Well I have news…


Ahem.


FEAR ME! For I now am the proud, and slightly more unhinged owner of a Sony Vaio!


Muahahahahahahahaha.


Okay in all seriousness though, I do have a pretty sweet computer now.

Yesterday I had battle of the bands.

It was fun but the audience had a problem with shutting the fuck up.
And it annoyed me.


I played:

Beelz - Stephen Lynch
Stella - Joseph B*u*c*n* (oooh last name!!!)
Sitting Waiting Wishing - Jack Johnson (as a duet)

and then with my band:

Song 2 - Blur
Creep - Radiohead
Drive - Incubus
Are You Gonna Be My Girl? - Jet


and we got 3rd place. (say what now?)

I didn't expect it cause we f*cked up big time but we had a huge influence in the audience. (and there were only six bands so…)

I've been following the Egypt protests all day, they are fascinating and exciting. I've had the Al Jazeera live web feed going on my laptop more or less since evening Friday and it's difficult to be away from it for too long. Al Jazeera is great, they've had a couple of hosts/anchors really call some of their talkers out on their bullshit, like one lady who was challenging a guy who was saying Mubarak was elected and some other stuff. Some amazing highlights from the past few days:

1. over 50,000 remarkably peaceful protestors in Cairo and more elsewhere
2. army standing by only to keep order, and occasionally protecting protestors from the police, letting protestors hang out on their vehicles and stuff
3. Mubarak giving an odd rambling TV speech disconnected from reality where he says the protestors are able to protest because they have been given LOTS of freedom, and that he cares about them, and about poor people, and he's going to sack his cabinet and appoint a new one, and ‘open dialogue’ (which he has promised many times and not done)
4. Mubarak appointing former cabinet people to different cabinet roles as the new cabinet
5. protestors and army working together to protect the Egyptian Museum from looters (sadly, some got in and destroyed several artifacts)
6. reports from multiple sources that the the looters and violent people which have been caught are carrying government IDs, are undercover police, etc.
7. Lots of annoyance that many world leaders are not taking sides other than “the government should listen to its people”

Of course along with this many people have died (over 100 so far) and AJE has shown footage from morgues and other places. While it is terrible these people have lost their lives it is inspiring to know that people believe in their rights and their identity to that extent.

skoolmunkee
7. Lots of annoyance that many world leaders are not taking sides other than “the government should listen to its people”

Of course along with this many people have died (over 100 so far) and AJE has shown footage from morgues and other places. While it is terrible these people have lost their lives it is inspiring to know that people believe in their rights and their identity to that extent.

I haven't been following the reports. I'm aware of the situation though.
Part of the reason governments don't want to take sides is that Mubarak's government is seen as moderate. They need to keep him on side to help with political stability in the region- especially with Israel right next door.
One of the most long standing voices for change in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood, who are outlawed… The trouble is that the sort of “change” they want is a move toward religious conservatism and away from the secular state.

This is why the protest movements in Tunisia and Egypt are a little worrying to me.

political statement no one agrees with.
—-

i realize i can't comment on this subject without offending someone.

I am not really qualified to talk about the middle east, but it's my understanding that the Brotherhood are not really involved, and although they are the majority of political opposition they aren't the only one. What's going on in Egypt seems very ground-up and not partcularly incited or led by anything other than it's peoples' own dissatisfaction. Besides, I don't really believe that nations like the US should be supporting Israel as much as they do, because Israel is a huge jerk of a country. It would be only right for the US to have fewer and fewer allies in the middle east.

Anyway the world leaders waffling on sides is understandable, as they profited under Mubarak and are reluctant to admit they were supporting something that has made Egyptian people deeply unhappy, yet the outcome isn't clear enough for them to predict who will come out on top. I don't get the impression that the protestors will stop until they are satisfied or forced to stop. Today is a lot more violent and chaotic than yesterday was, and I don't think Mubarak holding out is going to improve the situation.


