The TADspot

Connected

2010-12-18T07:16:00.002-05:00

So I went over to my Grandfather's house earlier today, or I guess really yesterday. I am kind of tired and on a bad sleep schedule, which is probably gonna get worse, so things kind of blend right now. Just not in a good, alcoholic buzz sort of way. My mom was there.

Situation - My Grandfather is 90 years old, and probably beginning that degeneration into death that many of those who live to great age eventually do. He really should be in a elder care type facility, with 24 hour medical care. But the situation is what it is, and my mother, my aunt and their brother have made their choices. The reasoning is beyond the scope of this post or anything I am likely to put in a public place. As Nietzsche has stated, paraphased, just because one thinks, one does not think correctly, and my mother and her siblings are opening themselves up to what can potentially be a tragedy of errors.

It was my mother's shift, and as usual she did some of her emotional unloading. As a mentally ill person, who has been in successful treatment, honestly its all bullshit. People place their own perceptive masks over what they see, listen to, etc and for the most part do damage to themselves.

There is no point in fighting an inevitability on any level, even emotionally, because you can't win, and the act of losing, whether its a singular crushing event, such as a death, or a long drawn out, craptacular experience, does not change the fact that the process and the result are inevitable.

So long as my mother has chosen to participate in that situation where her and her siblings take care of him, they just have to deal with it, and the most positive way, path which minimizes the damage, is to work with the situation as best one can.

Now, in the process of this conversation, things drifted around to my niece, technically my cousin Sara's daughter, but Michael and Sara are, emotionally and spiritually my brother and sister, heck I think of the other grandkids like that too, but more of a younger set of siblings, the kind you look out for, first and foremost. Caroline's 8th birthday party is today and I sort of can't go. I have both health and finance issues which prevent that. That does not mean that I won't go, who knows there may be a last minute solution.

My mother made a comment that hit on one of my emotional strings. She said, roughly, "that there will be enough people there and that she won't miss you".

Well damn it, I want her to miss me. I want her to want me around.

More to the point, but more drawn out, way back in my psychotherapy, I had this persistent feeling of being totally disconnected from the events around me. And in reality, while I was connected in sense, it was not in a way that made me emotionally healthy. I was disconnected and it hurt. It has only been over the last year or so, that I have advanced to the point of forming more tangible social connections, and though I still suck at them, they are there and I want them.

I think, as human beings, perhaps borrowing roughly from some commentary that I once heard Dennis Prager make on his short lived, but awesome tv show, we sometimes want to be alone, but we don't ever want to be lonely. To be disconnected.

The Least Worst of.....

2010-06-28T20:49:00.002-04:00

Never have I understood the title of the Type O' Negative best of album so well, given my most recent life affecting decision.

I have been out of work since approximately Feb 1st or so, with a lower back/lumbar/disc problem of some sort that also cause me, temporarily, to lose most feeling and a lot of strength in my right leg. After spending several months wondering if things were ever going to get better, if it would be better to just not wake up, I received the letter from work which stated that my job would be vacated if I did not return by a certain date.

Money has been tight. Due to a combination in once circum... well that's a story for another time. Suffice it to say that money has been tight. With the termination of my job, would go my health insurance.

So my options were

- Welfare, which would cover the health care costs, provide some ancillary benefits such as food stamps and such but would cost me my apartment.

-Unemployment, which would mean no more health coverage unless I could afford it on my own via the Cobra coverage, though the money would pay my bills and I would be able to attend school with extra financial aid. This last bit would probably be true of welfare as well.

-Return to work, which gives me my salary, and health care coverage.

I asked my doctor for a prescription pain killer, which I am certain that I would need to return to work, and spoke to my supervisor about not having to work 12 hour shifts anymore, and it turned out she eliminated those anyway, and got the evening shift, so returning to work turned out to be the least worst option...

Rest in Peace Peter Steele

The Garden (of Delusion)

2010-06-22T20:00:00.002-04:00

Damn you blizzard! This is what I get for WoW downtime. Usually I put these movies on, on the other screen and sort of glance over for the cool moments, or the tit shots or the fight scenes or whatever and just use them to help past the lack of background noise. But no. Blizzard has to make me pay attention to this shit completely....

Movie in question....The Garden.

Now, this movie does have one thing going for it. Lance Henriksen. Lance the man. Perhaps the most underrated actor of all time. Generally speaking, anything, and I mean anything with Lance fucking Henriksen in it, is worth one fucking watch. He has some all time classics like Pumpkinhead for example or Alien.

This however is not an all time classic.

It started off well. Slow... but well.

It opens more or less with a troubled boy, in a psychiatric hospital, being tested. He is cutting himself, and having horrible nightmares. The troubles are being expressed in his artwork, which has a dark and twisted nature to it. His parents are recently divorced, his dad recently sober, his mom well too expensive for the budget it seems, nowhere recently to be found. The dad takes him home from the hospital back to the farm in Oregon, for the last of his summer stay, when the boy has a delusion that cause the family suv to go flying over a cliff. Luckily they survive and are nursed to health by Satan.

Yes, Satan.

