Documentation, documentation, documentation

I've worked in the government for many years and although I am still far more enthralled with it than The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat, I was sent into fits of giggles by his Rules and Rules (Part 2) postings. True. Hilarious. Awesome.

My sister and I have been saying for awhile that we have a special attack called "Unexpected Bureaucratic Strike" (which is where you can reach up a sleeve and produce three files and multiple emails to substantiate your position). I think ADB understands.

What Disney Ride are YOU?

Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin: a wild ride through the back alleys of toontown! The only ride with a PG sense of humour in the G rated world of Disneyland, you are zany, wild, and a little bit of a loose screw. Energetic and colorful, you go at full speed, even though your taxi-car vehicles actually have four flat tires! Despite your older humor, you are a kid at heart and kids most relate to your cartoony world and like you the best. You've been know to make the adults a little queasy and a little bit dizzy. You leave your visitors dazed, a little confused, but more often, extremely amused. You take us to the places we'd never see in a ride featuring the straight-laced Mickey, but somehow you're still all Disney!
What Disneyland attraction are you?
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Liberal Values Part I: Natural Goodness

Our multi-part series to explore liberal values based on the definition from dictionary.com that we promote here at TTGSIMH:

Liberalism: A political theory founded on the natural goodness of humans and the autonomy of the individual and favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority. [Also a] 19th-century Protestant movement that favored free intellectual inquiry, stressed the ethical and humanitarian content of Christianity, and de-emphasized dogmatic theology.

Natural goodness sounds like an ad for a healthfood candy bar. But what do we really mean by "the natural goodness of humans"? Simply put, we liberals -by our very nature- assume that most everyone is pretty good at heart. Sure, we all make mistakes, we all have our weaknesses. But very few people (in our world view) get up in the morning and say, "Oh happy day! Today I will go hurt someone!" And, much like Hume, we tend to think, "The supreme moral good ...is benevolence, an unselfish regard for the general welfare of society that [is] consistent with individual happiness." (Encarta) Or, if you prefer Easter philosophers, "...Mencius (4th century B.C.) supported ...the natural goodness of mankind, for which he found proof in the natural love children have for their parents."

It reminds me of something from management class - X vs. Y management theories as proposed by Douglas McGregor back in 1960. Liberals are basically believers in Theory Y. The one that postulates employees are essentially good and WANT to work. That it is part of their self-actualization.

I believe that human nature is, in fact, driven to goodness. It was what made us all patsies to be played by September 12th. It is why non-profit organizations get millions of dollars and millions of volunteer hours every year. Are there bad people? Of course there are. Estimates are that about 1 in 25 could be classified as sociopathic (The Sociopath Next Door), so odds are that you work with someone who is 'evil'. But the other 96% are just chock full of natural goodness. Even the annoying ones.

What say you, blogmunity? Is this your view of natural goodness? It's the first brick in my House of Liberalism so I'd better get it right...

I Can't Hear You, I Can't Hear You, La La La La La

It's just the sort of thing that someone like me would wish for - a Fox Blocker. Yes, that's right. A device to put on your television so that while you're flipping channels you don't accidentally land on FoxNews and have your eyes burned out of your head.

I like the owner's retort to claims of censorship - some people filter porn, so how is this different? "It's only censorship if the GOVERNMENT filters it for you."

Don't forget to enter their contest for a new Fox News slogan.

The Final Frontier

One of the cool things about customizable Google News is getting my news my way. Tonight I became aware of the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle. I know what we're doing the next time we visit dad!!

Hopefully I will do something worthy of being inducted before I die. Meanwhile I can ogle the online exhibit info.

All Creatures Great and Small

Another post in my continuing effort to introduce you to all the creatures we have. This is Na'Toth (props to anyone who gets that reference), the only scaly one of our bunch. She's a northern fence lizard who developed such an immediate liking to my husband that we assumed she was a domestic pet that had either escaped or been put out. It took us two weeks to figure out what she was and realize that she was probably 'wild'. By then she had settled in to her terrarium and was happy to eat crickets from the hand. She's been with us for two years. Watching her hunt moths (and doing a hang twenty off the wire mesh cage topper) is like having a teeny-tiny Jurassic Park in the house.

