Well I'm helping with Rick Stanley for Senate's web page now. That's pretty interesting. They actually have a ridiculous amount of good stuff on that page... I was impressed. Needs streamlining though... and I'm just the gal for the job! So I've been working on fixing bad links for hours and hours and days and days now. The good part is I'm almost out of bad links to fix. Almost. If anyone will listen to me, I'm going to recommend starting up a forum for Colorado Libertarians. I can't really find a decent one. Stanley has a really pathetic one that noone posts to and it has ads all over it. I know I can do better than that. We'll see how that turns out I suppose.

I'm starting Access in my PC Apps class. That promises to be interesting yet frustrating. I'm really happy with all the stuff I learned about Excel in the last chapter though, so my expectations are high.

My car is getting work done on it, some important circuit shorted causing my dash lights not to work along with my tail lights. Ninety bucks to fix... it's really a shame any work done like that on a car doesn't add to the value. If everything was proper, every dime you put into your car would make your car worth one more dime. But alas it isn't so.

I'm reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Needed to make a note of that somewhere :)
posted by 00k at 10:46 PM

 
Y'know what I'm having a hard time accepting? That, unless I get fat or pregnant, I am done growing. I am going to be this very same size for the rest of my life. This short. This small. There are things short and small people can do. They can wear big heels. Or they wear their hair big. Or they can talk really loud. Or dress really loud. But the fact of the matter remains. I am a small small little person. Now I realize that I need to be happy with the hand I've been dealt. So I've decided something. While I can't be the tall strong person that strides through a crowd and people move out of their way, I can be stealthy. I was designed for stealth. It is my clandestiny!

And so I'm going to enjoy this fate. I will always be small in stature... but I will never be small in character or mind! And while you may not notice me... I will always be around somewhere! Lurking in the shadows... standing under a table... whatever! I'm a superhero. A very small superhero.
posted by 00k at 12:10 AM

 
I'm 22 now. I had a good birthday. I don't always get to say that. It's good that I can this year though. Twenty two years looking back is a long time. Whenever you look back, it seems like time flew. I'm constantly amazed at how very long ago things are, things like 1996. But looking forward, time passes incredibly slow. Like in the week coming up to my birthday... it felt like a month. It's pretty strange... I don't know if you'd call it perception, relativity, a phenomenon, or what, but it's worthy of mention. Time is neat. And I'm happy to be twenty-two. I've written my own epitaph... I want it to say "I wasn't finished.". That's all.
posted by 00k at 2:25 AM

 
This ridiculous thing we call modern academia...
My Quarrels With College Volume 1

I'm taking an Intro to Windows XP class. I'm also taking an Intro to PC Applications class. I'm also taking a PC Maintenance and Troubleshooting class. All of these are required for me to get my associate's degree. I made the mistake of taking them all at the same time, so for probably a total of 6-8 classes, I've been learning the exact same things about computers over, with only more or less convoluted versions depending on the teacher. One teacher I have said the CPU was like the heart, and the bus was the circulatory system. Another teacher said that the CPU was like the brain. She needs an upgrade. Her class is the one I'll be taking issue with today.

I've been using Windows since I was probably around 14, so about 7 or 8 years. That's a pretty long time. I feel as comfortable with Windows as I am with my car, moreso even, because I've used it more than my car. However, my college has to make sure of my familiarity, by subjecting me to redundant monotonous crap and busywork regarding it. You could say,"Gee, why didn't you test out of those classes if you're so smart, eh?". Here is the problem with that. I have a Windows XP book that is more than 700 worthless black and white pages long. Now I can use Windows, but boy I sure don't know the name of every insignificant little aspect of windows, like "spin boxes" and "chevrons". No, using windows doesn't require a knowledge of that to use it. Using Windows proficiently doesn't even require a knowledge of that. But I guess I can't be an expert until I know what a chevron is, so then I can talk about chevrons with people that don't know what they are and look smart. What's that you say? That's at least 30% of the reason anyone gets an education? How silly of me to forget! Anyhow... I'm genuinely frustrated with this Intro to XP class... and my completion of my homework for that class is what has inspired this rant.

My teacher I think fancies herself as a pretty novel gal. She talks like she thinks she knows what the fuck she's talking about. But I strongly suspect she is the sort of person that is full of education, but has absolutely no knowledge. She knows what she's read, but I question how much of it she just repeats and how much she actually understands. Anyhow, we have to submit all our quizzes and homework online. Not a bad thing in my opinion, except when coupled with the incompetence of the writers of the homework and quizzes.

For example, one of the exercises is to go into Notepad and look at the help menu. Then you're to search the index for the topic "deleting text" if I remember right. Then you display it and notepad tells you that in order to delete text through the menu, you have to select the text, then go to the menu and select "delete". So then the question after all of that crap reads as follows: "In order to delete text, you must first _____________ it." and the answer is "select". Now obviously to anyone that isn't a fucking XP Intro Book Author, there are more ways to delete text. Many more in fact. But alas, I don't suppose they felt it was important at the time to make the question logical, moreso only applying to your current fix. Such are the nature of the all the questions. I'm thinking of writing the authors of this book some hatemail. They're ambiguous in their questions like it's going out of style. I've already missed so many questions because they don't want the right answer, they want the answer that is in the book. Or they don't want the general, accepted answer to a general question, they want the specific answer to the specific task you performed at their request regardless of how wrong it is on a more generalized platform. Because we submit these things online, there are either right or wrong answers, no debates. So while your answer may be just as right as theirs, it's not what they wanted, so you get it wrong. Normally this wouldn't bother me so much, but the fact that they're so incredibly ambiguous all the time makes it altogether a whole different science in and of itself to read the minds of the writers and decide which right answer they'll likely prefer. Not any efficient way to run any program under the guise of education.