The devil himself, apparently lives in the same town as the dad. And he seems like a nice guy. In fact nothing makes you think this might in fact be the motherfucking devil, except for what clearly seems to be the psychiatric delusions of the 12 year old, until almost the very end of the film. Lance goes about his business in every way trying to help the boy recover from his psychiatric trauma, the father continue his recovery from bad marriage, even provides the father and son with a place to live, and gives the father a job, when the US Federal government condemns dads farm due to toxic pesticide cleanup being necessary, such a pesticide presence might actually explain why the boy is having delusions and seizures to begin with, but hey, somehow the movie has to have a twist right....

Well, can we lead into the twist, make it make sense?

Nah...

Why bother.

In the middle of the devil being a nice guy and everyone else being a douche bag, lets just let the devil come out and say sure, its all part of my plan.

And he still goes on being a nice guy to the father and son. We never know for sure if he really killed anyone? Why

BECAUSE WE SEE THEM ALL AT THE END OF THE FILM SEEMINGLY ALIVE. POSSIBLY BECAUSE THE DELUSIONAL 12 YEAR OLD IS HAVING ANOTHER DELUSION AFTER HE DROVE A SWORD INTO LANCE HENRIKSONS CHEST.

Yes, that's right.

Basically, short summary of this film...

Boy has delusion
Boy has delusion
Boy causes car accident
Devil nurses boy and dad back to health
Devil is a nice guy
Boy has delusion
Devil is a nice guy
Boy has delusion
Devil is a nice guy
Boy has delusion
Devil out of nowhere declares his evil plot but still goes on being a nice guy
Boy has delusion
Boy stabs Lance Henriksen in chest with Sword
Boy has delusion.

The end

I took one for the team. Don't watch this, I did. That's one more than enough.

Reborn

2010-06-22T19:55:00.001-04:00

Well, I decided to give this blogging thing another go. Let's see how long this lasts....

Anyway, I movie review or in this case, a horror show up first.

What is a right? Why does the government have the right to rule?

2007-04-21T12:31:00.000-04:00

Well, I wrote this little piece a while back and thought that someone reading this might find it interesting. It concerns the nature of what a right is, and why government has the right to rule

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Interesting debate... I will not (yet) drill down to philosophical minutiae but I will start my premise here.

There are two types of "things". Foundational things and non foundational things (I forgot the big philosobabel word for the second one). A foundational thing is something which cannot be broken down into simpler things and still be reassembled into only the original thing. A non foundational thing is something which can be broken down in the above manner and completely reassembled. If something is non foundational, then it must be evaluated for any purposes first by breaking it down and analyzing what results, determining if one has yet to reach such a foundational thing. A foundational thing must be analyzed from the premise that it is either true or false for reasons of its own.

How then can one analyze such a foundational thing? From Aristotle, one can apply the notion of the teleological purpose in order to analyze a foundational thing. The teleological purpose of a thing is the end purpose/end goal/end reason for that thing to exist, for it to perform its function. This idea is useful in analysis of the foundational thing because in cannot be broken down in a meaningful manner. It is, in essence, a beginning.

Also key to my analysis is the idea of objects and properties (familar to computer coders of all sorts no doubt).

What is an object? An object is something which exists and possess properties, each of which themselves possibly being objects. What is a property. A property is some aspect of an object which limits or helps to define its existence.

To the analysis of a right.

I postulate that a right, being a property of something, is a foundational thing in and of itself, which has the purpose of defining the limits at which an object, possessing that property, can be said to exist for legal purposes.

The objects covered by law have various properties, among them rights, duties, obligations, powers, functions etc.

Why is a right a foundational thing?

The answer starts with the presupposition that a right might not be a foundational thing. Therefore a right must have components which upon reassembly become a right again. What are the components of a right. Well let's hypothesize that the components of a right are an object, the thing possessing the right, and a property, which property though? Is it the property of life. Does this mean that only living things have rights. Possibly but upon reassembly, the idea that land has rights goes out the window (this disappoints the radical environmentalist no doubt and makes large sections of out law illogical). Also a government is not a living thing, wherein does it get the rights to tax and kill or authorize its agents to kill. Where do corporations get their rights. From the government of course... wait...? Hmmm...

Well, life is out the window so to speak. What other properties does an individual have which can be a unique component of a right. Height, weight, girth, no... A... Age... no. What about intelligence (don't we all wish). If intelligence is the critical compenent this quickly and easily takes away the rights of all registered Democrats. Hmmm. I kind of like this one but I can see flaws. Damn! We have assigned rights to various animals including some very dumb ones, to things which have no inherent intelligence (land, water, corporations, governments) and to the dead. Unless we as a society are willing to remove all of these "rights" there goes this one.

I think that I could go on in this manner analyzing various properties of individual objects, disqualifying them as I go.I think that I can find a reason to disqualify any and all such properties as being a unique component of a right and therefore define a right as a foundational object.

Since a right is a foundational object, following my line of analysis, I proceed to the end purpose of the right, the cause for a rights existence. As stated above, right, being a property of something, is a foundational thing in and of itself, which has the purpose of defining the limits at which an object, possessing that property, can be said to exist for legal purposes.

...A word on limits. Those of you familiar with pre-calculus are familiar with the sense I intended the word. A limit in mathematical is used to evaluate how a number behaves at extremes. My definition can be restated as "A right, being a property of something, is a foundational thing in and of itself, which has the purpose of defining how any object, possessing that property, exists in the entire range of circumstances covered by law"...