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Uncertainty

The old saying goes, "Two things are certain. Death and taxes." It seems like the extreme right wing of the Republican Party is completely against that. The death issue has been done, well, to death in recent days, so let me turn our attention to taxes.

Last night we got our taxes done and something interesting came up. We were asked if we had bought a boat or luxury car because a new tax law could give us an advantage. We of course said, "Whaaa?" It turns out that the state sales tax you pay could be used to help you in your deductions on federal tax. The list of usual suspects that would put you in that category include airplanes, boats, luxury cars, etc.

Doing a google search I came up with very little analysis of the subject, but one pretty good LA Times article called Sales Tax Deduction Is Back--With A Catch. It starts, " Big spenders, start saving your receipts."

The recently passed American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 includes a provision that gives taxpayers who itemize deductions a choice: They can write off the state income taxes they pay, or they can choose to claim their sales taxes instead.

This new tax break was pushed by members of Congress in states without income taxes, who saw it as a way of getting their residents an added deduction. But it also has potential for big spenders in California, which has both relatively high sales tax and high income tax rates.

Uh, hello, and the rich.

The sales tax deduction is a blast from the past, experts note. Twenty years ago, taxpayers were able to deduct both income taxes and sales taxes, so savvy taxpayers regularly kept track of their purchases. But the Tax Reform Act of 1986 eliminated write-offs for sales taxes.

This law is a bit more complex than the pre-1986 rules, because taxpayers must make a choice. They cannot deduct both income and sales taxes; they must choose one or the other. Ideally, taxpayers would figure out which tax nets the best deduction.

You know, the type of work your tax accountant can do for you... if you're rich.

The law also creates an opportunity for those willing to plan... Smart shoppers can now "bunch" big purchases, just as some taxpayers bunch other itemized deductions.

"If you know that you are going to be purchasing a car and doing major work on your house, you might want to consider doing both of those in the same year...You could create a situation where you could take advantage of the sales tax in one year and go back to using the income tax deduction when you are back to your normal spending patterns."

So, if you're going to be a conspicuous consumer, save your receipts.

Drawing Ideas Like Flies

I picked up the idea of posting recent movies and books on my sidebar from The Pajama Monologues. Since I have so much in my sidebar you would have to scroll wayyyyyy down to see it. I also picked up a sidebar tool for petfinders.org through Outwit Outblog Outsnark. Go look at the pic - you might find the love of your life.

It Could Happen

Just in case life can be reduced to a bad 80s movie, I took the Quizilla "Which John Hughes Character Are You?" test that I picked up over at the House of Snark (Outwit, Outblog, Outsnark). And I found the Snarkster by way of the fascinating ageless project website.

I can't say that I'm delighted with my test results. Although it is the only "girl" movie that my dad ever took me to, which is kind of cool, I'd like to point out that I didn't ask to go. I was quite fond of Duckie (who interestingly shares the same birth day but not year with my husband), but I liked Andrew McCarthy better in The Benniker Gang. Molly Ringwald, well, just sort of irritates me. I thought that Mary Stuart Masterson was way cooler. I wish I'd come up as Watts from Some Kind of Wonderful...



You are Andie Walsh (from Pretty In Pink)!
Misunderstood and full of angst, you are
intelligent, talented and will probably go on
to do great things...once you're out of the
hell of high school.


Which John Hughes Character Are You?
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Heeeeeeere's Adam!

How can you pass up a blog with a name like Fanatical Apathy? I couldn't. I'm glad I clicked because FA is more than qualified for the list of Wild Eyed Prog Bloggers. If you get a chance, check out his Social Security Q&A. For those with radios you might know Adam Felber from NPR's "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!". Check it out, m'kay?

You'll Be a Star!

What the *bleep*? How can it be Friday again?

