A Couple Interesting Columns

I meant to post this first one a while back. I've heard over and over about how polls are saying people think America is heading in the wrong direction. Which I should think is obvious. I totally agree with that. But what frustrates me is that it always seems to be liberals that refer to these polls and use them as evidence that we need "change".

My beef is that there's never the obvious follow-up question. What is wrong and what is the right direction for change? What changes are favorable to most Americans and what will turn us back in the "right" direction? Starting with this column I've seen more attention to this obvious follow-up question. I read this a while back and thought that it said everything I was thinking.

If On the Wrong Track, Why Go Left? By Denis Prager


Column #2.
I see the cost of energy going way, WAY up in the not so distant future if things don't change and FAST. We haven't seen high gas prices yet. It will be much worse if Obama wins in the fall. We're sitting on all this oil but we don't drill for it. We not building more refineries or coal plants or nuclear plants. AND we're using a large percentage of our corn to make ethanol which is a net loss in terms of fuel consumption. How stupid is all this? And Congress wants to tax the oil companies? Sue OPEC? Put a tax on carbon emissions? That's all just incredibly dumb. Our Democrat controlled Congress has no clue.

Critical Thinking on Energy By Charles Krauthammer

And lastly a 2 parter about Liberal myths spread by the media.

Tackling Five Modern Myths Created by Liberals By John Hawkins
and
Tackling Five Modern Myths Created By Liberals Part 2

...for a total of 10 myths.

Vista

I just replaced each workstation computer we have in our network at work with a new Dell Optiplex that has Vista Business Edition on it. I've spent the last 2 weeks or so plugging in each new machine in turn and adjusting network settings, setting up admin and user accounts, setting up programs, transfering email archives and running updates and all of that stuff. Then Saturday with some help from a co-worker we took the old monitors and towers away and setup the new ones. Everyone will have a nice new 22" flat screen and fresh, brand spanking new computer on Monday. And a dust free desk and fresh vacuumed floor under their desk on top of that. I spent nearly my entire Saturday day doing all this moving around and cleaning up. After I finished my final checklist on each workstation I was ready to go home. I was exhausted and I felt like I didn't want to look at a computer for a long while.


I hadn't seen Vista until we got these computers. It took some getting used to at first. Finding where all the settings are took some getting used to. They seem to have renamed some of the control panel items and I've found I still need to switch from category view to classic few to find everthing. I've found all the stuff I need to in Vista and I'm adjusting to Office 2007. I don't see why Vista is criticized so much. I suppose now that it has been out for more than a year and SP1 is out all the kinks are worked out. I planned ahead to be sure all the software we use can run on Vista and aside from updating a few programs of mine we were good all around. I was due for a couple updated programs anyhow.

Now that I've seen Vista and worked on it, those Apple commercials that I hate that always bash PC's seem even stupider. I think the folks bashing Vista probably need to take a closer look in the mirror or look at who is behind the keyboard before blaming Microsoft or Vista for all their problems. Personal responsibility isn't popular these days.

Photo Dump

On my Yahoo portal they have this section of "Most emailed photos" and "Most Viewed photos".

They must have had a dog show or something a while back and I grabbed these and all the rest.

This one is like the cover of that Beck CD. I always thought that was fake. I didn't know dogs like this actually existed.
The Beck album cover for "Odelay". This dog is ready to dive.
Here's a cat and a mouse together. Looks a lot like my cat except for the black paws. I don't think my cat has ever seen a mouse but I think he definitely would have the sense not to bathe it if he met one. Maybe that's a gerbil or a hamster. I don't know. It's a rodent and cats and rodents aren't supposed to get along like these two are.

Holy carnage at a bike race. Bodies and bikes flying everywhere. I think it said somebody died in the description too. That driver better be in the slammer somewhere for good long time.

If I recall the description it said this beetle was seized from a package coming over the border. I find gigantic beetles interesting and disgusting at the same time. See my Insectaculture link over in my links section.

Snap Fitness

I joined Snap Fitness and I'm going to dump my YMCA membership. A Snap Fitness just opened not long ago that's less then 2 minutes drive from where I live. I even walked there the other day. It's cheaper than the Y even if I pay only month by month. If choose to make the longer commitment I can average down my monthly cost even further, plus I can suspend my membership for up to 3 months of the year if I want to. They're open 24 hours a day so if I feel like it, I can go jump on an elliptical at 3:00 in the morning. I don't know why I would do that but it's good that it's an option. Maybe I'll do it sometime just so I can say that I did.