It is depressing to read news about this on other sources though, like yahoo news and some British news sites. Way too many people commenting about how “Egypt doesn't deserve to have its treasures back” and “oh no my holiday next week is ruined” for them all to be ‘ironic.’

skoolmunkee
5. protestors and army working together to protect the Egyptian Museum from looters (sadly, some got in and destroyed several artifacts)

It may be cynical, but this seems like the biggest atrocity to me. With a place as rich in history is Egypt, tampering with any sort of artifact is a travesty not only to their people, but also to the rest of the world. Something like that needs to be preserved so that the entire world can enjoy the story of past events that it brings us.

Well it sounds like the protestors and army agree with you. :] There are a lot of reports that the museum looters were policemen in plain clothes, and when the army caught them they let them go because of that. It sort of makes sense as apparently there are no artifacts missing, only destroyed.

Is it possible for a truth to become a lie just because you cannot understand the truth?

If that is true, then I guess anyone who cannot understand rocket science or brain surgery or quantum physics can call those sciences a pack of lies…

lol!

spammers.

I'm feeling good. 3 drinks have me buzzed. good times with moderate americans.

It is soooooooooooooooooooo hot and humid here… -_-
Being sweaty and smelly not long after each shower is annoying.

The Southern hemisphere is baking down here! Send us some of your snow you selfish bastards!

——————
I love how the Egyptian tanks and APCs are all old US models, haha! That's a big break with oppressive middle eastern government tradition!

ozoneocean
The Southern hemisphere is baking down here! Send us some of your snow you selfish bastards!

I'd be happy to send you some of our cold. -39C today apparently, so I could give you like half of that and I'm sure no one would miss it.


Crap, I'm going to freeze walking to work. I left my scarf in my mom's car. D:

ozoneocean
The Southern hemisphere is baking down here! Send us some of your snow you selfish bastards!

soitenly, Mr Charming. It's yours


NJ hasn't had this snowy a winter for decades, and we just don't know where to put all the stuff. You can see that the streets are clear, once you can get on the street. Since we all have some pretty serious snow walls, the most dangerous part of driving right now is getting out of your driveway.

So, Oz, is this year particularly hot, or is this an annual suffering?

—

@Hippie Van

-30+C Yikes!

Weather around here is being schizophrenic. One week it's barely busting the lower forties, next the highs in the sixties and seventies. (Fahrenheit, sorry too lazy to do the calculations to convert to Celsius).
———————————–
Cows with guns, and wildebeest with machetes
———————————–

Got an apache server running on my machine now. (Woot, now I can start learning PHP and MySQL).

Need to get a hold of the guy in charge of the MSDNAA here. (MSDNAA is a program that allows schools to sign up and register students so they can get some pretty nice development tools) I still need to get Visual Studio and I'd like to get the Expression studio again so I can play around with XAML and Silverlight.

Oh and the Mafia game is getting crazy, too bad I DIED.

good old new england and their good old snow.

@ Salsa: You don't even know the half of it mr deadective


My band's been offered two more gigs.
That makes me feel great.


I have $130 to my name right now.
DO YOU KNOW HOW PSYCHED I AM?!!!

…sadly, very psyched.

And I'm going to waste it away on a $200 16 GB Zune HD (with the aid of gift cards).


I am so lame.


But in other news random thinks I say SUCK too much so SUCK that and SUCK me and SUCK the world!!!

SUCK!

lulz. snow.

I think i posted some pictures last year about snow. this year we've got about half as much, but it comes down a little bit at a time.

—-is making funny name for the gay wildebeast dots the new thing? cause i'm all about new stuff—

i'm having fun GMing the mafia game. it's more fun than being a participant. It's like being a god who allows free will within a set of rules. it's pretty damn awesome.

but that's not why i'm here…
dasherdancerprancer

when i read the word interesting, i pronounce it enter-rest-ting, when i have no spelled out version i say “int-res-ting”

Hmmm, I pronounce it “in-tress-ting” when I'm talking or reading.

