Rob's Home Page

Election tomorrow

I'm positively blabbly lately, ha. I think a lot of Internet sites are about to cool off after tomorrow. Here's one with a very limited shelf life (or at least we can hope). Enjoy!

Monday, Nov 3 at 5:26 PM #

Cannot support the incumbent

I just finished watching part 1 of the American Experience video on Lyndon Johnson. It's all here (looks like they aired chapters 1-14). They close right as he's re-elected, "On January 20, 1965, there was no hint that Johnson's Great Society was about to be overwhelmed by a full-scale land war in Asia, that Lyndon Johnson had already sown the seeds of his own destruction." Really good television, and you can check the video on the link above, or the script here.

OK so I really enjoyed the presentation. LJB's story is about as compelling as they come, but it bears a common theme and it's a good time to be posting about it. I could guess what's going to happen in a couple weeks and who might win the presidency -- but it's not important to the point I want to make. Earlier I blogged (wow I didn't put much commentary behind it) and said anyone but a Bush or a Clinton.

Now, let me get out way ahead and say: PLEASE can we all agree now to not re-elect that guy? I'm tired and am not in a position to research or post any other links... but I think if you've been paying attention you'll know what I am saying. History's shown it's almost impossible for a second-term president to not SCREW THINGS UP really badly. We've had a few of them in my lifetime and what have we got? I'm not old enough to count LBJ and Vietnam, but can remember Nixon and Watergate, Reagan and Iran-Contra, Clinton and that whole impeachment thing, and... somebody else but I can't remember who right now.

Anyway again the point here isn't to talk about pendulums swinging or other stuff, except to plant the seed that while we all want the next guy to kick some amazing ass -- I will remember these examples and promise you right now, you won't be hearing any "4 more years" from me in any case. Cool?

Oh, one more thing, go visit your depressive Dem friends this weekend, just in case! :)

Thursday, Oct 23 at 9:11 PM #

Regarding ordure

I haven't posted on a disgusting matter in how long, ever?

I just read this interesting article on waste disposal and the future crisis dealing with sewage. Check it out!

Ha ha I wouldn't even blog about it except last night I heard something equally gross and have been considering it all day. 60 Minutes just aired a piece on bullfighting. They were saying how the EU wants Spain to stop it. Cited Spain as otherwise being very civilized and progressive. Their examples?

Gay marriage, quickie divorces, easy access to abortion. Go civilization! Ha ha ouch.

Tuesday, Oct 21 at 3:58 PM #

... like chasing flies around with a stick inside a TV set

I've been playing too many video games lately and so swore off them for a week. Ends tomorrow and I must say I've missed the fun. Along the way, I observed that I've quit smoking for almost a year (November 1) so breaking a supposed video game addiction really isn't that big a deal.

Anyway I just read an interesting comment from a fellow who relates what his aunt thought about video games, and thought it was funny... and poignant and blog worthy.

Monday, Oct 20 at 11:02 AM #

Don't listen to this

Don't listen to Another Frightening Show About The Economy as it's entirely too scary.

I had to stop and blog about it in Act II when, after doing an excellent job explaining what a credit default swap is, they say at about 27 minutes in:

"The corporate bond cash market is approximately 5 trillion dollars, and the (something) amount of CDS outstanding is approximately 60 trillion dollars. In other words, there are 5 trillion dollars worth of bonds issued in the world, but the total amount that people have bet on those bonds is 60 trillion. For every bond there are 10 people promising to pay the full amount if the bond goes bad.

Oh, and there's one more thing. All of this is unregulated..."

Wow. Of course there's no problem until bonds start failing. Oh and then they go on to talking about how the swap contracts are nearly entirely based on leverage.

Well I listened to Acts I and II today, and will come back and finish with III and IV tomorrow (I'll start at 40:15). Really interesting, really scary and of course maddening, check it out.

Monday, Oct 6 at 4:46 PM #

Exploitation?

I'm sort of undecided but not really...

I was brought to this video by a comment to the effect that this time they've gone too far, and a reference to Olberman's comment at the end... and now you too can experience like I did (unless you watched the convention live or something). I'd say "watch the video then CLICK HERE for my comments" but I don't have a handy way to do that.

Was it exploitation? I rather have to agree, it was.

Friday, Sep 5 at 4:16 PM #

Um, what?!

I've sort of been waiting for Spore , and today was reminded -- it will be on store shelves soon! This article brought it to my attention, where they say it won't run on a PowerPC Mac. Not a big surprise. Looks like I've finally got a reason to upgrade to Leopard.

But then I see Wikipedia's Spore entry says it won't even run on an Intel Mac Mini! Could that be correct? What a jip!

