OMG WHAT’S TRAVIS UP TO??!?!1

Little Big Planet (read more here) has been delayed (rather, recalled… it already shipped) in the name of political correctness.  More about why here.

Slashdot covered the article, and, for a change, there were some very insightful comments.  My favorite (full discussion, direct comment link):

I’m convinced that this sort of thing is a last gasp amongst the extremists to hold onto the old ways. The fact is that the world is changing and nobody can stop it. The Middle East is being exposed to the outside world via the internet and other media. The religious hardliners are realizing that they’re losing their hold on the people and I suppose like most people they don’t like change.

I realize American imperialism is brought up as the reason for this violence. But I’m convinced that’s bullshit. The widespread dissemination of foreign cultures is the more real and subtle threat.

I think it’s similar to certain Christian groups in this country coming out trying to denounce evolution and force creationism on people. Deep down they realize their religion is being marginalized and are grasping at straws trying to make it relevant.

The problem is that they’re confusing a crumbling power structure for faith when the two aren’t connected. There’s no reason whatsoever why a person can’t be devoutly religious and still accept science and progress.

The key difference, however, is that Muslim extremists are more likely to blow things up to get their way, or at least threaten to do so. Sure, you get the occasional Christian nut who tries to shoot an abortion doctor or something, but that’s the extent of it. But Christians consistently denounce the act. On the other hand, at best Muslims won’t say anything at all and at worst will run into the streets in celebration.

But ultimately these small victories are insignificant in the long run. And having heard some guys complaining about how Middle Eastern is growing increasingly liberal the days of religious extremism are numbered.

Political correctness has crippled America. By no means am I endorsing bigotry and racism, but we should be able to have open discourse about issues without it devolving into claims of racism.

The percentage of the Muslim population in the US is .6% to 1%. The last time I checked we still had free speech and the presence of this passage in a game is not intentionally offensive from what I can tell.

When Andres Serrano dumped a crucifix in urine and photographed it he wasn’t banned from displaying his work. Hell, a nun actually stated in an interview that the work was not blasphemous but rather an example of what people have done to Christ.

This isn’t news to anyone with a brain.  I’ve known it for quite some time.  For whatever reason, I could never bring myself to give up on Digg.

This morning, I gave up on Digg.  It’s garbage.  It’s a waste of internet bandwidth.  I had stopped visiting the page months ago in favor of letting their RSS feed accumulate in Reader, but now I’ve given up on that too.  Unsubscribed, all references deleted.

Digg is a neat idea, it’s just a shame that from the get-go it became the internet hangout for 13-year-old kids with poor language skills, no social inhibitions, and a piss-poor appreciation for good, sharing-worthy material.

We have two cats, one of whom (Franklin is his name) thinks he’s not getting enough attention.  When we get home in the afternoon, they’ve both just woken up and are ready for scratching.  We usually lounge on the couch for a while and pet both cats, then go about our evening business.  At some point later in the evening, we generally play with them for a bit amongst doing other things.  I’d say the cats get an average of half an hour of direct attention per day, and considering that cats are supposed to be independent, I don’t think they could make a case for more.

(Relatively) normal cat, Phoebe, is satisfied.  Dickface cat (Franklin) is not.  He has an insatiable, yet very particular, hunger for our time and effort.

Until last week, we’ve kept the cats in the basement at night because Franklin will do everything in his power to get our attention after we’ve gone to bed.  We felt it would be rude to subject our new roommate to this behavior, so we’ve let them roam free in spite of his behavior.  Franklin has developed a routine–on the order of half a dozen times per night–of scratching, moaning, crying, and throwing himself against the door until someone opens it.  Water is an insufficient deterrent; he runs away, returning when the door is closed to rinse and repeat.  Neither does letting him in appease him; our room becomes his playground with his accomplice joining in the fun.

Tonight we’re experimenting.  We’re not terribly fond of being rudely awoken by the cat.  We figured he probably wouldn’t care much for the same treatment.  Since about 5:15 PM today, every time the cat has settled down for a nap, we’ve woken his ass up.  So far, he doesn’t seem too thrilled about receiving the same flavor of attention he gives to us.

We’re hoping he sleeps tonight.

I was going to write up a big thing about it here, but Travis beat me to it…

Long story short, we finished the endless set list.  We rule.  We’re kind of a big(ger) deal now.