When I'm typing I pronounce “enter-rest-ing” in order to get the spelling right.

very interesting.
——–
Wildebeest stampeding Apple's headquarters.
——–

Slowly but surely getting everything on this rig.

I am really liking this computer.
——–
Wildebeest designing a new programming language
——–

I hope everything in Egypt gets settled and the outcome means a better life for the people living there. Main reason I don't watch the news, if it's not stupid, it's depressing, and sometimes it's both.

We need a new CD at work, but I have no idea what to put on one that would be “acceptable to all tastes.”
All my music is weird. :/ Except The Beatles, but we've already kind of exhausted that.

Suggestions are more than welcome.

ozoneocean
It is soooooooooooooooooooo hot and humid here… -_-
Being sweaty and smelly not long after each shower is annoying.

The Southern hemisphere is baking down here! Send us some of your snow you selfish bastards!

——————
I love how the Egyptian tanks and APCs are all old US models, haha! That's a big break with oppressive middle eastern government tradition!

The Egyptian army has been using US equipment since the mid-1970s. They learned their lesson in 1973 that Soviet Bloc equipment is crap. My old unit sent some senior NCOs to transition them into the M60A3. I was asked to go too.

—-

Along with Ayesinback I am also running out of space to shovel the snow. I have four-five foot high ramparts around my drive-way and sidewalk. Any more snow and I won't have anyplace to shovel it.

Hey Ayesinback! maybe you and I should rent a container ship and send ozoneocean some of our snow.

—
I was bemoaning how I wasn't getting anything done on the comic, realized I was running out of updates and put together the pages to keep it going until the end of February. It's nice having all the panels done and I just have to assemble the pages and put in the speech balloons. :)

bravo1102
The Egyptian army has been using US equipment since the mid-1970s. They learned their lesson in 1973 that Soviet Bloc equipment is crap.

Ha! More likely it was a military aid deal to sweeten the pact with their new ally. ;)
That's how those things work and why they had Soviet tanks in the first place. Friends with benefits, win win- they get slightly newer stuff, great support, training, supplies all at a knock down price and the US gets some money for mothballed stuff that was just going to rust otherwise.
All governments do the same thing when they've got surplus military equipment and allies to pacify.

Why didn't you do over and help train them?
————————-

Refrigerate that sucker or it'll be a sea-tainer full of water ^_^


Too bad I'm going over there in the Summertime… Not that it was very hot last year.

Hippie Van
We need a new CD at work, but I have no idea what to put on one that would be “acceptable to all tastes.”
All my music is weird. :/ Except The Beatles, but we've already kind of exhausted that.

Suggestions are more than welcome.

Tricky. I've never had any complaints with Desmond Decker:

Ironscarf

Hippie Van
We need a new CD at work, but I have no idea what to put on one that would be “acceptable to all tastes.”
All my music is weird. :/ Except The Beatles, but we've already kind of exhausted that.

Suggestions are more than welcome.

Tricky. I've never had any complaints with Desmond Decker:

You need to tick the box “use old embed code” on youtube now.
They changed their default system to lame iframes.

Oh thanks - saved me at least an hour of head scratching.

—

Apparently you can draw on an iPad just as well as your average Wacom. Wish I could afford something that portable - drawing without having to get out of bed sounds appealing.

Ironscarf
Apparently you can draw on an iPad just as well as your average Wacom. Wish I could afford something that portable - drawing without having to get out of bed sounds appealing.

I can't speak from personal experience, not having an ipad, but I'd say that was untrue.
-Simply because of the lack of inbuilt pressure sensitivity hardware/software combo that makes any Wacom so fab :)

But, if you like the drawing aspect, even if it's not as good as your average Wacom , any tablet or touchsceen device can do that. Actually, many of the old expensive Windows tablets actually do use Wacom tech so those will be as good as a the cheaper Wacom tablets. And there's the Axitron modbook if you like Macs- that's made with Wacom tech too.


