving me to leave. Staff allowing her to be on deviantART wasn't driving me to leave. The way the community treated her, and others, embracing them as their own, even going so far as to defend her and push historical revisionist Nazi propaganda [link] onto the communities general acceptance.

The community was my problem. The community isn't going to be changed by !nihilSS' ban.


So that's that, hopefully the final word I have to make on this subject. Hopefully the dArama ends soon. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the page views, but this is all getting mighty old.

...I may be offline a significant portion of next week.

My mother had a colonoscopy a couple of weeks ago. They found a number of polyps, many they removed during the colonoscopy. This in itself is not unusual, normally once they start doing regular colonoscopies in your 50s, they find small polyps and just get rid of them simply and easily.

Unfortunately, they also found a very large polyp they is being called "pre-cancerous". For those who do not know, colon cancer evolves from these polyps. It turns out we also have some family history of colon cancer, though not much.

This polyp is large enough that they have decided to remove it through surgery. They will be removing a third of her colon to do this, then attaching the two remaining sections of her colon together.

This will be happening next Wednesday, 29 October. There are risks associated with this. In addition to the standard risks with any major surgery. In addition, this one has its own special risks, such as the colon closing up during healing, etc.

She will be in recovery for about 4 days. I'll be spending a lot of time at the hospital, and with other family that is coming up from New Jersey to be with her.

I may be able to get online during this time, or I may not.

Alright, as many of you know, I circulated a note yesterday explaining my position on the current stuff going on, and explaining why I might be leaving deviantART.

I originally kept this private because, let's face it, it is a call out journal. It is, and I don't deny it. It also continues the drama. I received a lot of support from my friends in notes, and *LadyJafaria went out on a limb and made her position on all of this public in her journal. [link]

They have my back, she has my back, so I'm going to have their back. I'm not going to make it seem like she is "bawwing" over nothing, I'm not going to leave her hanging in the wind.

You all can see it here.

Let me say, I'm probably not leaving deviantART anymore. I'm still thinking about how much I want to be involved in this place, and I might leave the forums for awhile (especially Complaints).

Without further delay, the note:


------------------------------------------


Hi everyone. I'm sending this note to those on here who I consider among my closest friends on this site. I wanted to give you a private heads up that I am considering leaving. I know this is going to be long, but I ask you all to please read it. I'd do it for you, I promise

I'm not making this decision lightly, but I'm frankly not happy with the community here. With the deviants here. There is an overwhelming acceptance of Nazis by the community on this site. Not just acceptance, but befriending and defense of, as well as naivety. This has all become especially apparent to me given current situations.

Openly in a complaint written by one of these Nazis, I was accused not so much by *nihilSS as by the public at large of “BAAAAWWWWWWING” and whiny and other crap. I suppose I could be described of being guilty of that now, given this note I am writing, but at the time all I had done was ban a prick from my page. I wasn't the one writing a page long complaint about it. In fact, I was being apathetic about the whole thing.

As time has gone on from the event in question, I received hate speech from a Nazi. I made clear that I would not tolerate that, yes, because at the time more and more Nazis were coming to my page to “comment”.

I'm digressing, though. Back to the community here. I have no problem with Nazis being allowed to be members of deviantART, as long as they do not violate the established policies. I don't want any of those policies changed. I do not have a problem with any of the staff here. The thing is, being allowed to be a member of dA doesn't mean that the community at large needs to be accepting and befriending of you. Not when you are sporting a swastika in your avatar, not when your art is posting a Nazi ideology, and not when you openly declare that you support genocide and are a murderer.

Yet that is what we have here, on deviantART. A community that welcomes, befriends, and even goes so far as to defend Nazis. Look at *nihilSS and her current spat with $Stykera over her threads being locked, or even the thread about me. Almost everyone flocked to her defense, and is making out $Stykera and myself to be the villains. A staff member and myself are somehow worse than a Holocaust denying racist, or in =kombat-unit's case, a genocide advocating murderer.

There is an idea on dA that one can be a Nazi by subscribing only to their "political" and not “racial” ideology. If that were the case, they would not choose to be Nazis. There are other parties with similar political ideologies, such as straight fascism, but they choose to be Nazis. They could even make their own party, by they choose Nazism. In the end, you cannot separate their racial ideologies from their political ones, as they are one and the... ]]> =OuroborosCobra http://OuroborosCobra.deviantart.com/journal/21049947/ http://OuroborosCobra.deviantart.com/journal/21049947/ Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:51:46 PDT  

I cringe whenever I hear the name "Frank McCourt".

Seriously, I couldn't even watch a program about the pubs of Dublin that he did.

I'm not afraid of you. I am not going to roll over just because you say die.

You can keep coming here, and I can keep blocking you, one by one. In fact, it is easier for me to block you than it is for you to go call your friends or make fake accounts. I'm not accusing you of a concerted effort here, but I've never had much in the way of Nazis prowling my site, and now I have at last three.

Actually, one less now. Because of the fact that I won't just do what you want, won't just roll over and let you have the place, there is now one less of you on DeviantART.


One of you is perma-banned. Because I reported him.


Did you think that I wouldn't know what "JUDEN RAUS" meant? That I have not seen the pictures of Jewish and Holocaust sites you Nazis have vandalized with swastikas, racial slurs, and almost without fail the words "JUDEN RAUS"?

What could possibly make you think that copying the shouts of the Nazi crowds in Germany (at Nazism's height) would make me surrender? Why would you possibly think that shouting "Jew get out" in German was going to make me leave, or result in anything but your being banned?