If you’re a regular Linux user, you may have gotten used to focus follows mouse.  If you’re like me, you use OS X and Linux side-by-side and get seriously pissed off when you Command+W the wrong window because you expected window focus to follow the mouse cursor.

Rejoice, our savior is here!  It’s called Zooom, and it gives you more control over window behavior in OS X.  It’s probably a hack (it would have to be, since Apple’s developers claim that Aqua is designed in such a way that focus follows mouse can’t work), but it works beautifully for every application I use.

GET IT.  IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE, OR SOMETHING.

Zooom

So… I’m ungaged.  Engaged, rather.  The point is I’m getting married to Lynn.  I asked her Thursday night April 24th, and she said yes!  My folks were up here the following day to do some housework, so we were able to break it to them and Lynn’s parents over dinner.  Everybody seemed pretty pleased, but not altogether shocked.

There was much rejoicing!

It’s official; the nerd test told me so.  My badge of honor now appears on the right.

… they want us to leave, here are five reasons.  American soldiers in action, yee-haw.

WARNING:  Watching these videos will make you very sad.  You’ve been warned.  If you are afraid you will become inconsolably sad by watching the videos on the linked page, DON’T PLAY THEM.  By the same token, if you worry that user-submitted comments can make you stupid, DON’T READ THEM.  The ones on the linked page aren’t the worst, but they’re not great.

That said, it’s a powerful testament to the fuckupery in Iraq.  Do I believe all American soldiers behave this way?  Certainly not, but it only takes a few to make myself (and others) feel profoundly saddened and disappointed.

http://valleywag.com/363325/five-youtube-videos-show-american-soldiers-at-their-worst

Oh, they joys of owning a house.  Were it not for the freedom of having my own place, I’d wish to be renting again.

The weekend of February 9th, I was sick.  While I was sick, Lynn went down to the basement for something and noticed the water in the toilet was higher than usual, and there was water back up into the bath tub.  I didn’t want to take care of it at the time, and we forgot about it.  The problem seemed to go away.

The following weekend, the same thing happened again… with a vengeance.  Water all over the basement bathroom, ookies floating everywhere, generally unpleasant to look at.  Draino proved ineffective, so I had to call a plumber.  The plumber came out, ran a snake down the cleanout behind the house (more on this later), and said they made it all the way to the main (later proved incorrect) before hitting dirt and sand.  Great.  Verdict–replace fitting that connects the sewer pipe to the main.  Incidentally, a pretty expensive verdict.

Lynn’s dad recommended a guy he went to school with to do the work.  We exchanged a few phone calls to sort out what actually needed to be done, and he came out with a crew on Wednesday (the 27th).  They started digging a hole in my driveway only to find nothing.  No pipe, no fitting, at least where they thought it should be based on the location of the cleanout behind the house.  They decided to run a line into the cleanout and use a locator to find the pipe to figure out what had gone amiss.  The contractor walked in circles around the back yard for about 20 minutes trying to find the pipe with no luck.  Eventually he (presumably by accident) walked up to the side of the house, at which point the locator started going nuts.  As it turns out, the cleanout behind the house does not serve the sewer, it belongs the sump pump… at the front of the house.

At this point, the contractors have a useless hole in my driveway.  Kurt (the head honcho) heads down to my basement to try to figure out where the sewer pipe leaves the house.  Fortunately, it was pretty easy to find.  Unfortunately, there were no cleanouts inside the house, so they had to dig another hole right next to the house to install some.  Good, in that I’ll have a maintainable sewer pipe in the future; bad, my wallet is screaming for mercy.

The rest of the story is pretty mundane.  They dug the hole, cut out a segment of pipe to put in new fittings, put a couple stacks in that stick up out of the ground, then filled it in.  The following day, another plumber came out the clean out the drain pipe under the house.

Final damage:  $1784.80 for holes in the ground, new pipe, and labor; $48.29 for work done on cleanout that went nowhere; $111.83 for final drain cleanage.

Oh, the joys….

Lawrence Lessig is running for congress in Silicon Valley’s district of California.  If you don’t know who Lawrence Lessig is, check out his Wikipedia entry.

In deference to Lessig and his cause, I’ve added a link to Creative Commons off to the right.