LIBERTY: Gooferment skools are youth propaganda camps

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

http://www.lewrockwell.com/suprynowicz/suprynowicz78.html

***Begin Quote***

California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal on Feb. 28 declared the parents of most of that state’s 166,000 home-schooled children to be outlaws, ruling the law requires parents to send their children to full-time state-certified public or private schools or else have them taught at home by “credentialed” tutors – which most home-school parents, presumably, aren’t.

“California courts have held that … parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children,” Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling, which makes it clear those parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply.

And did Judge Croskey and his black-robed ruling-class pals say this was because the home-schoolers weren’t doing as well at teaching reading, writing and ‘rithmetic?

Of course not. They couldn’t say that, because tests consistently shows home-school kids, taught by parents without state “certificates” or licenses, score 30 to 37 percentile points higher than their public school peers across all subjects.

So why ban home-schooling, if the academic results are far better?

Judge Croskey obligingly explained: “A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare.”

***End Quote***

Oops, did the judge let the cat out of the bag?

Gooferment skools are youth propaganda camps. Stalin and Mao would be so proud. And, Kruschev was right. The Communists won!

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WRITING: TEOTWAWKI fiction — “Percy’s Mission”

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Percy’s Mission BY Jerry D Young
http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=9217

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POLITICAL: open the books for all GOOFERMENT income and spending!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

http://www.smallgovernmentact.org/

*** begin quote ***

Show Us the Money: An Open Letter to the Massachusetts State Legislature
Small Government News ^ | Feb 8, 2008 | Michael Cloud and Carla Howell
Show Us the Money: Open the Books for all Massachusetts State Government Income and Spending

**** An Open Letter to the Massachusetts State Legislature ****

from Michael Cloud and Carla Howell

Dear Massachusetts State Legislators,

On behalf of the 3,000,000+ taxpayers of Massachusetts,

For the purposes of transparency and accountability of the Massachusetts state government,

We request that you show us the money: open the books for all Massachusetts State Government income and spending.

We ask that you post the Massachusetts state government budget – every dollar of all state government income and spending online – on an open, free, easily readable, and easily accessible website.

Taxpayers shouldn’t need a Freedom of Information request to find out where the money comes from and where it goes.

{Extraneous Deleted}

*** end quote ***

Seems like this should apply to every level of gooferment everywhere!

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WRITING: Interesting written on the GOOGLE BLOGGER platform

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

ED Day – Dead Sydney BY Darryl Mason
http://ed-day.blogspot.com
=======================================================================

A serialized novel by Darryl Mason. Set in Sydney in the months after the bird flu pandemic kills millions. The story follows three hundred survivors as they try to rebuild their society, in a city of the dead. New chapters will be posted each week.

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MONEY: The lesson in Bear Sterns

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20080317.rcreditbearstearns18/BNStory/
Technology/?page=rss&id=..rcreditbearstearns18

***Begin Quote***

As a result, a firm that had survived the Depression, the Second World War and numerous stock market collapses faced the humiliation of a government-assisted takeover by rival investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. that will likely vaporize most of the personal wealth of the firm’s executives and cost the jobs of more than half of its 14,000 employees.

***End Quote***

I’ve seen this before when employees fall in love with their employer. They drink the Kool Aid of “failing to diversify”. My Mom fell in love with her AT&T stock. And, I have in my memory bank, many other examples of this among my friends and acquaintances. Since the read this blog, I won’t call them out but you know who you are.

Suficeth to say, I “love” no stock or bond. I ruthless observe the old Wall Street canard “No more than 5% in any one thing!”. Bank, brokerage, Tbill, … … I don’t care. If there is a way to segment your portfolio, then you should know if you have more than 5% and make a conscious decision that “it’s OK”. That may be because there is no alternative. But, it should be a “conscious decision to accept a specific risk”, as opposed to “stuff just happens”.

