I found this at the Roselle, IL Metra station this morning.
All posts by Keith Garner
“I always thought that a leader should have a strong chin. He has no chin and his vice-president has several. This, to me, is not a good combination.”
Well, this is the obligatory “go out and vote” post. Go out there and vote, especially if you’re in a swing state. While the presidential election is very important, don’t forget your local races and local issues. (Vote yes on looking to break up U-46!) The worst thing about the election being tomorrow is that it will be the end of hearing Alan Keyes make wacky statements on an almost daily basis. On second though, that’s no so bad. BRING ON THE VOTE!
On The Daily Show tonight, Jon Stewart had this plea:
On a personal note, I am a comedian who makes fun of what I believe to be the absurdities of our government… Make my life difficult. Make this next four years really shitty for me.
pre-Halloween photos
Sarah and I finally got around to taking some Halloween pictures of Dinah.
Yes, its not actually Halloween yet, but we wanted to have the pictures on Halloween (or just before) to show off and so the grandparents can do the same. We took these pictures out in our backyard. Ideally, I should have done it earlier in the day when the sun would have been more to the east, as the forest is west of us. However, they turned out great anyway. Also, she’s not sitting up on her own yet. The ones where it looks like she is, she’s either propped against something or Sarah moved her hand away as I snapped the picture in the scant seconds before she starts to fall over.
I’m a biased observer, as she is my kid, but damn she’s cute.
I do not vote with my heart, he who votes with his heart has forgotten the face of his father
I listen to talk radio from time to time, although a lot less often than I used to.
A phrase that keeps coming up in discussions about the issues in the upcoming election is “I have to vote my heart.” For some reason, that really bothers me. The heart can be foolish and have knee-jerk reactions to issues. It is also used a lot in discussions that have people that seem to vote on only one issue.
I’d rather that people vote with their mind. Voting with ones mind implies thinking about issues. It also implies that one votes for a candidate as a whole, weighing their stances on all the issues. I am all for the right for anyone to vote, but I really wish more people with be informed voted. Voting with ones mind means being informed.
[Update 10/30: I just wanted to add a clarification that I forgot when I originally wrote this. One should not ignore their heart when they are thinking about issues. The heart should always inform the mind, but it shouldn’t be the only factor.]
Simmer BIOS at 350°
I hit the webpage of the maker of my motherboard to see if there were any bios updates. In the instructions for how to do the bios update, I found this great piece of engrish….
1. Prepare one piece of clean floppy diskette.
It makes me feel like I’m cooking something.
Busy time….
I’ve been kinda quiet the past few weeks, and I’ll be increasingly quiet the next few. We’ve hit the busy time of the year at work and it doesn’t help that I’ve been Mr. Perpetual-tiredness lately. Luckily, work’s busy time will be over on Nov. 8th. Then I’m on vacation for week.
I figure if I’m going to have this blog I should post at least once a week, so I’ll try to stick to that, but we’ll see what happens.
Here’s Space Ghost with something to think about
Today’s question comes from a fark thread
If somebody gave you a brand new Lamborghini, absolutely free on the condition that you must always have a license-plate reading “SHEMALE” – would you take it?
B to the E, boyeeeee!
Anheuser-Busch is taking a step and combining two of my favorite beverage additives: caffeine and alcohol.
The maker of No. 1-selling Bud Light beer said Monday it is launching a new brew under the Budweiser label that will be infused with caffeine, guarana and ginseng–a combination it promises will be both lightly “sweet and tart.” It is the first beer to include caffeine, the brewer said.
Unfortunately, the problem with this plan is 1) they make Bud and Busch, etc and 2) they are adding other crap like ginseng to the mix. The article in the paper I read this morning is that they are trying to cash in on the crazy of mixing Red Bull with anything that has alcohol. As for their claim to be the first beer to include caffeine, I doubt it. Maybe the first good old-fashioned macrobrew to add caffeine, but there has had to have been a beer with caffeine before.
