Political Friday...

I started off my day today by watching some C-span TV (The Washington Journal). One of this morning's guests was Doug Lederman who is the editor for Inside Higher Ed. Here's the description of the segment pulled from the cspan website:

Doug Lederman, Editor, Inside Higher Ed discusses federal funding of colleges and universities; including how much and how these institutions receive money through research grants, student aid and earmarks in legislation from Congress.

I really liked this interview, though I admit a lot of it went over my head (I only went to a 2 year school and that was for graphics)... but I did pick up on some key points... One that really struck me was a statisic that said that only 31% of college graduates tested as having proficient literacy skills. Another quote from the website:
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2005/12/college_illiter.html

The test measures how well adults comprehend basic instructions and tasks through reading -- such as computing costs per ounce of food items, comparing viewpoints on two editorials and reading prescription labels. Only 41 percent of graduate students tested in 2003 could be classified as "proficient" in prose -- reading and understanding information in short texts -- down 10 percentage points since 1992. Of college graduates, only 31 percent were classified as proficient -- compared with 40 percent in 1992.

That pretty much stunned me as I sat there eating my egg muffin. Then to listen to the HUGE amounts of money that the government is GIVING to these schools was also amazing. We're talking millions and BILLIONS! There was one "grant" that the gov gave to a college (I think somewhere in Manhattan) for $500,000 to help build a parking garage!

I know that there are many great benefits from these grants being given to these colleges, but I also think there is some really fishy dealings going on here. I encourage you to take about an hour and listen to some of this program. I'll post a link here to the cspan site, that will let you watch the clip of Doug Lederman, but it doesn't seem to be a "permalink" so in a few days this link may not work. I suggest you do a search for his name "doug lederman" to find the appropriate link... or search by the date: Washington Journal 12/30/05.
If you do watch... be sure to take notice of Mr. Lederman's Body language when the host (Brian Lamb) asked him some 'tricky' questions... It was obvious Mr. Lederman knew the answer but was back-peddling to try and avoid saying something he shouldn't. I wish he would have let loose and really expose what needed to be exposed.

On another political subject that I blogged about here...
The Justice Department will be doing a "probe" into who leaked the information to the NY Times about the President allegedly spying on his subjects, er, I mean American citizens.
It struck me funny, that they are not doing a "probe" into the actual spying, but rather who told on the President. I've heard a few debates about this topic and it is a complicated matter, but I look forward to listening (or reading) about the upcoming congressional hearings on the possible laws broken by the President.
Here's an article on the Associated Press website by Toni Locy.

I also wanted to blog a little more about the end of year 2005 comments, but I'm quickly running out of time... So here's a quick post from Wired Magazine about their top 10 list of the "biggest discoveries of 2005"...

I finally got to see the Chronicles of Narnia last night, and enjoyed it. I wanted to blog more about it so maybe later...

Cyen

google blog search - beta

A new search from my favorite company Google...
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch

It allows you to search blogs only for a certain subject.
I don't know what determines the page ranking on this yet... I suspect it may simply be based on "time posted" in that I just did a search for "nun bun" and my blog post (which I posted about an hour ago) came up on the first page of hits. (cool).
Google's usual page ranking is determined by how many people link to a certain website (in addition to other trade secret algorithms)... I'm sure my blog is not linked to by that many people to warrant a page 1 listing. But I'm not complaining :)
This could be a great tool to find out what other people are thinking about a subject and for getting alternative points of view. I think the whole blogging topic is just begining to take off, with many social consequences yet undiscovered... Once people realize the incredible freedom and creative outlet this is I think it will grow. The challenge will be to have your 'voice' be heard over others in a crowded cafeteria... Or in my case, I'd rather be sitting at the small table of nerds and geeks in the back of the cafeteria speaking quietly :)
cyen

One more today...