There is one good question that I have been asked by my Turkeys and acquaintances. (My friends and relatives never ask financial advice since they will get a long wandering diatribe on the evils of fiat currency and the benefits of gold!)

How do you mitigate the risk of jobs and pensions?

Well, both a job, pension, and any income stream of regular payments can be viewed as like a funny kind of bond.

If you have a $100k/year job, that’s like having a 2M$ bearer bond that you can’t sell. There are the unusual risks associated with it (i.e., you can lose it; it might default). That’s why the folks at Bear Sterns investing more than 5% in Bear Sterns really blew it. If one had that proverbial $100k/year job (and most jobs there paid much more), then you had in effect a $2M “bond” in your net worth. To stay under the 5% rule, you’d have to have assets in excess of $40M. Then, you could start investing in the stock.

Unfortunately, houses, pensions, and jobs when measured on the equivalent asset basis tend to throw the 5% rule out of wack. Not a lot many can do to avoid it. But that’s no excuse to not recognizing the risk and seeking to mitigate it.

So buying your employer’s stock has to be made pretty attractive to rush in and grab that particular falling knife so to speak. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes, like Enron, it don’t. Can you afford the loss?

I’m always amazed that financial industry professionals — the experts — do such a lousy job of planning their own financials. Remember 90% of Cantor Fitzgerald employees, who were killed in 91101, had no life insurance.

Always watch out for “experts” and those who give advice like one. Even me! Do your own thinking.

But remember 5%!

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TECH SOFTWARE: Sage Software’s Act! — NOT RECOMMENDED!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/archives/
2008/03/not_a_class_act.html

March 18, 2008
Not a class Act!

***Begin Quote***

Many people have mixed feelings about class action lawsuits, seeing as how the only real winners are usually the lawyers. But is such litigation more justified against a software company that keeps putting out a buggy product? That was the question confronting one reader when he received notice of a settlement involving Sage Software’s Act! 2005.

***End Quote***

I don’t even fight any more. My defense is Open Source Software. A huge criteria to “invest” my time and effort, which is worth far more than the little bit of money I spend on software, hardware, or services, is can I get my data in and out. I can’t — goodbye. I spend ZERO on anything that I can’t escape from. I’ve been locked in by the best of them most notable Microsoft and I’m going to escape that trap this year. No Vista for me. It’s a failed meme to use tools that trap you into upgrade cycle hell or steal your time and attention away from profitable activities. I’m moving to the zero foot print computing that the web — most notably Google — is offering. As long as I can export my data to Open Office, I’ll be OK. More than one way to skin a class action lawyer.

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WRITING: TEOTWAWKI plan — create a store of wisdom

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/vb/showthread.php?t=170163

The Liebowitz project is something that everyone can do. Pick three books that are important to you, one on your profession or trade, one that is just entertainment (whatever you find enjoyable) and one that is a textbook on a basic subject you think important, and go out and purchase copies of them (library or archive quality, hardbound, if at all possible). Then, carefully preserve the books – seal them in plastic, spray the plastic with insecticide, and then seal that inside more plastic. Put the books in a safe place (I use a 20mm ammo can, painted silver).

# – # – #

Starship Troopers. Thomas’ Calculus. The Thinker’s Toolkit.

So what are your three books?

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LIBERTY: “smashing the big brewers’ monopoly” leads to bypassing the legislation and a BIGGER monopoly!

Monday, March 17, 2008

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=536270&in_page_id=1770

***Begin Quote***

Then Camra, the Campaign for Real Ale, was founded to fight for traditional beer and pubs.

It found a surprising ally. Margaret Thatcher, who hated monopolies and brewers (despite the fact that they were significant donors to the Tory Party), rallied to the cause.

Laws were passed that no brewer could own more than 2,000 pubs. Furthermore, they would have to give their landlords the option of selling at least one “guest beer” produced by a rival.

