« June 2005 | Main | August 2005 »
July 31, 2005
More Pool Fun
Posted by Daffodil at 6:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Quilt Progress
I ended up adding a sunflower and a butterfly instead of a birdhouse and I must say I like the effect. I also decided the tree needed some apples and I added pink flowers in the grass. Here's a shot of everything laid out on the quilt top:
Everything is cut out, the batting is in the middle and the backing is attached. I have the tree attached to the front and when Alexis goes to sleep I'll attach the rest of the items to the quilt top. I'm hoping to get the tree quilted tonight too.
Posted by Daffodil at 5:56 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam
Here they are! Sam I made up. I couldn't find an Overall Sam I liked, let alone one that was sitting down, so I thought to myself "Self, this can't be that hard. You're an artist, make one yourself!" And I did just that.
As for Sue I kept looking for the pattern that I used on Darlene's quilt and I couldn't remember how big she was. So I called Darlene and told her, "I have a weird question. How big is Sun Bonnet Sue on the quilt that I made you?" So she looked and it all came back to me. I remembered that I used a Simplicity Quilt Block Club pattern for Sue. She's a cutie!
I didn't get around to quilting this last night. I went to an early dinner with a professor of mine that I really like and I got sidetracked when I got home. Today I am going to make a few flowers for the grass and either a sunflower or a birdhouse on the right side under the sun. I'm leaning toward the birdhouse at this point, but we'll see how the day progresses.
Posted by Daffodil at 8:09 AM | Comments (7)
July 30, 2005
Restoring My Faith in Quilting
Last night I had a dream about a quilt. I keep a notebook on my night table so that I can write down any ideas for my novel that pop into my head in the middle of the night or any ideas for anything else for that matter. This morning when I woke up, while the idea was still fresh in my head, I drew out a little sketch. After running to the grocery store I delved into my fabric stash and got busy on it.
The quilt is an appliqué quilt. I know some people think those are very hard to do, but for me they are easy. I can sew a border around anything! So the idea was basically a big tree on the left, the sun on the right side of the quilt and grass along the bottom with a few flowers. But a few minutes ago I had a brain fart (yes, I said brain fart!) and decided that it would be cute to have Overall Andy sitting with his back against the tree with Sun Bonnet Sue standing and facing him. I think I am also going to put a sunflower on the right side coming out of the grass underneath the sun.
Here's a shot of what I have cut out so far:
The tree and sun pieces are just laying on the quilt right now and as you can see it is hanging off the side of my drafting table, but it gives you sort of an idea of what I am going for. The background, the border and the grass are already sewn togehter. I've got to get the adhesive backing on the other peices and get them ironed on once I get all the shapes cut out.
I am hoping to start quilting this this evening. That's the beauty of appliqué quilts...they're fast! And did I mention easy? My faith has been restored in quilting! Hooray!
And here you can see Alexis playing with her new quilts blocks. She was dying to mess with them when I was attempting to make the bug quilt so once I decided to move on to more rational projects she wanted them and I gave them to her. As you can see she's having a ball!
Have a great Saturday everyone!
Posted by Daffodil at 2:24 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Jury Nullification
Scott on AMCGLTD brought up the notion of Jury Nullification yesterday on his blog. The notion of Jury Nullification is basically that a jury has an obligation not only to consider a person's guilt or innocence under the law, but going a step further decide if the law itself is just. Historically this process has been used to allow the public to release a guilty person from punishment because they feel the law is unjust. On the surface the nobility of the notion is dramatic and hard to resist, but at some point the harsh realities of the this notion have to be considered and ultimately it must be rejected for the danger it possess to the very fabric of our society.
The lists of ways the law have been used to protect society from out of control legislatures is long and distinguished. So I'm not going to bother to go over how it's suppose to be used. Instead lets look at the make up juries in America these days as the first reason this is a bad idea. In this country the more educated you are, the more unqualified for jury duty you are. Basically anyone with a job is almost immediately released from jury duty, especially the most educated such as teachers or doctors. When juries are being picked by defense teams they practically demand that only the most ignorant and gullible people be put on the jury and with the process of exemptions they are almost guaranteed to get their wish. So we have the first danger to the jury nullification. You have an inadequate cross section of the American Population with the power to decide if a law is just or not.
The second major problem is that you have radical right wing organizations that train their people to exploit this loophole in the law in hopes of changing the nature of legislation that they have no hope of changing through the proper channels. The public at large has little knowledge of these loopholes in the legislative process, but the effects of a violent and vocal minority in this country hoping that they are the ones picked to make a decision that could propel their radical hate ideology forward is terrifying. A perfect example of this is the test jury trials done for the Rudolph case. Radical Neo-Christian fanatics were able to get on three quarters of the test juries that were set up from the pool in the area. These radicals sought basically the make murder a legal act when it was used against people they felt were "immoral". While there is a long tradition of this where the Klan thrived in the South and Midwest, it doesn't represent the will of America at large. These radicals were hoping to reward followers of their hate ideology who resorted to violence. The long term goal was likely to encourage more violence and spread that hate ideology.
