We don't know if she has a sister...
...but we're looking!

...that's all,  ...just looking, ...and watching!

Love the tat, whoever you are ;)

I have completely given up on American television  news!  Whether it's the weatherperson standing in front of half the map pointing to the storm in Kansas, or the graphics overlay covering up a third of the screen, ...I give up!

I know where Kansas is, and if I don't, I don't need to know about the storm there, ...which I can clearly see, anyways, without all the hand-waving hints.  The video of the tornado?  ...when the bottom portion of the view is completely covered by the "Breaking News - Tornado!" graphic so that all I can see is a sky with dark clouds and not the tornado itself, ...over!

The real kicker for me, though, is related to the picture above.  That is the beautiful Troitsky Church in Saint Petersburg.  It caught fire last Friday evening, and I was alerted by friends in Russia.  All weekend, I was checking the news to see what happened, but nothing, ...I saw nothing but 24-hour coverage of the Jonbenet thing and the airplane crash in Kentucky.  The same thing, repeated over and over again, ...with, of course, the jokes and personality.  I even caught more than one "news" special focusing on all the crazy hype and coverage the Jonbenet Killer thing was getting, ...an irony I found numbing and almost unbelievable.

I heard nothing about Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, the Koreas, ...nothing about anything newsworthy in the world.  Granted, I'm keen on Russia, so the Troitsky tragedy was special to me, but a minute's time about the near-total destruction of a piece of history and beautiful architecture would have been nice.  I'm sure there were many other events in the world this weekend, but I wouldn't know.

It makes me think the American audience is becoming incredibly stupid.  I remember when CNN was worth watching, too.

Jees, ...sorry, ...I sound worse than that guy on The Gun Deck!

Seriously (love ya, Bob;), if the rest of you want some good read, and don't mind walking away bitter, cynical, and angry enough to kick a puppy, ...check that site now and again.  It's intelligently informative, ...and newsworthy!

Painting

Photograph

THIS freaks me out!

I've had those times when someone said they saw someone that looks like me, but whenever I see this person, I rarely see the resemblance.  I think that's because my self-image is very different than reality ;)  I have great coping mechanisms!

Anyhow, QuakeCon 2006 was here in Dallas a few weeks ago.  I went on Frinight and had a great time.  A few people said they saw someone that looked like me.  I never saw this person...

I served jury duty two weeks ago, and it made me think of something that's a bit out of order.

I understand that the defendant has the right to see who's accusing them, and also the jury.  What I don't understand is why the jury gets to see the defendant.  It seems to me that the jury should have no information about the person other than the crime.  They shouldn't know the age, gender, religious convictions, ...nothing.

The summons I got in the mail, calling me to jury duty, itself warns "No tank tops and no shorts!".  So obviously the legal system acknowledges that how a person looks has bearing (lack of respect in this case) on how they are perceived, and therefore judged.  As a juror, I shouldn't be able to see defendant for the same reason.

I also don't understand why so many people complain about jury duty and try so hard to get out of it.  In the ten years I've lived in Dallas, I've been called twice.  I always feel good about it, too, like with voting.  You sit in a climate-controlled room, on nice comfortable chairs, and you serve your community.

What's to complain about?  ...pretty cool, me thinks ;) 

It's strange, ...the things we worry over, and the things we do not.

So much focus on this guy Bin Laden and the terrorist cells that may be sprinkled amongst us, yet this threat pales in comparison to the reality of embedded threats...

It's like worrying about keeping the screen door shut to keep a foreign fly out of the kitchen, when the house is being eaten away by local termites that live within.

NYET NYET (no no) in Russian Cyrillic

Russian is an exception, ...two negatives still make a negative.

This reminded me of a story I heard about a professor telling a class that in no language do two positives make a negative, ...none!

One of the students was then heard to mumble "Ya, ...sure!",  ... ;)

The father of one of the lads at work has a steer that's ready for the butcher.  His dad was offering steaks at a really great price.

The email to the Tribe started "My dad has a grass-fed steer...".

I thought "Wow!  I've had the brownies, and the cookies, and even 'herbal' tea, ...but grass-fed beef!?!".

Well, maybe the world has always been crazy, and it's only the shit happening "now" that always seems the craziest it could ever get.