Proceding now to that teleological cause for a rights existence, each of us is an individual who exists in a common continuity with a unique perspective upon that continuity. We notice others around us and for various, inherent reasons (sexual desire, hunger, fear of death, etc) associate with others. The range of behaviors of and for these relationships can be said to exist with the following domain [absolute chaos, absolute order]. Both absolutes are undesirable circumstances. Hell, much of that middle ground is undesirable. To avoid this argument spinning vastly out of control, I will resolve the state of these behaviors with a simple question.

How many solutions are there to every problem?

Ans- One, whatever solution is chosen that also solves the problem. [this does not mean that this is a moral or ethical solution. It just resolves the issue of current law and morality by saying ok here we are. Let's analyze the subject at hand with our current state as presupposition]. In essence, this ensuing teleological definition presupposes that the current state exists. The citizens of the US have chosen their "status quo" via the electoral process. It is what it is, regardless of where inside the previously mention domain of order and chaos it is.

Since the population residing here has chosen to associate with one another, and choice includes not moving elsewhere ie to another nation or and not making an effort to kill those with whom you do not wish to associate (the quaint European term for this practice is ethnic cleansing), it is functional to have a set of rules in order to regulate how we live together. As mentioned previously objects covered by law possess many properties, rights foremost among them.

If such rights were not codified, in future events, it becomes possible to violate them, but, following this effect without a cause, since the right was not encoded, it could not have been violated. Only the future and the present can be altered, it is a waste of energy to make law attempting to change the past (I mean everything that this last statement says on its face). Without the end purpose cause, one could not justify a right. Put differently, only the goal of avoiding rights violations provides the cause or reason for defining the right.

Why, for example can you sue someone who tried to murder you? Because he violated your right not to be murdered, this issue being addressed before you were endangered. Some will say that wise men observed the past and therefore made law in response to that. The problem, as the empiricists point out, is that the fact that something occurred is no guarantee that it may or will occur again.

A government's right to rule with the above definition in mind can be said to be a limit upon what the government actually does. Expanding the previous sentence...

The US government is a thing of the people. The first question to ask is "which people?" The answer is all of those who have provided input into the US polity. This answer is less obvious than it seems. The input mentioned is not just voting, or encoding law, paying taxes or running for office. Everyone drop of blood spilled for the American nation, Reverend King, John Basilone, those who died on 9/11, Patrick Henry, Pres. McKinley, etc, has contributed. Every baby born, every bill paid, every check cashed, every store that is robbed, every bulding that is blown up and every one that dies, every American citizen and resident plus a few others (except for those damn Canadians and the French, oh hell just the modern French).

The core of this polity is the Constitution, a static object. This object binds the dynamic populace together across time. The government arises in the union between the populace as bound together by the Constitution. In this sense, since the Constitution is an expression how the complete range of this populace must interrelate, and such relationships may occur in extremes or be driven to extremes, it becomes not just prudent but necessary to define such limits. One particular limit is itself, the rulership. These limits are usually expressed as rights under that Constitution and by extension through various local constitutions rights through each state.

In short, what gives the government the right to rule? The consent by some part of the rulees expressed via the Constitution to enforce that rulership.

Questions, Comments, Suggestions?...

2006-06-25T00:03:00.000-04:00

I just thought that I would share this with anyone reading this blog. Its pretty funny... I came up with it on one of my favorite forums.

Background- I read comic books, in fact I have recently returned to them. One of my favorites so far is the Ultimates...

Now this bit of mine is spoilerish but not surprising. As anyone who reads the Ultimates knows Bruce Banner was executed for the murders he commited as the Hulk a while back or at least they tried to. Now in Ultimates 2 #11 Bruce Banner is back.

oh btw, Ultimate Nick Fury is modeled on Samuel L Jackson
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This is an excerpt from Congressional testimoney into the Hulk execution incident.

Senator xxxxxxx "General Fury, it is patently obvious that SHIELD and the Ultimates perpertrated a fraud upon the American people. Bruce Banner, the so-called Hulk, was sentenced to death, a sentence that you General Fury assured the President and the Attorney General as well as the American people that you could carry out. Now in light of this new evidence, the only conclu.....

Fury, "New Evidence my big black ass. The only conclusion that we could reach based on any evidence is the the so-mother fucking called Hulk is one tough mother fucker.... We droped a nuclear bomb on his ass. You dig that? A mother fucking, fuckity god damned nuclear fucking bomb. And the mother fucker lived. Now suck on that evidence Senator."

Astronomy Domine...

2006-05-21T16:41:00.000-04:00

Wow, I am glad that I found this torrent. This is a huge torrent, over 1GB, of assorted NASA, JPL and other images. The link is down below with some samples linked to.

If you don't know what a torrent is, email me and I will explain. I don't think torrenting is something that someone should just install Azureus and go for gold.

Note, all of these images in the torrent are FREE, and none are adult. This is an entirely legal torrent here in the US, and to be frank a dl link this is one of the great things about the bittorent technology.

the link
http://isohunt.com/download.php?mode=bt&id=10983625

Samples

The Andromeda Galaxy

the Circinus Galaxy

The Horsehead Nebula

Io, a moon of Jupiter

Craters on Venus

the Viking 1 probe launch from 1975

Some of the better ones are gigantic hi res images, which are over the free Imageshack limit. This is truly worth the download.

