BunkBlog

I downloaded the DVD image from Project Gutenberg’s CD and DVD Project this weekend. The replacement router fixed my bandwidth issues, so it took only a few hours instead of weeks.

So I now have this wonderful DVD-ROM containing almost ten thousand electronic texts. That rocks. Anyone want a copy?

Because a judge in California thinks a semicolon is important, gays and lesbians keep marrying in San Francisco. I love it. Imagine the consternation on those pinched little bigoted faces when they were told they couldn’t stop women from marrying women because of an elementary school punctuation error. Hilarious.

In worse news, they expected to only marry 50 couples today, as compared to the 750 yesterday. I guess a lot of city workers had been drafted to fill the ranks of Mayor Newsom’s marriage brigade and they had to go back to work today.

A semicolon. I still love it.

BillMaher: Georgey The Greek

According to the same finely-tuned analysis that led them to believe the stuff about the WMD, how we’d be greeted as liberators and the like, the White House now says the economy will create 2.6 million jobs in 2004. Not just jobs, but fantastic jobs. And leprechauns. I’m a tad skeptical of his powers of prognostication, however. You might remember last year when he told us if we passed all his tax cuts the economy would create 1.8 million new jobs last year and 3.7 million in 2004. Well, we did pass the tax cuts and we lost 53,000 jobs last year. But if you don’t believe we’ll have 2.6 million jobs in 2004, would you believe 3.6 million jobs in 2005? Well, they’re saying that, too. It’s like we’re watching a bad re-run of Get Smart.

I really don’t have anything to add to that. Just wanted to say, “bwahaha!”

There must be a seriously large group of people who buy erection-causing drugs online, or I wouldn’t get so many pieces of spam (even with Spamassassin) for Cialis and Viagra. Daily. Huge numbers.

Alton Brown kicks butt. His rants about the stupidity of Kathy Cox’s crusade against the “offensive” word evolution are awesome.

You’re Hyde!

Which That 70’s Show Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

In the Salon article From programming to delivering pizza, there are many tales of woe. These are stories I have heard often in the media, especially online, which act as some sort of scary boogeyman for those who may want to join the high-tech field. What’s ironic is that we keep graduating fewer IT-related college majors, and yet we have plenty of jobs for them. We just want the jobs to pay no more than they pay in New Delhi.

I see these stories and I contrast it with my own experiences. Since separating from the military, I’ve had no particular difficulty finding steady employment with a decent paycheck. There was that period of two months when I was on terminal leave that made me nervous, but it was no big deal in hindsight, especially when placed beside these people who have been unemployed for two years.

Of course, there’s also the problem of underemployment, particularly for college grads who need to pay off their loans. It’s all well and good to tell people that any job is a good job, but if you actually require a minimum of 30 thousand dollars per year to pay off the long-term debts you acquired in college, 6 bucks an hour won’t cut it.

I can’t help but wonder if this unemployment problem in the IT field is really there or if there are some isolated cases that make good stories. I know I’ll probably never want for work, because I have a clearance and those jobs will never be outsourced. But if I wanted to get out of defense contractor land, would I be making a big gamble, or is it much ado about naught in order to sell advertising space?
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Is it horrible when you think, “eh, 64 piece of spam in one day – it’s slowing down a little”?

Is there a wood-based equivalent to silicosis? I wouldn’t want to develop Carpenter’s Lung from sanding the floor…

So I’m listening to the wonderful Ofra Haza‘s greatest hits at work yesterday, and notice the name “Flash Gordon” leaping out of the midst of her mideastern song. WTF?

Then, I slipped in the third CD and heard her singing in English, “You’ve Got a Friend.” That’s just wrong. Imninalu and Galbi to James Taylor?

People find my site with some odd searches:
pics of knives on stomachs
Star wars Tattoos

Huh? I don’t have any pictures of knives on any stomachs. Why are people looking for some of these things anyway? Odd folks.

Wesley Clark now says that Bush has created a new ‘axis of evil’. Even in this season of overinflated rhetoric, isn’t it a bit much to equate the perfidy, greed and cronyism of the Bush administration to actual evil? To make the implication that Bush is morally equivalent to Iraq and Syria is a bit too hard to swallow.

I wonder if the candidates are even trying to convince the fence-sitters and moderates any more. They seem to be preaching exclusively to the choir of late.

# Bake herb-crusted pork roast, covered with cinnamon and cloves and other wonderful spices.
# Fry up some potatoes and onions.
# Steam some broccoli.
# Present this meal to a four-year old boy.
# Watch him put barbecue sauce on the roast and sour cream (!) on the broccoli.
# Be thankful he’s eating.

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

In case you thought she wasn’t senile, the Queen will bestow knighthood to Bill Gates. Yeah, she’s off her nut.

Boston Brown Bread – love it, hate it, never heard of it? Discuss.

I’ve now got one food product that nobody else in the house will eat. Well, I didn’t ask the cat, but she doesn’t get a vote anyhow.

The cool Zipdecode Java applet sure can keep me amused for extended periods of time. Kind of neato, you type in a zip code and watch the white dots that show its area. For example, 9 is West Coast, 90 is Los Angeles area, etc. Got to see it to understand its evil addictive ability.

Ladies, if you got the Matrimony Mod as your proposal, would you be amused or horrified? Seriously, a computer used as a prop for a ring-giving. Interesting…

Janklow sentenced to 100 days in jail

The 64-year-old Republican was found guilty December 8 of second-degree manslaughter, speeding and running a stop sign for a collision that killed 55-year-old motorcyclist Randy Scott at a rural intersection on August 16.

100 days. For manslaughter. Think you’d get that kind of sentence for running a stop sign and running over a motorcyclist? Me neither.

Anyone have a car to spare?