By way of the Right Hand Thief I found out about the 90s Movie List Friday Blogging. This is going to take some concentrated effort to figure out which of my movies are from the 90s, then winnow down the list. We love movies. We own over 200 DVDs. Fortunately I can do some searching through IMDB and IMDBpro. I'm not using numbers because I can't even begin to think about priority order and I'm not even going to try to keep to 10. That would be ludicrous.

• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) - My favorite franchise, the REAL Star Trek movies, just barely made it into this decade. I dressed to the nines and went to opening night. I knew it was going to be my last real date with Spock.
  
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) - Like, what's your sitch if you don't like this movie? It's totally about cute blonde girls coming into their own. And triumphing over evil using their incredible fashion sense.
  
• Aladdin (1992) - Probably one of the defining movies for me and my husband. We can pretty much recite the whole movie.
  
• Wayne's World (1992) - Shyeah. "If you think you're going to hurl..."
  
• The Cutting Edge (1992) - "Toe pick!"
  
• Demolition Man (1993) - The first movie where I really noticed my favorite actress Sandra Bullock. And who can forget, "Mellow greetings, sir. What seems to be your boggle?"
  
• Robin Hood: Men In Tights (1993) - "Fix your boobs, Blinken. You look like a bleedin' Picasso."
• Groundhog Day (1993) - This was the movie when I decided that I was going to work with Harold Ramis one day.
  
• Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) - I have to love any character that has THAT many pets. Reminds me of home...
  
• The Mask (1994) - Cartoonish with big band music. Anyone who remembers my obsession with "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" in the 80s knew that this was a gimmee.
  
• Stargate (1994) - The best sci-fi movie of the decade in my opinion. Very interesting, original, and character driven. And yes, I now watch the show SG-1.
  
• While You Were Sleeping (1995) - My traditional Christmas movie. I watch it while I bake cookies. Yes, Sandra Bullock again.
  
• Se7en (1995) - The fight between good and evil has always intrigued me. I thought that this was an especially clever treatment. And I'll watch anything with Morgan Freeman in it.
  
• The Net (1995) - Yes, Sandra Bullock again. And paranoia. Well, it isn't paranoia if they're really after you, so let's call it conspiracy theories.
  
• Cutthroat Island (1995) - Whenever I list off my favorite "chick flicks" I always include this one and Aliens. Women who know how to kick butt. I wore out my first VHS tape and had to get another one, and I have it on DVD. I don't care what the reviews were, I really, really like this movie! "I find myself being fired upon by an entire SHIP!"
  
• Happy Gilmore (1996) - It's like watching my husband play golf....
• Men In Black (1997) - It was sci-fi, it was cool, and Tony Shalhoub was in it. Nuff said.
  
• Liar, Liar (1997) - Can you imagine how horrible YOUR day would be if the truth just kept falling out of your mouth every time you opened it? Just walking down the hall you might burst out with, 'Good God, but that's an ugly blouse!'
  
• Conspiracy Theory (1997) - Just the title hooks me in. "A good conspiracy is unprovable. I mean, if you can prove it, it means they screwed up somewhere along the line."
• The Siege (1998) - The script was written by a journalist who showed a lot of insight into our national psyche. And Tony Shalhoub was in it!
  
• Austin Powers (1997) - I actually hated this movie the first time I saw it. Then they played snips all over the DC radio stations. Then I started quoting it. Then I saw it again. Then I ended up watching it a million times. Besides, we love Seth Green. "No actually the boy is quite astute. I really am trying to kill him, but so far unsuccessfully. He's quite wily, like his old man."
• Mulan (1998) - "The flower that blooms amid adversity is the most rare and beautiful."
• The Wedding Singer (1998) - I like the movie, but for me the most exciting moment was when they started playing the song, "I Want Money". I had heard that song ONCE on the Chapel Hill college radio station in the 80s and had always wanted it for my "Money Mix" music collection. To my immense relief they put it on the soundtrack and all was happiness in my universe. Oh, and the movie is fun, too.
  
• Ever After (1998) - Dude, I, like, HAD a medieval wedding. Do I really have to explain why this is a great movie in my opinion.
  