The idea could not have been simpler: by smashing the big brewers’ monopoly, there would be a flowering of smaller brewers, varied pubs and more choice for drinkers. But it didn’t work out like that.

Roger Protz of Camra looks slightly uncomfortable when I ask him what went wrong. “Basically, I think we were tremendously naive,” he says.

What happened was that the brewers created stand-alone pub companies – known as PubCos – to which they sold all their pubs.

Because they didn’t brew beer themselves, these new companies were exempt from the legislation.

“There were a lot of sweetheart deals,” explains Protz. “The brewers would say to some of their management team, ‘Here’s a golden handshake, go off, buy a tranche of pubs and in return only take our beers.’ That was what happened.

“We were offered this great shangri-la of choice but now choice is just as restricted under the pub companies as it was under the brewers.”

The statistics bear him out. In 1989, the three biggest brewers owned around 20,000 pubs, about a third of the UK’s total. Today, the three biggest PubCos own – wait for it – around 20,000 pubs.

In 1989, the six biggest brewers produced 75 per cent of all the beer drunk in Britain’s pubs. Today, they produce 84per cent.

What have changed are the pubs themselves.

***End Quote***

Ahh, the gooferment at work.

It’s hard to imagine bigger stupidity.

Where there is a will, there’s a way.

And, what exactly was the gooferment seeking to do? Didn’t work. So, I guess, they’ll pass yet another law!

Argh!

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LIBERTY: The argument for liberty … …

Monday, March 17, 2008

***Begin Quote***

“The argument for liberty is not an argument against organization, which is one of the most powerful tools human reason can employ, but an argument against all exclusive, privileged, monopolistic organization, against the use of coercion to prevent others from doing better.”

– Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992),
Nobel Laureate of Economic Sciences 1974

***End Quote***

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INTERESTING: Last man standing

Monday, March 17, 2008

http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=188712&format=html

March 16, 2008
Last man standing
By DAVE McMILLION

***Begin Quote***

CHARLES TOWN, W.VA. – He’s the last one in America who can tell stories about his experiences during World War I.

And he lives just outside of Charles Town.

Frank Woodruff Buckles became the last known surviving American veteran of the First World War this year, and his family is busy keeping track of his schedule as he grants interviews and makes appearances.

The 107-year-old veteran was honored 10 days ago during ceremonies in Washington, D.C. He visited with President Bush at the White House and a photographic portrait of Buckles was unveiled at the Pentagon.

 

***End Quote***

Wow. And, he was a POW. Stern stuff.

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LIBERTY: “Guns” are the litmus test issue

Sunday, March 16, 2008

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/15/AR2008031502358_pf.html

D.C.’s Gun Ban Gets Day in Court
Justices’ Decision May Set Precedent In Interpreting the 2nd Amendment
By Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 16, 2008; A01

***Begin Quote***

Despite mountains of scholarly research, enough books to fill a library shelf and decades of political battles about gun control, the Supreme Court will have an opportunity this week that is almost unique for a modern court when it examines whether the District’s handgun ban violates the Second Amendment.

***End Quote***

If the Second Amendment doesn’t protect and individual right, then what does the First Amendment protect?

The right to a gun is fundamental to the question of who owns you.

Tyrants don’t want sheep that can shoot back. “Victim disarmament” is the FIRST thing that tyrants do to the people. After all, an armed citizen can be dangerous to the “bad guys”. Criminals, with or with the government uniform, can’t face an armed populace.

It’s the key issue. Let’s see what the court decides. It might surprise us.

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WRITING: FULL TEXT The Mad Chemist – A TEOTWAWKI Skill (What’s yours?)

Saturday, March 15, 2008

[I didn’t realize that it required registration to read my story. Here it is!]

http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1341855#post1341855

The Mad Chemist – A TEOTWAWKI Skill (What’s yours?)

# – # – #

The Mad Chemist by reinkefj
A TEOTWAWKI Skill (What’s yours?)

