The New Road

Megan's outfit

Lori did such an awesome job with Megan's costume this year. Check hour out in the hat:

I'm sure we will have lots more pictures after trick or treating tonight.

Modern Mechanix

This has become one of my new favorite sites. I love the old is new again stuff.

Lynn Cheney

Lynn Cheney can go fuck herself. As her husband would say. Now she is going around saying that anyone who doesn't agree with Bush wants us to lose. That's total horseshit. She knows it. And yet she feels empowered to say it anyway. The people who want us out want to refocus our efforts properly on the main target, Al Qaeda. The people who want us to "stay the course", as Bush is so fond of saying, live in a fantasy land and have no idea about what "winning it" means, or even how to get there. And to say that people who choose to live in the real world, to try and address the real problems, somehow want us to lose. It's outrageous. Fuck them! And fuck her! Next person who tries that shit on me will get an earful. I've had it up to here with Republicans and their blind faith jingoistic bullshit.

How many lives wasted?

What I find really sad about the 'stay the course' flip-flop is that it was planned before August. Tony Snow was explicit when he said that Bush stopped using that expression in August. Which means that this flip/flop has been planned, probably as the 'October Surprise' since at least July or even before. How many soldiers died while Rove was playing a political waiting game with the war goals?

Even more sad, I suppose, is that the October Surprise fell even flatter than the renaming of the "war on terror" to the "fight against global extremism" change that Cheney tried a couple of years ago. When will we actually get some planning? When will Bush start to listen to reality and make the types of changes required to either win this thing, which is unlikely, or get the hell out?

Evolution

I've been reading a lot lately on evolution, and the debate about evolution and creationism. Of course, being an atheist, I'm don't give creationism a lot of though. It's just a myth, one of thousands of creation myths. It's certainly not a scientific theory, as there is no way to falsify it. Christians who revel in the fact that all they have is their belief and no facts, can't then turn around and say that creationism is a theory based on facts. You can' have it both ways.

But here is what I found interesting and empowering in myself. Creationists think that evolution is cruel because it's so clear cut, and there is no personal God in the mix who can help people in need out. I look at it exactly the opposite way. I marvel at the variety of creatures in this world and how amazing their adaptations have been. And I admire evolution because it's always straining to be better. The guiding principle of evolution is that natural selection brings out the best traits and dumps the mistakes. It's a process of constantly striving to improve.

While creationism, on the other hands, is a quitter's game. If you think that creature A is related to C, but you don't have the fossil evidence, that's ok, just quit. Call it a miracle and be done with it. That's what creationists call 'God in the gaps'. Where there is a gap in the evolutionary tree, then there must have been an act of God. Of course, as research does, it expands and we eventually find the missing links, and thus once again destroy the God of that gap.

I hate that whole philosophy of "letting go to God". It's taking what could be a noble life full of purpose and well lived, and giving every decision over to, well, nothing.

I could go on to talk about the multivariate reasons why there is no God. But I won't. If you believe, then I probably can't change your mind. You have found some positivity in it, and it probably works for you, which is fine. Suffice to say, don't worry about me. I'm happy and empowered in my atheism. I'm not concerned about returning my atoms to the cosmos when I die. In fact, I've died a million cellular deaths by now. I'm not, atomically speaking, the person I was just days ago. I embrace change. Change is the one constant. And I abide by philosophies which embrace change, and shun those which want preach constancy.

Good run today

I ran at lunch today for 3.8 miles around Lake Elizabeth and the attached golf course. It's my standard triathlon run since it's right around 5K. I finished in 29 minutes which is a 7.5 minute mile. Which is awesome for me. I'm really excited. It felt good and very strong. My breathing was consistent. I think the first and last miles were the fastest and I had a little lull in the middle. So if I tighten that up I should be able to get down into the flat seven minute mile, or even a little less.

Kirk Cameron and the purple tomato

I wonder what Kirk Cameron would say about the new purple tomato. Who designed this Kirk? God?