I suppose I should stop now. I shouldn't even go into the packet of book corrections I received at the beginning of the class... (apparently editing is better AFTER you release the work, not before). I could go on all night I think, for so extensive is the incompetence I face and will have to face at least up until December when the class is over. I suspect though that it will be present in some aspects of my college life for as long as I attend. Sigh. I close with a quote:

"Colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed."
-Robert G. Ingersoll

posted by 00k at 10:44 PM

 
Alone in a crowd...

"A city is a large community where people are lonesome together." -Herbert Prochnow

It baffles me the number of people that have cellphones. I was walking up this big flight of stairs at my school and there were three people in a row... all spaced out... all on their cellphones walking down. It made me sad. Those people were connecting with their friends or their families or whoever, but they were oblivious to everyone else around. I see more people on their cellphones in my ventures at school than I see anywhere else. For some reason it made me think of the 60's... probably the hippie comradery that my campus lacks. People used to talk to other people that were around... they'd smile and nod... maybe even offer a hello. While the meaningless hello's and the how are you's that are almost like a rhetorical question aren't much, it was one person acknowledging the existence of another at the heart. I've seen people go through checkout lines at stores that don't even get off the phone, treating their cashier like an inanimate object. Bad manners. But bad manners are so common these days... I guess that's just acceptable. I wouldn't say people shouldn't be allowed to talk on their cellphone when they're in a crowd. I wouldn't do it myself though. It's like making out in public... it puts everyone around you at odds. People feel bad for eavesdropping but you offer no alternative or choice in the matter, so it's forced. Again... bad manners. But what can you do? The less people acknowledge the existence of eachother I think the more alone people will feel.

Some day when the earth is all full... when everyone has to live in storage-unit sized apartments... when your neighbor while you're at home is only 100 feet away... I think we will all be more alone than we have ever been before. As the world gets uglier, crime more common, fear more realized and accepted, people will withdraw from the public and from eachother. Chatting with your cashier as they scan your items will be considered old fashioned. Computers will take the place of people in many jobs, offering yet another opportunity to avoid contact with human beings. It'll be sad... and everyone will feel alone I think. And as a friend first made me realize... a person even one in a million on earth, still has 6,000 people exactly like them. A depressing statistic really. Why not clone? People are not so remarkable to begin with. I'm going to quit before I'm suicidal :)
posted by 00k at 3:26 PM

 
The anniversary of 9/11 is coming up. I can't believe it's been a year. A year since the attacks... three years since Columbine. How the time goes. I'm thinking about my life tonight and the things I've seen. My parents when they talk about the remarkable things that've happened, they talk about where they were when Kennedy was assassinated, or when we first landed on the moon. In my life I have things to speak of, hard to judge whether worse or not though. I haven't really had any war or global disagreement touch my life personally. Anyhow... it's still worth noting... and so I'm going to make a note of it here.

On September 11th, I was sleeping. Living with a boyfriend at the time, who didn't wake me up to watch the news. I got out of bed, the world was upside down, and I think I watched the news for about 5 hours straight. Nothing too remarkable... but I'll never forget it. I guess that's what I'll get to tell my kids.

When Columbine was happening in Littleton, I was home for lunch from school my junior year. I didn't go back to school that day. They kept showing footage of a cop with a special jacket running up a hill with his gun in hand, and another clip of a kid flopping out a library window and leaving a blood trail. Another story of less importance but closer to home I'll tell my kids.

I guess I'll have kids really soon, judging by how fast time goes when you look back at it. I hope I have good stories to tell also in addition to the bad ones. That's pretty much it for tonight.
posted by 00k at 10:15 PM

 
I updated lots of my webpage today. Added a picture gallery... full of pictures of myself. Some might call that egotistical. I was a really cute kid though. If noone else is going to build me a shrine, then I guess I'll have to do it. Building your own shrine isn't egotistical though. Not at all... not even remotely. I'm gonna go stare at myself in the mirror now.
posted by 00k at 1:21 AM

 
Just updating the scheme. Yep!
posted by 00k at 8:28 PM

 
So the Teen Choice Awards were on tonight. I guess teens can make important choices with their lives after all... they can vote! (For worthless awards). I watched about 10 minutes of it just to remind myself why I hate tv. I saw more in that 10 minutes than I've seen in my life! (Of a bunch of miscellaneous screaming topless highschool girls). Nelly performed a song "Hot in Here" (Its gettin hot in here (so hot) so take off all your clothes), and a good lot of girls did just that, took off their clothes. Yes, a crowd full of questionably aged teenage girls taking off their shirts at an awards ceremony.

I guess stripping is a fairly accepted trend among girls at concerts these days... it's nice to see that it's branched over into the award ceremony jurisdiction. The sky's the limit now! Graduations... weddings... even funerals... any kind of gathering should be appropriate. Did I just hear the collective content sigh of every boy in the world? This is where the shit starts. Young girls have been slutting around for a long time now. They've all been on Jerry Springer and Ricki Lake, talking about the 5 guys they fucked while waiting backstage. I believed not long ago that these girls, the "skanks" as they're commonly referred to as, were in the minority. I am suddenly all too aware of the possibility that modesty and decency are a thing of the past, to be replaced with naked naked booty shakin and booby twitchin as the norm.