It was a year after the SHTF, (does it really matter what the specific S was that hit the F?), the fat old fellow who had done some minimal prep was rolling in luxury. Or what passed for it in those days.

He had sheltered in place for the duration. He was extremely busy while everyone was lounging in their shelters. There were lines to activate. There were batches to brew. There were tests to run. He wasn’t a pioneer type. He wasn’t athletic by any means. He wasn’t the great white hunter, Rambo, medicine man, or priest. He was a dumb old injineer with a plan.

He was now living in his old house with a staff. The county hospital was opened in the next house down. As was the sheriff, a food coop, butcher, and what passed for the county library all nearby. It was grid down. But his house was lit up. Fuel trucks making deliveries were a regular. As were pig drop offs. Bicyclists, pickup trucks, and even an occasional helicopter were seen going in and out of the property. There was even a small security detail. Especially when the armored cars rolled in and out.

The bad guys were your run of the mill looters. Not too bright, they had been lucky. The jail they were in held them safe during the S that hit the F. As petty criminals, the guards let them out. (Note not all were so lucky. Some forward thinking guards either left their charges locked up to die of thirst, or did the humane thing and shot these human parasites in their cells.) They lived off the leftovers. When easy living dried up, they went back to stealing. When stealing got tougher, (victims were shooting back with greater accuracy), they moved up to full fledged raiding.

They heard about this hub of activity. And went down to look it over. There were now six of them. They were getting hungry and it looked like an easy target. The smell of pork was in the air. It would be a good strike. Maybe something that would keep them in the chips for the rest of their life. They reconned and spotted the fat old guy walking around outside with a two man protective detail. He would be their target since he was the “rich guy”. Their imaginations ran wild. Maybe he’s a Gates, Buffet, or like “howard hughes”. It would be easy since he was fat and old. The fat part got their juices really flowing since no one was fat these days.

The details of the operation are really not important. Sufficed to say four of them made it to the house and the security detail didn’t. They broke into the house and rounded up all the staff. They didn’t think much, so it wasn’t registering that a staff of 20 people was unusual. The ring leader found the fat old guy in the basement. Not cowering in fear as he expected. Not facing him with weapons. Not trying to make a deal.

The ring leader’s proposition was a variation of “your money or your life”. The old man’s response was amusing. “Please take my life. My loved ones are gone. The work is endless. And, the money is over rated.” The ring leader was confused. And then the gas hit.

The ring leader woke up in a room. He knew the Sheriff on a professional level from previous arrests. It was obvious he was in deep doo doo. “What was your plan?”. “We was going to take over and take it easy.” “Take over what? The only working drug lab making insulin, cowpox vaccine, and antibiotics in the State? I just want to meet the idiot that tried to rob a drug plant. I thought there was more to this. Take out the trash.” The leader was roughly manhandled out to the yard, past the pigs that were being harvested for their Islets of Langerhans, past the sign proclaiming the area as an “Essential State Resource”, and to the pit. The leader was shot with a small 22 to the head and his body joined his buddies being fed to the pigs.

The Sheriff was astonished that these fools didn’t know that this facility was keeping alive all the post TEO diabetics who made it, all those who had infections, and was protecting all the potential small pox victims. He just shook his head and wondered how the fat old man was coming along with his attempt to make nitroglycerin for heart patients. Maybe he’d get to Viagra soon. The fat old man did have niche skill in the new world.

-30-

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INTERESTING: Roadmap to Success?

Thursday, March 13, 2008

FROM A RECENT VENDOR EMAIL

***Begin Quote***

Roadmap to Success Series: Transitioning to Managed Services
? Register for Kaseya’s Roadmap to Success Series!

Managed Services is a hot topic within the reseller, systems integrator and service provider community. It is a lucrative business model that enhances customer satisfaction by improving IT infrastructure management while increasing service provider margins. It is a key step to retaining clients and building a predictable revenue stream. There are many challenges including; what services to offer, how to price them and how to migrate customers.

