Hazardous Material

2009-09-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

As I was reading a news aggregate site today, I noticed this little gem in the comments:

"I am in love and his name is Mr. Power Colon Cleanse http://tinyurl.com/PowerColonCleanse ! This is by far the best cleansing product available. I saw it on Oprah and thought I would give it a try. Power Colon Cleanse has pretty much changed the way I live my life. My daily chores are done in a breeze and I have more energy, not to mention more time in my day since I don't mind jumping out of bed in the mornings at 7:00 am now. This is not just a cleanser. It is also a detox. I can feel it working and have only been using it for 6 weeks.
I owe my life to http://tinyurl.com/PowerColonCleanse"

There's something WRONG about posting your love for PowerColonCleanse, if you ask me.

2009-09-01T10:06:00.001-07:00

RESTAURANT.COM = Click Thru Scam

A few months back, I ordered some gift certificates from Restaurant.com for a friend who had a birthday coming up. I saw them posted on SlickDeals.net for a good price, so I figured I would not only save some cash but get my friend a good meal at the same time. At first, this seemed pretty good. Then, I went and ordered two $25 gift cards, and paid well under what they were 'worth'. So far so good.

However - when you print the gift card out, you see the first round of caveats. The gift cards have a series of qualifiers before you can use them. You can only use one card at a time, for example. The restaurant can refuse them at any time. They automatically take out a 10%+ gratuity just for using the card. Those are the ones I can immediately remember, anyway.

But wait! It gets better. Pretty soon there's a $15 charge showing in my bank account for a place called Shopping Essentials. This came in right about the time that my wife started using Audible.com for her audiobooks, buying birthday presents, etc - so I didn't really look at it twice.

Then, last week, I notice another $15 charge, from Shopping Essentials. So I took a look at my bank account, and these people had now charged me three times for the same amount.

At this point, I got suspicious and looked up Shopping Essentials on the interwebs. Their web site says:

"Savvy Savings for the Serious Online Shopper!

Welcome to Shopping Essentials, where serious online shoppers like you find savings, variety and style in a single shopping and savings experience!

As a member of Shopping Essentials, you can take advantage of discounts and savings on the products and services you want, need and use every day."

Serious savings, eh? I never signed up for this -- it was part of a click-thru fraud! I called their customer service line and got a rep on the phone. At first, they didn't want to refund my money until I said "Listen, I know what click-thru fraud is and I know what you're doing. You can refund my money or you can explain it to a lawyer, I don't care which." They were then prompt about refunding the $45 back into my account. (took about 3 days)

My suggestion is not to use Restaurant.com for any reason since they support online fraud. On top of that, their coupons/gift cards are more hassle than they are worth.

2009-07-22T11:51:00.001-07:00

THOUGHTS ABOUT LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

First off, let's get this out up fromt: I fully support legalization. In this day and age, the government telling people that they can't use a natural herb/plant/whatever in the comfort of their own homes is insulting. It would be one thing if any of the strawman arguments presented by the government were ethical and not riddled with lies, but the truth of the matter is otherwise. For decades now, marijuana prohibition has been a political and social scam. The government uses the guise of 'The War on Drugs' to shift funds illegally from one project to another, keep funding secret and off the books, and to build cases against people who have committed no true crime. All while they sit back and deny non-biased scientists the right to study and research it correctly. In addition, the War has jailed thousands of non-violent personal use drug offenders, primarily for marijuana. We're a country so fixated on money and control that the politics of humanity have gone away.

Articles like the following just get under my skin:

Sanjay Dumbass Repeats The Same Rhetoric of the Last Fifty Years

From this article: "Why do I care? As Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, puts it, "Numerous deleterious health consequences are associated with [marijuana's] short- and long-term use, including the possibility of becoming addicted."

Really? Where are your articles on the reasons we should prohibit alcohol then? Last time I checked, not everything under the sun that we ingest/consume/enjoy has to be beneficial for you to be okay. People ARE allowed to choose for themselves. Why is this Doctor not railing against Twinkies? Cans of soda? Alcohol? Don't they still sell butane in stores, or paint thinners? How many legal and easily obtainable things are 'bad for you'? This guy comes off like all he's worried about is YOUR health. Is that true? NO. No, why? Because he's a liar. He's not getting paid to care about your health, he's getting paid to present his opinion...which smells a lot like the ignorant half-truths and lies the government has been using for decades.