Ultimately we must look at the notion of Jury Nullification as a double edged sword. We must make sure that a single radical isn't able to mislead a jury towards bringing harm to the laws of the land. At the same time we must allow Americans to protect their peers from unjust legislative actions. Our justice system would rather err on the side of caution and let a guilty man go, instead of let an innocent one rot in jail. While I agree with the notion given a choice of allowing a radical minority to abuse the legislative process through the courts, then it's safer to let the innocent go to jail than risk the Republic falling to the treachery of an evil group of America haters. I would rather depend on the people's representatives to step in and do the right thing.
Posted by ManDrake at 10:21 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 29, 2005
Discovery Commander Surprised at Shedding
I don't know why people think this is a big deal. After researching it for a year, developing new techniques for applying foam and everything else NASA did to try avoid shedding the foam on the external fuel tank, I'm sort of surprised too that it didn't work. Which brings us back to the solution to the problem. The original design for the shuttle called for every part to be reusable, but the technology at the time didn't make that possible. So compromises were made to get the system up a running and we have the Shuttle program we see today.
Now I keep saying the X-33 project needs to be reactivated. I guess I should explain why that's the best choice. The X-33 attacked the Shuttle problems in the most straight forward ways possible with the latest technology. The first major weakness of the Orbiter is that it has heat tiles. At the time they were the cutting edge of technology, but they were very fragile. We have since made massive improvements in the heat resistant technologies which allows us to provide the same protections with a metallic thermal-protected panels. This is critical because it cuts the maintenance time of replacing the tens of thousands of individually cut and fragile tiles on the shuttle. Also it would make repairs easier in space without as much effort.
The next massive improvement was the Linear Aerospike engine. This was probably one of the most brilliant adaptations in the history of the aerospace industries. Rather than weight down the engine with the standard cooling systems and nozzle systems of the hundred years before, they instead used the aerodynamics of a space craft to create a virtual nozzle system. The actual flow of air over the space craft at different altitudes actually changed the virtual nozzle to optimize performance for the environment. This engine has the potential to change how we fly into space, allowing a single stage to orbit vehicle to be a realistic possibility. The lifting body design is slightly different, but in reality it's how the Orbiter is already designed so it's just better because it uses a flying wing design with it to maximize lift for re-entry while making room for storing all the fuel needed to make it to orbit onboard the craft. Eliminating the need for an external fuel tank (which is what is grounding the Shuttle fleet) and booster rockets (which caused the Challenger failure) and decreasing the lift off weight allowing you to make single stage to orbit work.
Finally and what some consider the most important part, but I find to be of secondary importance at the point that they closed the project down, was the ultra-light fuel storage containers. They allowed the X-33 to weight very little, while having the strength to hold all the fuel required for lift off. The problem that ended the project was a failure of one of these tanks. Lockheed Martin offered to replace them with aluminum tanks until they could find the problem with the composite tanks and were initially given permission to start the work on the temporary tanks so the Venture Star (X-33 Testbed) could continue forward, but then under the influence of the Bush Administration reorganization the project was shelved because the technologies were just too "new" to be practical.
Now 4 years later we have nothing to replace the Shuttle and we are worse off as a nation. If we had been allowed to continue to develop the technologies we would be in the second prototype construction phase by now and we would have the potential for a future space craft that would revolutionize space travel. Instead these critical technologies have been allowed to languish on the drawing boards and not been given the proper support that would have guaranteed that we would remain a serious space faring nation for the rest of time. And the Discovery commander wouldn't have to worry that she will be the last Astronaut from the United States to fly to the international space station on an American space craft.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 4:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ordered Chaos in Perspective
Posted by Daffodil at 3:28 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Bolton Lied to Congress
A Republican lie!!! Never!!! I'm just SO surprised! Please! It was as predictable as the sunrise, which is why it's lucky we've got great people representing us like Senator Biden who are pretty clued in at this point that if a Republican is talking then they are lying. I think most of America is clued into that as well now. Sure seems that this would be a matter that would make even a lame duck President hesitate about doing something as crazy as a recess appointment of guy that not only has been exposed as a criminal, but has been linked to the Plame scandal as well. You almost want to dare the Neo-con scum to appoint him.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 2:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Frist Torn in Two Directions
I saw this and I had to snicker. The Republicans are becoming schizophrenic trying to appeal to all the different fracturing parts of their unholy alliance. Frist has become one of the most two faced fools of the bunch. I'm really going to enjoy watching the spin on this when he's talking to the Neo-Christians about this one. It doesn't matter that they represent an insignificant portion of the electorate because they own the GOP and they demand the stifling of all innovation and change in this country. So buckle up, the Frist is about to hit the spin cycle.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 2:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Easy Friendship Template
The Easy Friendship rotary template that I mentioned last night has found a new home.