A neat thought I had a while back, just thought that I would share it

2006-05-20T22:03:00.000-04:00

Up until recently I have considered my life to be a gigantic mistake of epic proportions. Now I perceive my life to be a gigantic mistake of someone else's, a mistake that I intend to take full advantage of.

Weightloss surgery- the benefits of my experience

2006-04-03T00:17:00.000-04:00

Well, I know it has been a while since my last post, and of course, I think I am the only reader here so I suppose that should not matter but this post is intended as an aid for others contemplating a similar experience.

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Well, I just had barriatric (weightloss) surgery, in particular I had laproscopic - adjustable gastric banding. The procedure went well and except for some emotional issues with anesthesia recovery, I am glad that I had it done.

I thought that I might make myself available to anyone who is thinking about this surgery for themselves or others. So if you have any questions post away...

What follows are some useful websites.

Useful sites
American Society for Barriatric Surgery
http://www.asbs.org/

Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC)
http://www.humed.com/

My Surgeons
Advanced Laproscopic Associtates
http://www.lap-associates.com/

The First Guy I went too (see below as to why this did not work out)
http://www.lapsurgery.com/

Now the story...

As some of you know, I am obese. In fact at the time of the surgery I weighed approx 600 pounds. I used to weigh a lot more but was successful with a decent diet and exercise. Then I broke my left leg (during the recovery of which I joined FE). After that I put about 100 lbs back on. Now a few years earlier I had made a promise to myself that if I could not lose weight by my 32nd birthday I would have barriatric surgery. So it was time.

I did a little basic research between, the ASBS sight, a few reference papers and most importantly, asking others who have had surgery before about their experiences. Now I have an advantage in that I work in a hospital, so I can access medical knowledge and advice rather more easily than can the regular person.

Ultimately, I learned that Hackensack University Medical Center was the number one facility for this procedure in the Northest US, if not in all the world outside of Australia (apparently the most advanced surgeon/researcher on the subject is in Australia). Some other reputable facilities exist but I can only provide info on two; the facility where I had the procedure, HUMC, and the one where I work. I recommend strongly that you avoid the hospital I work in for this procedure. However I will only give out the name via PM in order to protect myself for corporate web trolls.

Now I have had several relatives go through the same procedure at the same facility with the same surgeon although this surgeon, Dr Schmidt was not the first one that I went to. In fact the first seminar I attended there was for Dr G. Ballantine, who is on staff at HUMC. I know someone who had the procedure done with him and she has had excellent results but my experience with him was less positive.

I attended his seminar and it was well presented, although the space was a little cramped, he gives it in his office suite. Dr Ballantine performs the two major types of procedure, full bypass and the lap band procedure, both in the traditional way (cuts you open big time) and laproscopically. So I made an appointment, did the bloodwork, ekg and xray that seemed to be in his packet...and waited a few weeks for the surgical consult (the office visit used to setup the procedure).

So, I did some more research and determined that the lapband was the best for me. I take a psychotropic drug (paxil) whose primary absorption is in the stomach and I could not lose the bulk of my stomach.

But Dr Ballantine did not tell me one thing...

Now, to understand my mindset, I work nights and do not drive and have never been to Hackensack. So I used a benefit day, took a 3+ bus trip and arrived at his office. I told him I wanted the band done. We talked a bit and then he dropped the bomb... Basically he had never performed a procedure on a patient of my weight. I wanted to kill him, that was the angriest I had been in 5 years. He recommended that I contact the group of surgeons who I wound up choosing because they had more experience with my weight.

If Dr Ballatine had mentioned his lack of experience with heavier patients, half of the patients in the room with me at his seminar would have walked out. I would have had the procedure in Nov 2005 or maybe late January with my current surgeon, instead, I had to start the whole thing all over again, going to a new seminar and eventually having all those tests again (btw, those tests are part of pre admission testing, you only need them done within 30 days before the surgery. This is something that Dr Schmidt and his partners made clear but Dr Ballatine did not).

Fastforward a bit...

Presuming that you are not rich enough to pay out of pocket (around or up to $100,000 US), various Health insurance packages have different prerequisites for the surgery. I can only testify to my insurance, Horizon of NJ.

I had to, get psychitric screening, get a recommendation from my primary, attend the initial seminar and attend an educational/support group meeting. Note that the support group meetings are usually monthly and all must be done for full coverage approval prior to the surgery. I will follow up with what my costs are. I had to pay a $500 dedeductable and I expect a bill from the Anestheisologist. The first seminar is free and the support group meeting at HUMC costs $50.

Also, one other area I prepped, out of prior surgical experience, was my apartment. I cleaned and organized ahead of time. Expect to be a little out of sorts for a few days due to the anesthesia and surgical recovery. Also expect a lot of gas (they fill your stomach with air to facilitate the procedure).

The diet for the weeks following this procedure is also specialized. For instance until I see my surgeon again next week, I am on a clear liquids diet. This means natural juices, iced tea, gatorade, no carbonated beverages. If you have bypass (remember I have the band) you also have to avoid suger, so that means sugar free. I also have a dozen or so cans of chicken and beef stock but I have only used one and I have packages of sugar free jello but I have not made any yet. I will comment on the next stage of the diet when I get there.

