WWJD

First, I started off with the release candidate.  So, the liveCD started off good.  I had sound and everything, and it all loaded really fast.  Then I installed the system and restarted, and it had a lot of updates.  Didn’t even need to use the non-free driver for my ATI video card, it worked just as if the non-free driver HAD been installed ubuntu 8.04.  Really cool.  I also do like the new logout/shutdown menu, but that’s not really sucha big deal for me.

My biggest concern is that Ubuntu 8.10 is supposed to have better support for usb webcams out of the box.  Like mine.  The webcam worked fine in 8.04, and now it does NOT work in 8.10.  Needless to say, I’m not all that happy (or surprised to be honest, as I had installed the new v4l that comes with 8.10 in 8.04 and it broke my webcam too) and I will be installing 8.04 tonight as soon as I can test out installing ubuntu to a thumb drive.  Then I can roam around school with it and take advantage of their oh so carefully set up computers!  Muahahaha. But really.

I kind of expected more from them.  I hope I can submit my system information somewhere so they can find out about this problem.

So I can graduate next semester with only taking 2 classes, maybe 3 at the most. To do this I have to apply for a reduced course load. This is good news. I need a physical science core and one more class for global studies. I’m hoping to take a course on international education as well, to fulfill my global studies major. Its also the field I think I want go into.

And the news gets better. These courses meet on only Tuesday and Thursday, so I would have a 4 day weekend. Now, the only thing I was worried about was that taking a reduced credit load would mean losing financial aid money, but the financial aid office called me the other day and gave me some great news. As a graduating senior I’m allowed to apply for a reduced credit load and it also will not reduce my financial aid even though its not full-time status. This is doubly awesome. Not only will I get the same amount of money from my aid, but my tuition will be reduced depending upon the number of credits I actually end up taking. So, I could potentially receive even more of my financial aid money next semester than I did for this semester. That too is awesome!

I will be planning more trips down to Kansas City next semester, at least now as it looks like I’ll be having more free time. We’ll see about that though

So for my physical science course I have chosen Geology and Cinema (it looks enough like a cakewalk kind of course to be fun and educational).

Also, here’s the workload: 20% reports/papers, 50% quizzes, 10% in-class presentation, 20% laboratory evaluation.

Description:

GEO1005 offers an introduction to the Earth Sciences using the depictions of geology and geophysics offered by the popular media, cinema in particular, as springboards to discussion and development. Much of what most people believe about the geologic history of the Earth, life on it and the processes that shape it is gathered from films. Much of that “knowledge” is wrong, often very wrong, but the myths promulgated by movies can be very enduring. GEO1005 exposes those myths and sets out a basic understanding of the modern Earth Sciences. We cover such topics as: formation of the solar system and Earth, Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history, the fossil record of life on the planet, volcanism, earthquakes, climate change, streams, oceans, deserts, glaciers, natural resources and Earth stewardship. Emphasis is placed on the interactions between geologic processes, man and the environment, with the control of nature as an overarching theme. Each lecture topic will be prefaced with clips from Hollywood movies. Several movies will be shown in their entirety (the Core, Dante’s Peak and Jurassic Park) with students asked to critique the reality of science depicted in the movie. The laboratory component introduces students to minerals and rocks, geologic maps and the basics of geology field work. Material in lab follows that of lecture and offers students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience.

So I just loaded up a new theme, it was giving me some problems so I just deleted the offending lines of code and reuploaded the files. One of these was the RSS footer… please let me know if this has broken anything!

This is from his book Jealous Witness. I heard this on NPR, and it is where I got the script from. None if it is mine.

——

I was sharpening my chainsaw when they called me from Washington, DC to ask me how to fix the economy.

This request focused my thoughts, or the lack of ‘em, to such a fine point, I gave my 14 inch Echo an edge it never had. Good enough for cutting half a cord at least, to keep the woodstove going through October. I love not paying the oil company a nickel. Except for the half-galon of gas and the chain-oil, but I’m fixin’ to make the thing run on plum brandy. I’ve got a plum tree. Ah, where were we? The economy, yes. Seven hundred billion dollars is more than enough money to buy every able-bodied American a chainsaw, a solar power generator, and a stake in a communal well and windmill. Also red-dirt and plum trees. That would probably only cost about one hundred billion, and you can use the other six hundred billion to buy everybody their house outright. Now everybody can own their house and be green and self-sufficient and can go back to whatever they were doing before the world ended: watching TV. Except for me, I was sharpening my chainsaw.

So I go back to it and I see a line of refugees coming up the road to move in with me: it’s people… from the future! It’s worse than I thought: these are people independent from foreign oil, carrying solar-powered chainsaws, full of American ingenuity. After the bailout, they owned their own homes, they didn’t pay into a corporate energy grid, and they didn’t worry about food because they grew it on the roof. They didn’t drive because they didn’t have any jobs to drive to, and every garage in America was the site of an invention that was so darn beneficial nobody needed anything from the store. Without worries about money, without a job, and with extra space in the garage to grow food and invent, these people forgot about the stock market, stopped borrowing money, even forgot how to shop - in short they stopped being american. These unamericans got their exercise raking the compost instead of circling the mall; they homeschooled their children and were never again embarassed that their kids knew more than they did. Heck, they were in heaven, the place where the pursuit of happiness leads to when you stop pursuing it. Such self-sufficiency made the economy grind to a halt, so the government had to do something again: they called in the army to chase everyone out of their self-contained greenhouses.

And now they are coming up the road to my place because I’m a poet and I live in a compound defended by polygamist haikus.

What did you do wrong? I asked the first of the refugees to get over the pallisades. “Nothing,” he said, “we just got out of debt and stopped watching TV! So the urge to buy things on credit disappeared. So they sent in the troops. First thing they did was to put a forty inch plasma TV in every room and fixed it just so we couldn’t turn it off. Just like in Orwell, only with much sharper images. They are calling this the Second Bailout, or the Bail Back In.”

“At least the Second Ammendment is safe,” I said. “Nobody took away your guns, and the founding fathers didn’t say anything about TV.”

And with that my chief haiku welcomed them thus:

make yourselves at home

you won’t be bailed in or out again

you’re safe in Second Life

Dear MoveOn member,

Yesterday was John McCain’s 72nd birthday. If elected, he’d be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for “inexperience,” here’s who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here’s some basic background:

* She was elected Alaska’s governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1

* Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2

* She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3

* Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4

* She’s doesn’t think humans are the cause of climate change.5

* She’s solidly in line with John McCain’s “Big Oil first” energy policy. She’s pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won’t be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6

* How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7

This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.

We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here’s a sample:

She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK

She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She’s a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK

As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK

Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK

She’s vehemently anti-choice and doesn’t care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK

I think she’s far too inexperienced to be in this position. I’m all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn’t done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain’s part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he’ll get our vote by putting “A Woman” in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK

So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She’s a global warming denier who shares John McCain’s commitment to Big Oil. And she’s dramatically inexperienced.

In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he’s made a very dangerous decision for our country.

In the next few days, many Americans will be wondering what McCain’s vice-presidential choice means. Please pass this information along to your friends and family.

Thanks for all you do.

–Ilyse, Noah, Justin, Karin and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. “Sarah Palin,” Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. “McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate,” NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=1

3. “Sarah Palin, Buchananite,” The Nation, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=2

4. “‘Creation science’ enters the race,” Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=3

5. “Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science,” Huffington Post, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=4

6. “McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy,” Sierra Club, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=5

“Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past,” League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=6

“Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor,” The Times of London, May 23, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=7

7 “McCain met Palin once before yesterday,” MSNBC, August 29, 2008

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-9123094-I0setax&t=8

How often do you find yourself saying that to someone? “Did you see that commercial last night? Did you see the new ?” But then you answer “Oh no, I don’t watch TV any more.”

Is that really such a true statement? How many of you no longer watch TV at all, but still have a multitude of shows which you watch religiously, whether they be online or downloaded? Is it really any different to watch TV shows on your computer, some times with the absence of commercials and some times without. Does how and where you watch the shows make a difference in your consuming them?

My brother said to me this summer “I’m trying to cut down on the amount of TV I watch.” I said “Oh I’ve done that too, I only watch things on the computer now” and he said “No, I mean the number of shows I watch at all.”

What I’m wondering about really is all this talk you hear of TV as a form of mind control. I have no doubt that it is a very strong way to influence the masses, since so many people have being fed the same values by just a few sources. But where exactly are these values coming from? Certainly the various talk shows and news hours, but what about from sitcoms, scifi shows, and game shows? I find it more probable that people are influenced more by commercials and news than they are by your average sitcom or show like, say, Eureka or Stargate Atlantis. So it would make sense that you can watch an entire season of a show exclusively online, without seeing any commercials, and be totally unaware of what the government and various companies may want you to think, and therefore NOT be influenced by them.

I’m just kind of thinking out loud here, please respond with comments I’m interested to know what everyone thinks!

So I got to Minneapolis yesterday (from Kansas City), picked up the keys, and then left for Rochester.  The traffic was horrible on the way in and it was great not to have to drive the rest of the night.  Got to my dad’s, got dinner, and went back to his house where we moved all my stuff up from the basement into the garage to pack it more easily this morning. Picked up the truck and loaded it and we were gone in about an hour, an hour to get here and 20 minutes to unload.  Returning the truck took…about 40 minutes. Damn traffic!  I can’t wait til the bridge is finished!