Thanks for the interest everyone! :o)
Posted by Daffodil at 1:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Great post at Bringiton
Friday's are guest blogger days on Bringiton. This Friday Brad from Brad's Brain wrote up a great post. I pretty much agree with everything he says except when he says it isn't Bush's fault. I'm sorry, but complicity in a crime is the same as committing a crime. He's simply a fool. I get that part of the argument, but he still is helping people destroy the country. It's like saying the soldier that follows immoral orders isn't responsible for it. Bush is a college educated man, however limited his mental capacities, but the rules of society are pretty clear. His drinking and rampant drug abuse may have dulled the moral part of the brain as well as the rest of his already limited mental capacities, but he's still responsible for his behavior. I don't know maybe you could make a case that he's mentally retarded, which I think you could easily convince a court of considering his public behaviors. So he could probably be spared the death penalty, but will still get life in prison for his crimes against humanity. I also agree heavily with Brad that this country is being rushed towards fascism by the godless Neo-cons that run the Republican party. Republicans hate our freedoms more than the terrorists do and will happily take them all away to "protect" us from ourselves. I need no moral bankrupt Neo-con telling me how to live my life and none of you need them to "help" you either.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 1:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What's up with Jamison?
I'm not sure why I haven't been able to get into the mood to blog about the news. I've been reading it judiciously as always. I've just said everything that needs to be said on the subject. Neo-Conservatives are the root of all evil, not much else left to say. I can keep producing evidence on a daily basis to that effect, but I think we all get it now. Those that don't get it are just as evil as those that they defend, so there isn't much point in talking about that either. Up until this point I've been convinced the problem was a lack of evidence and understanding of the problem that was keeping the Neo-cons of the world from realizing the mistakes that they were supporting and making. Now I'm firmly convinced it's neither of those like I thought. They have decided to abandon civilized society. What I'm looking for now is a way to solve the problem. We have a godless evil mass of people seeking the destruction of the United States and pretty much freedom everywhere. They've managed to stir up all the other godless evil masses around the world and are hoping all of us decent people will be destroyed in or by the process. For anyone that knows me this is a major change in my philosophical approach. I'm a ruthless optimist when it comes to future of humanity. For all of our faults and failings I've never not believed we couldn't pull it together and save ourselves from ourselves. For the first time in my life I find this optimistic worldview in serious danger. I'm sure people will ask when this happened and what caused it and I'm not sure. I woke up one morning early this week and the hope that has always burned in my soul just wasn't there anymore. It's at moments like that you fall back to your core values that make up your personality. And when it comes humans my most core values are that we are all broken and we can't all be fixed. This is where my global mentality presents a disadvantage. Top down correction of humanity is pretty much the most complicated method to approach the problem, but I was never one to take to easy path so this is the way I proceed. Dianne is working with me to mold a more short term bottom up approach to the problem as well. However don't anyone get their hopes up that I'm done with blogging. I'm sure as a new vision of the future materializes I will return to some of my old habits, but for now I'm going to work on some solutions to the problems and talk about things that interest or disturb me.
Posted by ManDrake at 12:53 PM
July 28, 2005
Cutie Patootie
Posted by Daffodil at 8:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bush Gives the Finger...AGAIN!
Surprise, surprise! Not! This isn't the first time he's done this as I've mentioned before and rest assured it won't be the last. This is our "Christian" president at his finest. I don't know what it would take to convince people he's a complete liar and as far from an actual Christian as possible, but oh well.
I think MoxieGrrrl says it very well:
Although I guess all those conservative Christians who support him won't mind such a crass, crude gesture on national television, because it's the president and they support the president no matter what.Nevermind the fact that there's all that talk of values and morals and all that other bullshit that politicians spew when it panders to their constituency.
This is YOUR president. YOU voted for this joker. You ignored the signs and bought the image you so desperately wanted. Now that the veneer is starting to peel and we get glimpses of what these people are really like, are you going to still cling to this pathetic excuse for a leader? Probably. Yep, this guy - who resorts to giving the middle finger to the press - is such an upstanding moral character.
He's just another schmuck. Too bad he's fucking up the country at the same time.
Posted by Daffodil at 8:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bug Quilt Intermission
Well I gave it the old college try, but I am not going to finish this quilt. As a matter of fact I flat out refuse! I don't like the way the blocks go together, they look bunchy and tacky and they will look even worse when quilted. And once the rows are actually sewn together they look hideous. So this incarnation of this quilt is dead. I haven't decided what pattern I'm going to use, but rest assured it will have nice STRAIGHT lines!
If anyone wants this rotary cutting shape:
Let me know. The first person that emails me I will gladly snail mail it to you! :o)
Thank you and goodnight!
Posted by Daffodil at 8:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Elmo!
Posted by Daffodil at 2:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Judge Gets in Swipe at Bush Administration
U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour summed up everything that needs to be said on the subject of terrorism in America.
"We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant or deny the defendant the right to counsel," he said Wednesday. "The message to the world from today's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart."
He added that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have made Americans realize they are vulnerable to terrorism and that some believe "this threat renders our Constitution obsolete ... If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won."