Sanjay Says:

"What are other health consequences? Frequent marijuana use can seriously affect your short-term memory."

So can alcohol. Feel free to do some reading and educate yourself: Binge Drinking Effects Brain Function, Memory

"It can impair your cognitive ability (why do you think people call it dope?) and lead to long-lasting depression or anxiety. While many people smoke marijuana to relax, it can have the opposite effect on frequent users."

Again, it's funny how alcohol does the same thing. Again, DOCTOR Sanjay, you have a pretty serious case of tunnel vision. Here's something to ponder: Depression Often Goes Hand-in-Hand With Alcohol Use

"And smoking anything, whether it's tobacco or marijuana, can seriously damage your lung tissue."

And alcohol causes Kidney and Liver Disease and High Blood Pressure . Studies also indicate that drinking also contributes to domestic violence. Drinking also causes impairments in judgement . Do I even need to cite DUI and drunk driving death statistics to you?

Sanjay has no problems he pulling out the 'Marijuana has no legitimate use except getting stoned' argument. While that's great and all, pull your head out of your ass, Sanjay, and take a look at alcohol. Why is it that this known dangerous drug that has NO SOCIAL OR HEALTH BENEFITS allowed on shelves? It's nice that the government believes we're all so stupid that we can't put two and two together, isn't it? They'll smile and say they're doing it for OUR benefit, while slapping the cuffs on Uncle George who got busted for smoking a joint in his own back yard. It's a numbers game, a money game, a control game, and everyone with half a brain in their head knows it.

If you can allow that your citizens are responsible enough to drink or own guns, how can you not allow something like marijuana? There's no stance that can support this level of hypocrisy. Smoking pot has potential harmful health effects, but what positives are there for alcohol? What positives come from allowing your citizens to carry loaded weapons in public? Are guns good for your health? Really, if you apply the 'it's not good for you' card, NOTHING our country allows is all that good for us. Fluoride in the water. Prozac. Environmental Waste being dumped into clean waters. Junk food. Take your pick, but claiming that this movement to keep pot illegal has ANY moral standing is a goddamned lie.

Once you step back and take a look at the true stance of the government, it becomes a lot more clear: They're afraid to legalize. They're afraid of being caught in their lies of the past 60+ years. They're afraid to admit that they're corrupt and unjust , and that ultimately money runs this country. Our rights are only upheld and our beliefs are only considered if the government stands to make money, or to keep control of the citizens.

Prohibition of marijuana is not an act of morality. There is no Good Will involved, nor is this something to Keep The People Safe. This is an act of contrived greed, an intentional abasement of your rights as a person to make informed decisions.

Remember kids: Vices are not crimes. The American Government could use a reading on this topic.

"Vices are those acts by which a man harms himself or his property.

Crimes are those acts by which one man harms the person or property of another.

Vices are simply the errors which a man makes in his search after his own happiness. Unlike crimes, they imply no malice toward others, and no interference with their persons or property.

In vices, the very essence of crime --- that is, the design to injure the person or property of another --- is wanting.

It is a maxim of the law that there can be no crime without a criminal intent; that is, without the intent to invade the person or property of another. But no one ever practises a vice with any such criminal intent. He practises his vice for his own happiness solely, and not from any malice toward others.

Unless this clear distinction between vices and crimes be made and recognized by the laws, there can be on earth no such thing as individual right, liberty, or property; no such things as the right of one man to the control of his own person and property, and the corresponding and coequal rights of another man to the control of his own person and property.

For a government to declare a vice to be a crime, and to punish it as such, is an attempt to falsify the very nature of things. It is as absurd as it would be to declare truth to be falsehood, or falsehood truth."

2009-05-19T07:51:00.001-07:00

If you're a fan of the show LOST, this should hit home for you. It certainly did with me.

2009-04-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

SOMEBODY GET THIS MAN SOME PANTS!

This is a picture of a hairless chimpanzee that lives at the Mysore Zoo, India. Come up with your own witty comments for this one, it's not hard.

Source: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/16/xeni-i-think-were-go.html

2009-02-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME.

2009-01-28T06:37:00.000-08:00

I swear to god, this exact thing just happened to me at work a few days ago.