I have drank quite a few stouts brewed with coffee such as Bell’s Java Stout and Redhook‘s now-retired Doubleblack Stout. Both of those had to have had some caffeine in them. However, they were not marketed as a alcohol enhanced energy drink nor an energy enhanced adult beverage. (They also weren’t marketed as a cathartic, but they could have been!)
The new brand’s name is a mouthful: B-to-the-E — short for Budweiser with something extra.
And there is the worst part: One of the dumbest product names ever. Be
Notes from the scarlet fields of Can’-Ka No Rey
In a previous post I mentioned that the end was near for the Dark Tower series from Stephen King. It came out on 9/21 and I finished reading it this past Tuesday morning 9/28. A little bit slower then I thought, but its a big book coming in at 845 pages. It probably should have been two books. I’ve been meaning to post about it all week, but I wanted to reflect on it before I did. I also don’t want to drop too many spoilers here as I know many people haven’t gotten to the book yet. (Hello to my blog follower from Finland, where its unknown when the book will be out.)
As a quick aside, I want to talk about my attachment to the series before I go on. I’ve been trying to think of a way to say how much I enjoyed the series as a whole. The only thing I can come up with is the following: I was at the book store the day the last three books where out waiting to jump back into Mid-World (and any place else the tale would take us, say true.) On average, its taken me less than 4 days to read each book. The only thing getting in the way was either work or sleep (and with the last two books, my daughter.) The only other book series I’ve done this with has been Harry Potter.
I wanted the time to reflect on the book, as my initial impressions where not the ones I know I will have long term. Part of the reason reflection was necessary was due to the fact that I was saying goodbye to at least 4 characters (maybe 5) I’ve followed for somewhere around 13 years. (I don’t remember when I read my first book from the series, but I know I was in high school, so I’m putting it in the middle of that time period.) Due to the attachment I’ve grown to these fictional characters any goodbye would be tough. In general, and I’m sure any author will tell you, endings are tough. (That’s probably why so many authors suck at endings, but that’s a different post.)
The other factor is what I’ll call The Matrix Revolutions Factor. After The Matrix Reloaded I had all sorts of ideas of where the story should go and what would be interesting ends to subplots. Obviously, The Matrix Revolutions didn’t match up with what I had in mind. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but what appeared on the move screen didn’t surpass my expectations. It just met them, if not was a little lower than them. (This reminds me, I should go back and watch the movie now that some times has passed.)
**** WARNING: I can’t help but add some potential spoilers in the next few paragraphs. You have been warned! (I’ll also drop some more protection, to be nice.) ****
Continue reading Notes from the scarlet fields of Can’-Ka No Rey
I ain’t getting on no plane!
My friend Val, who is also the secretary at our church, is quoted in the Chicago Tribune religion section in the article Still Mr. T: The `T’ is for testimony. She was at Willow Creek Community Chuch when Mr. T. was there speaking. I was talking to her Wednesday morning and she mentioned that she was interviewed by the Trib so I was on the lookout for the article.
The article as pretty interesting as it talked about Mr. T’s faith and how he came back to it. I also liked that many of the people who were at the service weren’t really aware or remembered Mr. T when was at his celebrity zenith.
Being a child of the 80s, I’m all about The A-Team and I remember such things as the Mr. T breakfast cereal and the Mr. T cartoon. However, raving about Mr. T is one of those things that show the seperation between my generation and the one right behind mine.
Anyway, the reason I post about this is to retell a story Val told me. She said the best thing she’s ever heard was when Mr. T was telling a story about his life and reflecting it to his faith. “So I was driving around one day, pitying fools…” Val said the casual dropping in of “pitying fools” just made her day. From what Val was telling me, as a line tossed in to generate laughter it hit its target.
I’ve decieded that I need to just start dropping that into sentences. “So I was at work, writing some Java, pitying fools, and…” And that’s is no jibber-jabber!