When you see random searches of people in New York are going to be done "indefinitely" combined with the Neo-Christian demand that there be a national religion, pretty much everything that the Constitution stood against has been overridden by the Radical Republican party. They may be so worthless that they've lost the faith in what made our nation great, but there are a lot of us that still remember.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 12:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What I dislike about Customer Support
I will be the first to say that I'm not what anyone would ever label as a "normal" customer. I tend to function happily levels above the average customer and at most times at a significantly higher level than your average customer support organization. I'm well educated and willing to work without a net when I have to, but when you put something out on your website you better believe that I'm going to read it and ask questions about it. And if it's been out there for 3 minutes the customer support organization should be trained and ready to answer my questions about it. Hence this morning when I noticed my favorite cable company started offering a DVR option I was excited. I looked for a package price (because everything is about money in the end) and I couldn't find one. So I went to their online line live chat help service. Of course it was 6 in the morning so no one was manning it yet. So I brought up the 50 page manual and read the entire thing. Don't be overly impressed, it was mostly pictures so it only took like 15 minutes. What caught my attention was a dual tuner version. It allows concurrent recording of stations. Now that's something my TiVo doesn't do and that's interesting to me. My question to customer support was how much it will cost in my area? and they asked me "What is your phone number?" Alright let me be specific I clicked on the Maryland online selection. Therefore my area is Maryland. Not rocket science really, but hey I comply, because I really want to know about the Dual Tuner. But of course I ask why, the answer I need to know what you already have. So I told him what I already had as well, if that's what you wanted to know, it would make sense to just ask, but that's just me. I seem to remember in the manual that it requires digital cable, which I could have easily told him that I already have. So the price comes back 11 bucks a month. Not bad so I ask about the Dual tuner. I guess I should specify that about a minute is happening between each exchange. I type my questions instantly they take a minute or two to look up the answer to give me. Anyway the answer was that it was not available yet. Well when will it be available and how much is the estimated monthly cost? They have no idea. Bad Customer Support. Why put information on your website that you don't have to ability to provide yet? It's bad business. It doesn't matter what the business is customer support should be a step ahead of the customer at all times.
Posted by ManDrake at 12:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 27, 2005
Twins
Posted by Daffodil at 9:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Mirror Image
Posted by Daffodil at 9:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Early Morning Fun
It's hot! I'm talking sweltering and if you want to have any fun you have to do it in the morning since the afternoon is way too hot! Seriously, did I mention it's hot? I mean we're talking on Hell's doorstep hot!
Anyway, here are a few pictures of cuteness to help you through your hot day. :o)
Posted by Daffodil at 8:50 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
July 26, 2005
An asteroid, headed our way
Ok it's likely to hit in 2036, so don't fall on your swords just yet. There are so many worthless Neo-cons out there screaming that NASA is a waste of time and money and it's exactly events like this that make it clear that we need NASA out there working on things. We need methods in place to get into space quickly and cheaply, the X-33 project needs to be restarted so that we can easily respond to these kinds of issues in a quick manner. None of this ignorant crap about going back to the 1960's versions of spacecraft. We need to be building the future today, SSTO no matter the cost. The estimated cost of a rock this size hitting the Earth is easily in the trillions of dollars in total cost. I think we can afford a little more than an extra 200 million a year on NASA to stave off a couple of trillion dollars of cost or worse the extinction of the species. So you godless Neo-con Luddites just keep your mouths shut and we'll get around to saving the planet. Laura over at Cantkeepquiet wrote up two really good blog posts about the very topic of NASA last week that really cover what needs to be said on the subject (post 1 and post 2). She used to live in Huntsville, Alabama and I went to school there and worked at Space Camp so I completely agree with what she's saying on the subject of space and NASA. Space changes your view of yourself, everything become possible. Only fools could look at space and not be inspired to get us there. I'll be the first to admit we've got problems here on Earth that need to be fixed, but we have the resources to do both. What we gain in space makes a lot more possible than anyone can imagine.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 4:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
BUSTED! Roberts is LYING about His Federalist Society Membership
I was amused to see the evidence come out after Roberts started claiming he wasn't a member of the Federalist Society. I decided to wait on printing up a retraction because there weren't any Republican Justices that weren't members before and Republicans are predictable. They will lie, cheat and steal, so it's hard to believe that they would pick someone that didn't agree with their hate ideology. So a couple of days later his lying was exposed, so no need for a retraction on my part. Of course now we've got a Judicial Candidate that thinks lying is an acceptable behavior for people to participating in. I had thought that Roberts was going to sail through Congress without any trouble, but I guess he couldn't contain his natural Republican tendencies long enough to do it. Now with Bush trying to cover up his work at the White House under his Father and Regan, it sure leads one to think that this guy is actually worse than the left wing groups claimed he was. Talk about a major faux pas. Of course he's a Republican he'll probably compound his problems and start making up new lies trying to cover up the older ones. Too bad it's now so hard to find a conservative that is a decent human being because the Republicans used to be half way decent people.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 11:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Paul Hackett for Congress
I was on The Stakeholder the other day and I saw an interesting story about the GOP trying to out spend an Iraq War veteran that had decided to run for office in Ohio. The GOP's political problems in Ohio have pretty much mirrored the corruption that is the norm for their behavior nationwide. If you haven't read up on the myriad of scandals at the local level in Ohio you should. It's a story of thieves and corruption at every level of government, but that's just Republicans. It's just the kind of people they are, dishonest and corrupt to their core. So what makes the Paul Hackett case interesting is that Bush promoted one of the dishonest Republicans from the Ohio party (probably part of a political kickback, it's hard to tell why they pick people these days), opening a seat in the House of Representatives. Well needless to say all the scandal that has become the norm for the Republican party has caused people to reconsidered sending Republicans to Washington with the foolish notion that they are going to be represented by them. You can ask the people in South Dakota how much effort a Republican will put in for his state, whatever Thune is allowed to while staying lockstep with the party line. And his opponent has already been caught taking "gifts" from lobbyists that she felt no need to report. It's just how Republicans do business you see, criminality is the norm. So we have a 43 year old soldier, who volunteered to go to Iraq after 16 years of military service, and it's clear to see it is well beyond the call of duty. After he got back from Iraq the seat where he lived opened up so he decided to run for it. He appears to be good man with a genuine interest in serving the people of his state. I think he will bring a much needed reality check to the Republicans in Congress who happily accept the rosy picture being painted by the Bush administration about how things are going in Iraq. So if you live in Ohio's 2nd district get to know Paul and make a wise choice for a real leader to represent you and not a drone of DeLay and people pretending to be Republicans in the Capital. The election is next Tuesday and you get to send the Neo-con a message about all the corruption that they think is ok. Get out and vote for Paul Hackett in the special election next Tuesday.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 10:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Once More Into the Heavens
God speed Discovery crew.