It isn't at all surprising. Only disappointing. Girls have worthless silicon bimbos like Pamela Lee and Anna Nicole in the limelight to look up to, while the intelligent respectable women of the world are stomped beneath these wretchid hags spiked heels. Glamour and outside appearance are rewarded and featured, while the quality of character is irrelevent and intelligence is often frowned upon. It's a shame... it's a damn shame. But it will meet it's logical end. Men won't find women they can trust, they'll find whores that lie and cheat and sleep around. They'll find the girls that so enjoyed shaking their goods for them, so enjoy shaking them for everyone. That's loose moralled... a full and complete package not labelled for individual sale. If all guys want is sex... at some point... they'll have their sex. At what price? A price I'm sure many would be more than willing to pay. That depresses me. But that's everything. And that's tonights rant.
posted by 00k at 10:33 PM

 
Don't wonder if you can be great. Just do. Be intelligent. Be remarkable. Be different. Be intuitive. Be humble. Be quiet. Be forceful. Be focused. Be driven. Don't worry. Don't get distracted. Don't be afraid. Don't care what others think. Do what you think. Act how you think you should act. Do what you think is right. Stand by what you believe. Don't ever question your ability to be great. If you aren't great yet, it's because you aren't doing everything that you could. If you do your best, you'll be great. Even if only to yourself. That's what matters the most in the end.
posted by 00k at 2:35 AM

 
I watched "Ten Things I Hate About You" tonight. I have every reason to hate this movie. There is a lot wrong with it... a lot of mistakes... and a lot of really unrealistic parts. The characters are fun but not original, fairly unremarkable. The lines are catchy, the banter is decent, but they don't touch on anything that hasn't been covered and covered and covered again in every movie of this class before. There are also a lot of really painfully cheesy lines and situations. However... I still enjoyed it, despite myself. I find myself enjoying more and more of these guilty pleasures. Shamelessly corny and generic - overdone, unoriginal, unremarkable movies. Mainstream songs by one hit wonder artists, based around totally unoriginal topics, with really unremarkable lyrics. I am finding that I'm liking these things more than I used to. I'm ashamed to admit it... but it is true. And so now I must ask myself if I'm losing my edge in my old age. It's either that, or I'm caring less about sticking to my character as the "other girl". You know which girl I mean. Kat from this movie, Daria the MTV creation, the main girl from Ghost World, the list goes on. Where I do not fit the role exactly, I fit in no other genre of character quite as well. But as I find myself enjoying things like this more, I wonder if I'm stepping dangerously close to the edge of uncaring oblivious bliss. I feel it is my duty as the token "shy, brainy, opinionated girl", to say right now, that if I ever do become the girl that my character types typically loathe, I want someone to shoot me in a manner my character should find pleasing.
posted by 00k at 4:56 AM

 
Y'know what I think are strange? Dogs. Pet dogs. It's so weird that humans have these little four legged creatures that just live in their houses with them. And they lay around on their floors, and follow their owners around, just furry unopinionated little beings that're totally loyal. You say their name and they wag their little furry tails. You say a word really excited-like and their ears perk up and they think it's something good and that you're talking about them. They're so silly. We give them silly names like "Fluffy" and "Patches". We teach them little silly parlor tricks, like how to shake hands, and sit, and lay down, and then when they do something right we use really silly baby voices and say "Good boooyyyyy!" and things like this. Then we pat them. We pat them on the head, we pat them on their butts, it's so strange. Think if you just patted people all the time. That'd be totally bizarre. We scratch them too. Scratching can be pretty offensive if we do it to ourselves, but we can scratch a dog and it's okay and acceptable. They're just such silly weird funny little creatures. Sometimes they're happy, sometimes they're mopey, sometimes they just sleep all day long. They bark when people go by outside their fence... this is some weird kind of dog thing. Prarie dogs bark warning to eachother when people are around, I don't know if that's why dogs bark though. They seem to bark for more reasons. But it's still barking. If they were people they'd all be crazy old men wearing overalls sitting on porches with their shotguns. Imagine a crazy old man running up to his fence when you walked by and yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs chasing you along the fence? It's just too bizarre. Dogs are very weird. They're very good though. Their worlds are so incredibly tiny and simple. Things are so easy and obvious for them. I like dogs.

These are my dogs:

Dillon




Bandit




Bowser




Sadie


posted by 00k at 4:00 AM

 
Will a Police State Protect Your Liberty?

Taken from Stop-polabuse



http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer24.html



July 27, 2002

by Butler Shaffer

bshaffer@s...



Whenever George Bush gives us that Alfred E. Neuman smirk and begins
prattling about "freedom," I know that some member of his administration is
about to announce the formation of another link in our chain of subjugation
to the state. Like the heads of warring states who fill the media with words
of their dedication to "peace" ­ all the while looking for bigger clubs with
which to smash their enemies ­ "freedom," in the mouths of politicians, has
a reverse meaning from the normal import of the word. Just as any piece of
legislation that bears the word "fair" in its title conveys notice of an
expanded governmental power over our lives, the meaning of freedom is always
corrupted when uttered by politicians. Like the cynically cruel words "work
shall make you free" over the gates at Nazi concentration camps, we must be
ever vigilant in how government officials use language.

