31.8.04

Sweet Jeebus, this is beautiful. I guess Apple "flip flopped" on their initial rejection of a flat panel all-in-one, and the result is once again a picture of what every computer maker would do if they were actually smart about their design. And this Rio Carbon thingie? I wouldn't worry about it gouging iPod mini sales. It may be slightly smaller and hold an extra gig of music, but the difference between 4 and 5 gigs of music is not as significant as some might make it out to be, particularly if your rips are high quality swag.

"Everything isn't meant to be okay." Sometimes it takes a punk band to state the obvious. To catchy tunes.

30.8.04

Bleargh. School begins anew for most of us, which entails things like moving and buying books and seeing people you were happily rid of for three months straight. Although to be honest I rarely run into anyone I know, much less find intolerable. The issues now are:
1. Free fast internet access. As a student I am unaccustomed to paying for web surfing, idle or productive, and there is a dearth of known costless hot spots around the area in which I reside.
2. Rearrange schedule. My Medical DQ for Naval service means that I have to follow up on Career Option #2, and soon soon soon.
3. Lack of Cable TV. Without which I cannot watch such gems as Teen Titans and my beloved The Daily Show. Might I quote briefly from the book All the President's Spin?

Comedy Central's The Daily Show is... one of the few programs on television that regularly skewers the press for its focus on process rather than substance... Jon Stewart's interviews with leading political figures are some of the best on TV. Stewart generally stickes to substantive issues; allows politicians to speak without regular interruption; asks challenging questions about the prevalence of deception in our political system; and refuses to let misleading assertions go by without comment.


Smile, America. Jon is On It.

16.8.04

Rather than go through the hassel of renaming this site for the fourth time, I think I'll leave it be. It will not be as accurate as it once was, however, because all signs point to me not being a Midshipman for much longer. The reasons are complex and depressing, somewhat, but the primary agent in this life change is my Hideous Disease. There is at the moment Fuck All I can do about it, so I will fail to dally upon this subject much longer. Change is the only constant.

Debating politics with family is rarely worth the effort, unless they are unusually open-minded and fair. How many of us can claim membership in a clan where obstinancy is the exception, not the norm? Not many, I fear. However, this book Crimes Against Nature by Bobby Kennedy Jr. is having a transformational effect on my mother, whose goal now is to finish with this "career" thing and go to work for Mr. Kennedy as a transcriptionist or something. For my part I shall attack this in the place people are most receptive, the "magic bullet" mentioned on The West Wing as the greatest way to affect change, Education. Hell, I had always planned to become a teacher when I retired/was forced out of the Navy. This way I get a head start on that dream.

1.8.04

Done with Submership!!! What a relaxing Sunday, with the sunny weather and plenty of boats a-floatin'. I've learned a lot from this place, but the most important tidbit I'll take away is that no matter where you go, People Are Fucking Stupid. Doubt me? Where have you been where they're not?

I rest my case.