2009-01-27T06:38:00.000-08:00

Dinner With The CIA

Last night we went out to dinner for my wife's birthday. Amy's family has a tradition where, on every birthday, we go out to dinner at the location of that person's choice. Since it was my wife's night, we went to Lorena's Mexican Restaurant in North Salt Lake. It's was a usual family birthday dinner for us - our clan, her parents and siblings, enjoying some delicious Mexican food and having a good time. We chatted a lot at dinner, and my father-in-law Walt and I discussed a bunch of books we had read.

After dinner, we headed in a crowd toward the front of the restaurant to pay our check and leave. Lorena's is a crowded little joint and as we lined up at the counter to pay we ended up queuing a few people deep into a line. I was at the back, with the rest of my family in front of me.

It was at this point I felt a strong, firm hand grip my right shoulder. I felt a person slide right up behind me (!) and mutter into my ear "Excuse me, have you got a minute?"

Now, let me color this with the fact that I had previously lived in NSL for several years during High School, and the restaurant had been there for at least 20 years itself, so the chances of running into someone I'd previously worked with or gone to school with were slightly higher than marginal. My first thought was that I was going to turn around and see someone I hadn't talked to in fifteen years standing behind me, or something like that.

When I turned around however, I had no idea who this guy was. I didn't know him from Adam.

I turned to face him and he stayed close enough to me to talk quietly, leaving his hand on my shoulder as he did. He was an older man, with steel-and-grey hair and a mustache. He was wearing blue-black flannel, and had the aura of someone who drives a large pickup truck. I looked at him and said 'Uh, Excuse me?'

"You might want to be more quiet the next time you decide to talk about military operations in public" he said to me, completely straight-faced.

I managed to spit out a 'What?' because I wasn't sure I had heard him correctly - military operations??

"That's right," he said. "I heard you talking back there at your table, and I think you ought to watch what you say where people can hear you." He was calm, but obviously irritated at me for some crazy-person reason.

Now, at this point I also had NO idea what this crackpot was talking about, but it was starting to rub me wrong. I shook his hand off my shoulder and said "I don't know what you're talking about buddy."

"Yes, you do" was his reply.

"No, I don't. I wasn't talking about the military, you're obviously hearing things."

He looked at me deadly serious and said "You know what I'm talking about. Watch it."

I looked at him like he was (is) crazy and informed him that he'd apparently been smoking off of his peace pipe a little too much tonite and that he should consider some medication. Lots of it. In response, I shit you not, he gives me this knowing look down his nose and says 'yeah, alright, sure' in a completely "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" tone of voice, and turns to head back to his table. It's at this point I notice he's not alone and has a buddy standing behind him who never said a word the whole time.

Crazy People : 1, Me: 0

Now, this left me angry, confused, and a little disoriented. What the hell had just happened? Had me mistaken me for someone else? Had he heard a different conversation and mistook it as coming from my table? I couldn't make sense of it, but when we got out into the parking lot, a light bulb went off in my head.

He had heard me telling my father-in-law about Neuromancer.

I had been recommending Neuromancer to my father-in-law over dinner. I'd given him a synopsis of the story: Former hacker hired to work with a government spook to break past the defenses of an A.I. Add some minor details and you have essentially what the conversation entailed. I think I'd actually even used the term 'former military agent' at some point. This individual had put together whatever bits and pieces of it he'd lifted through eavesdropping and formed it into 'military operations'. And then felt threatened enough by my potential leak of national security to confront me over it?

Wild.

My wife and I laughed and talked about it on the way home. What was scarier, we wondered - - the possibility that this man was a nutjob out for a dinner burrito, or the possibility that he thought I was talking about an actual military operation involving A.I.?

I'm leaning towards nutjob, but hey - you never know.

2008-12-17T09:51:00.000-08:00

The Problem with America : People

If the hijinks going on in the economy aren't enough to convince you that America has gone awry, let me add this little tale to the mix. This is the story of a young man who was having his birthday, so his papa goes down to the store to have a cake with his name on it made. The store says 'No fucking way are we doing that' and sends papa packing. Now, ordinarily, public outcry would soon happen and the erstwhile store would probably cave under the pressure and do the cake. However:

This kid's name is Adolph Hitler Campbell.

That's right, drink it in again. Adolph. Hitler. Campbell. I'm sure his sister, Jocelyn Lynn Aryan Nation Campbell can sympathize.