Americans are slowly beginning to discover the nature of the police state
that the political establishment has been putting together in recent
decades. In case you are foolish enough to believe that the "Department of
Homeland Security" was but a response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, be
advised that proposals for such an agency had been considered long before
last September; that legislation for such a body was introduced at least as
early as March 2001, and was being discussed at various symposia and "think
tanks" at the time. You should also make yourself aware of the fact that the
US government had plans in place, prior to 9/11, for an invasion of
Afghanistan ­ to begin in October 2001 ­ reportedly for the purpose of
removing from power Afghan officials who were not being cooperative in the
creation of an oil pipeline across their landscape.

Since 9/11, we have witnessed such wholesale intrusions into our lives as
the "Patriot Act," as well as the current holding of so-called combatants in
isolated military camps pending secretly conducted military trials (if,
indeed, the government should ever decide to hold such trials). More
recently, we have heard proposals to have the US military begin policing
American citizens, as well as a warning ­ from a member of the US Civil
Rights Commission ­ that Arab-American citizens might be rounded up and sent
to concentration camps in the event of future terrorist attacks. I suspect
that most Americans ­ even many who, in prior years, posed as defenders of
liberty ­ will rationalize such proposals as "practical necessities" in
these days of international terrorism. It will likely discomfort such minds
to be told that those constructing the current police state are only
following blueprints designed by statist architects from the past.

I recall a bumper-sticker from twenty years ago that read: "There will never
be concentration camps in America: they'll be called something else!" Those
of us who warned of the truth of this proposition were scorned for our
"conspiracy theories" and "paranoid delusions." Such disparaging remarks are
usually made by those wishing to discourage factual inquiry into their
political schemes. In this context at least, we can define as "paranoid" one
who understands the nature of political systems.

It requires no great genius or years of scholarly study to understand how
the future is implicit in the present. In July, 1987, the Miami Herald,
along with some other newspapers, ran news stories about secret plans, in
the Reagan White House, to suspend the Constitution, establish martial law,
turn over the functioning of the US government to the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, and have military commanders running state and local
governments, in the event of a national crisis. One of the architects of
this plan was the conservative godling, Lt. Col. Oliver North. There were
even rumors, in some circles, that government concentration camps were being
readied for such a possibility.

While news of such a plan failed to arouse the attention of most
legislators, there was one ­ Congressman Jack Brooks of Texas ­ who, during
the Iran-Contra hearings then being conducted, sought to question North
about such reports. Brooks was quickly cut off by the Committee chairman,
Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye. In the New York Times report of July 14, 1987,
Inouye told Brooks: "that question touches upon a highly sensitive and
classified area," to which Brooks responded: "I read in Miami papers and
several others that there had been a plan developed, by that same agency
[NSC], a contingency plan in the event of emergency, that would suspend the
American Constitution." Inouye concluded: "May I most respectfully request
that that matter not be touched upon, at this stage. If we wish to get into
this, I'm certain arrangements can be made for an executive session." In
other words, Sen. Inouye was determined to live up to the pronunciation of
his name: "in no way" are we going to let the public know what we have
planned for them!

Those who denounce these actions have already been warned by the likes of
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer to "watch what they say," while
Attorney General Ashcroft criticized those "who scare peace-loving people
with phantoms of lost liberty." For added measure, Ashcroft offered up the
scarecrow that such critics "only aid terrorists." When one couples this
remark with President Bush's earlier statement that "if you're not with us
you're against us," the fear that dissenters might be treated as "terrorist
supporters" becomes realistic.

I have neither heard nor read any significant questioning of the suggestion
that internment camps might once again be established in America ­ as they
were for Japanese-Americans during World War II ­ or that the US military
might have the kind of presence in our daily lives that one sees in the
banana-republics to the south. We like to pretend that we have learned much
from history that can help us avoid problems experienced by our ancestors. I
am more inclined to the view that our social systems, like the business
cycle, have recurrent themes. How else do we explain the fact that
civilizations seem to follow the same general patterns of growth and
decline, with widespread militarism a common feature preceding the ultimate
collapse?

Perhaps most of us have grown weary of the burden of constant awareness and
responsibility that attend a condition of liberty, and are content to allow
the state to do as it will with us. The "inquiring minds" of modern America
seem more intent on exploring the scandals and sexual peccadilloes of
celebrities than paying attention to the lessons that history, alone, can
provide. As the 19th century historian, Jacob Burckhardt put it: "The
barbarian and the creature of exclusively modern civilization both live
without history."

In the television mini-series, Holocaust, there was a telling scene in which
two elderly men ­ who had been among the main characters in the series ­
were being taken to the gas chambers. One asked the other: "they are
marching us off to kill us, and we still obey them. Why?" My immediate
response was: "because if we don't obey them, we will be in serious
trouble!" Have we become so pathetic, that brutish louts can threaten our
lives and liberties to degrees limited only by the range of their
imaginations? Did we learn nothing from Pastor Niemoller about the need to
come to one another's defense if such values are threatened?

One of the posthumous victories realized by Adolf Hitler after the Nuremburg
trials was that most Americans came to think of police-state brutalities and
other tyrannical practices solely in terms of oppression against minority
groups. If white police officers brutalize a black suspect, the defenders of
liberty are rightfully mobilized for weeks of protest. But if white police
officers beat up a white suspect, only token criticisms are heard. A white
regime in South Africa that tyrannized blacks was vigorously condemned,
while black-run tyrannies in many parts of Africa receive little attention.
If race, ethnicity, or other minority group classifications are not
implicated in abusive state action, most of us fail to object. Should
concentration camps come into being in America, the only hurdle that such a
system would likely face in the minds of most Americans would be to make
certain that such abusive confinements were not based upon race, religion,
ethnicity, or gender.

