Blog

Student: My body aches.
Master: Your mind says you ache.

Sometimes white noise drives me nuts. As a child I could tell you from the opposite end of the house if the television was turned on even if the sound was all the way down while others would insist there was no noise. The hum of a computer monitor can be distracting enough to prohibit programming. At these times I like to put in some ear plugs dropping noise by 20db and effectively cutting out the white noise but still allowing you to hear.

I am programming and I hear a noise that I can’t identify. I take out an ear plug to acknowledge an airplane. A few minutes later with the ear plugs in I hear what sounds like a Cessna single engine plane flying too low. The sound is coming through the baby monitor and getting louder. I can only assume an appliance is dying despite a childhood flashback so I run upstairs to seek out the noise before it wakes everyone in the house.

The childhood flashback was to being in right field during a t-ball game praying that some lefty hitter didn’t smack the ball my way. I’d much rather hang out assuming my lack of ability than have the ball fly my way and prove my lack of ability. I was living in Kenner, Lousiana at the time. Lots of mosquitoes. During the game a skeeter eater would drive by, the game would pause as all the children would stare at the truck spouting off a wall of fog, the fog would approach and be welcomed by the crowd as we knew we’d have a few less bites that night, and the game would continue without so much as a thought toward what this horrid chemical might be doing to our lungs and tissues.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that no appliance was dying and no airplane was crashing into the house. I stood on the porch for a few moments and watched the funny looking truck approach spouting off its spray of whatever is supposed to reduce the mosquitoe population. As it neared, the outdoor cat meowed as if to say, “Am I supposed to hold my breath?” and I slipped back inside with the clean air feeling slight remorse for the cat while not allowing the dog to go out into the fog but happy to know that there may be a few less blood suckers tomorrow.

I said a long time ago that Heir Bush would try to stay in office forever. Now B.K. Delong of Brain Stream points out that Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland introduced a bill on February 17, 2005 to "remove the 22nd Amendment setting Presidential Term Limits."
Co-sponsors:

Rep Berman, Howard L. [CA-28] – 2/17/2005
Rep Pallone, Frank, Jr. [NJ-6] – 2/17/2005
Rep Sabo, Martin Olav [MN-5] – 2/17/2005
Rep Sensenbrenner, F. James, Jr. [WI-5] – 2/17/2005

Well, your fearless dictator is trying to strike yet another blow to the Constitution.

Who keeps voting for these morons?

Time to hunker down for an all-nighter of programming. Sometimes I wonder if the trade-offs of homebased, self-employment are really worth it.

If there is one thing I could have changed about today, I would have been quite happy to not witness my cat toss its cookies.

Sometimes we never know just how many lifes we touch.

Dear Alberto Gonzales, US Attorney General:

Morality is taught to our children by their parents and cannot be dictated by the government. A government of the people takes the views of all the people and if a person standing to my left has opinions, beliefs and morals differing from the person on my right it is neither the right nor the place of the government to force the views of one of those people upon the other as long as a person’s stand does not cause harm to another person. Mr. Gonzales will argue that 18 USC 2257 is protecting our children from harm and I strongly disagree.

18 USC 2257 is blatant censorship. It is electronic bookburning stiffling a creative outlet as sited in the Boing Boing article "Rotten.com: our gapingmaw.com and other sites shut in anticipation of 2257"

We might mention that the material here isn’t even pornography as you normally think of it — this site is just adult humor, in essay format, with some illustrations. The government is mandating that we meet certain bookkeeping requirements, ones impossible to meet for this site. Never mind that those requirements do not actually gain the public anything. This is the strongest attack on free speech since the passage of the CDA, and oddly, the media seems to have hardly noticed. The penalty for not abiding by these bookkeeping requirements is five years prison.

Because the nature of their site is user submissions of adult humor they will receive pictures for which they cannot document the person in the picture therefore their site must cease to exist.