For your edification, here's the blurb from Yahoo! with accompanying photo of this fine, upstanding citizen:

Heath Campbell, left, with his wife Deborah and son Adolf Hitler, 3, pose in Easton, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008. Deborah and her husband Heath attempted to buy a birthday cake for their son at a near by ShopRite supermarket in Greenwich, N.J. and were told that the store would not inscribe Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler on the cake. The Campbell's also have two daughters, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie.

HILLBILLY PARENTS DEFEND RIGHT TO LOWER NATIONAL I.Q. BY CONTINUED BREEDING

(AP Photo/Rich Schultz)

Yeah, that's right. 'Aryan Nation' , 'Adolph Hitler' and 'Hinler' (after Heinrich Himler, and confirmed here: http://www.encyclocentral.com/32859-Hinler_Jeannie_Honszlynn_Named_After_Nazi_Heinrich_Himmler_Joyce_Lynn_Aryan_Nation_Campbell.html

This redneck moron actually goes on to say that he's not a racist and that he just likes the name, but then in a different interview talks about how he considers himself a member of the Nazi SS:

"Hinler’s father has admitted that he has named his one-year-old daughter after the name of Heinrich Himmler the SS chief. That is not the end of projecting their love for the Nazis. Their elder daughter is named Joyce Lynn Aryan Nation Campbell. She is going to turn two in this coming February.

But all these are mere trifles considering the name of their son’s name. They call him Adolf Hitler. This is enough to prove their love for the Nazis. Heath and Deborah Campbell however have other evidences to prove that as well. The house in New Jersey is decorated with lots of swastika, a typical Nazi symbol. Heath even claimed himself to be one of the members of the SS."

Awesome. I bet this guy is a rocket scientist by trade.

Anyway, if you want more redneck racist goodness, you can read this article on Leigh Valley Live: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/today/index.ssf/2008/12/holland_township_family_angry.html

All I can say is that I applaud the ShopRite's decision to send these imbeciles packing. Is it a surprise to anyone that they ended up at WALMART for their cake? I'm only surprised they didn't go there first, since ShopRite doesn't sell ammunition.

Hey, I'm all for creative kid names, etc. But making your children grow up in a world of ignorance, racism, and bigotry is just appalling. Using them as a billboard to display your own hate should be tantamount to child abuse.

SOMEONE, PLEASE -- STERILIZE THESE FUCKING PEOPLE.

2008-10-08T07:29:00.001-07:00

2008-09-26T07:30:00.001-07:00

2008-09-22T06:18:00.000-07:00

Recently I found a new webcomic that I like. I tend to read comics on the web throughout the day as I'm stationed almost permanently in front of several computers and monitors all at once. (4 panels in a row is my typical workspace). There are a lot of good artists/comics out there these days: Scott Kurtz @ PVP Online, the Penny Arcade guys, xkcd, and Cyanide and Happiness are a few of my favorites. Recently I came across one called 'We The Robots'. The tagline is 'a tragic/comic alloy' - and it's fantastic. I highly suggest a good read of it... but not if you're already depressed. This one is one of my favorites:

2008-09-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

2008-08-01T08:32:00.000-07:00

Another of the many, many reasons to hate Walmart:

First, they tell their employees how to vote:

Walmart warns employees about voting for Obama

Then, they lie about it:

Walmart denies telling employees how to vote

What's intertesting is that Yahoo! changed the first article not an hour after it was initially up. It had read "Walmart cautions employees about voting for Obama". (links have changed since posting, yahoo doesn't archive for long)

Basically, Walmart is concerned that new labor laws potentially coming with a Democratic leadership could effect their profit margins. Now frankly, I don't care if your a Republitard or not, this is just blatant bullshit. How can anyone not see this as BLATANT interest-mongering? If the people who own your paycheck are 'cautioning' you on the effects your vote may have if it doesn't fall in line with corporate favoritism doesn't scare the shit out of you, it certainly should.

Another thing that's been popular lately is the Walmart infection videos. These are little clips that use map and store data to show how Walmart quickly came to engulf the US like the plague. I really like the one over at Flowing Data, it's awesome.