Update on 'staying the course': Looks like the White House has done a good job rallying the executive branch around the new line of 'winning' or 'adapting to win'. It's interesting to see that the right wing spin machine has yet to pick up on, and the right wing blogs are either not talking about it or being critical of it. And it will be really interesting to see what House and Senate members do with this. My guess is that they won't talk about it, or try to nuance it. This move was just too brazen.

Skating on the Edge

My stepfather's book, Skating On The Edge, is now on Amazon.

It was ranked in the 90,000's this morning. Which is really good given that it's got no official publicity of any sort.

Great goin' Carlos!

Bush never for 'stay the course'?

I've seen and heard a lot of outrageous stuff from Bush, but this takes the cake. Bush says he has never been 'stay the course'. Wow. How stupid does he think his supporters are?

What amazes me is how he can say that face to face with another human. He must know that he has been saying for three years to 'stay the course'. You can't utter the same phrase over and over again without remembering that you did it. Can you? Wow.

You know what it says to me; control freak who has finally changed his mind. I think Bush has finally come to realize that Iraq is not going well. But because he is just personally incapable of accepting blame at any level this is the best he can do. He can rewrite his own history. And who cares if his detractors don't buy it. Right? The faithful will 'stay the course', er... whatever.

Pictures from the weekend

Here are some pictures from the weekend. First, Megan's cake:

Next, the new little man in our life:

And finally the spaceship control panel I created for Megan:

So, lot's of fun this weekend.

Flags of our fathers

I had a full force allergy meltdown on Sunday. I went to my office for a little bit and that helped. But I couldn't concentrate for that long, so I decided to see a movie. I picked Flags Of Our Fathers, figuring a good "Saving Private Ryan"-esque war movie would keep me awake and keep my mind off of my imploding sinuses.

Flags is no Private Ryan. It's well made, and well acted. But I wasn't satisfied with it for two reasons. First, the primary story line is in the states. So that Iwo Jima scenes, while amazing, act more as back story. I actually knew that going in. And while I'm ok with that, I would rather have one big flashback, rather than lots of flashes here and there. Think of Apocalypse Now. Lots of people watch that movie just for the helicopter scenes with the Ride of the Valkyries. While that misses the point of the movie it is understandable. Now imagine the helicopter scene done as flashbacks throughout the movie in semi-random time order. It's frustrating.

Second, the story line in the states didn't dig deep enough for me. Perhaps Clint was trying to stay true to the facts. But it just didn't feel edgy enough. It was never really clear to me why Ira was so reluctant to play the war hero. Or why Doc seemed to have infinite patience for him. These characters had arcs that were like rulers flexed ever so slightly. And yes, perhaps I've been skewed by Battlestar, which has character arcs that are more like infinite knots. But even so, have them do, you know, something.

Then there was the annoying point that there was some dude who was in the picture, who was mixed up with some other dude, who just happened to have a very similar last name. And frankly, well, I just don't care. Oh, wow, they mixed up some guys name in a war photo. You think? When they are getting shot at I'm sure the first thing that's on their minds is proper attribution.

At one point the Secretary of the Treasury talks with the guys and tells them that they need to help raise 14 billion dollars to fund the war. And that fighting about who was who in the picture was besides the point. That if they wanted to help win the war they should just keep it simple. I couldn't have agreed more. Does it really matter that there were two flags? Does it really matter that the right or wrong person was given attribution? And the more the characters talked about it, the less I cared about them, and the movie.

I've been in enough meetings where people have been fighting over minutiae. Blinded by the insignificant trees and unable to see the important forest. I find that very frustrating. And here was a sub-plot dedicated to just that type of tree-spotting.

All in all, Million Dollar Baby was a far better film.

My guess is that Letters from Iwo Jima will also be a better film. And I'm happy to see it since this movie gave no play at all to the Japanese. Even Private Ryan had better formed German characters.

Oh, and by the way, Battlestar, freaking unreal. This season has been the best television I have ever seen. If you aren't watching it, your nuts. Great writing. Superior acting. The effects are fantastic. The drama, the suspense. The show is firing on every single cylinder.

Weird stuff does it again

My original design for the astronaut control system for Megan turned out to be a non-starter. Which was kind of a drag since Megan has really been on an astronaut tear recently.