We have thus left to our children the sorry spectacle of a view of history
that condemns a Hitler for his vicious wrongs against Jews, gypsies,
homosexuals, and communists, but leaves, relatively unscathed, the far more
butcherous records of Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot, and others. I
would not even hazard a guess as to the number of books, motion pictures,
and television programs depicting the horrors of Nazism. I am equally
hard-pressed to identify more than a handful of such creations describing
communist tyrannies. Hitler seems to have come in for greater criticism than
Stalin because he tyrannized minority groups. Stalin, because he was an
equal-opportunity tyrant who brutalized all without distinction, escapes the
condemnation of most.

I have long held to the view that the institutionalized power of the state
is incompatible with a condition of liberty, and must be opposed no matter
who any given target might be. In what surely must seem a heresy in our
modern Panglossian world, I regard neither Jews nor Palestinians, World
Trade Center workers nor Afghan civilians, as having any superior claim to
the inviolability of their respective lives or property. Liberty, if it is
to exist at all, must be indivisible. It is grounded in a mutual respect for
one another's claim to immunity from state coercion.

To subdivide liberty ­ wherein some are rounded up by the state while others
enjoy immunity ­ is to destroy it, and to erect in its place a system
grounded in state-defined privilege. This was the weakness of early America,
in which "liberty" was extolled at the same time the federal government was
eagerly protecting slavery and despoiling and slaughtering Indian tribes.
Such contradictions created an entropy that has never fully worked its way
out of the system.

Political systems flourish by separating us from one another; by creating
inter-group conflicts they tell us they, alone, can resolve. Only you and I
can end such divisions by becoming aware that, though we are varied in our
attributes and interests, what we have in common is a need to come to the
defense of one another's individual liberties. We need to understand ­ as we
slowly sink into the quicksand of the Bush/Ashcroft despotism ­ that if the
state can round up Arab-Americans and send them to concentration camps, they
can round up any of us; if the US Army can be positioned to fire at Afghan
and Iraqi civilians, its deployment in American cities can be just as
deadly.

The extent of your liberty and mine can never rise any higher than what you
and I insist upon for those we regard as the least among us. If you do not
already understand this essential truth, our liberties have already been
lost, and we have become little more than tin-cup beggars for special
indulgences.
------
Butler Shaffer teaches at the Southwestern University School of Law.
posted by 00k at 3:59 PM

 


Lots and lots of dead people


There was an interesting story in the paper today about the worlds "Most prolific serial killer". The man that now bears this title is Dr. Harold Frederick Shipman of the UK. He was convicted of 15 murders in 2000, but is generally associated with 215 dead bodies, or if you're a risk taker, upwards of 400. This doctor was a doctor for 24 years. Two years into his practicing, it was discovered he was a pethidine addict, pethidine being a morphine-like analgesic. He was fired from that hospital. But shamefully within 2 years he was working at another. He was most commonly described as a very arrogant man, who generally talked down to anyone intellectually inferior. This is blamed on his mother, whom apparently treated him as the favorite of her 3 children and was very overprotective of him, and a fairly uppity bitch herself.

Anyhow, despite being a total ass, our nicknamed "Dr Death"'s patients were usually fond of him, remarking that he had great bedside manner. They trusted him without a doubt. That was obviously their first, and last mistake. Most of the people he killed were old women he'd visit on house calls. He'd pay a visit, shoot them full of a deadly dose of morphine, be on his way, and either wait for someone to find them dead or go "find" them himself later.

This guy was a total joke though, that's worth noting. Crimelibrary.com has a really extensive profile on him and his case. The amount of dumb shit this guy did is unbelievable. He was a lousy forger, but forged all the time. He was incredibly clumsy when it came to covering his tracks, yet he did it all the time. He was incredibly arrogant, and yet by all accounts he was a really lousy criminal. The only testament to the guy in the criminal world is that he was a good liar. Yet the fact that he managed to fool and kill this many people before he got caught points at how stupid the people around him were. This is the part that's disturbing. His entire story seen from an administrative perspective is just a comedy of errors. One bad thing after another, all allowing this doctor to kill that many people.

Yes, he was a very bad doctor, while the resemblance of attitude to tv's M*A*S*H Major Winchester is uncanny.

There was an undertaker that was suspect of the doc because he was turning out an inordinately high number of old women deaths, all in the same fashion. They'd die just sitting in a chair or laying on a couch fully clothed, never ill and in bed, he estimated 90% were found this way. The undertaker thought it was odd and went to question the doctor about it. The doc was so easy about being questioned about it that the undertaker dropped it and thought nothing more of it. Yeah... cuz murderers probably all start bleeding from the ears and screaming nonsense when you question them about their activities. Autopsies were never done, as the doctor would assure families there was no need. He'd recommend cremation regularly.

Anyhow. There's all kinds of dumb little things like this that occur in this guys case... people being too trusting, and people not paying any fucking attention. The guy had a maid/nurse that he once asked if she had ever discovered any of her patients dead. The nurse had said yes, to which drew the question as to whether she got a "buzz" from it. Of course that chick didn't think there was anything weird about a doctor that liked seeing people dead.