• Practical Magic (1998) - Sandra Bullock and magic. And evil. And good. And Aiden Quinn. It's like I could have WRITTEN this movie.
  
• The Mummy (1999) - The very definition of good, rollicking fun. "You swear?" "Every damn day."
  
• 13th Warrior (1999) - The movie I have seen more than any other movie ever. I could leave it looping my whole life. It is ultimately a recasting of Beowulf. The first conversation I ever had with my husband was when he walked up to me because he noticed what I was reading. "Beowulf is my favorite epic," he said. The rest is history.
  
• The Matrix (1999) - Dude, it's like philosophy with a cool pair of Ray Bans on. Another movie that I could have written. Except I never would have cast Keanu so it probably would have failed. It needed that emotional hollowness in the middle of it so that it could be primarily cerebral.
  

Honorable Mention: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) - I was really more into the cartoon, but I do love those turtles.

(By the way, IMDB has a nice 'top rated' list for 1990-1999. If you have IMDBpro you can look at top grossers by year.)

Another Reason to Love Google

They link to cool stuff like World Water Day on their main page. How else would you know?

Good luck with the link, though. Apparently Google accidentally swamped them.

Touring the Blog-u-verse

I picked up this link from the comments section over at Wil Wheaton dot Net. It's called A Liberal Marine's Progressive Perspective. Worth a look. Check it out.

And if you haven't read it yet, check out Wil's post about how when it comes to blogs Salon 'groks it' and MSNBC completely misses the point.

I assume that empowering you with those links won't have you doing anything stupid like reading Rosie O'Donnell's blog...

God Save the Queensland Frogs

While surfing for Frog Porn this weekend, G.D. Frogsdong ran into a whole lot more. We discovered that there is an organization in Queensland, Australia dedicated to saving as many little froggies as possible, but they are closing their doors due to lack of funds, and we are going to do our best to help.

Save your pennies while we figure out how to collect and transmit funds to them.

Friday is Good for Dog Blogging, Too

Two from our pack.

Brigitta Liesel - Geeta, Geeta-butt, Wookie, Thunderpaws, Doofus
Tyr - Toodles, Tyr-Bucket, Tyr-licious, the Old Man

You may remember I have posted Tyr before. The other end.

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FRIDAY!!!!

Time for Friday song bloggins. Ok, I'm a little addicted. Playlist: All Dat Good Stuff

1. Forever Young - Rod Stewart (this is the song my Dad and I danced to at my wedding)
2. "You are the weakest link! Goodbye!" - Anne Robinson
3. Some Fantastic (Ivory & Ivory) - Barenaked Ladies
4. Driftin' Away - Garth Brooks (Chris Gaines)
5. Follow the Word - Maire Brennan
6. Valley Girl - Frank Zappa
7. Hands - Jewel
8. Here We Are - Gloria Estefan
9. For Your Babies - Simply Red
10. "Ice, watch out. -Why? -Slippery. -Oh. -This message brought to you by the United States Department of Condescending Paternalism." - from You Don't Know Jack

Scotty, Beam Me Up

Being the big science fiction geek that I am I was both thrilled and chilled to read that the Star Trek replicator is one step closer.

Thrilled:

Bath University has unveiled a machine that could manufacture household objects to order in the home of the future.

Dr Adrian Bowyer, of the University's Centre for Biomimetics, said that he has adapted a fast prototype generator used in the car industry to make simple household objects.

Chilled:

The idea of self-replicating machinery was first proposed seriously by Hungarian scientist John von Neumann, who called them 'universal constructors'.

<>The idea was adapted for the concept of space flight, where a single machine would land, reproduce and move on, thus exploring the galaxy at an exponential rate.

Update 11:39pm:
This article has some pictures and an idea that might intrigue GD Frogsdong - the obsolesence of Walmart.

Mom, Dad...

You know you want the t-shirt! A li'l touch o' the green from one of my favorite catalogs, What On Earth. I'm not sure I can resist the Roaring Godzilla for much longer.
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Atlantis?

At lunch the idea that Atlantis was possibly found in the middle of the Atlantic came up. I did some digging and found this article from National Geographic in 2002 which places it near Cuba.

