Saturday Night Open Thread
Dean
6:01pm Eastern--go!
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anything to this, you think? or is it just more 'seeing what you want to see'?
anybody else think this is gonna be a long run-up to the general election? and that we;re not in a good state for speaking honestly, even to each other?
It's a soap opera for Anglophile historians - and I hope they don't stop until well into Elizabeth's reign (she's my favorite monarch in history).
So I probably won't be renewing my contract.
But I wanted to tell you gals and gents that it's been swell.
Fun, and on occasion even, real interesting.
Godspeed and good will to you all.
I'll be rootin for ya.
See ya around,
Jack.
Here's some going away music:
Waylon and Cheryl
You shouldn't be.
I guess I'll still blog on occasion, but this past few weeks having had the flu and then pneumonia I spent a lot of time in bed working cases, writing, recovering a bunch of old writings from my computer crash, and studying.
I watched very little TV and little news but I did spend a lot of time alone, meditated, walked in the woods when I got better, and so forth.
A few years ago I pretty much gave up video games and went back to climbing instead. Didn't miss it at all. Early this morning, about three, after thinking about an idea for AI, I was up writing in my notebooks, in a dark house, in the quiet and suddenly I realized not only did I not miss the computer or the internet, I felt a lot better without it, and was more productive for the rest of today by writing in my notebooks instead of tapping keys.
So I ruminated on it, prayed a bit, played the piano and suddenly realized this was an opportunity to pretty much do away with both television and the internet. Like God had been kicking me in the head for awhile about this and I kept missing the bootprint on my skull for the echo in my ears.
So I'm giving both up except maybe occasionally on the weekends and instead I'm gonna concentrate on my work, my family, my writings, my inventions and experiments, some missions work, and my other stuff. I've restarted my studies for the priesthood too. In earnest and consistently.
So I'm gonna drop the internet and TV for the most part cause neither are really important, and most of the time I could be accomplishing other things. I just got my first fiction story accepted under one of my pseudonyms and so I figured that was the final sign I was on the Appian Way.
Well, I was up till about 3 or 4 this morning working on an invention, so I'm turning in early cause I'm gonna try and hit church tomorrow. So since tomorrow I start doing things different, I reckon this is it.
So see you guys, and keep your powder dry.
And to all the ships at seas, watch your course, and 'ware your weather.
Goodnight folks.
It was a pleasure.
And with some of ya, an honor...
Thanks MacK.
I'm not sure about the brain part, I try I reckon, but I'll miss most all of you fellas too. And the gals of course.
But please don't turn this thread into a Goodbye Harry folks.
You got better things than me to yak about on a Saturday night.
I'll see ya in the funnies.
A long lost aquaintance sends this link to a video game design challenge for a commercially available brain-computer interface. Right now, it has only three inputs: attention/concentration, meditation, and eye blinks. That's a fairly limited control set, but still cool. Attention could be all the controls you need, actually, for something like a head-to-head arm-wrestling game.
Me, I'll stick with speech input for a while longer yet.
But, no doubt, it’s a tough equation to solve.
Godspeed, my friend.
Honestly, I thought Ann Althouse was making a joke about the Democrats and their ludicrous 'Rats' tirade from years back. But none of her commenters seemed to realize it was a joke. So maybe I misread. I still found it hilarious that the party that invented the Freeze Frame Freak Out is now subject to the same idiotic attack.
Having enjoyed a fine meal of Nasi Goreng with a coworker, I was driving back to work. I turned on the radio, and caught a show I'd never heard before: the Rusty Humphries show. I know nothing about the man, just that he was on the air.
A caller came on and asked him why he was always picking on Senator Obama. He may have been, for all I know; but he claimed that he wasn't picking on the Senator, just disagreeing with him on policy. He cited some policy disagreements.
The caller -- she sounded like an African-American lady, though I don't trust my ear for accents all that well -- responded by saying (paraphrased), well, that's OK, but why are you picking on him and not Senator Clinton. So Mr. Humphries reiterated that he wasn't picking on Senator Obama, and that he had most of the same policy disagreements with Senator Clinton.
Then Mr. Humphries turned the tables. He explained that a lot of support for Senator Obama was emotional, not substantive. (This is true of most candidates of all parties, sadly.) As an example, he asked the caller to identify something Senator Obama has accomplished.
The caller fumbled a bit, and then said (paraphrased), well, you tell me something Senator Clinton has accomplished. Mr. Humphries replied that as he doesn't support Senator Clinton and disagrees with her and doesn't think she has accomplished much, he has no responsibility to tell her accomplishments. (Then he added a snide remark about her hosting good tea parties in the White House.) Then he politely repeated his question: what has Senator Obama accomplished to earn the caller's support?
The caller fumbled some more, and then said (paraphrased), well, you tell me something Senator McCain has accomplished. Mr. Humphries replied that Senator McCain is far from his ideal candidate; but then he went on to list a number of Senator McCain's accomplishments. Then he politely repeated his question: what has Senator Obama accomplished to earn the caller's support?
The caller fumbled yet more, and then repeated her complaint that Mr. Humphries shouldn't keep picking on Senator Obama. So Mr. Humphries explained that he wasn't picking, he was disagreeing; and he was also demonstrating that she really had no policy basis for her support for Senator Obama. Then repeated one more time: what has Senator Obama accomplished to earn the caller's support?
And her answer, not paraphrased at all: "You just don't like him, 'cause you're a racist." And she hung up.
There was a racist in that phone conversation, but it wasn't Mr. Humphries.
And yes, this is gonna be a very long run-up to the general election...
It might almost be Spring...
They weren't in my lane but when one vehicle pulled in front of the other, the second swerved into my lane, then swerved back to avoid hitting me.
That driver lost control and slammed into the retaining wall; spinning and slamming repeatedly; sparks and shattered glass going everywhere.
They then shot across the freeway, passing right behind me and barely missing me, then went off the highway coming to rest in a ditch.
At this point, the other vehicle was long gone.
I phoned it into 911 from my cell. I'm still shaking. I think I'm going to take a shot of something and go to bed.
Hope everyone else had a safer night.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.