Well, day of surgery arrived and it went as expected. I arrived at the hospital (after a 3 hour bus trip), was admitted to the Same Day Surgery unit (SDS) although it has a slightly different name at HUMC but I am used to that name from most other hosptials. I wound up waiting an hour or so. I checked my valuables in with security and my cloths in with the nursing staff. I went to the OR that was that.

Waking up was rougher than prior experiences, I woke up intubated and maybe that induced a bit of a panic attack or an anxienty attack but after they took out the vent and I was able to move a bit, the panic passed. I got to my room on the floor and fell alseep. I woke up at midnight and was told that it was time to get up and walk around a bit. That is part of the recovery procedure. I also had to urinate or they would have put a foley in. The nursing staff was great, they were helpful, understanding and informative.

I found out that much of the pain post op was from the air that they put in me, basically extended gas pains. These have improved a lot but even 5 days later I still feel a bit gassy.

I have not eaten in 5 days now... although once I see my surgeon that will change.

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Thoughts and Feelings?

Well, I now know that once I can eat regular food again, as long as the majority of my diet is healthy, I can have a bad meal whenever I want because the band limits how much I can eat. So a slice of pizza with 5 toppings or a small hero sandwhich, or a cream cheese bagel.... once in a while, is ok....

I seem to have won a decisive round in the battle against obesity, since this surgery is among the most successful options for permanent weightloss.

Aside from some real scares during recovery, which was not my prior experience, I am generally confident about the early outcome.

Life Sucks

2006-01-28T04:07:00.000-05:00

Well just a few updates from TADtopia.

A/C bus company, which I think is also the same as MW bus company, in either case, whomever owns the route 440 Shopper bus in Jersey City NJ sucks.

A recent experience....

I spent approximately 3 hours or so waiting in the bus terminal for a bus that never came. Of course this was on a holiday, so I expected a delay... but 3 or 4 hours? Who the hell are they kidding.

It is supposed to be better for the environment to use public transportation?

Why then do those left wing loonies not ensure that PT companies are held to some standards, and I do not mean govt standards I mean human ones?

Why no public outcry over the mistreatment of the public by these companies but tons of outcry over say the Patriot Act, when there have been no actual abuses?

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Who else sucks?

Well we know that Saddam Hussein sucks, but that was a given years ago.

How about John Kerry who calls for a filibuster on Judge Alito, after more than enough votes are announced to override one.

How about Ted Kennedy, who, rather than try to have a serious intellectual debate over judicial issues with Judge Alito, resorted to innuendo and smear tactics... oh wait this is Ted Kennedy, a moron we are talking about.

Whatever happened to respectable and awesome liberals like Ed Koch and Pat Moynihan?

Oh wait, Joe Liberman is still alive...

But in Democrat limbo...

Because he stands for something, and not just regain power at any cost.

Book Review: A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin

2005-11-23T00:41:00.000-05:00

A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin (hereafter AFfC)

The fourth volume in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire (hereafter ASoIaF)

for reference

AGoT=Volume 1: A Game of Thrones
ACoK=Volume 2: A Clash of Kings
ASoS=Volume 3: A Storm of Swords

Warning this review contains spoilers

I have been waiting for this book for over 15 months like the rest of the ASoIaF fans. They are long volumes and not for the word weary. Translation, if you don't like to read or a 30 page pamplet is your idea of a long book, this is not for you.

Mr Martin had originally intended this to be a longer volume as it was to bridge a 5 year gap, but given how much he wrote, he realized that it would be unpublishable. So he split the work into 2 volumes. The next A Dance with Dragons (hereafter ADwD) is due late next year... so translate that to mid 2007... The split is along the characters, as Mr Martin says in his book and on his site, he decided to tell all of the story for half of the characters in each book.

AFfC picks up shortly after the seminal yet tragic events of ASoS. The repercussions of the Red Wedding and the murder of Joffrey Barrethon still play havok with the events in the 7 Kingdoms proper. Cersei has been made unbalanced to say the least by the death of her son. Jaime is undergoing some sort of personal visionquest. though he is still a scumbag. Arya's quest for vengence and self protection have taken her to a dangerous new place. Brienne's quest for honor, both her's and Jaime's and perhaps the center piece of the book reveals much of the local devastation of the war. The events in Dorne on serve to add fire to an already volatile mix. To say much more would just reveal far more of the plot than I intend to.

Key questions one should consider are:

Who really are the crows of the title?
Where is Varys?
What if anything is going to be left to face the Others?
Who is the new Septon??? I have my suspicions.
Does the feel of armageddon begin to fill you after this book?
What really happened to Valyria and the dragons?
What really happened to the Green Men?
How much do we really know about the maesters?

As to my thoughts and feelings about events within, and FYI, spoilers abound here...

I really enjoyed Brienne's journey. I think the most important information gained was the devastation that the war has had upon the smallfolk and the attempts underway to recover. I think Mr Martin draws much here from war in the middle ages, wars that could never finish the job since extermination of a population was no longer an option (I refer here to the pre Christian idea of warfare which basically was, go in destroy everything, kill all the males, rape and enslave all women of childbearing age, kill the rest of the women and move on). Strangely, Brienne is not even on my top ten favorite character list but at least in this novel she was the second most important p.o.v.