Deep in the waters of Cabo de San Antonio, off Cuba's coast, researchers are exploring unusual formations of smooth blocks, crests, and geometric shapes. The Canadian exploration company that discovered the formations, Advanced Digital Communications, has suggested that they could be the buildings and monuments of an early, unknown American civilization.

Many scientists are skeptical of any theory that might tempt people to draw a parallel with the fabled lost city of Atlantis. Geologist Manuel Iturralde, however, has stressed the need for an open mind while investigations of the site continue.

"These are extremely peculiar structures, and they have captured our imagination," said Iturralde, who is director of research at Cuba's Natural History Museum. Iturralde has studied countless underwater formations over the years, but said, "If I had to explain this geologically, I would have a hard time."

In his report on the formations, Iturralde noted that conclusive proof of man-made structures on the site could reinforce some oral traditions of the Maya and native Yucatecos. These people still retell ancient stories of an island inhabited by their ancestors that vanished beneath the waves.

Iturralde makes it clear, however, that just because no natural explanation is immediately apparent, it doesn't rule one out. "Nature is able to create some really unimaginable structures," he said.

If you really want to get into the Atlantis stuff this group is going to have a conference. You can even look at submitted abstracts here. Or maybe you just meant to look at this.

I Hear The Drums Echoing Tonight

In case you missed it, Kilimanjaro's ice cap is melting. The ice cap that has been there for over 10,000 years.

Mount Kilimanjaro's crowning snow and glaciers are melting and likely to disappear completely by 2020, triggering major disruptions to ecosystems on the dry African plains that spread out at its feet below, scientists warned. The forests on Kilimanjaro's lower slopes absorb moisture from the cloud top hovering near the peak, and in turn nourish flora and fauna below.

I've always had this pet science fiction conspiracy theory that we were originally from Mars, and we narrowly escaped before we crashed the environment there. Where to next?

Millenium Dance Party

"You know all that money we spend on the military ever year -- trillions of dollars? Instead, if we use this money to feed and clothe the poor of this world, which it would do many times over, then we can explore space, inner and outer, together, as one race." ~ Bill Hicks (1961-1994)

The Dance

So it's NOT just Martha.

A federal jury in Manhattan found the 63-year-old Mr. Ebbers guilty of nine counts, including fraud, conspiracy and filing false documents. During the trial, jurors heard how Mr. Ebbers had inflated the earnings and hidden the expenses of WorldCom to fool investors and lenders...Mr. Ebbers' conviction comes more than two years after an internal auditor at WorldCom uncovered suspicious accounting practices. A further investigation revealed that accountants had made $11 billion worth of false entries to hide financial problems from investors and the public.

It's the sort of thing that always makes me say, "What is WRONG with people?" The first, second and last thing that was preached to me in accounting class was ethics. I wonder what school those cretins went to.

Then again, what is wrong with me? This quote makes me laugh every time I see it and it's almost on topic, so here you go:

"Never call an accountant a credit to his profession; a good accountant is a debit to his profession." ~ Sir Charles Lyell

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Interesting title that media player came up with for this one.

Sometimes you know things, but you don't really KNOW them, you know? I found this to be very sobering.

Via Preposterous Universe via 3 Quarks Daily I got a link to the Global Rich List. I knew that we were really well off here, but I didn't know that I was THAT f-ing rich. Of course if we recalc the whole thing based on net asset position I would find myself more towards the bottom of the bell curve. At this point the only thing I have going for me is earning power.

Maybe the media player is on to something. Maybe if we just relaxed and sent the money we would spend on happy drugs to those in need the world would be a better place. Or wait a second. Maybe I should send MYSELF to some place where I can live on far less.

How rich are you?

Take Me For Longing

Or maybe I should call it take me frog longing...

G.D. Frogdong's Wednesday naked frog bloggins just has to be seen. Here's all of the 2005 posts in one handy reference.

• March 9th
• February 23rd
• February 16th
• February 9th
• January 26th
• January 19th
• January 12th
  

Perhaps I can be convinced to take some compromising pictures of my aquatic and terrestrial frogs....

Frantic

Has it really been that long since I started blogging? I clicked on my own archives to see what was back there. That's when I noticed that my first post on August 1, 2003 is actually a pretty good introduction. Unfortunately I once did an 'update all' on a republish so we lost the cool avacado green of those original months. I think it was the purple that really drove Nevsky away to his own blog.

For the non sequitur goodness of it, I'm naming blog posts after whatever comes up on the media player.

We'll Be Together

Give a hearty hello and a big ole "bribbit" to our newest Wild Eyed Prog Bloggers de rerum natura and G.D. Frogsdong. Matt at de rerum natura is looking ideas for a better world and has a nice post on something that we should question more often and more loudly - "Conservative Moral Relativity". I've been enjoying the Frog's "Money for Nothing on the FBI" [trackback]post.

Go forth, do good things on their blogs.

Everyone Needs An Ambition

I think that I have a new ambition.



To advance from a slithery reptile to a maurading marsupial on the Blogosphere Ecosystem. I don't know exactly what I would do with such a designation, but it would be cool.

What Kind of Pirate Am I?

I picked up this cool link from Adam at "A Violently Executed Blog".

What kind of pirate am I? You decide!
You can also view a breakdown of results or put one of these on your own page!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

Random Notes

Playlist: All Dat Good Stuff

1. "Work It" - Missy Elliott
2. "It's All Been Done" - Barenaked Ladies
3. "Lieutenant! –Yes, sir! –This planet has crossed the line. Assemble the giant robot." - John Lithgow and Kristen Johnston from Third Rock From The Sun
4. "When I used to dream about this mission, the last thing I envisioned was having a Vulcan onboard who continuously sucked the air out of the room." - Scott Bakula from Star Trek: Enterprise
5. "Angel" - Simply Red
6. "White Flag" - Garth Brooks
7. "Cowboy Romance" - Natalie Merchant
8. "Mom, if you're going to reminisce, I'll be forced to call Social Services." - Daria Morgendorffer from Daria
9. "She Blinded Me With Science" - Thomas Dolby
10. "Never Coming Home" - Sting
    

Friday Chocolate Blogging

"Research tells us that 14 out of any 10 individuals like chocolate."
- Sandra Boynton, Chocolate the Consuming Passion

That quote comes from one of my favorite books and is the start of a page called the Chocolate Festival at the Global Gourmet.

Kissed by a Bonbon looks quite yummy.

Friday Cat Blogging

Oscar, the cat with the glowing green eyes. She (yes, it's a she) belongs to a good friend of mine who named her Oscar because he found her in a garbage can. When he sent me this picture I just knew I had to share those electric eyes.
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A New Love In My Life

My husband and I were looking up words on the internet. (Yes, dueling computers at ten paces.) I noticed that the husband wasn't using dictionary.com. As you all know, I'm a dictionary.com fanatic. I put my nose up in the air and just KNEW that my site was better.

I was wrong.

The new love in my life is www.thefreedictionary.com. It is way, way, way better than plain old dictionary.com.

Go ahead. Go look something up. Right now the husband is freaking because their encyclopedia link has a rather thorough write up of the original Battlestar Galactica pilot so I have to go check it out with him....

For All The States I've Loved Before

Same color coding as my text one (live in orange, have lived in purple, been to blue). Thanks to Matt for inspiring me to finish my map. I am NOT a geography nerd. I am, in fact, geographically challenged. Pursuit of the little blue pie piece has killed many a trivia game for me.

I should know my geography. When I started college I wrote an essay titled "I've Lived More Places Than I Have Years". For some insight, the starting and ending state are the same. And the college I wrote that essay in is located in the same town I live in now (17 years later). I would draw the squiggles of moving place to place, but it would definitely mess up the map.

I can see that I have plenty more states to visit, especially to the north. And I'm not quite sure that Texas really counts as a place that I have "lived" since it was just one summer and we were in Texarkana. But we had planned to stay and I received mail there. Consider it a very blue purple.
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Progressive is a Beautiful Word

Through the Virginia Rapid Response Network I got a link to David Sirota's blog. How is it that I haven't run across it before? I don't know. He is now posted under "Where I Get My News".

I'm not going to be your monkey

Does anyone remember Jon Stewart on Crossfire back on October 15? He took them, and to a great extent the whole of television journalism, to task.

"You know, it's interesting to hear you talk about my responsibility... I didn't realize that -- and maybe this explains quite a bit.... is that the news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity....The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls."

I cheered. As I recall I said, 'If he keeps this up we will all have to worship him as our Lord Savior of Journalistic Integrity. Can't you just imagine Walter Cronkite? "Thank God.... But how in the hell did that happen?"'

Tonight Brian Williams (NBC) called Jon and the Daily Show on the "Iraqi judge" report. I applaud Mr. Williams for having the guts to come out and make the correction. I applaud Jon for having the guts to let him do it. These 40-somethings are earning my respect. Facts AND integrity. What a heady mix.

Hopefully they will archive the interview soon.

Tuesday's Random Notes

Playlist: Energy Tunes

1. "The Right Time" - The Corrs
2. "Suerte (Whenever, Wherever)" - Shakira
3. "Whenever, Wherever" - Shakira
4. "Rock You Like a Hurricane" - The Scorpions
5. "Finally" - Ce Ce Peniston
6. "Cry Little Sister" - Gerard McMann
7. "Run-Around" - Blues Traveler
8. "Get out of bed. Resistance is futile. Wake up and assimilate the day." - Seven of Nine alarm clock (sound byte) from Dilbert
   
9. "Walking on Sunshine" - Katrina & the Waves
10. "Rules" - Shakira

Random Notes

Today's random music. Playlist: Mental Vacation.

1. Supermodel (You Better Work) - Ru Paul
2. Back in the Highlife Again - Steve Winwood
3. Sailing - Christopher Cross
4. Summer of Love - Claudia B.
5. Escape (The Pina Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes
6. The Heat is On - Glenn Frey
7. Kokomo - The Beach Boys
8. No Place That Far - Sara Evans
9. Vacation - The Go-Go's
10. "Oh, for God's sake, let the wookiee dance!" - Adam Sessler from X-Play (sound byte)

If you haven't visited The Daily Wav before now you probably just aren't cool. I promise not to tell anyone.

Think Before You Type

When I first read the headline Firms Taking Action Against Worker Blogs I thought, "Oh no, here it comes. People being fired for their political beliefs again!"

No, apparently not. Firing may have been a bit exreme, but these are the sorts of things that you would get disciplinary action for no matter how you did it, or how your boss found out about it. For you to leave a documentation trail by publishing it online is three shades stupider than running your mouth at the water coooler or sharing the information in a more private way THAN ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB. I realize you may think that your boss is a moron and can't use the computer, but I think that even primates are logging in these days, so beware. Use the same discretion you would in any other forum, and make sure not to do anything that was expressly prohibited in your employee handbook. If you really want to step it up a notch, consider yourself a professional and act accordingly.

The only story they had that concerned me was the one about Cameron Barrett being fired over fiction. What I want to know is, how whacked out was that fiction? Personally I believe in freedom in art so I wouldn't have fired him over it, no matter how wicka-whack it might have been. But as recent events have suggested, there are plenty of intolerant folks around.

Remember. Think before you type.

Reality Intruded

It's been a busy couple of weeks at work. I didn't even get to go to the Friday Morning Liberal Coffee last week. And today I found out that I made a major rookie mistake on something that was going forward to the Vice President. The sort of thing that I have years of training to NOT do. The sort of thing that I have little awards and training certificates that I could (if I were into that sort of thing) hang on my office walls to prove that I DON'T do.

I have a degree in accounting, with years of work in the field, and I was also trained as a budget analyst by a helluva Budget Officer who was from the Office of Management and Budget.

I should know better than to let a column of numbers pass me by without checking the addition.

Yep, I did that.