He was eventually caught when he forged the will of an old ex-mayor he knocked off. The forgery job was a joke, one the daughter, the executor of her will that had it in storage since 1986 didn't find very funny. The daughter had her mothers body exhumed in light of the obvious forgery and it was discovered she was murdered. It's interesting to note however, that the only thing that got this bad, bad doctor caught was his obviously obscenely pathetic attempt at a forged will leaving him 386,000 pounds. It's speculated by many that he wanted to be caught at this point. The police searched his house and found the typewriter he had typed the will with. They also found no trace of any of the woman's fingerprints on the will. So odds are, either this guy was really stupid and thought he could get away with this, or he wanted to get caught. It's interesting though to think where he would be now had he not chosen to poorly forge this document. Would he still be murdering patients? Well... why the hell not? That's what's scary.

He has such nice courtside manner...

It's unfortunate that because of so many careless people so many innocent old people had to die. I really wish that this story could be heard by all. This could've been stopped so many times if anyone was paying any goddamn attention. Instead, this guy was able to become the worlds most prolific serial killer known to date... by a good hefty lead.

So once again we must ask the question, what of accountability? How is it this shit can still happen in this day and age? Sure there are plenty of checks now that would've stopped the doctor had they been in place back then. But in 20 years are we going to have this same problem again?

Anyways this got me thinking about other common matters. Priests, cops, doctors, politicians... all these people in positions of power... all these people doing bad things and abusing their trust. What can anyone do? What kind of protections could we even have that wouldn't tread on these peoples civil rights? I'm going to think about it. As for the doctor thing... I think we should be able to see a death/survival ratio for doctors. An "average" if you will. We can see baseball players averages... and who gives a fuck about baseball? It's not life or death. If you can find out whether your car is a known "lemon"... why can't you find out about your OWN DOCTOR? It really is insane.
posted by 00k at 4:04 PM

 

	*blue mage* a magician who uses the enemy's own abilities curious; observant; knowledgeable
[Final Fantasy Tactics Job Class]

posted by 00k at 2:44 AM

 
Today we talk about standardization. Or well... I talk about standardization.

I was thinking today about how I hate how Microsoft forces organizational methodology (big term, most likely not real) on it's users. For example. "My Documents" "My Pictures" "My Music". I have a system I've had for a long time now. I make a directory in root called "Sarah" and then make subdirectories under that for all my shit. I like my system... had a friend first introduce it to me. Now I can understand MS realizing not everyone is as together as my friend and now me... so they have these files for the majority of people whom I am guessing probably use them because they're there. So a persons' harddrive ideally is not in utter and total disarray when it comes to personal file storage, in turn making Windows support jobs a bit sunnier. In general it's probably an okay thing. However. The thing that gets me is that they make it so tricky to get rid of these files, these standards, even for more advanced users. I know on 95 there are a few you just can't at all easily get rid of. On 98 they flex a little, but there are still some they really don't recommend getting rid of, and even some that come back after you delete them. XP has a ton of shit like this... in accordance with MS customary every-version-thicker trends.* With each new version of Windows there is more shit like this... fattening the OS... cluttering your harddrive. Anyhow, to the point, we're talking about nearly forced standardization here with something that's relatively irrelevent. There is a bigger picture we'll address later.

The question of standardization is brought up. Stardardizing things is generally good. Say you need a noozle for a hoose, the connections you can buy aren't too varied so it's not too confusing to find the one you need. Hoses are simple, it makes sense that hose technology would be simple. An operating system is not simple. Anyone that tries to tell you that it is, is trying to sell you one. Microsoft can pretend all day long that Windows can be simple... and with some of their programming you wonder if maybe they're just in denial of the importance and span of their duties when it comes to OS development. But it is not simple. Working in customer service at all will tell you that most people think it's dazzlingly confusing but they sure think that what they're trying to do ought to be simple. It's just not possible to make something so difficult easy enough.

So they are faced with a dilemma.

"Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use it."
George Bernard Shaw

What Microsoft knows is that simple people make up the majority of people... and what better way to cater to a majority composed of simple computer people, than to make seemingly simple software? You can't really blame them too much... it's smart business. However... it points to a clear problem in society which I cleverly foreshadowed in the above.

Microsoft makes Windows for sheep. Those of us that are not accustomed to following but rather prefer to choose our own path naturally clash with MS. Yet Microsoft is still huge and forever broadening it's horizons. Microsoft is winning. This is the sorry state our world is in. People would rather things be easy and laid out for them than have the freedom to do things their own way. There's nothing wrong with wanting things easy... but if it is at the cost of your freedom, the price is too high! The simple majority I imagine worry not.

But maybe one day, one day in the distant future when everything is so dumbed down including the populace, those that are not simple will arise and take over. Maybe it will be like planet of the apes, only the apes will be the computer dorks of this era, shunned from public eye, but forever plotting and planning to overthrow their social oppressors that force crappy standards down their throats.

In closing... Viva la revolucion! I look forward to a time when the smart with integrity are in the majority. Alas... perhaps it is a pipe dream. It's a good one though.