Jaime as has been the case since Ned died and Jaime became a p.o.v. character, is the most informative about the history and the current state of affairs in the middle 5 Kingdoms. This new "maturing" Jaime, while still that love him or hate him scumbag, is now one of the big players in the game of thrones. A great bit of dialog, more a speech really, and I won't tell you the context... but be warned it is a spoiler so highlight to read

"and if I will not yield?"

Must you make me say the words? Pia was standing by the flap of the tent with her arms full of cloths. His squires were listening as well, and the singer. Let them hear, Jaime thought. Let the world hear. It makes no matter. He forced himself to smile. "You've seen our numbers, Edmure. You've seen the ladders, the towers, the trebuchets, the tents. If I speak the command, my coz will bridge your moat and break your gate. Hundreds will die, most of them your own. Your former bannermen will make up the first wave of attackers, so you'll start the day by killing the fathers and brothers of men who died for you at the Twins. The second wave will be Freys, I have no lack of those. My westermen will follow when your archers are short of arrows and your knights so weary they can hardly lift their blades. When the castle falls, all those inside will be put to the sword. Your herds will be butchered, your godswood will be felled, your keeps and and towers will burn. I'll pull your walls down, and divert the Tumblestone over the ruins. By the time I'm done no man will ever know that a castle once stood here." Jaime got to his feet. "Your wife may whelp before that. You'll want your child, I expect. I'll send him to you when he's born. With a trebuchet."

Maybe if Jaime had not thrown Bran out a window, or off of a wall to be techincal, and was not engaging in 30 years of incest with his sister... maybe he would be a likable character or maybe not but he is one godaweful son of a bitch.

Arya's chapters, while very enjoyable and I suppose I could say this about Sansa's and Samwell's too, seemed more along the lines of get them there chapters and "in the mean time" chapters. At least until... well that would be too much of a spoiler.

Who else is in there, a new character from Dorne... and the queen of all bitches if nothing else, Cersei.

A good way to sum up Cersei's journey through AFfC might be "the descent". Because that is more or less what happens in many different ways. She fucked, manipulated and murdered her way to the top...and it turns out that while she is a really good schemer, she is a horrible regent. One vad decision after another. All to "protect" her grasp on power, her remaining son, King Tommen whom I do not think will survive to adulthood.

In summary, AFfC does exacly what it is supposed to do, deal with the aftermath of ASoS, with the only caveat being that ADwD will deal with that as well. We see the effects of the war across the lower 6 Kingdoms and begin to get an idea of what hell is coming next. Personally I think the use of AFfC and ADwD to fill the 5 year gap means that it will take more than 6 or 7 volumes to finish the series.

This book elevates Mr Martin into the upper echelons of American writers. A recent article called him the American Tolkien. That is already true. Perhaps the rest of the series will elevate him even further.

Links

Mr Martin's personal website, the only place for real info on the progress of the next book
http://www.georgerrmartin.com/

The best place to use as a clearing post if you will, it also has a great forum
http://www.westeros.org/

Mr Martin and his spouse occasionally pop in there with an announcement

A great place to discuss this book and fantasy and scifi in general
http://www.fantasyessentials.net

Dirt Poor, Desparate, Pending Surgery...oh and I Just Won a Contest with a Prize I Cannot Claim

2005-10-29T15:25:00.000-04:00

Ok, its been a while and it looks like the only person or thing that has posted a comment is some internet shill looking for clients for an online dating service.

Boy am I loved.

Well I am officialy dirt poor. I now can no longer purchase my own internet access. So how am I getting online you wonder? Well let's just say I am. Hehehe.

But I am still poor.

But I did get a raise. My awesome salary went from $12.36 to $12.731 . Yes a whole 3%. Stay in school kids, that's why I am back. Or I will be after a surgical procedure.

And no its not a lobotomy...

But this is starting to sound like a rant...

Or a bad song...

But I will take comfort from attractive Asian women...

And I get off on how Filipina chicks say "ok"....
...

... "Where's that online dating service...?"

When Does an Agreement between State Governments become Collusion?

2005-08-24T11:13:00.000-04:00

I don't have a particular problem with reducing emissions or being more enviromentally conservative, I am after a conservative, but this new "agreement" has gone too far.

-An aside- How come intrastate collusion to screw us on taxes is allowed? If we allegedly have the right to be protected from "illegal monopolies" that seek to restrain competition that would otherwise work in the consumers favor, do we not have the right to be free from agreements that would artificially cause our taxes to go higher?

"Enforcement of emission controls could potentially result in higher energy prices in the nine states, which officials hope can be offset by subsidies and support for the development of new technology that would be paid for with the proceeds from the sale of emission allowances to the utility companies."1

So... in essence you and I, the tax payer are to be squeezed in new war between the leftist polticians and electorate of the blue states and the rightist/conservative/libetarian/conservative democrat/everyone else the left has alientated and disenfranchised on their road to utopia blue states.2

Who's next?

"In recent years, New York and other Northeastern states have aggressively tried to reduce power plant emissions. Several have joined together to sue coal-fired power plants in Midwestern states that produce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that drift across state borders and cause acid rain in the Northeast"1

Oh wait, we're next. Or rather whatever source of money can be found for politicians to buy votes are next. You evil smokers, you evil fat people, you evil air conditioner users...