Last night Lori asked me if in addition to doing the astronaut panel for Megan for Christmas if I could do one for another kid for his birthday. So I went off to Fry's today to buy an enclosure I could add some stuff to and stuff a few electronics in. Then I went to Weird Stuff to get some extra joysticks and such.

While I was there I found a big 17" HP tablet for $3. I figured I could try to gut it and put in my own stuff and it would be the best enclosure ever. It would sit on Megan's lap and have enough space for two joysticks, some switches and some buttons and such. I just got back to my office and took out a trusty screwdriver and, wouldn't you know, it's easy as cake to take apart, and once it's apart it makes an awesome enclosure. It's also way lighter since there was a slab of metal in there designed to add 'substantial weight' to it.

I'm so excited. I can definitely have this together for Wednesday and her real birthday. Hell, it will probably be done tonight.

Kuo and the Faith Based Initiative

The book Tempting Faith was just released. This book documents Bushs' "Faith Based Initiatives" program. It's author, David Kuo was the second in command of the office. While many have found his recounting of how the administration called preachers 'nuts' the most salacious thing in the book, I did not. I actually find that's the first thing I agree on with this administration.

What I found revealing was how Rove wanted the Faith Based Initiative office, not because it would help people, but because it would create another web issue. Something new for Democrats to be against. In fact, the external concept was that to end discrimination against faith based groups, and the office could never actually find such a case. It was like the "War Against Christmas", it was all just smoke and mirrors meant to whip up the base and to have the Democrats try and justify church versus state.

Everyone talks about how divided the country is right now, about how divisive the politics are. That's by design. It's really one man, Karl Rove, who's job it is to find wedge issues and drive and drive them until it seems that there is no commonality between left and right at all. It's sad to see. All this effort to try and disrupt the country for cheap partisan political gain. All at the time when we need cohesiveness the most.

I realize that wedge issues are what keeps politicians in power. But at a certain point, doesn't the health of the country come first? Is Rove willing to destroy what's left of the polity of this country just to retain power? I'm not sure I want to know the answer.

Spaceship Megan

When I was in cub scouts we had this play we put on. It was a space play. And my Dad helped me build a spaceship control panel. It was mainly light switches. But it was cool, and I remember being upstaged by the prop during the show.

Last weekend I took Megan to a kids museum in Oakland and they had a spaceship there filled with old computer parts. Even though the stuff was clearly labeled as EEPROM burners she enjoyed flipping the switches and playing with the keyboards and joysticks. Her imagination went wild.

I figured that I would build her something like that for, well, sometime. But Megan's birthday is Saturday. So there is an opportunity there. Marty told me that he had access to some spare parts. And Dru turned me on to the Weird Stuff Warehouse. I went there yesterday, looked around, picked up some stuff, then talked to the store manager about what I was doing and he gave me the load for $20. I think he liked the whole "Dad making play art for his kid" type deal.

Last night I really scored at Radio Shack. I got some switches for cheap, and I experimented a little with a 9 volt battery and, wouldn't you know, they light up when you switch them on. Yes! This is going to rock. Two of the switches are of the "safety variety" so you have to flip up a piece of plastic before you can flip the switch, which then glows red. Mmmm... I'll use Lori's label maker to put "ARM SRB 1" and "ARM SRB 2" on the side of those. ;-)

This is going to be cool. I know Geeg will love it. She has such an amazing imagination. She can turn two straws into a prince and princess and have a whole conversation going between the two. I can't wait to see what her and the other kids do with their spaceship.

Republican voter suppression starting early

No wonder Bush isn't worried about the outcome of the elections, he already has his goon squads out doing voter suppression. What I love best about the Republican machine is how multi-faceted it is. Not only do they do the electronic tampering thanks to their friends at Diebold. But they also do the mail suppression campaigns, the in-your-face voter suppression stuff where they go house to house. And then layer on top of that the allocation of polling places and polling equipment to strongly favor Republicans. I particularly like the story in Ohio where they sent in a hit squad from Texas to call local black voters to ensure them that their child support payment history would be checked at the polling place.

It's like a fritatta of electioneering. Why put all your eggs in one fraud basket?