*There are also a few NTish user account aspects tacked on that are reasonable but I'm not bitching about those.
posted by 00k at 6:09 PM

 
An update... it actually looks like one of the cops tries to block the punching cop off a bit. So that's good. Still an overall bad thing though.
posted by 00k at 2:02 AM

 
Today we talk about how it's okay to get your fucking ass beat when you're in cuffs if a cop has had a lousy day. Oh yes, that is a common sentiment. Apparently black kids in the ghetto don't have civil rights, something I was unaware of. I guess those only come with fancy lawyers. And apparently getting lippy with a cop is a crime punishable by ass beating. I suppose if you are black, statistically, odds are you did commit the crime and odds are you will be convicted. I guess in a way cops were just "beating" that into that 16 year old childs head when they arrested him. If that kid didn't believe it before, he sure does now. Nothing like physical abuse to get a point across.

What bothers me is this kind of thing can naturally occur to a cop when he's mad. "Hmm... this kid lunged at me... he can't do that... I'm a cop. Now that I have him in cuffs I should probably go ahead and beat his fucking ass.". I mean come on... does that occur to someone that isn't comfortable with it to begin with? I kind of doubt it. If I have no violent tendencies, am I likely to just lash out and beat someone up some day? Probably not. I would think violent tendencies would be fairly obvious in a person. Do cops get no anger management classes? Who is screening these people and what the hell are they screening them for? Is noone paying attention? And what of the rest of the guys that were there? What the hell were they doing? You don't see a single one of them do a damn thing about this guy. That's appalling.

I understand having a bad day. I can sympathize a bit. I can kind of imagine what it's like to be a cop in a town where noone likes you, noone appreciates you, and quite a few people wouldn't mind seeing you dead. I can see that taking a toll on a person. But if it's getting to you, why are you still there? Why haven't you moved or been removed? I heard a long time ago about how in some Asian country like Japan or Taiwan, they make their cops move districts every year or so. It was their method of limiting corruption I think, but it seems like a pretty good idea for plenty of other reasons also. I mean it seems like something needs to change here. Think if that tourist hadn't videotaped that? I'd like to know what real cops thought about that moving-districts idea.

The media are downplaying this in my opinion. When I read the report about this I thought,"Okay, so some kid got shoved and pushed onto the hood of a car. He was probably resisting arrest.". But then I saw the video. It's actually shocking. It makes me think about the media. The media kiss ass. And they bias the fuck out of everything. This is just another friendly reminder:

"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one."
A. J. Liebing

I started looking up different accounts of the same story made by different newspapers in different areas. This was actually really interesting. I'm going to make another page about it.
posted by 00k at 2:38 PM

 
July 4th, "Independence Day". Fireworks outlawed, large public celebrations cancelled. It's not hard to see that things have changed. But it's hard to imagine what with time will stay the same. I can think of nothing sacred to people any more. The things I thought I knew slowly fall away more every day, and noone seems to mind. More things happen that make people unsure of how they really stand on things, and then the ground shifts to accommodate.

"There is no “slippery slope” toward loss of liberties, only a long staircase where each step downward must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders."
Alan K. Simpson

Another day another step downward. I don't suppose we can see the bottom yet... but it is getting closer. If freedom was at the top... I imagine at the bottom must reside slavery. Of course there is security in slavery.

That's all I have to say. I can't do the topic justice... so I'll leave the work to famous authors and philosophers from the past. It's interesting to note how these people knew the place we'd be in today so well, even back then. What was so obvious to them back then about now, eludes so many here and now.

"The only limit to the oppression of government is the power with which the people show themselves capable of opposing it."
Enrico Malatesta

"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it."
George Bernard Shaw

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer

"Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure."
George E. Woodberry

"Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? ... It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, as so much for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right."
Henry David Thoreau

"Those who value safety say freedom is worthless if you're not alive to enjoy it. Those who value freedom say life is worthless if you're not free to enjoy it."

"Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves."
Henry David Thoreau

"The most dimwitted attempt at argument we’ve heard in this mortal world is the supposed retort to any advocate of freedom: “Do you mean to be free to starve?” We mean, do you think you can’t starve with your hands tied?"
Isabel Paterson

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."
Abraham Lincoln

"It is incredible how as soon as a people become subject, it promptly falls into such complete forgetfulness of its freedom that it can hardly be roused to the point of regaining it, obeying so easily and willingly that one is led to say…that this people has not so much lost its liberty as won its enslavement."
Etienne de la Boetie

"Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves."
Winston Churchill

"It takes time to ruin a world, but time is all it takes."
Bernard DeFoutenelle
posted by 00k at 2:24 PM

 
Here's a funny thing from a funny site. Let's see if bloggers like HTML tags.

That little guy is from www.i-mockery.com/romhacks/

posted by 00k at 9:31 PM

 
Lots of things to think about... but nothing to write about today.
posted by 00k at 4:07 AM

 
What I am thinking about today is the many many amazingly complicated and intricate things that happen in a person's life to shape who they are. It makes me think about raising a child. It's just baffling to me to imagine how much of what kind of person you are is invested in your kids should you choose to have any. It's terrifying yet intriguing at the same time. When you look at how different people have come out of different situations in so many different ways... the diversity is just beautiful... it really is. I had been thinking for a while that everyone sort of fits into categories... and that everyone was pretty much the same. The more people I met the more sure of it I became. But then I had a talk with a couple of old friends about what had caused a friend of ours to go a negative direction with his life. I'm 100% sold on the theory that the tighter and stricter you are with your kids the more likely they are to be not right. Having attended a private school for most of my junior high through highschool years I had the opportunity to meet a good share of kids whose parents were really strict. It happened enough for me to be really convinced of it, kids with strict parents were more fucked up than the kids with loose parents. The kids I know raised under the strictest most straight-up situations are some of the most fucked up kids I've known... although I'll admit to not knowing TOO many kids. Still... there's a definate and definable pattern that can't be ignored... and knowing these people has without a doubt sold me on the proper way to raise children.