***End Quote***

Objection, your honor, assumes facts not yet in evidence!

This tacitly assumes that success is a destination. And, that it’s the same for everyone.

:-)

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TECH SOFTWARE: a strange bug or data error with Microsoft WORD2003

Monday, March 10, 2008

Microsoft Office, (Have I mentioned lately how much I hate Microsoft Office and Outlook?), specifically WORD2003, threw me a curve this weekend. I was doing my Jottings Sunday morning and was hit by a strange bug or data error.

Everything on the page was coded as a hypertext link.

I was hooked bad. On deadline, I really didn’t need that hassle. Tried to clear the format in any way I could think. New doc. New file. Cut’n’paste. Even went through the doc and “removed hyperlink” on every paragraph.

Nothing worked.

Fired up Open Office. Removed one page of links. Saved it. Uploaded it. Still screwed up.

Fired up NVU and opened the page. It allowed me to globally nuke the link and save it.

Argh!

Two hours down the tubes.

I hate Microsoft Office.

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TECH HARDWARE: troublesome laptop (mac book air) and a flight long gone

Sunday, March 9, 2008

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/019882.html

March 08, 2008
The TSA Doesn’t Dig The Macbook Air
Posted by Manuel Lora at March 8, 2008 08:28 PM

***Begin Quote***

The TSA is the federal agency that supposedly keeps airports safe. It prevents bombs, firearms, knives, brass knuckles and all sorts of evil objects and people from boarding flights. Yet they were puzzled by the new Macbook Air:

***and***

The senior agent hasn’t been trained for technological change. New products on the market? They haven’t been TSA approved. Probably shouldn’t be permitted. He requires me to open the “device” and run a program. I do, and despite his inclination, the lead agent decides to release me and my troublesome laptop. My flight is long gone now, so I head for the service center to get rebooked.

***and***

Oh heroic TSA agents, may you keep our homeland secure from all evils present and future. May your vigilant, Orwellian and totalitarian eyes look after us poor frightened citizens forever and ever. And while you’re at it, read some technology blogs and leave us alone.

***End Quote***

I guess this is one small strike against my getting one. Is this part of the cost of being on the bleeding edge?

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text


POLITICAL: “Bill! It’s for you!”

Sunday, March 9, 2008

IT’S OVER
By Dick Morris Reports <dickmorrisreports@dickmorris.com>

(Dick is funny and cutting. Has no love for Hillary. But, he does hit good points with laser-like strikes to the funny bone!)

*** begin quote ***

Suggestion for Obama:

The next time Hillary uses the recycled red phone ad, counter with one of your own. When the phone rings in the middle of the night, have a woman’s voice, with a flat Midwestern accent, answer it and say, “Hold on” into the receiver. Then she should shout, “Bill! It’s for you!”

Because with Hillary’s complete lack of any meaningful experience in foreign affairs, and her lack of the “testing” that she boldly claims, she’ll be yelling for Bill.

*** end quote ***

I think the “red phone” ad cuts against all three “candidates”. None! None of them have any leadership credentials. None of them have solid accomplishments. McCain even has a negative one — campaign finance reform that violates the First Amendment.

A plague on all their houses.

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LIBERTY: Vermont isn’t one of those ‘free states’ is it?

Saturday, March 8, 2008

—–Original Message—–
From: Luddite
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2008 11:22 PM
To: John Reinke
Subject: Vermont?

Vermont isn’t one of those ‘free states’ is it, or is that just New Hampshire? Anyway, it sounds like it is a very bad place to live…it’s full of secular progressives, extremely liberal judges (who let pedaphiles out of jail), they have the highest percentage of underage drinkers, way, way, too liberal for me (and you!). (Just passing on info for a more informed American society)

—–Reply Message—–

Well, none of the states are “free”. NH is the “free-est”. VT has the virtue of having a very active secession movement.

