quacky: —–+—+—–

Being poor is like being in the asshole witness protection program.

–Alison Rosen via Timothy McSweeney’s Internet Tendency

I think I’ve made a discovery so significant, it penetrates to the heart of so many other human pursuits. Yes, I do mean “human”, in that it applies to all of us. It’s not so narrow as to be merely a cultural thing, or a modern thing. But I think it lies beneath almost everything suggested by the question “what is it to be human?”

In a sense, this thought, which is actually a question, could, I think, be said to lurk in the depths of our art, our philosophy, our scientific endeavors, music, poetry, literature, religious thought, even war and politics. The ridiculous thing is, it is a question without answer; an intractable question; a self-referential, maddening gyre of a question; an infernal, stubborn, infinite recursion.

The question that plagues us, has plagued us since thoughts began to form in our proto-cognitive prehistory, is a simple one. At least grammatically speaking… Yet it seems to be diamond-like kernel — perhaps galaxy-pinning black hole — of every human endeavor (with the possible exclusion of cuisine). It is … (more…)

Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968 boxset.

I just came across a bunch of these Stax-Volt box sets that I could have for relatively cheap. What a treasure! But there’s one problem, the MP3 tags are impossible! For whatever reason, they’re not auto-tagging from the web, or with my MP3 tagging programs. The darn things just don’t exist. So I’ve got about 3 or four (not quite sure) big piles of really badly tagged, nine-volume box sets of soul music. It’s not so bad, really, just a kind of mammoth data entry project. But MAN, I wish CD manufacturers would offer that their stuff was already tagged. don’t you?

I’m just gonna predict here:
“I along with many others tried Linux during college” will inspire a ridiculous internet meme for a while. Maybe there’s something else going on here, maybe the “news” is being pranked, a la the adequacy.org of yore.

Betcha fifty bucks!

“Next time you’ve taken so much ketamine that the carpet pattern keeps permutating and growing into a giant gnome body with a grinning Chinese genie face, don’t freak out—jump on him. That fucker’s got wishes out the yazoo.”

Today, in between making spreadsheets and purchase orders and taking statistics (or metrics) of things, I am also making superhero avatars. Here are a few:

The first one is a girl superhero, with a tail and wings, I call her Kir. The second one is a little bit muscular guy named QUNK, who I think looks a little bit too effeminate in the face (or “stuck up” as they used to say). The third one, I just clicked randomize until it felt great, and then I tweaked with the colors and some background details to smooth things out. He is called Wuqaqzy because that is a bizarre twist of Quacky. I made him on HeroMachine2.

I’ve said this already.

• Larisa Alexandrovna: Welcome to the final stages of the coup…

Fascism is finally and formally out of the right-wing closet even if the F word is not yet openly being used (although it should be, and often).

We are in a crisis so dangerous that should these people succeed in their coup, your party affiliation will no longer matter, your American flag will be a nice collectible item of something that once was, and your version of God will be worshiped in secrecy because your freedoms will be owned by the few.

What do these words mean? “nationalized socialism”

Here’s one response from the opposing side:

… it’s time to rid ourselves of this pesky democratic republic and just smash the whole system so we can replace it with a system where those fit to rule have been bred that way…. Voting, democracy… messy encumberances that keep those fit to lead from leading, all because too many US citizens are too stupid to vote in their own best interests…. Sad, really. But then, such is the burden of being an elite in this country. STOP HATING US BECAUSE WE’RE BETTER THAN YOU!

I’ve said this before. It scares me that the above quoted mouth breathers are the ones with the weapons and NRA memberships and wal-mart employee discount. And those on the left, with perceptive and critical thinking skills denounce armed violence as ‘primitive.’

It never occurred to us that this was intentional, because it was meant to seem like an accident, a crisis, like a hurricane. Like the lessons of Katrina though, remember, who gets the help in a vast disaster these days? Not the poor.

