Monthly Archives: June 2014

Birdman, Open Source Cars, Facts of Life, Fashion WTF, an Awesome Ghostrider, and Bunches of History

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This entry is part 45 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Was just on a trip down memory lane with a friend I met long ago in a hotel.

She’s one of the handful of people I’m still in touch with that I met during Key Club conventions in high school. Those weekend-long conventions were some of the best times I ever had in high school. Definitely some of the few times I was really able to start figuring out who I really was back then.

Only a handful or so of those meetings turned into friendships. A few of them faded over the years… but some, despite some periods of prolonged silence, have held strong and show no signs of really fading.

In fact, because of things like Facebook, I’m interacting with these scattered kindred spirits more now than I have… ever.

This is why I dig the Internet so much.

It makes stuff like this possible.

That’s why I so badly want everyone to have it… and for it to remain as open and wild as it is right now.

Anyway, here’s the other highlights from today’s feed… mostly news that I wouldn’t have heard otherwise for days, if ever. (Another point for the Internet!)

Short Short Stories, Green Fetish, Warp Speed, Color Capture, He Says He Didn’t Know, Russian Homophobia, and ER Perspective

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This entry is part 44 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Amid the slightly less hectic waves of work, I had the chance to read a couple of interesting–and infuriating–news articles today.

One of the big ones was about Archbishop Robert Carlson, one of the far too many higher-ups in the Catholic Church who were involved with the whole child sex abuse scandal. According to him, he doesn’t remember when he figured out having sex with kids was illegal.

As a friend of mine put it in their own stream: “Sex out of wedlock: SIN! Sex with someone of the same gender: MORTAL SIN! Sex with a kid: Gee, I just don’t know… could be okay, I guess, maybe.”

And then people wonder why I have no respect at all for the temporal body of The Church.

Thankfully, I know enough good Catholics–ones who actually live decent lives and are properly critical of their leaders–that I have yet to descend into the full-on hate of the religion itself.

One of the other big ones is about the institutionalized homophobia that’s now in place throughout Russia. Gay rights groups–really, any group in any way affiliated with the whole GLBT population–are being deemed “foreign agents.” That basically means, as far as the government is concerned, they are subversive, enemy organizations. The powers that be have taken to applying pressure to other agencies–banks, landlords, etc.–reminding them that dealing with foreign agents can get them on that list, too.

This has, of course, lead to the gay rights groups not being able to do things like renew their leases, maintain bank accounts, or, for those who are affiliated with the groups, hold down other jobs.

That right there is example enough to remind us all why we fight so hard for the equal rights under the law that we enjoy in this country. And why we need to keep fighting any time those rights are infringed upon.

It makes me sad that modern Russia seems well on its way to being the bundle of bad examples that the Soviet Union was when I was growing up, before the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Apparently, everything old is new again. Can’t say I like it.

Working the Pole, Cat vs Lizards, Star Trek Rumors, Disturbing Statistics, New Games, and a Spike-covered Bear Hunting Suit

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This entry is part 43 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Ridiculously busy day, again. And my time at home after has been largely spent watching videos that have come out of E3… so many awesome looking games that I’ll likely never play (and, if I did, likely would get quickly frustrated with).

I remember when computer games first became “a thing.” Right back around when home computers started becoming “a thing.” One of the first “big deal” games I just had to have was the 7th Guest… a puzzle game with the impressive inclusion of live video. Had to upgrade the computer–CD ROM drive and RAM–in order to play it. I’ve still never finished that game (and I just bought it again, for less than 1/10 the cost, a few months ago).

Around that same time, Nintendo and Sega were duking it out for the real home gaming market. I know my NES got a whole lot of use through the mid-80s and 90s. I may still be able to make it through the first two or three worlds of Super Mario Brothers with my eyes closed. I never had an Atari, so the NES was the first big deal thing (other than the VCR) that hooked into the TV and kept me entertained.