Read it all here.
Posted by Daffodil at 10:43 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Campaign 2008 Begins, Led by Clinton
I have to giggle every time Hillary does stuff like this, because I know the Neo-cons start having palpations. I don't know if she's seriously considering a run or not for the Presidency, but just causing the Neo-cons to stay up at night worrying about it is good for America. I've said it before, the Clintons are the lightening rods for the right wing hate machine. The fact that they draw breath is an offense the hate mongers on the right and they campaign continuously against them. Which of course keeps them in the public eye, 24/7. Personally I'd like to see some unity among the Democrats myself, but it's going to involve drafting a set of promised goals for America like the Contract with America that the Republicans made up and promptly ignored when they got in office. They are still laughing at the foolish Republican supporters on that that one. Anyone remember term limits that the Republicans promised?? Hmmm. But I digress. I think a clear set of promises for changes that the Democrats are going to make if elected into the majority in the House and the Senate would be just what the doctor ordered. Notice I added in the stipulation, because I can already see the Neo-con attack ads in 2008, the Democrats failed to fulfill their promises in the Contract for Democracy (that's a good name for it!!). Without a majority they can't do anything, because there really isn't a such thing as a Republican that doesn't vote the party line at every vote. So you have to have a majority because Republicans can't think for themselves, unless they are given permission to. (The Chinese legislature has the same problem and we call them Communists, go figure.) Well I wish Hillary luck in her run for President and the Senate. ;) I wonder if she and Bill will do the same thing as the Bush family, call each other 44 and 42. Somehow I don't think they are that fundamentally lame.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 7:58 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Netflix near launch of movie downloads
I wouldn't make such an outlandish claim that they are near. I think the real challenge is going to be on the TiVo side of the fence. Their boxes don't have the bandwidth connection needed to support downloading an entire movie. I mean how do you ship a box without a integrated 100 base-T Ethernet card included? It's insane in this day in age to do something like that. I've already gone into the bitter diatribe about not allowing you to set up a TiVo with anything other than a phone connection, so I won't go about reburning that bridge again. Bad TiVo!!! I think in the long run that this will be the wave of the future for both TiVo and Netflix. The Technology is there, just the will and permission to make it work in ways that people want it to work will be the problem. Will you be able to transfer this bad boy to your computer to burn it to a DVD for yourself? But if you can get a movie in a 4 or 5 hours after you delete the previous one, you might be able to make an interesting case to people that just want to see the movie.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 7:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 25, 2005
Wee!!
Posted by Daffodil at 8:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
More Sandbox Fun
Posted by Daffodil at 8:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Toss the Tomatoes
Posted by Daffodil at 7:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Alexis' Bug Quilt Update
So far I have 4 rows sewn together into rows. 3 rows of bug and flower blocks and 1 row of border.
So far I'm just working on getting the rows sewn together, I'm not sewing the rows to one another yet. I'm laying them together on top of the drafting table as I sew them so I can get an idea of what they will look like. When I finish the initial set of 5 rows I'll sew them together with the bottom border to see how it will come together.
I'm also cutting border blocks as I need them for each row. For regular rows there is one border block on each end of the row. For the solid border row on the top and bottom there are 13 blocks. I've already cut out the ones for the bottom of the quilt and sewn them as you can see in the pictures. Counting the border rows there will be a total of 32 rows.
Overall this quilt top is still a pain in the rear end, but I see light at the end of the tunnel.
