Month: November 2007

Have any of you ever read the comics at XKCD?

Hilarious…this one made me laugh out loud:

this one too:

90’s Flowchart

Weed

Welp. Here I am again, staggering from another psychofiscal blow from my ex.

Somehow, the law in the united states has been altered. Instead of divorce proceedings being ‘a fair division of family proceeds’ they have become nothing more than an arena for allowing a woman to destroy a guy’s life. She can abuse him physically and emotionally, divorce him (no fault really means no warning) And enslave him for the rest of his life for a decision he never made.

for the last ten years I have been hounded by a child support bill so far in excess of my income that I have never even been able to come close to paying it, let alone getting caught up with it… a continuing cycle of attempting to hold a job, being imprisoned, garnished to the point where I cannot afford a plae to live or a vehicle to get to work, winding up homeless and penniless because the punishment….never…stops.

And now, I discover that not only is over half of my paycheck has been deleted, I recieve a court order to provide insurance for my ex, the total of which actually EXCEEDS my monthly income. There is a word for workign without pay… indentured servitude. At least slaves get food and shelter. (anyone want to buy an overweight white male, slightly used, hard worker, easily distractible, but strong?)

Literally, every single month I work, I wind up with a paycheck of ZERO and a bill of about 30 bucks for insurance.

Well, on the plus side, I think, now that melissa and I are providing two incomes (even though mine is a joke) I will be able to afford a good lawyer to finally tie this garbage up in court for a while and stop the enslavement and continuing abuse (I hope)

If I am lucky I may even be able to get the perpetrator thrown into jail for Lying under oath. I am not banking on it, though, since in the united states men are guilty until proven guilty and women are innocent even if proven guilty, but who knows? I may get lucky here in Utah.

*crosses fingers and hopes*

Luckily I am not alone. Not even in my feelings of alienization, victimization and abuse from a law system rooted in radical misandry.

http://ancpr.com/

If anyone else needs protection from an abusive situation like mine, I suggest you act IMMEDIATELY…don’t wait years and hope that it goes away, or pretend it doesn’t exist. IT ONLY GETS WORSE! Contact a lawyer the moment it happens, especially if you are a male, because your only protection from a virtual flogging is to act first, call the police, file complaints, and create a paper trail.

Anyway, good luck people. Maybe some of you haven’t lost your faith in the law’s fairness, but I suggest you plan for the worst.

WARNING – Minor spoilers below.

So, as much as I’ve dug the Buffy Season 8 comic, nothing has had me so excited as this first issue of Angel, Season 6. For the uninitiated, ANGEL, a spinoff of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, was cancelled a few years ago. The writers only had 2 episodes to finish up the entire series, and they did so with panache, but in a way that left a lot of people (myself especially) screaming at their televisions that more was wanted.

This year, Joss Whedon, the guru and creator of all things Buffyverse, started Buffy, Season 8 – which was initially intended to be a lead-in to a buffyverse TV movie trilogy… but when talks imploded with FOX, Joss decided the comics would be used to tell the whole story. They’ve been fantastic.. a real treat, and it fills that Buffyverse void.. cuz it is considered to be as Canon as the show.

However.. Buffy had a true ending, and you didn’t wonder much waht happened next – you just wanted more.

ANGEL had room for alot of questions as to the next step – you did leave the show wondering What happened next… and you never got that answer. Then, one day, the writer for the ANGEL comics (not considered to be in any way Canon) ran into Joss in a coffee shop and approached him. Joss sat down with the guy and using the plans for what was intended to be ANGEL’s 6th season, plotted out a comic book version of the story.

SO.. while Buffy was never supposed to have a season 8, Joss has written a story that is extremely satisfying. ANGEL was, however, supposed to have a season 6, and in “ANGEL: After the Fall”, here it is.

The comic opens a while after the ANGEL finale (The actual “exactly what happened right after” story will be told in another comic – “ANGEL: First night”, this april). And we immediately see that the stakes have been raised. LA is literally in Hell, and ANGEL is trying to save people from being devoured and enslaved by the Demons who are now running the town.

We see the fates of Major and Minor Characters, and the tone matches the show exactly (better, in fact than the match made by Buffy S8). The dialogue is smart.. not the whip smart Joss Dialogue (Joss did story only) that BUFFY S8 has – but still dark, brooding, and also funny. It feels a LOT like the show.. and that is a good thing (many, including me, believe it is a far superior show, especially seaosn 2 onward). The art is quite good.. a little to comic-booky for me.. (BUFFY S8 has really real looking people, these are more archetypical) – and the layouts are impressive.

The issue builds and then ends with a bang so welldone, you are ready for the screen to snap black and say “Executive Producer: Joss whedon”. And if you’ve watched Joss shows.. you know that’s a good thing.

So my little state once again made national news, this time due to a cop tasering a fellow who wasn’t fast enough following instructions.