Things have changed a lot in the intervening decades. Now, games are announced more than a year in advance, cost more than they ever have, and often come out for multiple platforms. Heck, we have multiple platforms–and all ones that put the old clunky and pixel-jagged stuff I grew up with to shame. Nintendo is still holding on, but it’s certainly been eclipsed by Microsoft’s X-Box and Sony’s PlayStation.

Totally amazing, technology, really.

But, I never stuck with the console game stuff. My SuperNintendo was mostly unused. I didn’t get a first generation X-Box until the 360 came out… and, even then, it mostly gathered dust. Now I just keep buying games on Steam for my computer (when they’re on sale) and kind of playing them sometimes.

I never really got into the first person shooters when they were first big–with DOOM back in my college days. World building and turn-based world conquering were more my style. I’ve logged more hours on the titles in the Civilization series than is probably healthy.

So, yeah, I’m impressed by the stuff I’m seeing from E3. But I know most of it really isn’t for me.

I’m sure that won’t hurt their sales figures any.

Shocking Lightning, Soggy Bears, Militarized Police, Turing Test Fudge, Really Questionable Politics, and an End to Board Cheese

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I’m pretty open about the fact that I have a number of issues with the politicians who run the country, supposedly in our name. This has been the case through at least two decades at this point.

Today there’s a story about a state senator from Virginia who’s resigning from his position. Ostensibly in order to take a more prestigious political appointment and to clear the way for his daughter to get an appointment that his current position precludes her from holding. That in and of itself is pretty shady if you ask me. I mean, the guy was elected by his constituents to represent them and now he’s all, “Oh, yeah, sorry about that… you won’t mind if I just step down and get a better job over here, right?”

Not. Cool.

What makes it even less cool is that he’s a Democrat and his resignation tips the balance in the state legislature in favor of the Republicans.

So, not only is he stepping away from the position that those who voted for him entrusted to him in order to pursue personal gain and glory, in doing so he’s effectively handing over his hunk of the legislature to the other side. That’s totally: “Oh, yeah, and by the way, all that stuff I promised I’d represent you about… I’m just going to go and let it get outvoted by the people you disagree with the most. That’s not a problem, right?”

Doubly. Not. Cool.

The final tidbit is just icing on the cake at this point. Seems that shiny new appointment he’s leaving for (and the one that his daughter will get now that she’s free to do so)… those are positions that the Republican party has the power to grant. The scuttlebutt, of course, is that they’ve offered him these perks in order to get him out of the way so they can have a clear path to blocking anything the governor wants to do. So we can just tack on to the above two sentences, “Oh, and I’m doing it at the behest of those people that you sent me here to fight against.”

That’s just beyond “not cool.” That’s downright traitorous. That’s a full and complete middle finger to anyone who voted for him and trusted that he’d continue to do the job he’s been doing for years.

This is politics at its worst.

It makes me a bit ill to read about it.

Because it’s happening right in the open and, so far, no one’s doing anything about it.

Because it’s nothing new. This is how things have “worked” on and off since the first time one person was put in charge of the well being of others.

But just because it’s nothing new doesn’t mean it has to be business as usual. We know about it. We can do something about it (even if it is just shun the hell out of this guy). We can speak up and say “This sort of thing is more than unacceptable, it’s reprehensible.”

And, really, I hope a lot of people in Virginia do that.

Detecting Sarcasm, Grumpy and Grumpy, Questionable Bling, and an Impressive Ninja Warrior Run

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This entry is part 42 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Most of today was spent buried under many lines of code and text revisions. There wasn’t a whole lot of time (well, time that wasn’t spent in meetings) for anything else.

I’m sure I missed out on a lot of interesting stuff–with how the Facebook feed works these days, I may see some of it pop up over the next few days… but I’m not online quite as much over the weekend (usually).

I’m exhausted from the week. Technology and transportation have regularly conspired against me and just worn me the hell out.

The weekend has some good time with friends planned. Hopefully that’ll help, because Monday arrives with a full-burn final thrust on one project and a lot of catch-up on another.

wheee…. :-/