Any iOS device (ipad, iphone etc) and any Android device will allow you to do some nice finger-painting, and even some great pen drawing if you buy a special stylus for them.

There are heaps of great drawing programs, even some with pressure sensitivity, at least on Android- They calculate pressure based on the surface area of the thing touching them: a harder press has more area.
I don't think that ability is officially allowed on iOS devices yet though so you'd have to use a hacked one..?

But of course, no Android or iOS device will touch the sides of what you can do with a real Wacom with a full computer behind it, there are just too many limits. But they're good for less ambitious stuff.

ozoneocean

bravo1102
The Egyptian army has been using US equipment since the mid-1970s. They learned their lesson in 1973 that Soviet Bloc equipment is crap.

Ha! More likely it was a military aid deal to sweeten the pact with their new ally. ;)
Why didn't you do over and help train them?
————————-

Refrigerate that sucker or it'll be a sea-tainer full of water ^_^

After the debacle of 1973 the Egyptians wanted US equipment because the guys who beat them had US equipment. The Egyptian military was especially happy with the performance of the tank introduced to combat in 1973 the M60A1. The Egyptians already had M113s. The Egyptian military lobbied their government for American equipment. Since Soviet bloc aircraft had proven adequate they kept those. That's from the Egyptian tankers I met down in Fort Knox. They loved our equipment and hated the Russian crap.

In Desert Storm the Egyptians showed up the Syrians big time. The Syrians had T-72s and the Egyptians had M60A3s. The Kuwaitis were smart and bought Former Yugoslavian T-72s which are produced to a higher standard than the Russian.

The military gets decent equipment, the politicians think they're making a great deal buying friends with equipment and everyone is happy. Now explain how the Germans bought the Greeks by dumping all their ex-East German gear on them. And why the South Koreans are buying Russian tanks and APCs? Arms deals make strange bedfellows and the Pols often don't know what the arms dealers are doing under their noses.

I could have gone to Taiwan too the other military mission was to UAE. I had just had my car accident so I wasn't liable for deployment.

—-

So Egypt will fall and the Iranians will form a new Islamic Empire as foretold by Nostradamus. And Gabrielle Giffords will continue her miraculous recovery because she is actually the Anti-Christ and according to Revelation (And Hal Lindsey) the Anti-Christ is supposed to miraculously recover from a head wound.

I just got into a bit of a row with my vet, lol.

My cat Annie will only eat wet food so I went to get her teeth checked. If she’s just fussy that’s fine but if she won’t eat dry because her teeth are bugging her that’s no good.

First the vet tells me that a lot of people think now that cats should only eat wet and no dry whatsoever anyways. So I was like well that’s good, I’m just a bit worried that her teeth will get bad if she’s only eating wet food.

So she gave me a sample of Royal Canin(who I’m 100% positive pay my vet to promote their food) Dental food to try. I was like, what? I just told you my cat won’t eat dry food!

I talk to her a bit more about pet nutrition and she tells me that holistic food is a “marketing scam” because if you put blueberries in a food, it doesn’t matter because a cat is a carnivore. I point out that Royal Canin has quite a lot of corn in it as filler, which I don’t like and seems worse to me than blueberries. She tells me that if it’s in there, it’s for a reason and based off of generations and generations of testing. Even though corn is a well-known filler in cheaper brands of pet food, apparently Royal Canin has determined that it’s very healthy and should make up the majority of their food. How interesting.

So apparently paying extra for no by-products, good-quality ingredients and some extra fruits and vegetables for good measure is a huge scam, but paying even more for corn and bigger kibble is totally legit. What a horribly dishonest and hypocritical woman.

bravo1102
After the debacle of 1973 the Egyptians wanted US equipment because the guys who beat them had US equipment.