I've been there for about a month now but before that I probably hadn't been to the Y since sometime in March I think. Those 2 or 3 months time off or whatever weren't real good to me but I'm feeling back on track now. I'm able to do a full hour on the elliptical and then cool off on a stationary bike for 20 minutes after that. I'm working off some weight too. It's not so much the weight as it is my composition really. I could be less soft in the middle and more lean for sure.

Netflix activity update

Updated list of movies I've seen this year or since this post. Most recent at the top of the list this time around.

Jeremiah Johnson
Batman Forever
This is War: Memories of Iraq
Sexy Beast
Before the Devil Knows Your Dead
Batman
Tool: Vicarious
The Punisher
The Brave One
The Cave
Dr Katz: Professional Therapist (Season 2)
American Gangster
No Country for Old Men
Hostel: Part II
V: The Final Battle
V: The Original Miniseries
28 Weeks Later
28 Days Later
Hot Fuzz
Four Rooms
Hills Have Eyes 2
Shooter
Black Sheep (mutant sheep, not the Chris Farley movie)
Sin City
Transformers
The Grudge
A History of Violence
Black Snake Moan
Live Free or Die Hard
Fantastic Four:Rise of the Silver Surfer
Fantastic Four
Stranger than Fiction
1408
Bourne Ultimatum

Right now I'm working my way through some of the old Batman movies. I remember the first one being real big when I was in High School. They even had a Batman ride at Great America which I have been on at least once and probably a few times. I never saw the movie until now and I'm wasn't all that impressed with it. I'm watching the rest of them and I feel like I'm sort of forcing my way through them. I messed up the order though somehow I've seen "Forever" before "Returns". Sometime next I'll make my way through all the Spiderman movies. Maybe those will be better but I doubt it. That newer Ed Norton Incredible Hulk movie they have commercials on TV now looks much better than the last one. I don't know why I'm watching all these comic book to movie, movies but I am.

I remember watching V when it was on TV when I was in 4th grade. This was before we had a VCR. I remember missing the beginning of one of them because I was at school for some sort of sex ed. thing they had. I remember a film of a birth which pretty much grossed us out as kids. We had to rush home when it was over so we could watch part 2 of the final battle I think it was. It's kind of corny to watch it now but it brought back some memories. I was surprised how many of the scenes I remembered as well as I did for not having seen it in 25 years. The special effects weren't as bad as I might've thought. Diana eating a guinea pig was pretty fake looking but other than that it wasn't bad. I'll probably get the TV series sometime but it's spread over 6 DVD's so it'll take some time to get through. Or I might skip it altogether. I have lot of other stuff in my queue I'd rather see before that.

The Road

Just got done reading this last Sunday while it was storming outside. It was a good read I thought, but I'd say it's not the kind of book everyone would enjoy. A friend of mine from work lent it to me after we had an in-depth discussion about "No Country for Old Men" which was based on another Cormac McCarthy book. This book is about a man and his son who are travelling down a road trying to survive in a world that is dark and gray and cold and destroyed by an unspecified event. The ground is covered in ash, the sun has been blocked out for years, and the air they breath is polluted with ash. Plant and animal life is non-existent. The two of them live off of any canned food they can find. It's pretty grim. They frequently came across dead bodies along their travels and have to be careful to avoid other people for fear they would be killed to be eaten. The event that lead to this grim state of the world is never specified in the book but as I read along I thought it sounded like the aftermath of a big asteroid. There's no mention of radiation anywhere but reading the forums at Amazon there are some folks that are absolutely certain it was a nuclear holocaust. Anyone that says that didn't read very closely I think. The book says, "A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions", and that's as specific as it ever gets. The ash everywhere and the fact that forests and cities are burned seems to match this. How the world came to be how it was in the book is of minor importance, but it seems to be the first thing that everyone says about the book to describe it. It was either a man-made disaster or one brought on by outside forces. It doesn't much matter, but what makes the book interesting is the journey the two of them have.

I just read now that this is being made into a movie. I'll check that out for sure. I wonder how that will turn out. NY Times article on the move here.