Another Test

Trying again when the site isn't broken.

Update: Today I received my first two tests messages back as undelivered
mail.

src="http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/US/03/31/schiavo/story.thu.vitadamo.cnn.jpg">

Please...

Nice eyebrows. Those things drawn on with a compass and a Sharpie?

One More time!

Don't make me stop this car!

Etc.!

Johnnie "The Glove" Cochran dies of a brain disorder. He was a hell of an advocate for his clients, and brain problems aren't a nice way to die. RIP.

Jerry Falwell in critical condition. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Pat Sajak has a blog! And he's Conservative! Get some!!

Behind the Camera: Mork & Mindy. [insane laughter!]

Nuts!

We knew he was an asshole, but now a childish asshole? Charlie Trotter speaks:

"Rick Tramonto's not the smartest guy on the block," Trotter retorted. "Yeah, animals are raised to be slaughtered, but are they raised in a way where they need to suffer? He can't be that dumb, is he? It's like an idiot comment. `All animals are raised to be slaughtered.' Oh, OK. Maybe we ought to have Rick's liver for a little treat. It's certainly fat enough."

Can't you make your point without calling people fat?

I don't understand

IRS May Consider eBay Sales Taxable Income

Hawking baby and children's clothes - along with some garage sale and thrift store bargains - on eBay helps Sunni Wojnarowsky bring in some extra money so she can afford to stay home with her two young boys. The additional dollars are great, but does she really need to hassle with the paperwork and report her small profit to the Internal Revenue Service? Her question, posed to the online auction site's discussion board for sellers, generated much advice - and more confusion.

In tax law, there is no clear, bright line that separates fun from profit, or a hobby from a business. But IRS instructions make it clear that all income - a category that includes bribes, gambling winnings, kickbacks and money made in illegal activities - can be taxed.

How do so many people keep getting flummoxed by the internet? Are you making money? Then you are liable for tax. Just because you use a different method of making the sales doesn't change that fact.

"I talked to a friend of mine who does eBay, and she's not filing because she said it's not regulated," Wojnarowsky said.

What does that mean? The things people come up with to justify their actions amuse me sometimes.

Background!

A little story about Rep. DeLay. Texas style!

The clues were all there

School shooter depicted as deeply disturbed, ignored teen

But everyone will blame the Prozac...

Two Kinds of People

Them and us.

Big talk coming from a guy who could be Jim "Beam me up" Traficant's cellmate soon. Four or five paragraphs of the most paranoid spin I've heard in a long time. He hits every right-wing nutjob issue button except guns.

"If they go after and get a pastor, then other pastors shrink from what they should be doing. It forces Christians back into the church. That's what's going on in America. The world is too bad and I'm going to get inside this building and I'm not going to play in the world. That's not what Christ asked us to do."

Gee, I thought that's where religion belongs. In the churches, and in the hearts and actions of its believers. Not running the country.

I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, one thing God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo to elevate the visibility of what's going on in America.

What a terrible and manipulative thing to say. How dare he use that poor woman's situation to further his crazy, dangerous agenda?

Annoying

I am polishing the resume, which was last polished in 2001, and in Excel. I had some formatting ideas that Word just couldn't do for me at the time. Converting over to Word and adding in some more good bits. Numbing. But it's time again to survey the job market.

EDIT: As I was editing this thing, I realized just how far word processing technology has gone. Look at all the buttons! A far cry from the blank blue screen of high school wordprocessing.

I love this headline

Killer poet caught on West Side

This guy escaped from prison in Massachusetts and came to Chicago, lived as a poet for 20 years, and gets caught for some petty arrest. Mind boggling.

Brushed Stainless!

John DeLorean died yesterday at 80. Coincidentally, I just saw a DMC-12 at the tire place last week. No rust! The story of Mr. DeLorean's earlier demise.

State!

So, which is the least funny, least mockable state?

Sensor!

Work was slow so I took the afternoon to replace the two oxygen sensors on the Ford today. So far so good. Idle seems smoother like it used to be. And now we dance!

Fighting Irish

$40,000/yr University of Notre Dame furthers its Irish 'Heritage' by including Irish Language Studies.

"The language is very guttural, messy and thick," student Katie O'Hara said.

Quite like its native speakers...

Maintenance!

Yesterday was a delightful day, and I've begun the spring list making. I've a lot of shit to catch up on. As the emmissions testing is due soon, the cars are first. I've ordered up various fluids, gaskets and parts, including two oxygen sensors @$110. The damn car has four. I'll complain about that until the day I sell the car, and probably longer. But the gas mileage in this car has always been terrible, and has gotten worse. So I'm hoping those will fix it. I've also bought some blue brake fluid. It's the best as far as I can tell, and while it comes in an amber color as well, blue it the way I'm going. NUTS!