Posted by Daffodil at 7:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Americans Say World War III Likely
If the worthless Neo-con scum that inhabits the White House is allowed to stay in power it wouldn't be far from the realm of possibility to be honest. Republicans love random wars and would happily blow up anything to hide one scandal or another. Starting World War III would be just a reelection effort for them. They don't have the concept of morality that normal human beings have. Ultimately I think the most likely target will be China like the author of the article says. The Chinese have pretty much figured a way to exploit all of our weaknesses and while increasing their strengths. On that front I have to say I've been extremely impressed with them. Their grasp of free market concepts is pretty staggering and how easily they got a complete buy in from Corporate America will be the stuff of legend. Marx himself would be proud of what they've managed to pull off. They have turned capitalism against itself and managed to keep it under control. They have become an industrial power without equal in the world. They have robbed us of our strength and still managed to make us pay for it. Someday these morons are going to put two and two together and I think it's going to be too late for them to do anything about it. They will try one of these foolish saber rattling gambits and the Chinese will make us eat our words. And then things are going to turn down right ugly. Republicans are stupid enough to believe that someone wins in a battle of mutually assured destruction, most sane people realize no body wins it's a defensive strategy. Either way I think we will see China in control of a large portion of the Pacific Rim, no matter what we do about it. And some worthless Republican will start a shooting war trying to cover up one criminal indiscretion or another.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 1:04 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Community Ownership & Challenging the GOP's Privatization Agenda
I've become quite a fan of the notion of Community ownership as I've watched scandal and corruption become the norm with the GOP's Privatization Agenda. Republicans happily sell out the taxpayers to whomever will give them to bigger kickback. Personally I'm all for free markets when they lead to better choices for customers and reasonable profits for business, but in our country that's been all turned around and we see the Republicans happily killing collective bargaining agreements with medicine for people that are on government medical programs. This just sickens me. Why should tax payers pay more than anyone else for prescriptions just because they are willing to pay off corrupt Republicans in Congress?? I mean even you idiotic Republicans must be able to grasp that this isn't a good way to spend your tax dollars. On wait, you want an end to all social programs in the United States and a return to how things were in the good old days of the 19th century. Bite me you morons! You're just cruel and hateful. I hope to see and encourage more of these kinds of programs. I've actually got an expansion of this notion that makes it even more effective choice. We need to take a look at what we are paying for as taxpayers and get the government financial house in order. Either they look out for us instead of corrupt corporate interests or we are going to have to change who and how things are being done.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 1:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Portfolio Update
I finally got all the company stock moved into savings. I hate that it takes forever to resolve a transaction of real stock. The reality of the situation is that everything necessary for me to sell it are resolved in under a matter of seconds, but they use laws from decades ago before automation to keep my money from me for whatever nefarious purposes. It's best not to think about it too much because I realize that Republican supported corruption is going on and it is probably costing me a great deal of money. Now I just have to wait for the next massive drop in the bond fund. It's looking like it's going to be down a penny today. This entire exercise has given me a chance to rebalance my portfolio towards something a lot more stable than it has been lately, but I'm still way over exposed to stocks, which makes me extremely uncomfortable. On a side note, where in pure dollar values I've been able to set a new record for being ahead. Percentage wise I have a long ways to go. I'm told the difference between my number and the Fidelity number is related to me not counting dividends as profit, which is why our numbers deviate more when dividends are given out and on normal weeks parallel each other in percentage growth. And of course my personal requirement of three decimal places of precision also gives a slightly different picture than they give with their lazy single decimal place of precision.
This Weeks Actual Percentage: +5.944%
Last Weeks Actual Percentage: +5.768%
Best weekly percentage: +7.437%
Personal Rate of Return according to Fidelity for This Week: 11.7%
Personal Rate of Return according to Fidelity Last Week: 11.5%
Current Asset Allocation:
51.85% Stock
40.12% Bond
08.02% Savings
Posted by ManDrake at 12:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
White House Won't Show All Roberts Papers
Imagine the most fraudulent and criminal White House in history attempting to cover up valuable information for consideration of one of their criminal buddies??? I mean what are the odds?? It's a disgrace that a Supreme Court nominee that will likely sit on the bench for 30 to 40 years can't be allowed to be thoroughly reviewed by Congress before they give their consent, but hey fraud and corruption are what the Republican party are all about. It's just the kind of people they are. It's amazing how tied up every Republican is in the fraud to destroy our nation though. Bolton, DeLay, Roberts, Rove, Bush, Cheney and the list goes on and on. You don't have to dig very deep into a Republican's life to find corruption and criminality now do you? It's tragic that these worthless animals have been allowed to even be near the capital of the greatest nation on Earth. Let alone that they are being allowed to try and destroy the greatest nation on Earth with their brain-dead hate ideology. The 2006 election can't come soon enough. The question is if there is enough left of the nation to save after all their work to destroy it. There are days I worry that there isn't enough left.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 7:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Pensions Freezing Out Younger Workers
I'm not sure what the big deal is for younger works with this. Given a choice between something there is no chance I'm going to get and something that the worthless CEO can't steal if he wanted to, which would I pick?? Let's see, let me really think this one through. It's stupid, corporations have been allowed by the Bush administration to raid these Pension funds, there is nothing really left in them these days, we can expect many, many, many more failures over the next couple of years and if young workers are allowed a chance to escape from all the fraud, all the more power to them. If this is happening to you and you have concerns just remember the important difference is the Republicans can't steal this from you directly. Indirectly they work night and day to undermine the economy which your new 401k is based off of, but if you're smart and lucky you might be able to stay a step ahead of their efforts to destroy the country.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 7:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 24, 2005
Gonzales warns White House of Investigation
Nothing surprises me anymore about the Republican party. Dishonesty is their bread and butter. It's the core of who they are from the worthless scumbag on the street shrieking their hate ideology, to the treasonous bastards betraying our country while working in the White House. So what are they up to now you say? Well when the Judiciary was asked by the CIA to investigate the treasonous act of exposing an American spy to our enemies, the dishonest Republicans gave the White House advanced warning so they could "clean up" anything resembling evidence. I'm so sick of worthless Neo-cons screaming about how they are the freaking "moral" authority on the planet, when they are nothing more than wretched thieves. This is the best a Republican can be folks, this is what you get by picking them to run our country into the ground. The amusing part is by tomorrow evening you brain-dead zombies will have been programmed with the next layer of spin and all of you will have the excuse of the day from the party. All you have is your hate and your ignorance.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 9:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Along Came a Spider
Today I noticed there was a softball sized mushroom next to one of the trees in our yard. I decided to take a picture of it and what my needs to be re-Lasiked eyes could not see the camera lens picked up beautifully...a spider!