Returning to my original topic is dificult as I would love to go off on this environmental nonsense, not that we do not have significant problems, but agreements like this are merely to address the symptoms. The true problem is that we need more and cleaner means to produce energy, not more ways to make peoples lives more difficult. Nuclear power, rebuilding and modernizing our hydroelectical damns (most of which are nearing the end of their projected functional lives), building those wind farms that the leftists don't like3, geothermal power and -a new one- ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC)4. Hell even home solar panels make sense now. But why won't those subsidies go for home solar, because that would make the people energy independent and the government, whose business should be protecting us from all forms of malfeasance, has tried to expand into providing for all of our needs.

Notes
1-NYT Article I quote several times from this wisdom of the left.
2- The left has now begun to disenfranchise illegal aliens.

3-Cape Cod times
4- Wired

The Once and Future Internet

2005-08-09T18:27:00.000-04:00

The internet and private network access began as a people dialing up ISPs from several differnent telecom networks to their BBS services and their Inet providers and now that may be about to die...

Just a thought... I just read this article over on Techrepublic (for which free membership is required but one can probably find a similar story on one of the CNET news feeds). Independent ISPs are going extinct. Due to the current nature of the technology it is just more efficient to offer both hardware and software access through one vendor for any hardwired system.

What is the answer...

Not wireless, as in cellular access, that is just more of the same, alloted vendors with some sort of bandwidth selling internet access to us via that bandwidth.

However, if someone out there reads this, the best idea for competitative internet access is to set up wireless networking zones and then sell access to those points to people. Because then it does not matter how many wires come into the home, and which of the (eventually) three wires one chooses for access, there can be hundreds of competing wireless networks in any given area.

Just a thought...

Eureka, I got VLC mediaplayer to work!!!!

2005-07-14T09:53:00.000-04:00

I have (finally) gotten my beloved VLC media player, which seems to play everything except possible AAC files working in FC4.

Basically, I will simply this process for all who are interested.

First prepare. Open up FFx (by now any reader should have figured out that FFx is an abbrev for Firefox) and go to the following page

http://rpm.livna.org/configuration.html

This is the configuration page for the livna repository. You have to do basically two things here, both of which amount to the same thing. You must manually (as I detailed somewhat in an earlier post) or automatically configure your system for using yum on livna.

Under the FC4 section there is a section for yum. If you click on livna-release in the dl window which pops up, choose open with. It will prompt you for the root password. It worked correctly for me to automatically set up for livna. If not dl the file, save it to a known location (and FFx tip, in the download manager if you right click on a dled file, it will ask you -at least in linux- if you want to open the dl directory) and then run it with the command line listed there.

Then go here

http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshr...shrpms-release/

download the file that ends with noarch.rpm and install that by either of the above methods.

this sets up yum for the following site

http://freshrpms.net/

then open a terminal window

su -

(note the -, that makes things a lot easier)

enter the root password

on the next line type

yum install videolan-client

follow the prompts.

Playing God

2005-07-12T10:40:00.000-04:00

Every act of the will, every choice a human being makes is in essence playing God.

Why?

First let us look for a defintion of God. This is complex but given the context of the phrase, we are talking about the Judeo-Christian-Islamic deity. The one predominant thread through all of three slightly divergent characterizations of God is that God is a being of will. What God wills of that which is possible, is done in Planck instant, or instantaneously, unless of course it wills that the thing should be done more slowly. If God is a being of will, then will is foundational to God's existence.

If God created man, what does that mean?

Core to this issue is a true definition of creation. For this I draw upon and expand from Nietzsche. Creation is a synonym for valuation. To truly create something is to place a value on. Whether that value is zero, some number, or incalculable, the placing of that value is what creates the thing that has the value. What is the value of rock? That depends, especially if that rock contains precious minerals, or has an asthetic appeal. But what if man (or God or some other sentient species) did not exist? To whom would those precious minerals be worth something or to whose emotions would that rock appeal? If God created man, it must be said that he placed a value upon something which was otherwise worthless clay, he found emotional satisfaction in the existence of of more like him.

If man is created in the image of God, then whatsoever is the quality that is foundational to God existence is also foundational to the human's existence. Therefore will is the foundation of true human existence, not reaction, emotion or subsistance. When a man reflects God, he exercises his will, and by definition is playing God.

Two Things to Fool Us All...

2005-07-12T10:35:00.000-04:00

First, on Wednesday, NASA will finally launch the space shuttle again. Now despite any of their claims, the real reason that NASA does not want to fly the shuttle is that it is a waste of money. It costs in excess of 700 million to launch the damn thing. I am a proponent of manned exploration of space but the only valid reason left to launch the shuttle is the maintenance of the hubble and NASA is not planning to do that. NASA should be working intently on a space plane.

Note I recently read a decent novel, the earliest (in terms of occurance) novel in Ben Bova's grand tour sequence, Powersat. I heartily recommend this novel as a decent look into how the space program should be...private

One final note, you know that the only reason that the networks are covering this is because they want to see it blow up.

Second, who is Sen Harry Reid kidding, this is what is at stake with the new SC nominees:

Does this look like an economic drain?

Sen Reid is recently said to have stated that he won't filibuster any of President Bush's SC nominees unless there are extreme circumstances...

...You know, like the candidate is alive and breathing...

Any SC Justice who will be aggressively against the recent decision in Kelo vs. New London, will most likely be filibustered. The Democrats do not care. The liberal activist judiciary is their last chance to have some power.