Now is not the time to think hard about policy, or to lament what’s become of our ideals; now may just be the time to learn how to fight.

jigsaw #5 / interview/ Unwound

Vern: we’re forever 19.
Jigsaw reporter #2: how come you guys are forever 19 and not forever 18 (like the Nation of Ulysses) ?
Justin: because 19 is a more awkward age.
Jigsaw reporter #2: you think?
Justin: yeah, it’s more fucked up.
…
Brandt: my favorite Melvins show was—and this is really hard cuz every Melvin’s show is really different and great in it’s own way—I guess the one with Beat Happening and Nirvana at the grange hall on steamboat island road….
Jigsaw reporter #1: when they played ‘keep on rockin in the free world’
Unwound: yeah, that was cool
Jigsaw reporter #1: I got kicked in the head at the beginning of that song and passed out and didn’t come to until the very end of it but I didn’t hit the ground cuz there were so many people there.
Vern: the cops tried to break up the show during that song I think.
Jigsaw #2: was that the show where Calvin put holes in the ceiling with his head?
Jigsaw #1: yeah.
Jigsaw #2: there hasn’t been a show there since that happened…
(talk about whether or not Nirvana was good that night)

Hi I’ve been remiss.
I stopped writing blogs on here, because I resumed writing blogs on here.

It rocks. I am glad satanosphere.com is back from the dead, because diary maggots weren’t even keeping its corpse interesting.

What’s new besides that, you ask? I really like google Chrome, you know, the new browser from Google?

I just have a hard time believing that nobody on this web page : Organic Batter Blaster | The Impulsive Buy : has even made a joke about the other kind of “organic batter blast” you probably don’t want to Google Image Search for…

Get me these please. I promise I won’t play them.

We will totally regret this one day.

Scientists have trained a group of monkeys to feed themselves marshmallows using a robot arm controlled by sensors implanted in their brains

The Register: The Internet as a platform? Not as ISP bloodbath looms describes a

“… problem with the current ISP model is it is like an all you can eat buffet, where one in 10 customers eats all the food, one in 100 takes his chair home too, and one in 1,000 unscrews all the fixtures and fittings and loads them into a van as well.”

OY! Do I know what they’re talking about! And we don’t even have this iPlayer on my network

I don’t know what the HELL this is all about but it sure would be cool if it turns out to be true!!

Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything - Telegraph

“My brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing,” he tells New Scientist. “I thought: ‘Holy crap, that’s it!”

Viceland.com - DOs and DON’Ts

Interactive Model of the Cisco Catalyst 3750-E Series Switches [Cisco Catalyst 3750-E Series Switches] - Cisco Systems

I never dreamed I’d have a need for one of these, but suddenly it seems I do. Cool!

magnet

I haven’t really wanted to buy myself a toy for about twenty years. But, it’s shit like this that makes me feel thirty years too old. Next year, R2 will turn 30. R2 the actor, not R2 the character, because, he’s been through some shit by the time we first meet him, and he’s at LEAST as old as Vader/Anakin, who is fricken OLD. I wonder if there’s any canonical answer to the question “how old is R2-D2?”

Anyways, the point of this link here is that some geeks who take everything apart, took apart Hasbro’s new R2-D2 toy robot, and took lots of pictures, which is what they do, I guess.

Cracking
Open Hasbro’s R2-D2 Interactive Astromech Droid | TechRepublic Photo Gallery

Charming and affable, he will serve as your dedicated helper (an extendable utility arm holds a drink) and loyal friend. He obeys commands, communicates with beeps and whistles, gestures, flashes his lights, swivels his dome

Ever wonder how housing finance crises get started?

… [the] five-bedroom house in the good school district, the high-quality medical care, the college education, the designer clothes, etc. — credit becomes a lever that pushes up the prices of these goods exponentially. Whoever is willing to take on the most credit wins the most goods. Take the Home Depot cashier as an example: If she opts for an interest-only, negative amortization, adjustable-rate mortgate, she can easily outbid a family with twice the income, as long as that family has chosen a traditional, thirty-year fixed-rate mortgate. If, as Dave Ramsey strongly recommends, the family opts for a fifteen-year mortgage, they could have three times th emoney to spend on their home and still lose. It’s easy to see how those who are unwilling to leverage their credit to its fullest, i.e., who refuse to be irresponsible, quickly fall out of the middle class and begin to look and act suspiciously like the poor.

from: MAXED OUT, the book