So, I started with my bed, putting it all together but…I STILL hate this bed.  (IKEA, your cheapest bed is a real pain in the ass  -Justin.)  Then my DSL modem arrived, only to find out that I need to plug it into a windows machine…this was fine, as I have my desktop, but I was told  would not need that.  So I set up my desktop and then have to reinstall windows because my linux install from last year fucked up and grub ate it…  My computer does this funky thing with PS/2 keyboards where it doesn’t enable them correctly on boot up, and I have to go to the control panel and disable it and reenable it with the mouse, except I left my mouse receiver in Danielle’s room somewhere…  So I was SOL.  Then I tried it on my laptop, with WINE, with no success, and then on my old POS laptop but the ethernet card drive wasn’t installed and that idea was a bust too.  Soon I’ll be going to my friend Jeff’s to borrow his USB keyboard, and hopefully that will work.  Oh and I have to rearrange my apartment now because the only phone jack that works of the 2 is 15 ft from where I put my computer

So now I’m heading out to Jeff’s.  Tomorrow:  IKEA for a floor lamp and some pillows.

So I’ve been in Kansas City for about a month now, and I have to say, it is one of the worse cities I’ve lived in yet. There are 2 main reasons for this. The first reason is that it has horrible public transportation. From what I’ve gathered, there are a few main lines that run along Main St. and to some other places, but they don’t go anywhere convenient. Looking up how to get to Price Chopper, for instance, means you have to take the bus to the last stop and then walk HALF AN HOUR to get to the store, which is unacceptable. And walking here is a chore too…the streets and blocks are so spread out, to go 6 blocks is about a mile and a half.

This leads me to my next point. Kansas City is “designed” for driving. You would think this at least, unless you’re on the plaza, which was designed as a pedestrian only zone but is not any more. So at most intersections in this area there are no lights, and instead you use pedestrians crossing as your stoplight, since they block the other cars you are free to make your turns, etc. This is stupid. Also, there are SO many streets that stop and start again in weird places. (Example).

That in itself is annoying, but the fact that the city area has no cheap stores, such as walmart, target, price chopper, is even more frustrating. To actually find these stores you must drive to the suburbs, on the highway, for at least 20 minutes, and on all the highways I’ve been on this weekend there have been 2 lanes closed of 3, just huge annoyances. And trying to find a highway here by a map alone is almost impossible. You can kind of see on the map where the on ramps are, but actually getting to it is basically guess work. We ran along side the highway but up above it last night expecting to see signs to tell us which way it was. I saw nothing, but Danielle saw the signs pointing the way to the highway…on the street perpendicular to us. Where was our first indicator of the highway? At the on ramp as we were driving on to it. And this happened numerous times just trying to get to Target. Every time I drive I wonder how people can live here, and I just want to yell at them and ask how they can stand it here.

OK I guess there’s another thing. Danielle and I both find this really disgusting. People here go to the malls on weekends to get their culture, its like the only thing to do around here. We went to this mall called Independence Center on Sunday, and once you get off the highway there are signs for “mall entrance” which isn’t even close to the exit at all. So we first drive through an area just covered with strip malls on either side, and then turn left to pass ANOTHER strip mall on the right, to get to the mall we went to on the LEFT. The amount of malls these people have here is just ridiculous. The whole retail/consumer environment is just totally disgusting to me.

So many things about this city make no sense…I can’t wait to get back to Minneapolis, and if I end up having to be here again, I hope its not for very long.

So I’d like to just quickly complain about the overdraft protection provided by US Bank.  I went to my branch last summer after being charged $35 for my account going into the negative, I wanted to get the overdraft line of protection onto my account so I could avoid this problem in the future.  The guy I talked to said I didn’t have enough income (you need about $12,000 a year) and then offered me a credit card.  I told him fine, but that I wanted it for $500, not $1000 like he was saying.  He said fine.  I get the card about a week later, and its for $1000.  Ok fine, I say, I’ll deal with it.  I didn’t need it until just last week when a payment went through before my money had transferred over from ING, putting me $0.52 into the negative.  Being Sunday, there was no indication of the money being transferred over from my account, so I called to see just when that would happen.  The woman I spoke to told me that…my credit card was not set up for overdraft protection at all.  So, she set it up and all was good.  I logged in to my account on Thursday to check it out, and found out that they don’t transfer what put you under, but a generic amount of $25.  On top of this amount, they charge you a fee for their protection service.  How much is that fee?  $10.  What’s that total come to?  $35.  So, what’s that mean?  Either you get charged $35 for the overdraft, or you get charged $35 for the overdraft.  Seems to me they’re punishing the customer for wanting to NOT pay $35 every time they overdraw their account, to make sure they get their money either way.  I luckily was able to get the service fee removed, I called my bank and told them no one ever told me anything about this fee, which is absolutely true, but still.  Others may not be so lucky.  I really liked this bank up until this point.  Seems like you can’t trust any of them any more.