SECEDE & SURVIVE: Liberty and Democracy as Antidotes to Sectarian Secessionism
Submitted by Carol Moore on Fri, 03/07/2008 – 10:50pm.
http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2008/03/07/secede-survive-liberty-and-democracy-antidotes-sectarian-secessionism

HI, TX, AK, and SC are all hot beds of secession. BUT, VT is the most advanced. Last time I read about it, VT had >10% of the people favored secession and in the high 70s thought it should be studied. NH has smaller percentages, but are not far behind.

IMHO, it’s the Massholes and old hippies in VT that make it liberal. Again, imho, if VT goes, then NH will go together with them, or on the heels. The secessionists claim that they can bring VT, NH. ME, and some of the English speaking Canadian provinces into a “New England” country. Economically, VT needs NH to be at least a trading partner. Add ME and it’s like Switzerland.

It’s the only viable way to disempower the gang in DC. Remember the line in Mel Gibson’s the patriot about trading tyrants. :-) How else is the fictional “Federal Government” brought back under control?

As far as politically, I think you’d see a very “classical liberal” society evolve there in VT. Remember that in a classical liberal society, whose roots are in the Renaissance, the sovereign individual governs themselves; not King, or country. Liberal judges are an anomaly.

And, if you eliminate “Prohibition” (i.e., all drugs are legal), then there is no such thing as “underage drinking”. People have to be free to make mistakes, learn from them, and move on. If you poke around, you’ll find that there is a core percentage of “drug users” (i.e., a small percentage) that use regardless of legality.

Suggest http://www.isil.org/resources/introduction.swf as a five minute primer that explains the concepts very nicely. Best that I’ve ever seen.

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WRITING: TEOTWAWKI fiction — “The Old Man” – “old bear” @ Timebomb2000

Saturday, March 8, 2008

The Old Man – “old bear” @ Timebomb2000
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=47777

# – # – #

Recommended as a vignette that has a poignant quality.

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RANT:parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children

Friday, March 7, 2008

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/07/MNJDVF0F1.DTL

San Francisco Chronicle
Homeschoolers’ setback sends shock waves through state
Bob Egelko, Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, March 7, 2008

*** begin quote ***

“California courts have held that … parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children,” Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. “Parents have a legal duty to see to their children’s schooling under the provisions of these laws.”

Parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply, Croskey said.

“A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare,” the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.

*** end quote ***

“barbara streisand”

Just whose children are they?

We may have eliminated the plantations. But the slave masters are still in power.

I find the gooferment’s intrusion into “eddycation” particularly onerous and troublesome.

It’s brainwashing the way the gooferment “educates” its future sheeple … err “citizens” … in the love of the gooferment. A self-fulfilling prediction.

Enough is enough. It’s time for the Separation of Education and State!

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WRITING: TEOTWAWKI fiction — “Lights Out”

Friday, March 7, 2008

http://www.giltweasel.com/stuff/LightsOut-Current.pdf

Lights Out by HalfFast

# – # – #

Recommended as one of the earliest of the “modern” (i.e., not dead tree form) of TEO writing I am aware of.

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INTERESTING: Life isn’t fair

Thursday, March 6, 2008

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2008/03/life-isnt-fair.html

Life isn’t fair, or, why people who are irritable get more irritable, and people who are cheery get more cheery.

***Begin Quote***

I love finding a precise term for things I’ve observed in the word. It’s so satisfying to discover concepts like Schadenfreude, or “acting in reliance,” or wabi-sabi. One of my favorite parts of writing my book Power Money Fame Sex: A User’s Guide was making up new terms: platinum rule, eye stray, object lust, ubiniquity.

