BunkBlog

The United States expects to spend more than $1 billion a month on the early phases of the war in Afghanistan, and the cost is likely to rise rapidly above that level as the Pentagon builds its forces in the region, Congressional and administration officials say.
James Dao – New York Times, November 12, 2001
current_music: Barenaked Ladies – The Flag

OK, so I’ve been harassing my English classmates on LJ for the past week, but they’re actually looking good this week. We’re finally turning in assignments that are expected to be structured and formatted according to the MLA style, and so far (three of us have completed the assignment that is due today) it’s looking reasonable.

Now, my Economics class is another story. One of the students has posted his reply to the latest assignment (also due today), and at the end says, “I want to point out that I took this answer from the following URL” as if that makes it ok to plagiarise the entirety of his assignment. Is there some new rule in college that makes it ok to just take an entire doctoral thesis and post it as your own? I was reading through this entry and thought, “Wow, someone actually put some time and effort into this lame class. How amazing.” And then, I came upon that final statement.

I’m a fiddler crab, it’s fiddler crab season!
current_music: Five For Fighting – Love Song

So, here’s a comment on the English discussion list today:

Dr. deleted expected an answer to each question and I had to re-introduce myself.

Oh, the sheer gall of the professor to expect you to actually answer each question posed. Let’s see what the instructions said about that first (laughably simple) assignment:

Tell us these things about yourself (don't omit any of this info; this exercise tests your ability and willingness to follow directions):

Yeah, that was pretty tough to figure out. I can see why you’re unhappy that your first draft (which you submitted as a completed assignment) was rejected.
current_mood: amused

Hey, for the next few weeks, Cafepress is giving free shipping on orders of $50 or more. So, if you want some cool Andy Social stuff (or Origami Swag), now is a good time.

Oh, geez, yet another moron has brought forth his comments on life and the universe. The first assignment for this lame-o English class was to introduce ourselves. Yes, this was an assignment for an entire week of class. Frightening, eh?
So, here are some excerpts from the latest person to finally get around to posting his first assignment, only two weeks late.

I may encounter works that I am truely interested in I may tole around for hours just for marginal success and if it is in my belief that this work is of perfection I’ll have my satifaction.
I am a student, a security officer in a shopping mall and in a half-way house and I am an investigatiogator mainly woeking within the Criminal Justice Act.

Ouch! My head hurts just reading that crap. These idiots made it out of high school? I can only imagine the fun my teacher friends have on a daily basis…
current_music: Prince – The Rainbow Children

So, somehow after losing fifty votes last week, I’ve stalled at a mere 34 votes for the month of November thus far. This has caused me to watch my ranking slip from #12 to #25 to (now) #46! Forty-six! There are people who haven’t sold a thing that are ranked higher than I am. I’ve sold a few mugs and shirts now, so I know my designs don’t suck. Hope I get some good word-o-mouth or something. Can’t argue with extra cash.

OK, once again, from someone who is taking a Junior-level college English class, the title being “Critical Approaches to Literature” we have this gem of great literacy:

I have to appreciate liturate in every form.

Um, how can you appreciate something you can’t spell, even with the correct number of syllables? Shoot me now.

This is the kind of sophomoric tripe I am enmeshed in whenever I deal with UMUC’s class online:

…, whose thoughts and emotions deserves to be validated.

Oh, come on! Validation? What a bunch of amateurish, armchair psychobabble.
Here’s another good one:

I enjoy my English classes expect (sic) for the fact that I have to write so much.

That’s like saying you like your mathematics class, except for those pesky equations and numbers. What is wrong with these people?
current_music: Clannad – Atlantic Realm

I think I’ve insulted darling Nikki (couldn’t resist a gratuitous 80s reference). Didn’t mean to belittle your military service, dear. Just the usual banter between services. You zoomie.

For those who think that I’m some kneejerk reactionary right-wing hawk (which is absurdly far from the truth), here‘s an interesting conversation. Guess which side I’m more impressed by.

When I post these links to other conversations on LJ, I don’t do it to espouse a particular view, but to share things I found interesting. In this case, I think one side of the debate makes a much more reasoned case for his side of the argument. I don’t agree wholeheartedly with either debater. In the case I was loudly denounced for recently, I found the other side of the debate more admirable.