Just a funny photo off of neatorama.com...

nun bun

This story keeps popping up on the internet... about a cinnamon bun that looks like Mother Teresa that was recently stolen. The thing that gets me is that in the official police report, they valued the bun at $21... why? I'd love to know how they came up with that figure... obviously it's worth more than a "standard" bun, yet not worth a priceless piece of art or sculpture, and not easy replaced, so why $21? oh well... That's all the time I'll spend thinking about this one.

A silly post...

Ever wonder what 250 pounds of silly putty looks like? Read the short blog about the problems they had dividing this stuff up... Google Blog.
my Source: boing boing
Original source: neatorama.com
official silly putty site: http://www.sillyputty.com/
And one more...
I remember reading once that silly putty is not too difficult to make yourself... But it looks a bit too complicated for me...

Composition of Silly Putty
65% - Dimethyl Siloxane
17% - Silica
9% - Thixotrol ST
4% - Polydimethylsiloxane
1% - Decamethyl cyclopentasiloxane
1% - Glycerine
1% - Titanium Dioxid
They did say that basically it's silicone oil and boric acid that lead to the initial discovery...

WAY more than you wanted to know about silly putty!

Perspectives...

I've been dealing with the squirrels in my attic over the past couple days, and today called the apartment maintenance people to set a trap (when that will happen they didn't say), I was surfing the web during lunch and was reminded of an online petition that I had signed (my sis brought it to my attention) about the 4 members of a peacemaker group that were kidnapped in Iraq in late November. It struck me that I have not heard any more mentioned about them in the news (not a good sign.) I checked their official website for an update and according to their site the kidnappers gave a new deadline of Dec 10th, and as of today Dec 28th, there has been no further information. I hope these guys are doing ok, and my thoughts and prayers go out to them, their friends and families, and to the kidnappers. Check out their website for the full story:
http://www.cpt.org/
As I deal with annoyances and problems in my everyday life I'm reminded to try to keep things in perspective.

Back to the grind...

I don't know about you, but these past 4 days FLEW by. I decided to take off on Friday to have a nice 4 day weekend. Next thing I know it's Tuesday and I'm sitting here back at work (well on lunch break at the moment now). Now, I have 4 days of work until another 3 day weekend... do you think these next 4 days at work are going to go buy just as fast? (I doubt it).

Squirrels>
They are back in my apartment again. I heard him/her on Christmas day in the afternoon, and again this morning coming in around 8:30am. It's a strange one though, because I heard him come in this morning then scurry off and I didn't hear him again. Maybe he just went in and curled up and went to sleep. I'm going to try and call someone to see if they can fix the "hole" where he's getting in. I found a name and number online called "Bill's Racoon and Squirrel removal". I also looked up the phone number online and it said it was also Bill's Siding. I just tried calling but got a message machine. I'm willing to pay someone to fix this once and for all rather than dealing with the idiots at my apartment maintenance.

Waste of time>
This little website I found is a complete waste of time, but it's relaxing so...
http://chir.ag/stuff/sand/
It was compared to a "zen rock garden" when I found the link. It's really just a matter of drawing lines to affect the flow of 4 elements... water, sand, salt, and oil... Then there are things you can add like water spouts, plant life, fire, and more... It's relaxing to try to make a unique design... (what's with the wierd blob thing at the bottom though!?) It's in english, but it's obviously from a foreign country...

New Year>
I'm getting ready for the end of 2005. Not a great year for me so I'll be glad to see this one go and welcome in 2006! I started on a new idea I had for my blog (and myself)... I'm thinking of random ideas of things to do once a week. 52 ideas. It's an interesting thought experiment really... Try and do it yourself (post any good ones here). The idea is simple... think of something random to do and generally with no point to it and something that's unique. Now try to think of 51 more! I came up with about 15-20 the other night... You'll have to wait until the new year to read my first one though :) I plan on posting the ideas on either monday or tuesdays.

well, cyen out...