Wednesday, Sep 3 at 11:17 AM #

Will you ever blog again?

I was asked this question today... I think the answer is yes, but I just don't have much to say lately. In the past that might not have held me back, but right now... color me taciturn.

I've been doing a lot of driving and no working from home at all these last few weeks, attending daily PeopleSoft training classes in Portland. Health is good. Family is fine.

So there's a blog update about what I've been up to. Speaking of sandwiches today at lunch I had a new condiment on my hamburger: roast beef! No lie, the Philly Cheesestake Burger from AJ's By The Rails, yum.

Thursday, Aug 14 at 3:39 PM #

Hey wait, rewind that a minute...

We were watching CSI:NY the other day and I'm not sure if I did a "spit take" or a "double take"... in any event, this was worth a second look, good grins:

I'll create a GUI interface...

Tuesday, May 20 at 10:53 AM #

Tax comic

Funny comic about taxes, could it be?

Every year it's this way at my house. Actually we did really well this year, overpaid the fed only $94, near perfect I'd say!

Thursday, Apr 17 at 3:41 PM #

Cracking myself up

I just finished a computer-based training exercise at work about Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. When asked for suggestions on how they could improve the material, I typed "choose more attractive stock art photo models".

OK truth be told I chickened out (and thus the blog entry). I should have clicked send, so helpful!

Friday, Mar 21 at 3:59 PM #

Good one!

I almost titled this "Game Addiction" as I'm really hooked on Boxhead - The Zombie Wars. It's an action game, but with enough happening that it's almost more of a strategy game. For sure I've had to work hard to plan how to score a billion points -- did it once, now to see if can beat it. Can you?

I was explaining to my wife why it's so compelling: with a bit of practice it feels like you should be able to totally control the situation, score an unlimited amount of points. It never quite works out that way and every time it's the same: dead, but because of dumb mistake, next time will be different.

Anyway this is amazing flash action, check it out!

Saturday, Mar 15 at 8:13 PM #

Vent

Pardon me while I complain about the fun, free games I've been playing lately. I see this mistake made over and over and I just don't get it. The games nearly always include a button to mute the sound...

...but for most games, this is a single button and it kills both the deedle-eedle-eedle endless background music *and* all the fun sound effects. Only about one game in four offers separate buttons, to kill the music loop (and for many of the games it's way beyond the tone and MIDI-based stuff we endured in the 80's and 90's, but who cares after the fifty-eleveth time through the tune).

Maybe it's hard to separate the sound tracks. I can't imagine this is the case. I want my bullet sounds but not the music, is that too much to ask? Thanks.

Saturday, Mar 8 at 8:25 PM #

B-Ball Pics

These were noteworthy... first, how NOT to play defense.

Then, how to play defense. Ha ha.

Wednesday, Mar 5 at 10:06 AM #

Weirdest Illusion Ever

Check this one out, a very striking illusion indeed. And a nice explanation of what is happening. Wild, weird stuff!

Wednesday, Feb 20 at 2:20 PM #

Sci-fi fun

I'm really enjoying Escape Pod and would point to something more specific there except they seem to be having trouble at the moment...

...but I wanted to be sure and blog about it, because it is really making my drive time more pleasant and each time he offers, "donate, or blog about us" and I'm reminded I haven't posted even a word about it. So there you go.

Wednesday, Jan 23 at 7:10 PM #

Timebot

Yet another game post... but this one is noteworthy! Check out Timebot, a simple game done well and with a great new mechanic: you work your way through the levels by doing what you can, then pushing the button to jump back in time, and do the next thing. Kinda hard to describe and I'm not quite sure it's time travel... but big unique fun nonetheless!

Thursday, Dec 20 at 9:24 PM #

Logic fun

I've enjoyed stealing a minute here and there over the last few weeks to play Stronghold of Sage, and just completed it today. Good fun and highly recommended if you like that sort of thing.

I got stuck on level 23. Came back to it again and again and tried everything. Eventually I got frustrated and went and found a cheat. NEVER CHEAT... after that every level, every time I got stuck, it was hard to not go cheat again. And now I'm done but can't boast that I did 30 really hard levels (it's a sequel to 3D Logic and much harder).

Wednesday, Dec 12 at 2:36 PM #

Good grins

I got a spam with a weird title and it reminded me to go looking... all these years later, Spamusement still going strong. Really cool.

Some of these, I don't know... I find them hilarious! Perhaps I've just seen too much funky spam.

Wednesday, Nov 14 at 1:14 PM #

I'm so in!

Just learned that tomorrow is the Great American Smokeout and thought I'd blog a quick note... Monica and I stopped on Halloween! So far so good!