UM/FIU debacle

I gotta say, I'm really losing interest in following UM. It's not just that the team is losing more, and that I'm on the other coast and there isn't another Canes fan other than Lori within 100 miles. It's stuff like this weekends completely horrible brawl with FIU. Lori and I were busy in the garage sorting through books to donate to the library, and we had it on. Megan was scooting around in her car there with us and I was glad that she was entertained and not watching. It was brutal. Guys stomping on each other. Throwing each other. And the commentary guy. Wow. Disgusting.

Megan and I actually watch a fair amount of football on the weekends. I'll just put on any random game and we will pick a jersey color and then say; "Go Red Go!" or "Stop White Stop!" She likes it, a little bit. Certainly not her favorite activity. Anyway, I think from now on I will stick with pro games on Sunday to watch with her. The pros don't care enough about the game to brawl that way.

Easy Filter

I'm publishing my first Rails plugin. It's a dynamic filter for web sites. You can have data displayed in cells, along with some filters, and by adjusting the filters the cells appear or disappear. Here is a demonstration.

The code is still pretty rough. But if you want to give it a try the plugin install command is:

script/plugin install http://ultimatechordbook.svnrepository.com/svn/easyfilter_engine

It relies on the Engine plugin so that it's easy to install the Javascript files which are really at the core of the thing.

Iraqi death toll

Estimates of the Iraqi death toll during the war and subsequent occupation range from the mid tens of thousands, up to a new high today of 650,000. Multiplied by a scaling factor to make that proportionate to America you could wipe out one of these states; Massachusets, Washington, Indiana, Tennessee, or Arizona. Actually, with the latter ones you would need to throw in a few extras, like Vermont or Alaska to make up for the shortfall.

I don't mean to make light of this. I just want to illustrate what it means for one person in twenty to die, and what that would mean in America. And you have to figure that for all of those deaths, there are five to ten times as many injured.

How many people would have died in your family if one in twenty were killed? Of your friends? How many would be injured if every one in five were seriously injured in the occupation?

Tucker finally right

The removal of the bow tie seems to have let some oxygen back into Tucker Carlson's brain. He finally admitted that the GOP has nothing but contempt for the evangelicals who put them in office. No kidding. Turns out both side of the political spectrum have no respect for evangelicals. On the left we think they are being played by the right, and that as a result they are using what little voice we have as Americans, our vote, to say, "Thank you sir may I have another." And on the right, they aren't getting any respect because they are being played the fools and don't seem to care.

Tucker, besides his usual Bush apologetics and his horribly offensive debating style, is actually right up my alley. Fiscally conservative, socially liberal. Why he isn't a Democrat, I don't know. Democrats balanced the budget, reduce the size of government, and get out of peoples personal lives.

Bush - worst president ever

It's official. Bush is the worst president ever. Having now allowed North Korea to get the bomb, he has, done nothing. Continuing simply to posture and hope someone will listen to his vague and empty threats. What do we know? North Korea has been within a year of building the bomb since at least the time of the last Bush administration. But they didn't build the bomb until now. Tony Snow can talk shit all he wants about how Clinton went with candies to get them not to build a bomb. But... Tony... it worked. And your God King president, failed.

Has anything Bush done been a success? Iraq? Hopeless quagmire worsening by the day. Afghanistan? Even worse quagmire? Hey, here is a fun game, how much of Afghanistan do we control? Turns out, a small circle just around the capitol of Kahbul. The Taliban control the rest. Which, oh, by the way, is actually worse then when we invaded where at least the northern portions were not in control of the Taliban. And then, there is Al Qaeda, which according to the latest reports from our government is now far strong and more spread out than it was before 9/11.

Thank you Chimpy McCokespoon. You are the WORST PRESIDENT EVER.

Dixie Chicks flick

The Dixie Chicks have a new film coming out about their experiences after the Bush comment. With both support for the Iraq war, and Bush's job approval at 33% one wonders what some of these folks would say about the threats they made. I particularly love the old guy at the end who said something along the lines of, "freedom of speech is fine, as long as it's not in public."