I'm watching Fail-Safe, a 1964 movie about the world-flattening nuclear threat between the USSR and the USA.  Really, really great movie!  Watch it, then Dr Strangelove.

...it simply can not have been 10 years gone by already!  Then again, it seems like 100 years ;)

Happy 10^th Anniversary to Ritual!

How did the world get this crazy?

I wonder what Abraham thinks about all this.  The Muslims trace their history back to Ishmael, and the Jews back to Isaac, ...both sons of Abraham.  The Christians also trace their monotheism back to Abraham.

If there is a heaven, and he is there watching, ...what must he be thinking about us now ;(  As an atheist, an outsider, so to speak, I surely don't understand these religious wars and hatred among people who share the same beginning.

Changes in air travel, again, ...I remember when I would go to the airport and walk straight from the car to the airplane.  I remember walking directly on the tarmac and climb those mobile stairways, and the folks that brought me to the airport could follow right to those stairs.  No scanners, no searches, no restrictions.  You could get from the car to your flight in 15 minutes, tops.  Now, you're lucky if it takes less than 2 hours, ...well, as of today, ...4 hours.

One good thing may have started today, ...NO TAKE-ON LUGGAGE!  I have always hated waiting for people to cram their shit in and out of the overheads on both ends of the flight.  Just check it in so we all don't have to wait!

The bad news, the really bad news, ...maybe no more laptops!  I bought a laptop just for flying, a nice 12-inch (31cm) sized compact.  It only takes a few trips to Europe, or one trip to Moscow, to justify buying a traveling laptop ;)  Now, laptops may be restricted, ...that sucks!

Finally, everyone is mentioning the 5th anniversary of 9/11 as a date to fear.  Nobody is mentioning August 22nd (Rajab 28), a far more important and relevant date for the terrorists.  This is the day Saladin beat the Crusaders and walked into Jerusalem.  It is also the day Iran promises to finally "deliver" their response about their nuclear, ...sorry, nucular intensions.  All this fighting over small pieces of land that everyone thinks is theirs, ...and the problem is, it is.  

I've been playing a shit ton of games lately.  In the past 3 weeks, I've bought a DS Lite (great system), a PSP (great system), and a 360 (great system).  I've bought many games for all three of these, as well as some PC titles.

I haven't played games, I mean really play them, ...for fun and with enough time to really enjoy the experience, ...for a long time!  I'm having a blast and I really think I had forgotten the game experience.

I also noticed that I felt like I was driving very slowly.  At my age, I don't speed much.  55-65 mph is fast enough, ...normally.  When I looked down at the speedometer, though, I was doing almost 80 mph!

Maybe games aren't good for us ;)  

My head is filled to the Max, and it feels as though it was hit with a Hammer.  I have this Radiant pain, ...and it's f*cking Unreal!

Ha ha!  ...actually, I feel great ;)

Seriously, though, I can feel the neural networks in my sensory centers, specifically my hands, getting completely twisted and tangled.

After 10 years of level designing, that section is completely borked!

For those not in the know, ...Max, Hammer, Radiant, and Unreal are some of the level editors we use to make games.  All these editors do basically the same thing, but they all have different keyboard/mouse combinations to get these things done.

Even simply navigating around your level in the 3D view uses a different combination of finger control and maneuvering.  Right now, I'm in and out of three of these editors.  I go to look at my level, ...my brain says "Move left." in the 3D view, but the hand section says "Sure! ...you want we should do an Alt-Mouse3?  ...or maybe SPACE-Mouse1? ...or is it just Mouse1 this time?  ...Ctrl-LeftAlt-Mouse2?".  I think it's causing permanent damage!

Anne Cooke's chart is interesting, but I think ( maybe because she's a she ;) there is one area of the body that she neglected to oversize!

I had the original photograph hanging in my living room because, well, I'm proud I served.  I always felt a bit overboard on the egoism of hanging a picture of myself, though.

I get a real kick out of it, too, because when I was posing for this picture, I was in the U.S. Navy waiting to face the big, bad Soviet Union, ...and here we are now with me looking forward to hanging a portrait of myself, in the Navy, painted by a Moscovite.

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