Merry Christmas

Well, Christmas Eve is here... There's a certain quietness around my apartment complex today, perhaps people are settling in from the crazy shopping experiences. I managed to go out yesterday and it was crazy! I don't think I've ever seen that many cars (all with one person in them). There is a large shopping complex about 4 miles away from where I live, and it must have taken me 20-30 minutes to get to the store I wanted to go to. Then leaving was as crazy too. Luckily I was not in a hurry to do anything so I just went with the flow. I often wonder which is more crazy the day before christmas eve, or the day after christmas with people looking to get out of the house, returns and after christmas sales.
Well, I should have enough food in so that I won't have to venture out.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas - and don't forget to stop and slow down at times to enjoy the sights and sounds, family and friends around you.
Photo source: Stuffonmycat.com

Sushi

While checking out the Google video of the day blog, I found this link to a video about Sushi, and it's styles and traditions. It's a bit long coming in around 8 minutes, but stick with it... it does get "interesting" :)

I'm not sure if I'll be blogging any more before Christmas so if not, "Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas!"

Cyen

pointless observation

I was driving to work this morning, and approached the traffic light where I sit almost daily, and was just looking around the intersection when some movement caught my eye way above the intersection... There, high up on a telephone wire was a small bird shuffling sideways across the wire. It just struck me as both funny and odd that for whatever reason this bird was shuffling across the wire. Why? for a better view of something? Why not fly over, instead of shuffling?
Then the traffic light changed to green and it was off to the real world again. While driving on, I remembered the pixar short film called "For the Birds" and how funny it was. So for your viewing pleasure, I recommend that you take a few minutes and either look around your outdoor surroundings to see what the birds are doing, or watch this funny film short. Sadly, this is not the entire film... they want you to purchase it on itunes. Sorry for the teaser. Ah... but wait... Your in luck... as long as you can put up with the quality, here's a copy someone uploaded to google video (link removed). I just checked on this link and google has removed it... probably because it's copyrighted material. I believe this short from pixar originally appeared on the Monsters, Inc. Dvd... worth the rental just for this short movie in my opinion.
Cyen

corner bookmarks

I stumbled upon this link today via the MAKE website...
A neat little idea to make your own corner bookmarks.
Personally I keep a pad of the small post-it notes on my night-table, they stick well, don't damage the pages, and one small pad will last for hundreds of books.
But I like the idea behind this of creating custom bookmarks, and even more of a good idea is the small "notes" section. You can easily make your own, but if you want you can download Fabio's template from his website here.

Spy vs Spy...

I wasn't sure if I was going to blog about this topic or not, so as not to get on any sort of "list" but I supposed I may already be on one of those lists anyway so what the hey...
Domestic spying. Gee, I thought that it was illegal for a gov agency to spy on it's own citizens without 2 things... a good reason, and a judge saying it was "ok" to do so with certain limitations.
Well, not anymore since King bush is in charge now.
I also thought it was illegal for a president to declare war on another country or invade it (for whatever reason). But again, King bush changed that too (why Congress went along with that one I'll never know.)
I read this post yesterday on boing boing, and I very much agree. I will post a link to the original article referred to by Perry Metzger, but I should warn that this link goes to a website called "cryptome.org" and even they admit to activities of "security issues" (I interpret this to mean they may be posting items skating on the edge of "legal").
I happened to catch a bit last night on cspan where three senators were giving a press conference expressing thier dissapointment with this latest discovery. Here's the link to the video using RealPlayer (it's about 40 min long - you may need to paste this link into realplayer and not use your browser.)
They also had a link to yahoo talking about a possible Senate hearing. Good!
I'll sign off with this quote from Ben Franklin that I keep thinking of during all this...

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

It's funny though, when I went to the wiki quote page to look this up, it says that there is some debate as to wether Ben actually said this. Apparently he denied saying it, but that evidence still supports it that he did say it... He's probably like me, and didn't want to end up on some "list" :)
Cyen

Voice Of God...

Voice Of God Revealed To Be Cheney On Intercom...
Read the entire article here on The Onion.

