Stress manifested itself physically. I am one gigantic ache.Yesterday I crashed hard. Chills. Fever. Dizzy. Muscle soreness. Coughing. Today I still hurt but think I am functional.
Year: 2008
Of Grasshoppers
Student: Every decision I make is bad.
Master: When one steers a ship port or starboard, it is a still a boat floating on water.
Quote of the Day
Seen on 1984news.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749-1832
There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt. -John Adams 1735-1826
Intruder! Intruder! Leave immediately!
The high school’s alarm has great comedic value.
Mobile post sent by djuggler using Utterli. Replies. mp3
Get registered
Free sidewalk art contest
Market Square
Mobile post sent by djuggler using Utterli. Replies.
I watched the debates on CSPAN
I intended to just pick up the highlights of the debates today but I got dragged in. I want to understand the McCain/Palin love. I feel like I’m missing something. One of my neighbors has a McCain/Palin yard sign and I simply do not understand what they see in these two.
I watched the debates on CSPAN with their wonderful split screen and no over talking the candidates with commentators! Did anyone else notice that CSPAN gave Palin 53% of the screen while Biden was squeezed, with his head often bobbing offscreen, in 47%. On my 20 inch tv (that’s the diagonal measurement), Biden had 7.5 inches and Palin had 8.5 inches. Perhaps that was intended to be a metaphor for Biden being more in touch with the average American while Palin supposedly swings a big stick.
Don’t Vote! (registration ends Monday)
(mature language warning)
Leonardo DiCaprio, will i. am, Tobey Maguire, and Forest Whitaker have created public service announcements to encourage American youth to register to vote. The non-partisan PSAs, produced by DiCaprios Appian Way, were created to engage and inspire young people to register and vote and participate in the upcoming election. Celebrities appearing in the PSAs include: Amy Adams, will.i.am, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Bacon, Halle Berry, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Connolly, Courteney Cox, Ellen DeGeneres, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Jonah Hill, Dustin Hoffman, Anthony Kiedis, Ashton Kutcher, Adam Levine, Laura Linney, Eva Longoria, Tobey Maguire, Demi Moore, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, Ethan Suplee, Kyra Sedgwick, Michelle Trachtenberg, Usher, and Forest Whitaker.
Have you reached out to an unregistered voter and encouraged them to participate in the election? Time is running out. Find voter registration information at http://maps.google.com/vote
Train Operator was Avid Texter
ABC News reports that Metrolink train engineer Robert Sanchez of the deadly crash in California sent 29 text messages that day. The last message was sent 22 seconds before the crash. Apparently it read: "OMG! Freight train!" NTSB has not released the other 28 messages.
Update: The crux of the problem is that the engineer missed a light warneing of the collision (or that’s the assumption). Our reaction will be to treat the symptom and ban cell phones which in itself may not be bad but the problem is the engineer did not stop the train presumably because he did not see the signal for whatever reason. We should be treating the problem by installing better warning systems and automated controls that could stop the train without human interaction, after all, the engineer could have been reading a book, daydreaming, sleeping, or slumped over the controls in a heart attack. I sure would like to see us become a society that responds to problems rather than reacts to symptoms.
Copying files should not take forever!
I am laying in some significant code changes so I am making a backup of my development environment. No, I’m not using SVN or other revision control as I should be. Windows takes forever to make a copy! In Linux this could have been done almost before I finished typing the command. File copies should not be measured in, "sure, go to the store, buy dinner supplies, come home and cook then I’ll be done copying" time!
Just one more minute
"Just one more minute" Those words are like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Oh. I suppose that expression is going to have to go the way of the slide projector. Do they even have chalk boards in the schools anymore? I utter those words almost everyday. Today I did it at 1:54am. I was awake enough to get up and work. But noooo. I was compelled to take just one more minute From 2am-6am I could have made huge coding progress! Of course, the New York Times reported people are 33% more creative after sleep. To prove the point, that problem which had me stumped at midnight has already been solved.
Random searches of students passes unanimously
The Knox County School Board voted unanimously to approve random searching of students. The next steps are to have the Law Department issue a legal memorandum then to have a final reading of the policy on November 2nd.
A commenter with good common sense from Volunteer TV’s comments regarding the Knox County School Board wanting to implement random searches in the school (emphasis added):
Posted by: Keri Location: Knoxville on Oct 1, 2008 at 09:46 AM
Are we, as members of a free democracy-protected by a Constitution, going to allow the constitutional rights of our children to be trampled upon? I am as concerned as most citizens about the safety of our children at school, but I am more concerned about the intimidation and conditioning of our children to accept infringements on their rights as American citizens. If we accept policies that not only allow, but encourage the powers that be to randomly search our children, without cause or evidence of wrong doing, how much longer before these policies obscure the rights of every citizen? These children are the future policy makers and leaders of our country and they will lead us based on the manner in which they have been lead. It is time to send a message to our children and the policy makers of our community that we value our Constitutional rights and those who fought and died to secure those rights, far too much to allow anyone, for any reason to strip our children of their liberty. [Source, VolunteerTV.com, Knox Co. School Board considering random search proposal, Keri]
Quit looking for quick fixes and think about the future. Please.
See also: teenagers are not criminals
Google from 2001
In 2001, a search for "Doug McCaughan" brings back 8 results. Today the same search returns 11,000!
In honor of their 10th birthday, Google has made its oldest index available. Search 2001!
In PA the vote is split between Obama and McCain
This is why you should never get your news from FOX! I really like the lady in the back right smacking her husband’s arm as he tries to raise it for McCain.
Note for when Youtube takes the video down. A reporter asks for a show of hands for McCain voters vs Obama voters. Almost every hand is down for McCain and up for Obama but the reporter declares the vote "split."