Google News

I know we're fans of it, but I would watch out for it's completeness. I heard a juror for Scott Peterson make some pretty tasteless comments on the radio, and wanted to find it in print to share here. Could not find it. And this has happened before- news exists that it does not seem to cover for some reason or another.

What!

I forgot.

NASCAR!

After being fined for rigging a car's gas tank to appear full when it wasn't, NASCAR crew chief Todd Berrier said, "If I had to do it again, I'd still play it to try to get away with it, because I know how I got caught."

Wow. That guy should be fired just for being stupid enough to say something like that.

Post removed!

After visiting the IL DNR website, I've decided to remove all this stuff.

Fleet footed!

I caught this story on CNN.com today, which was ironic because just today I was thinking about my grade school science class. Mr. Kroenert was attempting to demonstrate to us how mercury was the only metal that is liquid at room temperature (and bromine is the only other element that is liquid at room temperature, though it readily evaporates. gallium and cesium are liquid at just warmer than room temperature). He had a small container of it, and the demonstration wasn't going well. So he tried to pour a small amount of it onto the overhead projector so we could see the little balls of it roll around. Except, of course, that the thing is a plate of glass , and thus quite flat. It is also hot. Which made the mercury go wild- it instantly went in all directions, fell off of the projector and onto the cart and eventually the floor. Let's just say, the school wasn't shut down and cleaned up to the tune of $1.5 million.

Then there was the time he demonstrated how uranium would expose Polaroid film right though the opaque packaging. By removing the paper bag of uranium ore from the wooden cupboard, passing it around the classroom, and then letting it sit on the film for a few minutes. He also had a small container of more refined uranium, they looked like little aspirins.

It's a wonder I can think at all.

Moral decay

State's teen birthrate lowest since late '50s

But I thought society has never been more depraved and moral-lacking?

Firefox!

I see another has fallen into the fold. A few notes:

Tabbed Browsing: Fantastic!

Speed up Firefox. I have tested this and find that it works great. Probably only useful if on a fast connection. No dialup for you!

This guy has caveats, however.

Speed up Firefox. Deux. This speeds the launch of the application itself, and is probably only for Windows machines. Go to the properties of the shortcut(s) to Firefox that you normally use. It will probably say:

"C:\My Documents\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

Add this to the end:

"C:\My Documents\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" /prefetch:1

I believe what this does is to leave parts of the program in memory (the .dlls?) after you shut the program down. If you're like me, 75% of the PC work you do is in the webbrowser, and you're constantly opening and closing browser windows. This noticably quickens the launch of a new browser. I have not noticed any memory issues, ie, running out.

Rick Steves'...

Europe: Through the Back Door. You can't make up stuff like that. Ironically (or not), I really enjoy his show.

I can't believe this is real.

1971 or 1871?

Git the .22 maw, we's a-eatin' good tonight!

Do you have a headache?

Try Progenitorivox!



If you have the broadband access, use the large file. Much easier to see.

Whoops

My fake alma mater blew the streak. That's what they get for beating Perdue like 80-52 last Thursday.

Good stuff

Quaker Oat Bran Hot Cereal. Fibertastic! Try some today, your ass will thank you.

Nanny State

It's all well and good until they take the stinky cheese.

Another Same Old Ten Commandments Dispute

Here we go again. Should the Ten Commandments be displayed in judicial arenas?

No.

For two reasons. First, there is no way someone who doesn't believe in the ten commandments can feel they will be treated fairly when entering a courtroom with that up on the wall. And the law relies quite heavily on the theory that it will be applied fairly.

And, half of the rules are purely religious declarations (I'll include coveting in that).

Just turn it around: would you feel like you are going to be treated fairly if you walked into a courtroom with a bunch of swastikas on the wall?

The religious right wants this. They want more God in society because they are the interpreters of God's will and that gives them power. They won't say that, so they say things like "what's the big deal," and "it says 'Creator' in the Declaration if Independance," and "the presidents end their speeches with a reference to God." The difference is that all those things are the speech of other people. A person is declaring their beliefs and blessing others. Putting up religious expressions in the context of justice is not speech, it is a state sponsorship of religion.

I hope the Supreme Court recognizes this. I realize only a few of the Justices are regular readers, so pass the word to the rest, will you?

NYPD Blue

This was one of my favorite shows. I was sad to see it's final episode this evening. It began, I think, as a cautionary tale: don't turn into Sipowitz. But it ended as a different kind of story: anyone can make good on a second (or third or fourth) chance. It was about a guy who wanted to do good, but almost let the demons get the better of him. The show taught, I think, that you have to give in to your weaknesses one way or another. You can "give it up" that you're a drunk and can never take a drink again, or you can give it up by letting your fear control you and boozing it up. Or whatever the problem. Plaid, for example.