On to freedom of speech; I'm just starting to grasp how cynically horrible this new "freedom of hate speech" move is from the right. If you haven't tuned in, the idea is that gay bashing is constitutionally protected as freedom of religion. I wonder how far that line of thought goes? Especially with the Old Testament. Can we stone people to death? Can we give our wives and daughters over into prostitution?

I mean, how sick is that? Take a constitutional guarantee meant to protect the minority and turn it into a bludgeon for the blood thirsty majority to abuse and harass the minority.

Swimming A Mile

The Mile Swim for Cancer went well. I was a little nervous. Even though I swim miles pretty routinely now, there was always something in the back of my head where I thought I might not be counting right. Thankfully though, when we finally got in the water, everything went really smoothly. Especially because we started with a slower person in the lane and I was able to get lots of rest at the end of laps.

Here are some pictures of us, and of Lori's addition to the cancer quilt:

Here is the movie of Lori finishing her final lap using butterfly.

I've done a few of these types of fitness things now and this is the first time I've done it with Lori. I really enjoyed it. Having her there added something special to the experience. I can't wait to do it again next year. And to see Megan do it a couple of years from now.

Wonderful story

This wonderful story is well worth the brief listen.

The Power of Religion

One of the proofs that I often hear from believers in God is that he has "moved in my life". I'm sure that their life was moved. But by God? Why not just chalk it up to what it is:

• Positive thought: The power of thinking positively is amazing. When you believe you can do something, you can do it. If you keep telling yourself you can't, then you won't.
• Letting go of the past: Being 'born again' or a confession provides a point at which someone can say, I leave the past behind me, and now I'm starting over again all new.
• Community: A church is instant friends who all believe in the same things you do.
• Answers: Instead of providing tough answers and more questions, religion provides simple answers to huge problems. And it provides answers to the ultimate question, where I go when I die.
• Enemies: You get a canned set of people to blame your troubles on; gays, jews, atheists, muslims, etc.

The first two of these are the most important. Positive thinking is critical in having a happy life. And letting go of the past is just as important. You can't change the past, what you can change is what you do next. The future.

These are just universal. You don't have to believe that God did this. Just you. And isn't that more satisfying?

Update: Another powerful element is the feeling of superiority and specialness that religion provides. You are superior because you are going to heaven. And you are special because God has a plan for you. This specifically the thing that a pastor in Jesus Camp uses to influence kids to believe in Christianity.

Jesus Camp

Lori and I watched Jesus Camp last night. At first glance I was a little intimidated. These people were so strong in their convictions. And then as I thought about it, I began to pity them. Their camp is a hovel. The people are dirt poor. They hardly constitute an army of any sort. It's just pathetic. And just like generation after generation before them they too will be let down. Jesus won't return. Their kids will see that their prayers always go unanswered and they will rebel.

What I find so sad is that these kids will never have a real carefree childhood. From an early age they are pummeled with the ideas of fear, sin, hate, death and war. They are taught to hate non-Christians. Everything they do is weighed down with this overbearing religion. What happened to just being a kid?

At one point on of the kids rails against what she calls 'dead churcehs', which, I suppose, are the kind of churches I grew up in. You go on Sunday, the pastor says that your all going to hell, you sing a few songs, and go on with your life. You believe in God just enough to place a bet that if he does exist you'll have a clear shot at an afterlife. But the religion part is balanced with the rest of life. I think these people found that religion healed a lot of the pain in their lives and their response was to make it their life entirely, and they have lost all perspective. I can certainly understand that, since I'm and obsessive personality as well.

Megan's Word Toy

A while ago I made this Crayon's page for Megan where she could use a web browser to draw. Recently she has been all about words. She will say a string of letters, then I'll tell her what that sounds like. Usually it's just gibberish. But I figured that she really wants to learn the words. So I developed a new little web application that shows a picture then shows the word below it with the first letter highlighted. As you type each letter in the word a voice tells you the name of the letter. When you finish the word lights up and a little happy sound goes off, then a new word comes up.

It's pretty cute. I showed it to Megan last night and she was really happy with it. A couple of times she would get through a big word and the sound would go off and she was just beaming with glee. I really like that.