Ricky Gervais

Last night was a lame night for TV. About 9pm I was bored of flipping through all the channels and did something I should do more often... I hit the off button.
I've been gathering a bunch of podcast's on my computer but can never seem to find the time to listen to them. Well, just the other day, I discovered that Ricky Gervais has produced a podcast. For those of you not familiar with Ricky, he's one of the co-creators of the British TV show called "The Office". I was lucky to have gotten this dvd set from "J.D.E." (Thanks!) and very much enjoyed it. (the second season wasn't as good though). Anyway, If you're a fan of british humor I recommend giving this a listen. Warning: there are some crude moments and some foul language, so it's not kid appropriate. If you are not familiar with podcasts (Wiki description), I think you can also just download mp3 files of the show, and listen to them via any mp3 player on your computer.
Just to give you a taste of the topics of the podcast... They have done two episodes only and both featured a segment called "Monkey News" :)

TGIF!!! Enjoy your weekend!

soda bottle

While at work today, I was looking up some information on types of bottle molding, and did a search on google for how to make a soda bottle. I found this link talking about the inventor of the plastic soda bottle...
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/wyeth.html
Simple read, but in a nutshell I was surprised to find out that the inventor "Nathaniel Wyeth" was the son to the famous painter N.C. Wyeth. What a talented family.
To see some of N.C. Wyeth's paintings click here for a google image link.
I'm also going to check out the mit link above to see who some of the other inventors are.

Wind Robots

I've heard of this guy before - Theo Jansen, and have seen the videos on his website some time ago, but just stumbled upon a link today where someone interviewed him on a podcast (mp3 audio file) so I thought I'd blog about him today.
I don't know how he does it, but this guy designed these amazing wind powered "robots" that walk across a beach. They're pretty large too!
Here's the link to his website.
Here's the link to the podcast interview.
I had difficulty in viewing the film files on his website (using a macintosh with quicktime). If you also have problems I can recommend this... Download a copy of VLC (a free opensource video player). When you get to the link on his website for the film files, "Control click" and download the files to your desktop, then drag and drop onto the VLC player.
Link to the VLC website.

King Kong

Just a quick story to share...
The other weekend, I had the opportunity to see the new Harry Potter movie. While sitting through what seemed like 30 movie previews there was one for the upcoming King Kong movie. Don't forget the Harry Potter is mainly a children's movie (though it did get a PG-13 rating). While watching the King Kong trailer they had these incredible images of the giant ape running through the jungle, smashing things left and right, fighting dinosaurs, loud roaring, etc... then there happened to be a quiet moment in the trailer, and a few rows behind me I heard the voice of a little girl say, "Look mommy! a giant monkey!"
I almost laughed outloud at this, to hear the big scary "monster" of this fantastic big budget hollywood movie summed up in the eyes of a little girl.

google video not working

Regarding my previous post about the supercooling water... It seems the link has been broken and the video removed from google (inspite of the upload page telling me it's "live"). I've emailed google to report the problem (it is a beta version afterall). I'm curious what sort of response (if any) I get back from google. In the meantime I'll look for another video service...
Sorry for any problems.
Cyen

Update: Lol. I no sooner published this post, and clicked on my link one additional time, and what-do-ya-know... it worked. I guess the word Beta sums it up best. If you have a problem with the link, try it a couple times, or come back later. Again, sorry for any problems.

Supercooling water

Finally... The post I blogged about a few days ago is finally "live" via google video. It was the first I used the google video service and all went well. Only downside was that it was not clear about how long the approval process would take. I thought a few minutes, but instead it took a day or two. Then, when it finally did say it was "approved" and that I could search for it, it came up with nothing! So I was just patient, and checked again tonight, and finally it is searchable.
Thanks to Matt for responding to my email, and letting me post his video on google.
Enough gibber-jabber... check out this video it's amazing.
To read about the experiment go to Matt's blog here.
Cyen

Celebrate

Just announcing the celebration of my friends new baby.
Congrats L and G!!!
7lbs 6oz.
21.5"
Happy Birthday!