I am not advocating child pornography but I do put the onus of protection of children on the parents. Parents must protect their children from from the evils of the world through education and involvement. Children will see hardcore magazines at their friends houses; children will experience horrific things (death, the twin towers, etc); children will see things on their friend’s Internet connection. You can cleanse your house but you cannot blindfold your children when they leave the house. Parents must protect their children from exploitation through supervision and education. If the parent is an abuser, the parent must seek help.

18 USC 2257 is the equivalent to Prohibition.

Prohibition also presented lucrative opportunities for organized crime to take over the importation (“bootlegging”), manufacture, and distribution of alcoholic beverages. Al Capone, one of the most famous bootleggers of them all, built his criminal empire largely on profits from illegal alcohol. [ source ]

You are attacking inadvertant distributors who would happily pull the content if it was suspect. You have not protected a child. Shutting down a site that showed a child depicting a sexual act has not stopped the adult from abusing that child. If anything, shutting down the site removes a digital footprint to finding the adult that should prosecuted. 18 USC 2257 will drive child pornographers into more ingenious distribution methods that may be more elusive to prosecution.

Where does this stop? Will Blogger shut down because they have no control over what I post? Will that picture of my naked newborn scare them enough to erase my writings?

A powerful, thought provoking statement from the gapingmaw.com statement: "No nation has freedom when it is run by religious zealots."

Sincerely,
A parent who wants his children to grow up in a free society.

Now Christians can leave their message while they walk. Of course, this may not have the desired affect in Cancun. 

Excellent article on when products expire.

Contacting your senator does help!

You know, when I think of The Pyramids I imagine a horizon to horizon expanse of sand with perhaps a couple of camels carrying a handful of people wrapped in bed sheets. Squeaky horn music plays eeriely from the heavens, the air is still and no one speaks. Somewhere over a sand dune 8 guys are trying to rebuild an airplane to fly and a bunch of World War II gold is buried beneath a rusted tank. Google Maps now ruins my impressions given to me by National Geographic and Hollywood. Have a look at The Real Egypt. Looks noisy.

(wow!)

Walker Springs at I-40/I-75 live.
Traffic Cameras provided by TDOT SmartWay (per linking policy)

I’m an observant person. I watched the traffic cams get installed by TDOT. For a long I have intended to call TDOT and ask, "are those cameras available to the public?" Ironically, being a web guy, I never bothered looking online until one of the local news stations mentioned the 75 cameras are online (though by my count I only see 66). Have a look at a picture of a TDOT SmartWay camera.

Additional information about the TDOT $20 million SmaryWay system is available including cameras statewide and information about Tennessee 511 a service that provides traffic information from any phone. TDOT is also in Alabama.

From the Smartway FAQ:

Other benefits include:

• Providing live video to local television stations that is used during their rush hour traffic reports
• Website access to current construction and incident information.
• Shorter crash response time by emergency response agencies including TDOT HELP trucks
• Using the system to assist in AMBER ALERTS
• Radio reports of current construction and incident information available on the highway advisory radio (HAR) system.
• Use of the system to complement Homeland Security evacuation plans

Now when you want to leave the house you can check to see if I-40 is jammed or not!

Democrats Called Anti-Christian Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state!

“Like a moth to a flame, Democrats can’t help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians,” said Rep. John Hostettler.

Hostettler’s picture just screams, “Hey. Don’t ya’ll get it? GW came into office and government went out the window. It’s all about God now. The Apocalypse is coming tomorrow anyway and ya’ll won’t be around to complain then.”

Of course, we find irony in the article:

The Democratic proposal on the Air Force Academy was defeated. The House instead approved by voice vote a Republican plan requiring an Air Force report to Congress on the steps it was taking to promote religious tolerance.

I scored 4 out of 10 on this. (safe for work)

Wife barking at 9 year old to find missing dog that I let out and forgot.
14 year old sleeping; refusing to get up.
3 year old crying that she is hurt.
Me, unable to move, listening to hold music on an ear piece wired to the phone base.

Stress rising.