Will the debate be civil read this

Conspiracy Theorists are like Addicts

2005-07-08T21:32:00.000-04:00

Conspiracy theorists are like addicts...

A recent glance through of a post over on Richard Hoagland's blog has led me to the notion that for many, once you start to "believe" in vast conspiracies, you become addicted. The post that inspired me to write this...

http://www.enterprisemission.com/weblog/2005/07/war-of-words.html

Now I actually like Mr Hoagland, although I have never met him. I think some of the points about certain things like Iapetus and the "face" on Mars deserve serious inquiry although I do not hold to his more grand interpretations. I happen to bookmark a bunch of sites that I group under a heading called weird stuff. I find some of this interesting at least from an entertainment pov.

But what I find annoying are these constant attempts to fit historical things with fairly straight forward explanations like the Kennedy assasination, 9/11 or the Columbia explosion into the grand conspiracy.

Take the Kennedy assasination for example, looked at with respect to possible conspiracies

Human beings are primates, and if you don't accept that where did that primate tailbone come from? Primates, especially the higher order ones, tend towards exclusive organizations. This tendency predominated and aided in driving evolution for millions of years, producing and refining a species which is capable of paranoia.

The average member of homosapiens, possible individuation aside, needs instinctually to associate in groups. Not only that, or as an out growth, these members tend to feel that others are in groups and a thought process arises from those unexplored primordial urges which rapidly takes the derivative of 2+2 but does not come out with zero.

So the fact that most people cannot shoot someone with pinpoint accuracy at several hundred to several thousands yards, makes them uninclined to accept the fact that a miitary trained sniper can. This of course makes spurious leaps of logic possible, in a certain famous assasination.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Ha...9s_marksmanship

People not only believe in big false conspiracies but in little ones. Santa and his helpers, parents deliberately trying to embarass their children, etc. It is a natural by porduct of our species evolution. It is in part what makes us such wonderful skeptics, as one actions also tends to produce the delevopement of compensatory mechanisms.

As to "real conspiracies" like communism or secret military missions, of course these events occur, and if we as a species did not possess the means to ferret these things out, we would have no need of intelligence classifications or the NSA.

The funny thing is that when a particular theory either does not come true, the explanations become, rarely, "it was thwarted" or, more commonly, "they were on to us knowing so they changed their nefarious plans". I was listenting to coasttocoastam last night, Thursday.

www.coasttocoastam.com

The show had on some guy named Sean David Morton who claims to be an expert in remote viewing, which is purported to be a psychic ability that lets one perceive eventss without actually being there. He also seems to be a radical leftist and is one of those with a visceral hatred of President Bush. He claimed that President Bush and his cadre will be attempting to turn the U.S. it a fascist dictatorship.

What is the explanation when neither occurs? Well as I have said, either we thwarted them or they changed their nefarious plans.

In science, for a theory to be true it must not only be demonstrable but have those demonstations be reproducable by others, and it must make successful predictions. Einstein's Relativity is not only constantly validated through reporducable experiments, reused machinery (the GPS system for instance) but several of its predictions have been proved true. But these facts that are validated are not themselves truths. The truth proved is that the facts are real and recorded as such or more specifically that the people involved in origin were honest and correct.

In one were to hold any conspiracy theory to these same standards, most if not all would fail the test. A serious of predictions which have a magical caveat like, "we thwarted them" is not a theory but an outlandish collection of unsubstantiated claims.

A Little Bit About This Blog

2005-07-08T17:10:00.000-04:00

Well my first post on my first ever blog, concerned the events of 7/7/05. But politics and war are not the only things that I will talk about, hopefully if any one ever reads this blog what I post will be of interest or at least give you a good laugh, either with me or at me.

My interests run through many areas and you may or may not see evidence of that here.

What am I reading now?

"Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces" by Tom Clancy and Gen Carl Steiner (Ret).

So far so good.

Back to 7/7/05 for a minute, so far the response has been encouraging if not overwhelming. I am not a warmonger (and I have never served in the military) but I remember history. My Roman ancestors did not take shit from anyone. If you messed with them, your civilization died. Maybe its time that another one of these terrorist hot spots died, maybe Syria now? What if in response to every terrorist act, we destroyed via bombing the military and industrial assets of a nation, no need for a land invasion, just raise the cost of doing business.

I do know if I will have multiple small entries in the future or just some long (hopefully) well segmented entries. Probably both.

On the PC side, I am currently transistioning to Linux, I've tried Debian but was too new to get the gui to load. I then moved on to FC4 but getting DVDs to play has proved impossible so now I am going to try UBuntu. Let's see if this one works or if Linux is really a pipe dream.

We Will Never Surrender...

2005-07-07T11:00:00.000-04:00

To the people of London, of the UK, my best wishes go out to you. You have survived through far worse, you will survive and grow stronger.

And now for some violent thoughts.

Perhaps we have not killed enough terrorists. Maybe its time to move on to the next source of terror, Iran, Syria, the IRA. It is sickening how much we, the tolerant of the world are supposed to take before we respond in kind and that is not a good thing. Sooner or later these murderers are going to strike against the wrong people, tick off the wrong rich person or accidently hit some drug cartel lord's family and then when that level of bloodshed begins to sicken us, we will act to clean up the mess.