Supercooling water

I wasn't going to blog anything today, but I found this really neat link about supercooling water.
This guy had some bottled water in his garage overnight and apparently lives somewhere cold as it got down to 1 degree Far. He went out to get a bottle expecting it to be frozen and it wasn't. When he opened the bottle, it imediately turned to ice. The next day he tried to repeat the process and he filmed it. Really cool to see. On the downside, you may not be able to view the video clips. He used a strange video format that you need to install a special viewer. I was able to translate it to a quicktime (mov) format so that all of you can watch it easily, but then I realized I may be breaking copyright laws here. So I'll see if I can get his permission to post my converted file of his movie. In the meantime here's his blog where you can read about it.
Cyen

Avatar

Ok... I goofed on this one. I previously posted how I couldn't find an "avatar" fan site... I googled it again, and if I had only used that NEW computer thingy on the side of the window... I think it's called a "scroll bar" or something... Turns out there was a good fansite at the bottom of the first page. So if anyone else is searching here's a link... http://www.musogato.com/avatar/
- Cyen the web-bender.

Eat a Frog day...

I had a better day today. Didn't start off too well as I had to deal with the maintenance people this morning to try to get my front door fixed. They were about an hour late, but the guy came and did the job (sort of... he left it unpainted, and exposed wood, but at least it's up.) But, after he finished the job, I was able to pull some information out of him about how they schedule appointments. It took some doing at first, because he was making up excuses as to why he was late (which was not what I was asking him), but in a nutshell they make appointments, but they make appointments for everyone who requests the same time slot. In other words, If I request an 8am appointment the guy at the desk will say "ok". Then if someone else calls and asks for 8am, he'll also say "ok". Then the actual worker will get a handful (he said sometimes more than 5) and it's up to him to decided which one he wants to do first. This explains a lot.
I hate getting upset at these type things, but it really bothers me when someone say's they'll be there for an appointment, then don't show. I also hate these things because I get angry at myself for getting angry in the first place over such a small inconvenience of no weather-stripping. There are people with MUCH more serious problems, and here I am angry because I'm being inconvienenced. Oh well... life goes on.
When I told someone about my woes this morning she said, "well you ate your frog this morning..."
"huh?"
It's a saying that means you had to have something bad happen in the morning so that the rest of the day should go better. I never heard this saying before, but like it.
On a GREAT note... no squirrels this morning! Wouldn't that be great if I scared him off on the first day (not likely, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed).

How does one find a good apartment? Is there such a thing?
What's better... an apartment complex, or a single landlord who is renting one or two apartments in a building? I need to start looking.

switching thoughts now...
This morning the President was to give another speech to try and defend his position on the war. A woman on CNN said something to the effect of... The public is losing it's support for the war, and the president is trying to make a speech to regain some of that support. (She worded it much better than I). It struck me as odd... If the approval rating is around 30% (according to some polls), and basically the President is supposed to "represent" the people... what has to happen for the people's will to be carried out? Does it always have to lead to something ugly (protests, fights, arrests, etc...)? I guess time will tell, but I predict things won't change until the next President is elected.

Changing gears again...
Why are there no fan sites for the Nick cartoon "The last avatar"? I got hooked on this cartoon over thanksgiving weekend, and just watched the season finale last friday night. I went online to try and find some images, or fan sites for this cartoon, and there was very little. Even the official site on Nickleodeon was somewhat lame. I guess I have to keep digging, or make my own :)

Enjoy the rest of your day (or night) stay healthy (Get better D and E),
Cyen out.

Not a good day...

The dreaded "S" word...
I awoke early this morning (around 5:30am) and had trouble falling back to sleep. I am a light sleeper now due to a problem I've had in the past of having squirrels in the attic of my apartment. I went through a nightmare of dealing with not only the squirrels in my attic waking me at dawn in the morning, but also dealing with the idiotic maintenance people and the property manager. Eventually after many sleepless nights and mornings they caught the little buggers (what they did with them I don't know). Well, last year the squirrels came at the first real cold snap in late october (i think). Here it is December, and I thought I was going to have a good winter... until this morning. Sure enough, I walked into my kitchen and was folding a grocery bag, when i heard the distinct sound of a squirrel in the attic. My heart dropped. I honestly do not know which is worse, to have the squirrel problem, or dealing with the humans at my apartment complex. On a good note, as soon as the squirrel heard me moving around he left. I can only "HOPE" that i scared him off (but I seriously doubt it). I will probably be blogging about this experience as time goes on. ugh.