You of all people know very well that “this country's stuff is crap” isn't a real argument when it comes to war machines and that's not why Israel won.
Especially you.
Though I'm very sure your Egyptian friends much preferred the newer US gear to their old 'Soviet machines, especially given the American attention to crew comfort- which although minimal in a tank as a rule, was probably streets ahead of the Soviet effort.

bravo1102
Now explain how…

Because it's cheap surplus. Cheap being the operative word. …As well as the usual diplomatic overtures. There are a lot of factors involved in military procurement programs, “quality” is generally not top of the list, it's on there but not number one, two or even three. There would have been diplomatic overtures, but unlike the US with Egypt during the very hieght of the cold war though the Germans and the Russian's chief goal here would have been making a tidy profit. The Germans have stuff to get rid of, while the Russians have a massive military industrial complex to try and revive.

Hippie Van
So apparently paying extra for no by-products, good-quality ingredients and some extra fruits and vegetables for good measure is a huge scam, but paying even more for corn and bigger kibble is totally legit. What a horribly dishonest and hypocritical woman.

She probably is trying to push the stuff on you, but she's right about the pure carnivore thing.
From everything I've heard, cats only need fats and proteins and stuff… The corn is probably used as a source for protein in the food as well as a filler that is harmless to the cat's digestion but still helps deliver the key ingredients.

But yeah, blueberries, and veggies and stuff like that have things in them cats can't use well or at all and may not be as benign to their inner workings? I dunno, but that's what I've read everywhere about cats.
Dogs are the happy little omnivores, not puss-cats :3

…in the end though, you do what you think best. If your cat is happy, likes her food, and stays healthy, then there's no harm at all :)

My cat's the same, she's a pain in the ass for being fussy about food.
Although we had KFC the other day and she sneaked up and pinched crispy strips off the kids plates. Crafty little madam.

@ozone

Yeah, I mean people can argue until the cows come home about what's best for pet nutrition. I don't think there's been enough research yet to say anything really definitive. My biggest issue is that she tried to push her crap food on me. Well, not crap. I have nothing against feeding Royal Canin to an animal except that it's extraordinarily expensive for what you get. They do a huge amount of advertising and have to charge that much extra because of it. It's certainly not the best food out there.
Edit: Also, just reading the ingredients and it's got cellulose. Am I mixed up or is that basically sawdust?
Really I just wanted some honest and educated advice about what's best for my beloved kitties, and was angry when I didn't get that at all.


@Genejoke

A lot of cats seem to be bad for that. I have no idea how they survived in the wild. “Yuck, a mouse? I'm not eating that!”
I've tried so many different treats, too. I think she just doesn't like eating. Weirdly enough, the only thing she really likes to eat is peanut butter.
Of course my other two cats eat anything that looks even remotely edible.

Hippie Van
Yeah, I mean people can argue until the cows come home about what's best for pet nutrition. I don't think there's been enough research yet to say anything really definitive. My biggest issue is that she tried to push her crap food on me. Well, not crap. I have nothing against feeding Royal Canin to an animal except that it's extraordinarily expensive for what you get. They do a huge amount of advertising and have to charge that much extra because of it. It's certainly not the best food out there.
Edit: Also, just reading the ingredients and it's got cellulose. Am I mixed up or is that basically sawdust?
Really I just wanted some honest and educated advice about what's best for my beloved kitties, and was angry when I didn't get that at all.

I can very much relate to your experience, both in regard to cats and to kids. But so far in my dealings, no vet has been as blatant in support of his/her suppliers as to what I've encountered with pediatricians supporting pharmaceuticals, whether it's cough syrup, vitamins, or vaccinations.

Particularly in the area of nutrition, where there is incredible knowledge about what vitamins and minerals, in combination and proportion, can do for the human body, it amazes me that the US docs I've run into seem ignorant about this area. Generally they are Very condescending, feel put upon to provide explanation, and seem insulted if you don't hop to and follow blindly.