Neither side of these debates has an absolute monopoly on good sense and right answers. But, making logical and clean arguments, no matter how much I disagree with them, impresses me. I enjoy the interplay of words between people who can use language to express reasoned opinions. Reasoned does not necessarily imply reasonable, but such is life.
current_music: Clannad – Ca De Sin Do’n Te Sin
current_mood: tired

How in the world can you look at the events of the past two months (euphemistically referred to as the “9/11 events”) and consider it an “opportunity for change” that we shouldn’t “waste” by bombing bad guys? Right, we should stop considering the events as a case of “us vs. them” and go ahead and sing Kumbaya. After all, there’s no way that Bin Laden and friends will bomb us again if we tell them we are all happy and global-minded now. Yep, that’s fuckin’ logical.

Seriously, I actually read someone’s journal that called the recent attacks “an opportunity for change” that we shouldn’t be wasting by blowing up caves in Afghanistan. While I certainly wonder if the method for our “war” is effective, just telling them we’ve seen the errors of our ways sure won’t work.

OK, that f***ing Countdown site is just pissing me off now. I had like 50 hits, so I was expecting to be on the front page (in the top 20) today. But, lo, I suddenly have only 6 votes now, so I’m back to page 8 or some damned thing. Why bother with a site if the same 3 people win the “shirt of the month” design every month? Duh.
current_mood: tired

I’m always cold at work. I have had nothing to do since June. Someone entertain me. And bring a jacket.

<sarcasm>Figured I hadn’t posted often enough today.</sarcasm>

Well, I’m now #25 on the T shirt Countdown. Get me higher tomorrow, will ya? Vote over on my site if you have a few seconds to spare.

Tired, hoping to get that last Eric Clapton song from Reptile tonight. Guess I’ll wait till morning.
current_mood: tired

Before you jump to conclusions and snap someone’s head off like a hungry mantis, pause. Think. Calmly consider what the other person is saying, disconnected from any emotional overtones.
current_mood: tired

As most of you know, I’m a big fan of the browser Opera, but I use all three of the mainstream browsers (Mozilla and Konqueror fans please don’t yell at me): Netscape 6.2, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and Opera 5.12. It’s always entertaining to see the differences in how each of them renders the same exact page, especially when a page is valid HTML 4.0.

This one, though, is different. PNG files, although a standard, are handled funny depending on the browser. Like GIF files, they have an optional “interlaced” mode, which is actually implemented much better than the GIF system. When looking at this on the three browsers, something weird happened. First, I discovered that Quicktime had hijacked the MIME type in Netscape.

After getting it set so Netscape loaded PNGs natively, I ended up with two basic PNG handling systems. The Opera and Netscape browsers both rendered the file at “actual size” and so I had to scroll a tiny bit to see the whole image. IE 6, however, seems to have added a cool new image-handling feature: autozoom. When you open an image by itself (not embedded in an HTML file), the browser will shrink it to fit into the window by default. You still have the option of clicking one button and seeing it at full size, but it’s a pretty cool new feature. You know it’s tough for me to compliment Microsoft for something, but there ya go.

Yes, I have too much time on my hands on occasion.

As promised here, here’s the artwork I used on the shortlived attempt at a goodwill-based proof of concept LJ Bash Shirt Store.

If interested in the original Photoshop file, let me know.

Apparently tact, good manners, and common courtesy are completely optional online. Oh, and I could use a really big dose of sarcastic insult, too.

Slings and arrows of outrageous fortune be damned.

It’s a new month, and the stats for the T Shirt Countdown have been reset (belatedly I noted). So, time to go vote for your favorite geek’s shirts!

I almost got into the Top Ten last month. Oh, and the Cafepress guys are setting up some new holiday stuff, so keep an eye out for shirt-wearing teddy bears and such.

Although I rarely read my friends’ pages directly, relying on the wonder of the Friends Page instead, I notice some things when I peruse new potential “friends” on LJ.

Here’s one: if you go to ‘s journal using Netscape or MSIE, it looks just fine. If you go there with Opera, you get black text on a dark blue background, rendering the text invisible. My quest: discover the source of this discrepency. And, thanks to the wonder of the CSS Validator over at the WWW Consortium, I have. Apparently, the wonderful Klee has mistyped a color in her setup, rendering “C02768” as “CO2768″ instead. While this is an illegal color, I’m amazed at the ability of the two mainstream browsers to actually display the desired (amazingly bright) pink shade without error. Things that make you go hmmm…