Eh

I'm back from a mostly terrible vacation...enough said about that. Haven't had much sleep for the last three days and nights because my baby boy is sick. He's still running a fever, but I think (I hope) he's on the mend.

Anyway, here are some new postings I made on the Yahoo boards. The first one is about the "legitimate" online music services; the article says they're charging surprisingly high fees for downloading full albums.

Subject: $9.99 to $12.79?!

They're charging that much for an album with NO PHYSICAL COMPONENT?

How %$@#ing stupid do they think the public is?

Shiver me timbers, but the RIAA needs a damned good keelhauling - followed by a taste o' the cat and a quick walk on the plank. Go pirates!

---

Subject: Re: Americans are idiots, too
I agree, it's really not a big secret that the right-wing fanatics in the White House plan to basically break the financial back of the government of this country - the government that helped saved the world in WW2, among other things. Their goal seems to be to forcibly eliminate every social program and steal every possible penny from the middle class and the poor.

They think that this will lead to a banana-republic-style paradise for them; they'll live in guarded compounds while we peasants cluster docilely outside, praying for a morsel of food or that some young rich noble will take a momentary interest in one of our daughters.

The interesting thing is that that's as stupid and unrealistic as the flower-throwing Iraqui "liberatees" fantasy. The American people can be soothed and misled by the right-wing corporate media for a damned long time, but what the GOP is planning to do is going to cause (is causing) way too much pain for that to work.

You can only screw a nation for so long before they fight back...and there are a hell of a lot of poor people out there, a lot more than there were even three years ago. When the American public wakes up and starts moving, it's going to be pretty damned scary.

These greedy rich bastards understand only one thing: as long as anyone but themselves has ONE DIME to call their own, they can't rest. The robber barons of the early 1900's did the same thing. FDR saved their asses from a second American revolution with the New Deal; it eased the general economic pain enough to keep the people quiet and contented. FDR was the best friend the rich ever had, but they never knew it.

The new robber barons (Bush and Co.) are just as stupid as the earlier ones. They think that they can basically screw us all forever, and soothe us with reality TV and corporate-media propaganda. I think that's because they basically are unable to think of "lower" classes as human beings; we're basically producing/consuming animals, to them.

By the time they realize just how wrong they are, it will be too late.

Of course, I wouldn't be writing this stuff if I wasn't basically completely insane right now...severe sleep deprivation will do that to you.

Eh

I'm back from a mostly terrible vacation...enough said about that. Haven't had much sleep for the last three days and nights because my baby boy is sick. He's still running a fever, but I think (I hope) he's on the mend.

Anyway, here are some new postings I made on the Yahoo boards. The first one is about the "legitimate" online music services; the article says they're charging surprisingly high fees for downloading full albums.

Subject: $9.99 to $12.79?!

They're charging that much for an album with NO PHYSICAL COMPONENT?

How %$@#ing stupid do they think the public is?

Shiver me timbers, but the RIAA needs a damned good keelhauling - followed by a taste o' the cat and a quick walk on the plank. Go pirates!

---

Subject: Re: Americans are idiots, too
I agree, it's really not a big secret that the right-wing fanatics in the White House plan to basically break the financial back of the government of this country - the government that helped saved the world in WW2, among other things. Their goal seems to be to forcibly eliminate every social program and steal every possible penny from the middle class and the poor.

They think that this will lead to a banana-republic-style paradise for them; they'll live in guarded compounds while we peasants cluster docilely outside, praying for a morsel of food or that some young rich noble will take a momentary interest in one of our daughters.

The interesting thing is that that's as stupid and unrealistic as the flower-throwing Iraqui "liberatees" fantasy. The American people can be soothed and misled by the right-wing corporate media for a damned long time, but what the GOP is planning to do is going to cause (is causing) way too much pain for that to work.

You can only screw a nation for so long before they fight back...and there are a hell of a lot of poor people out there, a lot more than there were even three years ago. When the American public wakes up and starts moving, it's going to be pretty damned scary.

These greedy rich bastards understand only one thing: as long as anyone but themselves has ONE DIME to call their own, they can't rest. The robber barons of the early 1900's did the same thing. FDR saved their asses from a second American revolution with the New Deal; it eased the general economic pain enough to keep the people quiet and contented. FDR was the best friend the rich ever had, but they never knew it.

The new robber barons (Bush and Co.) are just as stupid as the earlier ones. They think that they can basically screw us all forever, and soothe us with reality TV and corporate-media propaganda. I think that's because they basically are unable to think of "lower" classes as human beings; we're basically producing/consuming animals, to them.

