2010 March | BoWilliams.com

Thursday miscellanea #80

Mar 252010

I would love to be able to recapture the peace I used to feel after finishing finals for a quarter. That was tranquility.
It’s about time the scientific community gave us something worthwhile. Barbecue sauce is good for your health because it generally packs a lot of antioxidant-rich ingredients. So, see, it totally cancels out the rack of ribs upon which you slather it! Shit, have three or four beers too!
I happened across American Idol this week (at the request of my sons), and began to have impure thoughts about Miley Cyrus. She needs to hurry up and turn 18. (In my defense, she was dressed about three-quarters up the slutty scale.)
After a long period of healthy detachment from driving annoyances, they’re flaring again for me. I’ll have to work on that. Anyway, the big peeve this week is the motorist who flies by in one lane and then expects to be let in at the head of the line in the other. Yah. As if, you jackass. If I’m in a position to make it happen, I’ll make you wait even longer for trying to pull that.
John Cornyn on repealing and replacing. Love it. Going to need this attitude for a good while. “This is no time to go wobbly!” – Margaret Thatcher (to George H.W. Bush, in a saner time)
I finished BioShock 2 this weekend. It’s a very good game, but it was a noticeable click or two south of BioShock. BioShock 2 is a tad rote, and the new hacking mini-game is as inane as the one in BioShock was brilliant. Did that really need to be dumbed down? Still, count me as a big fan of the franchise. It’s truly unlike anything else, and that’s hard to do in the video game world.
Back when I was hanging out at alt.music.lyrics, the humorous misheard lyrics were a popular topic, as you might expect. One that I read really tickled me and has always stuck with me, to the point that I sing it whenever I hear the song. Whenever Deep Purple’s most iconic song is on, you’ll hear me sing “Slow-motion Walter, the fire engine guy…”

Best rainbow I’ve ever seen

Mar 252010

This was out our front door 15 minutes ago, and for the few minutes it was there, you couldn’t look away. I’ve never seen a rainbow so intense in the sky (note that it’s a double, as well).

I knew it wouldn’t last long enough for me to get far enough away for a truly wide shot, but I’m pleased enough with what I got. (Click for larger.)

Forgot my PIN. Yes, really.

Annoyances, Consumption 8 Responses »

Mar 242010

I forgot my debit card PIN tonight.

I stopped at the grocery store with Aaron on the way back from soccer practice, and when it came keypad time, I hesitated. Ooh, weird. That’s never happened before. I punched something that seemed right, but it wasn’t. Switched quickly to a credit card to avoid holding up the line, completed the transaction, and left, contemplating the horror. Wow. Are there bugs eating my brain?

(Now just so you have the whole story, I didn’t select this PIN. This PIN was inflicted on me. Still, I’ve been using this card at least weekly for over a year.)

I got home, dropped Aaron off, decided I’d made a simple transposition error, and went back. (I needed peace on this.) So, of course, I promptly blew it again. I actually went back in the grocery store and punched in an incorrect PIN for the second time in 20 minutes. (Oh yeah, and with the same cashier. Need to wait a few days before I go back, else she’ll probably get a restraining order.)

Shuffling back to the Technical Writing Express, I couldn’t believe I was going to have to go to the credit union in the morning and tell them I’d forgotten my PIN. I was going to be that guy for some lucky credit union employee! Woohoo!

Then I saw the bank in the parking lot. Hmmm. I need to check out its ATM.

It was the swipe-it type, i.e. no risk of it sucking up my card if I punched the wrong PIN three times or whatever. So tonight, I actually sat at the ATM and punched in candidate PINs until I got it right. (I had the correct four digits from the very start, and of the 24 possible combinations, I had to try 8 or 9 before I scored.) Should I write it in Sharpie on the back? Have it tattooed backwards on my forehead? Sheezus fuck.

I’m recording this as an anomaly and going to bed. I’ll be sure to post back tomorrow if I forget how to drive or something.

(Please appreciate that not once above did I type “PIN number” or “ATM machine.” You’re welcome.)

Health care reform, good and hard

Annoyances, Consumption, Current Events, Family, History, Language, Liberty, Politics 3 Responses »

Mar 232010

I have never been so disgusted with my government.

The nausea has subsided somewhat, though I can easily and reliably summon it again. All I have to do is consider that the Democrats have obviously jettisoned any hope of favorable midterm election results, and absent that stick with which to beat them, what else might this gang of thugs do in the next seven months? Mark Steyn was right. The will of the people is completely irrelevant. Grease up, ladies and gentlemen.

Most Americans opposed this awful bill, but some supported it, and obviously they’re cheering now. I chatted about that with kemtee a bit. Despite our grounded and cynical selves, we were still both a little surprised at said cheering, I think. So I thought a bit about how we might have gotten it:

Civic ignorance. Clearly, knowledge of the U.S. Constitution is lacking. I wonder how many college students would accurately describe the document as “an instrument for the people to restrain the government“? I wonder how many would define “inalienable rights” correctly? After all, I’ve heard for months that health care is a basic fundamental right.
Innumeracy. Deficit spending is just how we do things now, and it’s no big deal. It’ll all work out. What is a dollar, anyway? Where does it come from? Oh, and one number ending in “-illion” is rather like any other number ending in “-illion,” isn’t it? A billion is, like, a bunch. So is a trillion. Right?
Culmination of decades of class envy rhetoric. “Rich” people get rich by stepping on “poor” people, and they don’t pay “their fair share” when they get there. Why, they hardly pay anything at all into the system, so they’re a reliable source for gobs more money to pay for anything we can think of. Plus, they deserve it, the bastards.

Despite it all, we must be deeply and sustainedly serious about turning this back. Though we must make the effort to travel them, I’m pessimistic that satisfaction is to be found down judicial avenues. It’ll take two elections. Though it would be preferable that the Republicans reclaim the House this year, it’s not strictly necessary; gains sufficient to get comfortable Blue Dog overlap might be enough. Then, they have to have Congress and the White House in ’12.

Sounds daunting. It is. I also fear it is the only path to preventing the permanent decline of the greatest nation in the world. God help us.

Oh, well leave it then

Family, Language, Leisure 1 Response »

Mar 222010

Bo: “Nathan, pick that napkin up off the floor and throw it away.”

Nathan: “That’s not a napkin; it’s a bloody tissue.”

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