Anyway, I won't post it, but if you want a copy let me know and I'll zip it up and send it to you. At the moment it's Firefox only (I think). Plus you need Quicktime installed to play the sounds.

Korgoth

I'm telling you, if Korgoth of Barbaria doesn't make the Emmy's, there is no justice. The writing... it's superb. The acting... without question, the best on television. The production value... wow... stunning. It's genius. At, well, so many levels. Korgoth puts Studio 60 to shame and of that there can be no doubt.

Speaking of Studio 60. When I watch it, I feel like I'm in a dark room and the light switch is in a drawer full of sharp knives. The pace is too machine gun. The characters too hyped up. Every little thing is imminent disaster. Somehow Sorkin has found a way to make the production of a television comedy show more stressful than a show about the Presidency. How the hell did he do that?

While the writing of Studio 60 is creative and witty, I do find that it overwhelms the actors. There are no pauses for the actors to, well, act. They say their Sorkin lines, usually in a hallway... moving... through a set of double doors... and then it's boom, onto another scene with very similar characters saying very different things, but in very similar ways. Sorkin, leave some room for the actors to act.

Bright spot in the dark news

Even for me the news recently has been really grim. The Foley thing is just... disgusting. Every time I read about that story I want to take a shower.

And then there was this horrible massacre at an Amish school. Which is even darker and more horrible. But then, in the middle of that is this one wonderful note. Apparently the Amish met with some counselors after the incident and amongst there questions was this; "Would it be alright if we took dinner to the family of the shooter?" They had already forgiven him and his family. Leave it to people many of us would call backwards, or at least luddites, to show us exactly what being civilized really means. From this, we all can learn a great, great deal.

Strange locker room experience

Honest to God, I don't have any Democrat tatoos on me. So how or why this happened I'll never know. But I'm in the locker room after my swim and the guy with the locker next to me says, with no prompting, at all, I I didn't even say hello to this guy; "A vote for Nancy Pelosi is a vote to keep the crooks in power." Which is really odd, because Nancy, my Democratic representative from California, isn't in power. Oh, wait, it's really odd, because this batshit crazy Republican dude decided to drop some zany politics bomb, to a half naked dude he didn't know, at all. And what was even stranger; no eye contact. Just like he was saying it to the wall. But in a clear and concise monotone.

Stoned Professor

You can tell in about 30 seconds that this professor is completely baked. I got a few minues into it and I still don't know what the hell he was actually lecturing about.

Good weekend

I had a really nice weekend all the way through. On Friday we all wen to Molly's surprise 40th birthday party. The kids had a lot of fun and I met a fellow Rails junky and will probably be giving a presentation on Rails to Autodesk in the coming months.

On Saturday I took Megan to see Open Season, which was fun, but really predictable. Unfortunately the sound level dropped to about half during the trailers and remained that way through the entire film. So I was able to get two re-entry passes for when Lori takes Megan, because it, as always, is Megan's favorite movie.

Then on Saturday night Lori and I went to Rogue Chef's in Half Moon Bay with Marty and Simone. That was really great. My entree was pretty good, and the rest of them were raving about what they had. But the wine, dessert and conversation more than made up for what was just a kind of blandish meal.

By Sunday it was pretty clear that Megan and Lori were both getting colds, but still I decided to push through with the plan of taking Megan, Dru and his kids to our local indoor pool. This particular pool is great because it's got a play structure in the pool with slides and water guns and all sorts of stuff. Plus there is a lazy river with innertubes that you can float around in. All of the kids loved it and by the end we all wanted to go back.

After that I got home and made a fire in the fireplace and dinner and kinda sacked out. Though I did manage to get through the season premiere of Dexter which was so good that it was really disturbing. The show is about a serial killer who hunts serial killers. It's very, very well written, and the acting is fantastic. Gotta hand it to the cable drama show folks, they can do sick and disturbing like nobodies business.

Speaking of Dexter, have you heard that Willie Nelson's tour bus got pulled over and he was found with a pound of pot? Probable cause? Because he is Willie Nelson! I think the cops should keep on the lookout for the writers of Dexter, they clearly know way too much about the mind of a serial killer.