Posted by Daffodil at 7:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sunday Sandbox Fun
Posted by Daffodil at 5:13 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Splash!
Posted by Daffodil at 5:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Smile
Posted by Daffodil at 5:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Make A Wish
Posted by Daffodil at 5:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Kick
Posted by Daffodil at 5:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Shower
Posted by Daffodil at 5:07 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 23, 2005
Alexis' Bug Quilt
I finally decided on a pattern for Alexis' Bug Quilt:
And let me tell you this quilt has gone from a dream rapidly to a nightmare!!
First off was the cutting. There are 27 different bug fabrics and 27 different flower fabrics for a total of 54 different fabrics. I cut out 6 blocks of each fabric for a total of 324 blocks. I haven't cut out the border blocks yet and I'm estimating that will be another 100 or so. Some of the blocks could be cut out two at a time, but many of the bug fabrics could not because you had to center a bug on the block itself.
Now on to the actual sewing process. It's impossible to get a completely smooth sewn edge on these stupid blocks and this alone is enough to drive a perfectionist to the point of insanity! It's much like sewing a sleeve into a sleeve hole and anyone out there that has done that before knows what a booger sleeves can be:
And each block requires 5 pins before you can sew them together! It's really getting old fast! In fact I thought about cutting them into squares, but my 2 inch square wouldn't fit on them because it was too big, so I decided the squares would be too small. So onward and upward. Hopefully I can push through and get it done soon, but I'm never making this pattern again!
Posted by Daffodil at 12:12 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
July 22, 2005
Students Flock to Campus Organic Farms
CORVALLIS, Ore.In the last decade or so, student-run farms have cropped up across the country, at almost 60 schools in 27 states. Foodies call it the latest sign of the seasonal, regional food movement's influence, even on a collegiate landscape that's virtually paved with Hot Pockets, Pop Tarts and leftover pizza.
Over the past few years, about 200 schools have signed up with farm-to-college programs, which match up local farmers with area universities, according to the Venice, Calif.-based Community Food Security Coalition. The University of Montana in Missoula, for example, allocates about $425,000 to local meat, dairy and wheat products, about 17 percent of the school's overall food budget.
At Brown University, in Providence, R.I., dining hall purchasers started swapping Granny Smiths and Red Delicious for locally grown Macouns and Pippins. Apple consumption tripled, and the experiment extended to locally grown tomatoes and peaches, milk from Rhode Island dairies and, eventually, a farmers' market that set up shop outside the dining hall.
Lot's of cool organic news today. I also thought this was interesting:
In Corvallis, the fat green fava beans, pearly garlic, broccoli and lettuce harvested on a recent Thursday are for sale the next morning at an on-campus, unstaffed booth; payment is on the honor system and helps support the farm.This time of year rows of tomatoes and eggplants nod in the sun, waiting for their moment in late August, and a tiny patch of strawberries grows nearly wild — just enough for eating, not for selling. After four hours or so of weeding, harvesting and planting, students have a communal meal.
"It's nice during school to be able to go out and get my hands dirty," said Kevin McAlpin, 22, an Oregon State junior majoring in natural resources who was on his hands and knees weeding a lettuce bed. "It's stress relief."
Read it all here.
Posted by Daffodil at 2:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Horse-and-Plow Farming Making a Comeback
SISTERS, Ore.To some, the thought of a farmer patiently working the field behind a horse and plow might evoke pangs of nostalgia for the early days of agriculture. But in fact, the practice is making a comeback.
Ol' Dobbin hasn't run the tractors out of the fields yet. But increasingly, small farmers are finding horse-powered agriculture a workable alternative to mechanization.