Bees>
On another nature related note: No longer can we use the old saying about how science doesn't understand how a bee flys (is it flys or flies?)... Some scientists have studdied it and think they have come up with an answer. It's an interesting read here, but in a nutshell, bee's use their wings differently than any other insect... instead of increaseing the rate at which they flap their wings to gain altitude (or to carry nectar), they change the tilt of their wings, and maintain a steady beat (around 230 beats per second!). At the end of the article they say how this information may help the robitics engineers trying to create small flying robots. Cool!

Well, early to bed tonight, so I'll be well rested when the squirrels arrive tomorrow morning.
Cyen

PS> I have been struggling with maintenance reagarding a different problem (the weather stripping around my door). It's like pulling teeth trying to talk to the guy in charge. I figure one problem at a time.

Sunday

Movie>
I just saw the latest Harry Potter movie last night. I don't think I can pass a good judegment on the movie itself due to the location that I saw the movie. I wanted to see it, but the best time available was at a theater that I loathe... Lowes. It's been a very long time since last I visited lowes (at least a year or more) so I thought, 'well maybe things have changed.' No.
I got there maybe 20 minutes before showtime. There was a long line. I didn't stop for popcorn (as it cost way too much), and yet I had to sit in the third row. Ok, I guess that's my fault for not getting there sooner, but I didn't think it would have been that crowded after 3 weeks since the release date. (wrong again as it's the number one ranked movie for the 3rd week in a row). I sat through what seemed like 10-15 previews, one was for a movie that will be released in November of 2006! Really, should you be doing previews 11 months ahead of time? The film was too dark (until about 7/8ths when it seemed like someone flipped a switch on the projector and it became noticably brigther) not to mention scratch lines and dark shadows on the edges of the screen. So... It was hard for me to enjoy the movie with all these distractions. In spite of all that, I did like the movie overall. I think it was probably about 20 minutes too long (cut a lot of stuff at the beginning). I enjoyed the charaters, and the effects, and for short periods of time I was transported to Hogwarts.

Books>
I'm actually reading Harry Potter as well. Enjoying it so far.
I'm also (finally) reading a small book i picked up at a small bookstore in Berkeley, CA... called the "Stolen Sharpie Revolution". Interesting book about a subculture who independently makes there own "zines". Usually small budget magazines done on a photocopier. I will probably never make my own zine, but reading about the process was/is interesting. It's also interesting to me because the zine community were almost like the first "bloggers". I would imagine that with the ease of blogging it probably has diminished the zines.

Politics>
I just finished watching a debate with Alan Dershowitz and Noam Chomsky on C-span's Book TV. I'm not sure if I consider myself a "fan" of Chomsky, but I like a lot of things that he says and stands for. I will admit though that much of what he says goes over my head. Even the subject of this debate was beyond me, but at the same time I found the exchange of ideas interesting. The topic of the debate was "Israel and Palestine After Disengagement". One thing that I was rather shocked and very dissapointed with, was that this was a debate sponsored by Harvard, and was between two highly educated men, and yet neither one could speak to one another in a civil manor. Each one was taking "cheap shots" at the other, interrupting one another, and at times even over-shouting the moderator who was trying to keep things in line (and failing). These two men of such high esteem, education, political backgrounds, etc... can't manage to have a civil debate about peace in the middle east... It was very sad. If you are the slightest bit interested in this, you can watch it online on C-span's website here. (The opening comments of each speaker are tedius to listen to, but once the questions from the audience start things heat up quickly.) You'll need "realplayer" to view this.

Table>
I was inspired by sister's blog to finally fix a small rickety end table that I've had. The glue of the legs had long since dried up, and there was only one screw holding each leg on. So I took the legs off, sanded them down (by hand at first, but then I used my dremel and saved a lot of time). Then put some new glue on, and reattached the legs. One leg may still give me problems as it didn't sit too well, but the other three snugged up nicely. I've got it clamped now, and will let the glue dry overnight. Thanks to my sister who finally gave me the motivation to fix this little table.

Well, this is turning into a small book, so I'll sign off now.
Cyen

Life on my computer...

I had this idea a few days ago, and just came upon a website that reminded me of my idea. The website is called happypalace and is a blog of various images. I don't get it really, as it seems to be a hodge podge of images, but some neat vintage images. The first image that popped up when I loaded the page, was a line drawing of a floppy disk with the label of "My Entire Life". This led me to the reminder that I just came up with this idea about a week ago...

About a week ago, I had bought a new TV. In throwing out my old TV (which I hated to do), I was curious how old it was, and how long I had had it. Must have been close to 11 or 12 years. I thought I should know this sort of info. So I created a simple text file on my computer, that I will now log all the semi-important things that happen in my life. For example, I put the purchase date of my new TV. I recently had to call my apartment complex to get them to come out and fix my dishwasher, which they then had to replace. So I noted this as well. There are only a few entires at this point, but I think it will be neat in 10-20 years to open this file and look back and see what was "important" that I felt I needed to keep track of. (And it will be searchable, so I hope once I have a bunch of entries it will be possible to find what I'm looking for.)

Music> I happened to watch the Daily Show last night, and they had a first... They had a musical guest of "The White Stripes" (which I like - not all of the songs, but most of the songs). It was neat to see them perform, and although I enjoyed it on the Daily Show, I hope this doesn't become a regular feature on the Daily Show... I think if it did, it would be more of a "late night" or "the tonight show" or "Jimmy Kimmel" and not a Fake News Show. I guess time will tell. On a related note: I saw a link a couple days ago for a Live recording via NPR radio of the White Stripes. I thought "cool, I can stream it and record it on my computer (for personal use)" - But when it started... OH MY... it was horrible! Just a bunch of screaming, and poor audio quality. The live performance on the Daily Show was ten times better though.

Politics> I passed a house this morning on my way to work (I pass it everyday), and this morning was a sign out front that said "Impeach Bush Cheney". I remember this house had signs out front during the election for Kerry. I admire someone who puts a sign outside of their house stating an extreme political point of view. I don't know if I'd ever do it for fear of some sort of retaliation (a rock through a window, paint, etc...). I guess i can do it in a different way... on my blog :) Impeach Bush.

23 Days until Christmas...

Cyen

Testing colors

Thanks Sis, for teaching me about the color options. As it turns out, it wasn't so much a difference between Mac vs PC, but rather the particular web browser that you use to edit your blog. I was using the Mac Safari version, after a little digging I found out that the new version of Mozilla's Firefox supports all the buttons (color, type, quotes, links, etc) all work.
I know most people reading this are like "huh?" but for us geeks this is exciting news! ok, well maybe not exciting like having a new baby, or getting a new car, but exciting like taking your winter coat out for the first time and finding a $5 bill in the pocket.

Cyen

Scary Bill O'Reilly comment

I came across this info a while ago, and saved the link to my computer, but thought maybe the link should be made more public.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200511100008

O'Reilly to San Francisco: "[I]f Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. ...You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead"

Ugh... O'reilly is really scary sometimes. I happened to watch a few seconds of him yesterday interviewing a woman, and it was a joke, becaues the two of them were just shouting overtop one another. Neither one was listening to what the other was saying. As someone who gets paid to interview people, I would have thought that was common sense... Ask a question, then stop and listen to the response.

On an unrelated note and a change of temperment... Today is December 1st! 24 days until Christmas... I'm starting to feel a little bit of holiday cheer today.

Cyen