By the time they realize just how wrong they are, it will be too late.

Of course, I wouldn't be writing this stuff if I wasn't basically completely insane right now...severe sleep deprivation will do that to you.

Diablo!

I've been taking a break from my level 70 sorceress, because I hit, not exactly a brick wall, but a tough patch; Mephisto in Hell level. Actually, I haven't actually reached him, but I know that I'll have trouble dealing with the council members in the Durance of Hate.

The whole end of that act is a problem for me, actually, because due to some mysterious glitch my system crashes whenever it tries to play the ending cinematic. As a result I have to play the whole ending in windowed mode, which is kind of like putting a bag over your head, cutting two dime-sized holes approximately where your eyes are, and taking a high-speed drive.

In other words, it sucks.

Anyway, I decided to try something a bit different and started up a barbarian. Or rather, re-started. I'd created him a while ago just to test out the class, but only leveled him up a couple of times before going back to the sorc.

Here's the thing that amazes me: so far, it's MUCH easier to be a barbarian than a sorc. As a sorceress I had an incredibly hard time with Duriel; basically it took about two solid hours of playing to kill him, along with about twenty deaths. If you were wondering, I basically just kept running away and casting Blaze behind me - very tedious.

My barbarian, on the other hand (Cronan the Barbarian - the "r" is not a typo) basically just waded in with a Shout and some Double-Swings and polished the big maggot off in about fifteen seconds. I took a couple of greater Healing potions, and one full Rejuvenation, but it was hardly necessary. Duriel was candy.

As a sorceress, I kept running into roadblocks; points where I just couldn't get through without dying over and over. I usually ended up stepping back, going to an earlier level and leveling up a few times; after that I'd wade into the battle with a full belt of full rejuve potions, and often as not it would still take five or six deaths before I managed to kill the boss in question.

No such problem with Cronan. It's just Shout, Leap Attack, and chopchopchop. Right now I'm wandering around in normal Hell, and although the music and graphics creep me out, I've really had no serious challenges. Even Izual didn't take more than a minute and some Heals.

I must admit that I have an amulet that gives me mana for each strike, which is extremely helpful. If it weren't for that I probably would have had to suck down a few mana or rejuve potions. Still, Izual was, well, candy.

Of course, a melee character would be expected to do better in combat than a ranged character like a sorceress, but I assumed that there would be counterbalancing weaknesses - probably a vulnerability to ranged enemies. So far, though, there's no sign of it.

Speaking of the scariness of Diablo (which I've talked about before in Chatter), I've noticed that I get much more nervous when I play Diablo at night. Mind you, I'm a big 39-year-old man! I'm not at all superstitious, and don't normally get nervous. But when Teri "pssts" for me at night while I'm playing Diablo, I often jump half out of my skin.

It's weird. Probably something to do with adrenaline and simulated combat, I guess.

---

Today in Salon I read the pithiest description yet of the modern Republican party. It came from Texas state senator Gonzales Barrientos: "Those people don't want to govern. They want to rule."

Diablo!

I've been taking a break from my level 70 sorceress, because I hit, not exactly a brick wall, but a tough patch; Mephisto in Hell level. Actually, I haven't actually reached him, but I know that I'll have trouble dealing with the council members in the Durance of Hate.

The whole end of that act is a problem for me, actually, because due to some mysterious glitch my system crashes whenever it tries to play the ending cinematic. As a result I have to play the whole ending in windowed mode, which is kind of like putting a bag over your head, cutting two dime-sized holes approximately where your eyes are, and taking a high-speed drive.

In other words, it sucks.

Anyway, I decided to try something a bit different and started up a barbarian. Or rather, re-started. I'd created him a while ago just to test out the class, but only leveled him up a couple of times before going back to the sorc.

Here's the thing that amazes me: so far, it's MUCH easier to be a barbarian than a sorc. As a sorceress I had an incredibly hard time with Duriel; basically it took about two solid hours of playing to kill him, along with about twenty deaths. If you were wondering, I basically just kept running away and casting Blaze behind me - very tedious.

My barbarian, on the other hand (Cronan the Barbarian - the "r" is not a typo) basically just waded in with a Shout and some Double-Swings and polished the big maggot off in about fifteen seconds. I took a couple of greater Healing potions, and one full Rejuvenation, but it was hardly necessary. Duriel was candy.