For the rest of you, here's the original one from YouTube:

2008-07-30T07:56:00.001-07:00

More people need to learn how to give:

Anonymous Philanthropist Donates 200 Human Kidneys To Hospital

2008-07-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

The phone rings at FBI headquarters. "Hello?" "I'm calling to report my neighbor. He's hiding marijuana inside his firewood." "Thank you very much for the call, sir." The next day, FBI agents descend on the neighbor's house. They search the shed where the firewood is kept. Using axes, they bust open every piece of wood, but find no marijuana. They swear at the neighbors and leave. The phone rings ~ it's the neighbors house. Hey, Adrian, did the FBI come?" "Yep." "Did they chop your firewood?" "Yep." "Great, now it's your turn to call. I need my garden plowed."

2008-07-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

Suicide, Dear Reader, is not painless.

Last week, my good friend Josh killed himself. He had been battling with severe depression for a couple of months and had made some major milestones in his life in overcoming addictions that he had been struggling with. In the end, the depression, this disease, got the better of Josh and he just couldn't fight anymore.

Death is a part of all of our lives, the very counterpoint of our existence that we all deal with in some way practically daily. But, are we ever really ready for it? I know I wasn't. The last week has been a rollercoaster of emotion and pain mixed into the everyday and the mundane. Bills come in, the kids still need to eat, work has to be done, and riddled through the middle of it all is this sense of loss that defies explanation.

I spent the whole week fighting the urge to call him after I heard. My natural instinct when I heard that a friend was in a bad way was to call him and see what I could do, if he's okay... and he's not. And I can't.

I wish, before he had gone, that he knew how many people loved him and thought highly of him. When he left, he ended the darkness and pain he'd been struggling with and moved onto a better place. What he left behind was a lot of people who loved him and are still hurting.

2008-06-10T06:54:00.000-07:00

OK, now I'm just pissed off.

I spent a couple of hours last night reading thru the new D&D 4.0E ruleset that was released this weekend. Wizards of the Coast (a subsidiary of Hasbro) has been touting the new release via their website and other related channel outlets for about a year now, promising fresh new ideas and a revamp of the system that would bring about wonderful things, etc.

What a load of steaming shit.

While the books are indeed beautiful on the inside, sporting a clean design and beautiful artwork, the content itself is fucking terrible. I don't know why they even call this pile of shit "Dungeons and Dragons" anymore, they should be calling it 'Warcraft of the Coast' or something similar. It's clearly been influenced by the World of Warcraft model of 'roleplaying' -- action RPG with a penchant to lean towards the over-flavored 'high' fantasy.

Now, I believe that Wizards had an opportunity, nay, almost an OBLIGATION to put out a higher quality product than this. I can't imagine what they were thinking when this actually got the OK to move forward to press with this!

The immediate bad:

Changes to the alignment system. You are now only Good, Lawful Good, Evil, Chaotic Evil, or Unaligned.... because they didn't like the word Neutral?

Changes to the class system: Every class now has Talent Poin...er, uh, 'powers' they pick at every level? They are usable on cooldowns (Encounter, At Will, Per Day, etc). Classes are forced into 'Roles' in a party, matching the lameass "you must have a Tank/healer/DPSin your party" limitations that WoW and other MMOs fall into.

Hit Points gained per level are now static values based on class. Sound familiar?

Several "powers" offer buffs to the whole party.

Turn Undead now 'roots' (aka Shackles) the undead to the ground.

Wtf, 'healing surges' ?

Seriously, did they have a bunch of short bus school kids make this shit up? It feels like a video game, and that's a major flaw.

I'll be posting more review info here as I get thru the book more, but at this point I can tell you that I will NOT be playing this shitty game, and I don't hate anyone in my group bad enough to do this to them, either.

2008-06-09T06:42:00.000-07:00

So, here it is Monday again. I'm sitting @ my desk, just like pretty much every other Monday in recent memory, waiting for the coffee to kick in so I can actually feel like doing a damn thing. I'm never really sure what to write once I actually get on and up to speed with this shit, I can tell you that. So, fuck planning and forethought! Let's just ramble on this bitch.

2008-06-06T13:11:00.001-07:00

Holy shit, 5 years between updates!

Seriously, what a fucked up time warp it's been, huh? Do we really believe that NOTHING happened to me between this post and the last?

Well, it's possible. I do live in Utah.

2003-04-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess this is it. The start of something new, not necessarily exciting and all that, but new anyway...
The day is still young here in the heart of SLC, so I will update more once something (hell, ANYTHING) happens.