But anyhow. People can be truly fascinating if you're paying attention. While I still believe there are mostly just "sorts" of people... and most everyone you meet will group into a sort of people, that doesn't mean there aren't really impressive deviations and paths and whatnot that have caused or drawn a person to be the way that person is. I would be interested in a project to analyze and make predictions about peoples environments versus their personality types and intelligence levels to see if the same kind of people always do the same kind of things. I think the vast majority of people do... as that would make sense. It would still be interesting to see though. I'm going to go be the "passing out" sort of girl now though.
posted by 00k at 4:08 AM

 
Fun is Dangerous.

Today is another day. Today I played on a playground... if you could call it playing... and if you could call it a playground. Playgrounds aren't conducive to fun or playing any more though... I think they should be called Small Sad Rubber Non-Fun Zones. They're downright depressing these days. I remember parks from my childhood, if nothing else. We had one by my house that had a huge horizontal cargo net of the meanest scratchiest rope, a bouncey rope bridge, a tightrope, a tire swing, a zipline thing, a log roll, three different types of slides, and a swingset that was like 2 stories high. It was great... seriously... legendarily... Great.

Well I went to that playground today. The gravel has been replaced with wood chips. The big swingset replaced with a sorry excuse for a swingset with swings so short you can't even jump off them 10 feet. The whole big playground part has been thrown out and replaced with odd, illogical, weirdly designed excuses for "equipment". There's a new style to doing monkey bars... they curve the middle upwards now. No, that doesn't make sense. Pipes and tubes have been replaced with thick solid chickenwire... so you can see through them. Sorry, no secret hideouts here kids. All the really neat things like I listed above are gone. Now it's all safety-i-fied. You can't climb on top of much and if you can it isn't high up. The overall height of the thing is reduced by at least half. Any moving parts are really lame, i.e. a set of gears embedded in a plastic case that turn when you turn a big dumb knob. Fun for maybe, 5 seconds for even the most retarded kid. There's spinning steering wheels everywhere... but they don't actually steer anything or do anything. The slides are so short I think even a kid could lay the length of one.

Anyhow, this is where I'm going with this. I've told two people now this is why I wouldn't want to bring kids into this horrible world. They have both laughed at me... but I think there's more to it, and dammit it's nothing to laugh about. This playground thing goes deeper. I have an analogy... or it might be a metaphor. The playground is kind of like society. Kids are people in general. The watering-down companies have done of playground equipment (making things un-fun so noone gets hurt or sued) represents all the regulations and restrictions the government has got so unruly with over time so noone gets hurt or sued. The government has made things less sharp and less hazardous by outlawing or restricting more of the things people get hurt from by using improperly. Of course all the things people get hurt doing are coincidentally all the fun things in life, the bouncey bridges, the tire swings... they are guns, fireworks, drugs, cock-fighting, prostitution, free trade, etc.

In general, you can't just DO some things any more. You need clearance and authorization and paperwork. What you were able to do at one point, isn't there for you to do any more because some playground company had some idiot get hurt doing it. Or some government banned it because someone hurt themself or someone else doing it. There is an overall theme, and that theme is someone else looking out for you because they believe you can't look out for yourself.

Of course there are different motivations. Companies that make playground equipment I imagine just don't want to make things that could be considered unsafe and get them sued. The catch is that it takes a stupid kid to use something improperly and get hurt. Everything is unsafe to stupid kids. The government doesn't necessarily not want you to have fun, but they sure don't want you to do whatever you darn well please. The theory is they want to protect other people from you, in turn it happens to protect you from you. But, as long as there are morons... how safe can you really be?

Anyhow... my prediction.

The more people are stupid and do stupid things, the more everyone will suffer. Kids will still manage to hurt themselves on playgrounds until we just can't have playgrounds any more. It will be boring. More kids will turn to alternative methods of entertainment, like drugs. Same goes for society. Everything you used to do to have fun will be outlawed or regulated so much it won't be worth attempting to do any more at some point. It will be boring. More people will start breaking laws. I believe this is the natural course of any system such as ours if left unchecked for too long. But I also believe some day, when everything is too unbearably boring and difficult, there will be a revolution. People will some day realize they can take care of themselves for the most part, and so can their kids if they teach them right. And if they can't, it's noones fault but their own. There will be a revolution... and I believe somewhere in the future there will be great playgrounds again. Then, when we are free to break our necks on playground equipment with reckless abandon should we choose, then and only then will people be truly happy. I hope it is a day I live to see. I really liked that bouncey bridge.

I'm done for today folks thanks for listening and take care.
posted by 00k at 8:56 PM

 
Oooh... I like templates a lot more now that I have one that doesn't suck.I have to keep editing this so the page will update and I can see how my template looks. Tra la la. Wheee. Almost done. Oh wait no I fucked it up. There were birds... all around... but I never heard them singing...No I never heard them at all... till there was you. Done for now.

I want to take this opportunity to say thanks to anyone that's reading this for your show of support. *echo echo echo* Well... who needs you.
posted by 00k at 10:45 PM

 
Templates are tricky. I don't think I like them.
posted by 00k at 10:43 PM

 
I think I'll have a blogger.
posted by 00k at 8:17 PM

Double-O