As a sorceress, I kept running into roadblocks; points where I just couldn't get through without dying over and over. I usually ended up stepping back, going to an earlier level and leveling up a few times; after that I'd wade into the battle with a full belt of full rejuve potions, and often as not it would still take five or six deaths before I managed to kill the boss in question.

No such problem with Cronan. It's just Shout, Leap Attack, and chopchopchop. Right now I'm wandering around in normal Hell, and although the music and graphics creep me out, I've really had no serious challenges. Even Izual didn't take more than a minute and some Heals.

I must admit that I have an amulet that gives me mana for each strike, which is extremely helpful. If it weren't for that I probably would have had to suck down a few mana or rejuve potions. Still, Izual was, well, candy.

Of course, a melee character would be expected to do better in combat than a ranged character like a sorceress, but I assumed that there would be counterbalancing weaknesses - probably a vulnerability to ranged enemies. So far, though, there's no sign of it.

Speaking of the scariness of Diablo (which I've talked about before in Chatter), I've noticed that I get much more nervous when I play Diablo at night. Mind you, I'm a big 39-year-old man! I'm not at all superstitious, and don't normally get nervous. But when Teri "pssts" for me at night while I'm playing Diablo, I often jump half out of my skin.

It's weird. Probably something to do with adrenaline and simulated combat, I guess.

---

Today in Salon I read the pithiest description yet of the modern Republican party. It came from Texas state senator Gonzales Barrientos: "Those people don't want to govern. They want to rule."

The Great Carbon Shortage of 2003

Carbon. One of the most plentiful elements in the universe. A basic building block of life. Available everywhere, all around you, inside you, in every breath of air.

Now in desperately short supply at a store near you.

At least, that's what I'm guessing is happening. Because the price of water filters has more than doubled in the past year. We installed a Pur faucet filter shortly after we moved in. Being a thrifty sort, I priced replacement filter packs at various local stores; the best price per filter came to about $7 each in a multi-pack.

We bought a multi-pack, and later had some trouble with the filters; Teri called Pur and they sent us some replacements, including a different kind of filter that worked a bit better. So we didn't have to shop for filters again until just about now.

I checked around at places like Wal-Mart (I'd really rather not shop there, but there isn't always a choice), and found that since the last time we'd gone filter-shopping the price had more than doubled. Fifteen dollars for one goddamned filter - and they don't even work that well! Brita and other filters all seem to be in the same price range, which is an awfully big coincidence unless these companies are cooperating (read "price-fixing"). The filters are primarily made of resin and activated carbon, so what exactly is the reason for this huge &^%#ing price increase?

Nobody can do without water, and with Sebastian in the house we have to make sure that ours is as pure as possible. Is this just a faint foreshadowing of the worldwide water privatization that Haliburton and other megacorporations are working towards?

The Great Carbon Shortage of 2003

Carbon. One of the most plentiful elements in the universe. A basic building block of life. Available everywhere, all around you, inside you, in every breath of air.

Now in desperately short supply at a store near you.

At least, that's what I'm guessing is happening. Because the price of water filters has more than doubled in the past year. We installed a Pur faucet filter shortly after we moved in. Being a thrifty sort, I priced replacement filter packs at various local stores; the best price per filter came to about $7 each in a multi-pack.

We bought a multi-pack, and later had some trouble with the filters; Teri called Pur and they sent us some replacements, including a different kind of filter that worked a bit better. So we didn't have to shop for filters again until just about now.

I checked around at places like Wal-Mart (I'd really rather not shop there, but there isn't always a choice), and found that since the last time we'd gone filter-shopping the price had more than doubled. Fifteen dollars for one goddamned filter - and they don't even work that well! Brita and other filters all seem to be in the same price range, which is an awfully big coincidence unless these companies are cooperating (read "price-fixing"). The filters are primarily made of resin and activated carbon, so what exactly is the reason for this huge &^%#ing price increase?

Nobody can do without water, and with Sebastian in the house we have to make sure that ours is as pure as possible. Is this just a faint foreshadowing of the worldwide water privatization that Haliburton and other megacorporations are working towards?

Cloud

I took this picture of a cloud last Sunday. Weird, huh? In person it looked even more like an "M".

Apropos of nothing, I know that three of my friends read this blog (hi, guys!). Must admit that I wonder if anyone else does. Hmm.

Cloud

I took this picture of a cloud last Sunday. Weird, huh? In person it looked even more like an "M".

Apropos of nothing, I know that three of my friends read this blog (hi, guys!). Must admit that I wonder if anyone else does. Hmm.