My feelings are mixed on this one. I think that in life there are very few absolutes. The miscommunications were apparent to me on first watching:

1. The cop messed up by not stating the cause for arrest clearly. He should have stated the speed the fellow was going, and the marked speed on the road at that point.
2. The fellow refused to sign the ticket. Technically, the moment you are pulled over you are under arrest. Signing a ticket is not an admission of guilt, it’s a promise to appear in court to defend yourself against the charges or pay a fine in lieu of appearance. Only your promise to appear will allow you to be released from arrest; without a promise to appear, they have to hold you until your court date. In some states, they can write “refused to sign” on the ticket instead.
3. The cop’s instructions were unclear. He should have instructed the fellow that he was going to jail for refusing to sign the ticket when he asked him to step out of the vehicle.
4. The fellow misunderstood. He thought the cop was asking him to step out of the vehicle to show him the signs he was talking about; the cop was telling him to step out of the vehicle in order to restrain him and force him into compliance.
5. The fellow began walking away and put his hands in his pockets. Oops. To a cop, this means one of two things: you intend to flee, or you intend to pull out a gun and shoot him.
6. The cop did not inform the fellow of his intent to taser him if he did not comply. While the fear of a concealed weapon might justify his behavior, he was too fast on the trigger finger.
7. The cop lied to his fellow cop about what happened. Being caught lying on tape is a big no-no.

I don’t know how it will play out in court, but I do know a little bit better now what not to do in the taser-happy US of A.

This is pretty funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esGPdQIozXU&feature=related

I guess he just comes with music of his own now!

Anybody using this any have any thoughts to share? Just really started playing around with it this weekend.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/groove/HA101672641033.aspx

So, it’s Black Friday. What great deals did you find in your pre-dawn shopping?

I was sent these questions by a foreign co-worker; I thought reproducing them would be a reasonable way to talk about Thanksgiving this year!

On (2007/11/21 10:23), Manush Thranivaniranjanian wrote: > 1. What is the significance of the Thanksgiving Day? > (answer in one or two sentences only)

Thanksgiving is a traditional Autumn harvest celebration first celebrated by colonists of the New World in 1621, and continued in various forms until it became a federal holiday in 1941.

> 2. Why it always falls on a Thursday in November?

Historically, it occurred after the last day of the Autumn harvest of crops (usually late October or early November). Franklin D. Roosevelt set the date for the national celebration in 1939.

> 3. Why Turkey is the main item on a Thanksgiving Day dinner table?

A turkey is much larger than a chicken, duck, or goose, and feeds many more people. It was also supposedly served at the first American Thanksgiving dinner, as recorded by William Bradford in 1643 in a manuscript lost until just before the start of the Civil War. Because of this, President Abraham Lincoln had turkeys sent to soldiers for Thanksgiving during the American Civil War (1861-1865), and the tradition stuck.

Turkeys are also a native American species, and several traditional Thanksgiving dishes like corn on the cob, pumpkin pie, and American cranberries are made from foods which only existed in America prior to the sixteenth century.

> 4. When did the custom of Presidential pardon of the Turkey started?

Nobody knows for sure; it is rumored that Harry Truman started the tradition in 1947, while others maintain it was Abraham Lincoln who started it by issuing the pardon to his son’s pet turkey.

> 5. Which state in the USA has the largest number of Turkeys?

Why on earth would I know that? 🙂

Regards, — Matthew P. Barnson | UNIX System Administrator | – – – – Thought for the moment: There is only one way to console a widow. But remember the risk. — Robert Heinlein

As many of you know, the first of the “His Dark Materials” trilogy has been filmed and is being released on December 7, 2007. The Golden Compass is not even released yet, and is already causing a furor, sufficient to warrant an entry regarding the religious leanings of its author on snopes.com:

Claim: The 2007 film The Golden Compass is based on a series of books with anti-religious themes. Status: True.

There will be a new Children’s movie out in December called THE GOLDEN COMPASS. It is written by Phillip Pullman, a proud athiest who belongs to secular humanist societies. He hates C. S. Lewis’s Chronical’s of Narnia and has written a trilogy to show the other side. The movie has been dumbed down to fool kids and their parents in the hope that they will buy his trilogy where in the end the children kill God and everyone can do as they please. Nicole Kidman stars in the movie so it will probably be advertised a lot. This is just a friendly warning that you sure won’t hear on the regular TV.

Now, on the one hand, I understand the consternation of some parents. My sister-in-law, for instance, mentioned her distaste for the series. She really liked the first book, mentioning that Pullman built a wonderful world and populated it with really interesting characters. The second book she thought was good, but not as good, but the strong anti-religious overtones of the third book turned her off. She still liked the series as a whole, and recommended it, but wished the third book had turned out differently.

On the other hand, I read the trilogy myself, and loved it. I found the first book a fun introduction to the series, but fairly forgettable. The second book made the story more interesting, and the profound implications of the third book made it a fantastic joyride through parallel universes and the complications of competing worldviews.

“…in the end the children kill God and everyone can do as the please.”

Well, their description of the ending of the book is way off, but it sounds like a happy ending to me. The more children are exposed to new ideas and taught to think for themselves, making rational choices about their religion and personal lives, the better. Let’s camp out for tickets!

I no longer live in an area with much ammunition for this device, but this is just too funny (though a little bit cruel) for words:

The Squirrelpult.