Lynn Miller, whose quarterly "Small Farmer's Journal" tracks horse-farming, estimates about 400,000 people depend in some measure on animal power for farming, logging and other livelihoods. He says the number is on the rise.
Many are Amish farmers in Iowa and Pennsylvania who shun mechanization, but some are farmers who have turned to horses because of the bottom line, citing soaring fuel prices and the ability of the animals to produce their own replacements.
I'm always interested in this sort of thing. I think you will see more of this, especially as organic farming methods become more and more popular and oil prices sky rocket. It's a logical turn.
Read more here.
Posted by Daffodil at 12:10 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
Mount St. Helens Still Shaking
SEATTLEThere's a whole lotta shakin' going on at Mount St. Helens these days as the restless peak does what it has done for thousands of years: build new lava domes that totter and fall and become the foundations for still more new ones.
A series of unusually strong earthquakes — exceeding magnitude 3 — has been reported in recent days by the Cascades Volcano Laboratory in Vancouver, Wash., about 50 miles south of the mountain. The latest was a magnitude 3.1 quake early Thursday that was accompanied by a rockfall.
Rockfalls during the quakes send up plumes of ash. Some tower thousands of feet above the 8,364-foot crater rim; a March plume reached 30,000 feet, raising concerns about area air traffic. Some plumes don't escape the crater and some wispy, gritty puffs crest just above the rim.
The recent stronger quakes are related to rockfall from the mountain's towering, unstable new dome, said research hydrologist Jon Major at the lab. But it's not quite clear how.
I check out the volcano cam almost daily, if not several times a day and you can literally watch this mountain change. It's bizarre and fascinating all at the same time. Thanks to Jamison for bringing this article to my attention.
Read more here.
Posted by Daffodil at 12:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
On the moving of the primary from September to June in Maryland
On the surface I couldn't see the vision for the need for this delay, but the more I think about it the better I like the idea. The way the current system is set up it favors the radical Republicans of the state. This is where being the party of honesty and democracy is harming the Democrats. The Republicans go into a smoke filled back room of one of their illicit establishments and over the drug of choice decide who the candidate for the party is going to be in the next election. They don't allow anyone else a chance to run and those that are dumb enough to actually run with the party's "blessing" are basically ignored. Which is how the radical Neo-cons have gotten control of the party from the real Republicans, but that's another conversation. The Democrats instead have real elections and real debates of issues effecting the people they are actually going to represent (another weakness Republicans don't have, they only represent who they are told to represent by the party.) So when you have two popular candidates in the Democratic race, the party ends up fractured by the primary election. Which demoralizes the supporters of the losing candidate and undermines the Democratic winner for the election against the Republican. Meanwhile the Republicans goose step happily behind whoever they are told to support, the corporate cronies pour massive amounts of money into their campaigns and their smear force works night and day attempting to undermine and discredit the Democratic candidate that "survives". An extra 3 months to campaign until the actual election in November and rebuild the Democratic party seems like a reasonable choice. If the Republicans ever decided to have an open election instead of their standard party picked candidate it would help them too, but that's not the kind of people they are and the notion of democracy working sickens them. They would rather the wealthy of the state got together and appointed people at every level of government, but imagining that they could table their hate of America long enough to actually pretend they were actually human is another thing all together, but don't get me started on that. I'm going to tap my state representatives and see what they can do to move this along immediately.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 10:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 21, 2005
Slipping Through My Fingers
Posted by Daffodil at 5:03 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Cuteness in the Afternoon
Posted by Daffodil at 5:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sandbox Fish Fun
Posted by Daffodil at 5:01 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Mow the Grass
Posted by Daffodil at 4:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Some Internet Terms Unfamiliar
I'm trying to care that the rest of the world doesn't know what an RSS feed is or what a Podcast is. I bet these are the same people that don't know that there are three branches of the government. I'm not sure how you can be on the internet and not have come across these things at one time or another. I guess to really take the survey seriously I'd like to see what percentage of these people actually have access and regularly travel the internet for something other than email and smut. I mean if they aren't connected to the living breathing community that is the web, does it really matter if they know or not?
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 4:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Scientists: Humans cause global warming
WASHINGTON (AP)Global warming is caused primarily by humans and "nearly all climate scientists today" agree with that viewpoint, the new head of the National Academy of Sciences -- a climate scientist himself -- said Wednesday.
Ralph Cicerone's views contrasted with Bush administration officials' emphasis on uncertainty about how much carbon dioxide and other industrial gases warm the atmosphere like a greenhouse.
"Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is now at its highest level in 400,000 years and it continues to rise," said Cicerone, an atmospheric scientist who left as chancellor of University of California-Irvine to become academy president this month. "Nearly all climate scientists today believe that much of Earth's current warming has been caused by increases in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mostly from the burning of fuels."
Cicerone, testifying before a Senate Commerce subcommittee on global climate change, cited data from weather stations and ships indicating the surface of the Earth is generally hotter by about seven-tenths of 1 degree Fahrenheit just since the early 1970s.
All I have to say is well duh! The comments from the current adminstration are pretty much useless, but the article is worth reading anyway. Read it all here.
Posted by Daffodil at 4:50 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack