So yeah...
Being back in Texas - and having been here for a couple weeks now - I've actually gotten a lot of the stress out of my system. I sleep at night - and yeah, i still have stress dreams, but they're not as bad as they've been in the past (i can remember nights where sherry would wake me up from them out of concern...).

So yeah - i know... i tend to take on a lot when i take these jobs - and i internalize a lot - and i end up having to recover. So here i am - back in texas - eating what i want, sleeping when i want, not really having anything i absolutely have to do. Oh sure, I've written a lot of business boilerplate stuff - and had a number of phonecalls - and i'm still having to deal with some of the leftover stuff as things continue to fallout in montreal... but i can sit and read and do laundry and be domestic and get into the car and barrel into town when i want. It also means i can embrace my otaku - so i reactivated netflix and am happily devouring Shakugan no Shana (yeah i know... i had the first disc of Haruhi waiting for me when i got home... really no choice there). It's nice.

Of course...

... it wont last. ;)

About Damned Time
Note - the producers keep brining it back (the clock in the corner shows the hours pass)

Food for thought...

Schneier's Movie Plot winner announced (though, honestly, i thought some of the other suggestions, such as coordinated attacks on the lines themselves on a heavy travel day, were at least as terror inspiring - and the runner up is a LOT scarier...)

Then there's this... turn on the brain, turn down the sound (unless you want to hear coldplay), and get your darwin on... (i love the way he shoves abiogenesis down their throats...)

No Bong Hits For Jesus

"This case began with a silly nonsensical banner, (and) ends with the court inventing out of whole cloth a special First Amendment rule permitting the censorship of any student speech that mentions drugs, so long as someone could perceive that speech to contain a latent pro-drug message." -- Justice John Paul Stevens

I imagine Vonnegut would have had something to say about this... or Ellison...

Where does it end? Is it the Jesus bit that got people's panties in a wad? Bong hits for Mohammad anyone? or is the carveout only for an anti-drug message?

"It was reasonable for (the principal) to conclude that the banner promoted illegal drug use - and that failing to act would send a powerful message to the students in her charge" -- Chief Justice John Roberts

There are days when i wonder just what part of the first amendment these guys are reading... would a carveout against rock and roll music in the 50s have flown? What's next? - I think 'Condoms for Thor' would be a good start. Let's see how far this court is willing to go in its absurdity. Maybe we'll get to internet memes while we're at it...

UFIA for Moses FTW11!1....
(and for the majority - Clarence Thomas - 'The school has a responsibility to restrict discussions of UFIA where students might be exposed to that sort of thinking. The offending students should be sent to my house instead... bring a coke can and a razor'

--

on edit

Bin Laden may have arranged family's US exit: FBI docs

White Supremacists Target Columnist Leonard Pitts

Sen. Stevens Aides Questioned in Probe

Only one thing to say to all of that...

So my coffee grinder gave up the ghost. Right. Big deal. Well - I drink a lot of coffee - so I sort of needed a new one. So I was on my way into town... figured i'd stop at starbucks... i mean, they have to have grinders right? Low and Behold the Starbucks Coffee Grinder Great - it'll probably cost more - but it cant cost THAT much more...

*cough*

$180

Yeah - not so much

Black and Decker... made in china... $10.88 at HEB...

I wonder what moron buys a $180 coffee grinder

---

On another front... a series of religious writings by Sir Isaac Newton went on display - and made CNN's front page as a result. Now - i find this amusing...

The Newton papers, Ben-Menahem said, also complicate the idea that science is diametrically opposed to religion. "These documents show a scientist guided by religious fervor, by a desire to see God's actions in the world," she said.

Right... and the lifetime fixation on alchemy and the use of mercury to treat disease... that shows what exactly? Or does that whole turning water into wine thing fall under the alchemist's stone business...

Spare me your superstitious crap you nutbag.

NSFW

Yeah... so i have problems with Second Life... that whole 'everything wrong with Xerox Parc's Lambda Moo all together in one place' sort of problems... so i love it when people poke fun at them - even if they do take poking to a bit of an extreme.

Now that I'm out of work...

I have this idea. See - if i'm going to take people's money, I figure I should go all out - 'eat the hell out of it' as the esteemed reverend Ivan Stang would put it... and whether its consumers who will play on million dollar slots and only put in smaller coin sizes (making them inelligible for the prize) or investors who should know better - there seem to be a lot of folks willing to prove the ole PT Barnum axiom.

So here's my idea...

i'm going to get a swab...

and i'm going to borrow the Britney Spears home pregnancy test...
(i might have to buy someone dinner for that...)
and then i'm going to get an almost impossibly small amount of brit's urine on said swab... and i'm going to dilute said substance in pure water... repeatedly... successing it... repeatedly... until i get an attenuated solution.

So here's where the model begins to break down. I'm thinking 'homeopathic perfume'... i'm open to suggestions - i have some time on my hands ;)

Must Watch...

I have been asked to resign...
Well - it was a bit uglier than that...

The gist? Some days you speak truth to power... sort of a "Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered! A sword day... a red day... ere the sun rises! Ride now!... Ride now!... Ride! Ride to ruin and the world's ending!"...

It doesnt always work out in a good way - but I'll sleep well. Better this than I roll over, keep my job and my mouth shut, fire people to a questionable end, and take a check. I tried.