My boss caught it (thank the Lord). His gentle way of pointing out what a moron you've been without actually SAYING what a moron you've been reminds me of why we all worship him. To be right 99% of the time and not be an ass about it is a big part of what makes a great leader.

Keep on Rolling

Newest addition to the Wild-Eyed Coalition of Prog Bloggers is Patrick Nielsen Hayden (that's Mr. Nielsen Hayden if you're nasty) of Electrolite. I can't believe his archives go back to 2000 and I've never run across him before this. Good stuff.

Can't They Make a Map Out of This?

Thanks to Musings I picked up this cute little bloggie item. I had to color mine. It just seemed too boring otherwise.

bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

Philosophy Killed the Radio Star

It looks like there is a 'thing' going around the blogs to list your five favorite philosophers and ten random songs. Like Oyster, I do not have an iFruit (nice Foxtrot reference, btw), but I do have MediaPlayer playlists set to random on my computer. I will try to be as honest as possible with all of these answers.

Philosophers:
The last philosophy book I read was actually The D'oh of Homer, but I do have some vague memories of those college philosophy classes. I was a bit addicted to them at the time.

1. David Hume
Hume rocks. I think I might be an empiricist at heart.
"Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few."
2. Ralph Waldo Emerson
What a perfect time he had - off in the woods to think, but with friends dropping over to visit.
"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character."
3. John Locke
So many good thoughts.
"To love truth for truth's sake is the principle part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues."
4. Heraclitus
There must be balance in the universe. (Or... balance in the Force there must be, hmmm.) And the only thing that is certain is change. Except from a vending machine.
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."
5. Friedrich Nietzsche
I read Nietzsche the same reason that my sister watches FoxNews. To get riled up. I find his arguments interesting, but opposed to my own nature for the most part. But that's ok, because as our instructor pointed out, "For every Nietzsche essay there is an equal and opposite Nietzsche essay...."
"We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us."

Now I feel like I need to go read some good philosophy screeds.

Random Songs:
When I shut down my computer last I was on my playlist "Inspiration", so I think that utter randomness is to just open it up and start at the top...

1. "We Shall Be Free" - Garth Brooks
Yeah, I used to hate Garth Brooks, too, but some of his lyrics are great and the music is always bouncy fun. Call me shallow. I can take it. But I love this song and it's my favorite that he ever wrote.
2. "What a Wonderful World" - Louis Armstrong
Excellent! I'm glad this one came up. It's one of my all-time favorite songs and is officially "our song". Yes, we played it at our medieval wedding.
3. "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" - Jimmy Buffet
If I were just a drinker I would probably be a Parrot Head. (Let's just say that other people at work named my cube, and it is called "The Beachhouse".) I recently watched a biography on him and was surprised that he considered the mid-80s to be a "lowpoint" in his career, with people thinking he might have been a one-hit wonder.
4. "Never is Enough" - Barenaked Ladies
It's depressing that I've done things that they say never will be enough of doing. But it's still a cool song.
5. "Celebrate Youth" - Rick Springfield
Yes, I love the 80s. What of it?
6. "Wonder" - Natalie Merchant
What a great song.
7. "You're the Inspiration" - Chicago
It's one of my husband's favorite songs so I always think of him when it comes on. On three everybody go "awwwwww".
8. "The River" - Garth Brooks
I think it's good of me to admit that I have enough of his stuff that he came up again already. This is one of my other favorites from him. I will, in fact, sail my vessel until the river runs dry.
9. "Closer to Fine" - Indigo Girls
I'm very amused to have this show up after the philosophers list since a stanza is, "And I went to see the doctor of philosophy, With a poster of rasputin and a beard down to his knee, He never did marry or see a b-grade movie, He graded my performance, he said he could see through me, I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, Got my paper and I was free"
10. "Change the World" - Eric Clapton
Ain't that all we really want to do? Change the world for the better?

Long Overdue

It's probably been a year since I revamped my website and there is someone I should have added to my blogroll well before this. All hail Oyster, our notorious Right Hand Thief. He's in Nawlins, so all ya'll go down there and visit him, ya hear?

Wake Up, Little Prince

Bambi is out today!