***End Quote***

‘pleasure taken from someone else’s misfortune’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude

an economic harm for acting in reliance on a party who failed to fulfill their obligation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliance_damages_(law)

beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

Platinum Rule as “Never ever, ever, ever ‘love’ thy neighbor.” His point was that one should never date someone seen on a regular basis, e.g. someone at the same workplace, a next door neighbor, etc. because such relationships never work out in the end and lead to never-ending suffering, as those involved would see each other constantly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum_Rule

“eye stray”?
Girl watching while with your significant other?

“object lust”?

ubiniquity?

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FUN: Why Are Wedding Dresses White?

Thursday, March 6, 2008

From: Frau Reinke’s High School Chum
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 7:38 PM
Subject: Why Are Wedding Dresses White?

*** begin quote ***

I’d take a bet that this guy never said this loud enough so his wife can hear this:

>Son asked his mother the following question:
>
> “Mom , why are wedding dresses white?” The mother replies, “Son, this shows everyone that your bride is pure.”
>
> The son thanks his Mom and goes off to double-check this with his father. “Dad why are wedding dresses white?”
>
> The father looks at his son in surprise and says, “Son, all household appliances come in white.”

*** end quote ***

# – # – #

No sucker money here. But, it is funny. Especially in today’s day and age.

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WRITING: “survival fiction” — some further thinking

Thursday, March 6, 2008

It might be interesting to write “a story with choices”.

I remember paper books being published which at the bottom of every page gave you a choice. “If X should go left, turn to page number Y. If X should go right, turn to page Z.” I remember being very anal in those days and literally ripping the book apart and mapping the various alternative choices. It was amazing in that the author (script writer?) had several choices “rejoin” a string. I used the same technique when I played Willie Crowther’s (original author) Adventure. It was Don Woods’ expansion that led me to “contribute” my time to the computer industry’s two week delay while everyone solved the game. You know the one with “twisty caves all alike”. The man was diabolic. At least I wasn’t diverted into real life D&D (popular with the Princeton U crowd) or lured into computer gaming. No, I stayed focused on the Wall Street and its money. Never made it, but chased it for decades.

So it would seem that it would be possible — easy in the days of blogs and the web — to translate a story in this form to a user experience. It would really translate into print, but it might be like a very “flat” computer game.

Hmmm?

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WRITING: The blog as a follow on to the old movie serial

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Interesting that fan, patriot, and and other writing forms seem to have adopted the chapter per blog post format.

Here’s an exemplar.

http://ed-day.blogspot.com

ED Day – Dead Sydney

*** begin quote ***

A serialized novel by Darryl Mason. Set in Sydney in the months after the bird flu pandemic kills millions. The story follows three hundred survivors as they try to rebuild their society, in a city of the dead. New chapters will be posted each week.

*** end quote ***

Fascinating to see what may be a revival of a genre?

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TECH HARDWARE: Western Digital’s website may be wrong about “out of warranty”

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/archives/2008/03/western_digital.html

March 04, 2008
Western Digital Lies About Warranty Status
The Gripe Line
Ed Foster

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Drive manufacturers often seem to have a bad memory when it comes to their warranty promises. That’s what one reader discovered when Western Digital’s website falsely labeled his drive as being out of warranty when it wasn’t.

***and***

Then the reader discovered some fine print that only popped up when he hovered his cursor over a small “note” link. It read:

“By default, the warranty date is calculated from the manufacture date. However, if you have proof of purchase, we can update the warranty to calculate it from the purchase date. If you feel that the warranty date needs to be updated from the purchase date, please follow the instructions below.”

***End Quote***

I would have thought that was “fraudulent”. I can see them saying “we only know that we made the drive x/y/z date.” But, I think that they also ask you to register the drive with the dumb post card. Maybe, they are NOT crooks, but this is certainly bad PR.

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GUNS: FMG9: Prototype 9mm Folding Submachine Gun

Sunday, March 2, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D99NHb6B03s

FMG9: Prototype 9mm Folding Submachine Gun

***Begin Quote***

“Things get nasty; get down to business.

***End Quote***

I love it. Perfect for a BOB!

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