Let me be as clear as I was in my last journal. I did not remove my avatar to be nice to you. I did not remove it as a nice gesture to Nazis. I removed it to be nice to the community at large, and end some dumb dArama.

Yet despite this, you put hate speech on my page after the avatar was taken down. So I now make this declaration. As my avatar did not violate policy, as the dA staff did not ask me to take it down, I will very likely bring it back should these Nazi attacks continue.

I am not afraid of you. In your attacks you will find defiance, not fear. You will also find your accounts shut down for violating policy.

Many of you may know about the avatar "crisis" (if you can even call it that).

I've restored my old avatar in the interest of community relations and being a nice guy. Not out of an order from the dA staff, and not out of "relenting" in any argument.

I'm going to talk about all of this a little bit. First off, this avatar was not my idea. It was not my creation. I did not request it. I blame all of that on =Sir-Pimpalot (sorry buddy), he came up with the idea, he made it, etc. Two nights ago, he approached me on MSN with it and suggested that I do it for fun.

Why did I say yes? Because for some reason the community on dA has decided to be highly accepting on Nazis. I'm not talking about the staff. I'm not talking about the fact that they aren't banned on sight. I understand that just fine. What I do not understand is treating people who profess to Nazi ideology, who brag about killing people for the pleasure of it, etc., are then treated as "just one of the guys" in this forum.

Sadly this is even spreading into other areas. Declare yourself a pedophile? We'll all have a laugh about it. Great.

So no, my avatar was not targeted at any one person, and my choosing to sport it wasn't. It was targeted at dA as a whole and its acceptance of Nazis as more than just members of the site, but as respected members of the community.

I did not block the deviant who I shall not name because of the argument. I blocked them because they are a Nazi, and I don't need to waste time playing with them on my page. Forums is one thing, but this is my page, and until I either leave or dA for some reason decides to ban me, it is still mine. Talk with you on the forums? Sure. Have your comments on my main page, allow you to play with on my page, etc.? I don't have to let you do it, and I have chosen not to.

Big deal.

I find funny how I am apparently full of "BAWWWWIIINNNGG" when I write short replies in that thread. It isn't like I wrote a page long complain about my butthurt at getting blocked. I didn't make a complaint when ~Kajm blocked me, or anyone else.


So I've gone back to my old avatar. We can all go back to our normal lives, I suppose. I won't entertain requests to bring the fun one back.

I went to the Oktoberfest in Cambridge (MA) today.

It was pretty good. Lot's of vendors selling stuff (that I could not afford), the occasional free sample.

There was even the Longest Sofa in the World, which I got to sit on. It was red.

The line to get beer was long, too long. I went to all of this with my sister, who lives in Cambridge, and she did not feel like waiting on line. No Samuel Adams at the Oktoberfest for me.

Then we went to Uno's, and had some beer. It was pretty good, actually, almost as good as fresh from the brewery. I've also been ordered to take her to the brewery sometime in the near future, sometime over the next couple of weeks. Should be good, the last tour I went on was.

Later tonight I saw a commercial for a penis pump. THOSE THINGS ARE ACTUALLY REAL

_{Austin Powers didn't invent them after all}

Can we shut up with the Hussein thing now?

I will be gone for a day or so for Yom Kippur. No online.

Cannot be bothered to get the mood to change.

I swear if I hear McCain say "Obama's cronies" one more time...

Seriously, this is the guy who keeps saying Obama hasn't been around long enough in national politics. How do you have an army of cronies if you haven't been around long enough to get them!

Also apparently educating children is a terrible thing. After all, a projector at a planetarium in Chicago is frivolous spending! Nevermind that we have a shortage of Americans entering the scientific fields. Nevermind the number of scientists today who when you ask what encouraged them to enter the sciences will answer, "an amazing experience at the Hayden Planetarium as a child." No, educating children and creating a foundation for future scientists is frivolous and harmful for America.

Also, this crap about small businesses. McCain can lie about "over 50%" all he wants, it isn't true. In addition, while small businesses may represent the "American dream", how many of us really work for them? If you are an engineer, you probably work for a big company. If you are a factory worker, you probably won't find a small business building cars. In addition, this crappy economy is choking small businesses. Many won't even be around come January and the new administration. I know of one personally which is probably going to be gone by December, and many more cutting huge amounts of their workforce to the point that they won't be able to do business.

Also, apparently McCain doesn't know the difference between health care and Medicare, and I find that frightening. I'd brush that off as a one off mistake, but during a long answer to a question on health care McCain continually said "Medicare" at every instance.

McCain talks about how he supported operations in Bosnia and Kosovo, then turns around and says he opposes "peace making" operations. What do you think those were? When we went into Kosovo, there were active hostilities going on, an active attempt at genocide. We MADE that peace, by forcing Serbia to withdraw. The peace didn't exist when we went in. But he goes on and on saying he opposes "peace making."

So, I hit 30,000 forum posts on Friday, 3 October 2008. Thanks to ~sonicbutterfly for giving me a heads up that I was getting close. I got her warning when I hit 29,999, and immediately stopped posting.

I wasn't sure I wanted to be in the 30k club, but deciding that was acceptable I needed to make that post worthwhile. I did by creating my own thread, regarding Jack Thompson and videogame violence [link]

I also made a screenshot of my page on 30,000



So fellow forumers, would the forums be a better place without me? Should I retire?