Do me a favor... put your makeup on in your home, not your car. Not on the 55 Freeway. Not in the fast lane. Thank you.
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Tomorrow is Friday.
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I got the cardboard and tape deck... you name the place and time. Poppin' Taco and Boogaloo Shrimp forever!
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The number of Americans claiming jobless benefits fell last week and factory employment in the U.S. Midwest hit a 27-year high in March, more signs that an improvement in the labor market is under way...
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Donald Trump and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann: a winning team in 2012!
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Just a thought, but I might just relocate to the land of Brie and Berets if Trump, Bachmann, Palin, Gingrich, or... any other neocon fuckwit is elected in 2012. Just come see me down at the Long Beach docks for a free ride.
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Holy Mother of Gawwwd... Nat King Cole just came on my iPod. Hmmmmm... only 268 Days, 8 Hours, 13 Minutes until Christmas.
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This year I will get my annual physical (which I haven't had since 1988).
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The balls on this guy: GE chief executive Jeff Immelt told the Economic Club in Washington that his company did nothing wrong. "At GE, we do like to keep our tax rate low, but we do it in a compliant way, and there are no exceptions," Immelt said. "Our tax rate will be much higher in 2011 as GE Capital recovers."

Big balls. And with a $3.5 Billion tax credit, I would assume his balls are not gold-plated.
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H0pe and Chang3(TM)
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Ch2m Hill called... I don't know about interviewing with a company that I simply can't pronounce.
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On Tap today:
Pete Seeger - Stories and Songs for Little Children
Nomeansno - The Day Everything Became Isolated
Primus ('cause they SUCK) - Suck On This

Poway. Really?
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Tomorrow is Opening Day 2011! While I am not as hopeful about the Angels this season as I was... say two years ago... I am excited to get back to Baseball!

Oh yeah... I almost forgot: Yankees suck balls.
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With the coming of Baseball is... C A M P I N G! Yes, I know I could be camping tonight, but it's a little too cold and wet for my little girls... I got all of our gear out this last weekend and took inventory. Everything looks great and nothing is broken (that's a first!). I need 2 new first aid packs, since my oldest daughter decided to perform her best Evil Knevil on a scoooooter last Summer and took off the top 3 layers of skin from her knee to her foot.

And my alternate pack will expire in July. Sooooo, time to go shopping!

Out

Oh, I wish I had a Holy Hand Grenade.
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I am hopeful (but realistic) that Sensation will come to the West Coast in 2012. When it does the kids go to Grannie's house and the wife and me are off!
The realist in me knows that Sensation won't work in the States... but I can dream!
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Baseball in 2 days...
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If I had a Holy Hand Grenade, then all of my problems could be solved - rather quickly and with a loud bang!
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This is from my "holy shit, he's a complete idiot" file:

Rick Santorum says the [Social Security] system has design flaws, but the reason it is in big trouble is that there aren't enough workers to support retirees. He blamed that on what he called the nation's abortion culture. He says that culture, coupled with policies that do not support families, deny America what it needs â" more people.

Not making that shizal up... nope.
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In SoCal, it's big news that USC's Kappa Sigma fraternity is 'appalled' by photos of couple having sex on a USC building rooftop. "While the actions that were taken did involve a member of our chapter we, in no way, support this kind of behavior, nor do we promote any such actions," Ayushi Gummadi was quoted as saying.

Gummadi said inquiries into the incident had been launched and that the fraternity member seen in the photos had been suspended "for conduct unbecoming of a Kappa Sigma and a gentleman."

Wait... what? A frat, no a USC FRAT arguing ethical and moral character here? Whoa... I think that is the 3rd sign of the apocalypse. Maybe the Mayans were right.

"Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound"
We're close to adding the 51st State... Libya. Personally, I can't wait to add Tripoli to my Spring Break destination!

Next up, the ever-inviting Syria! Woot Woooooo!
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"...Look up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, no... it's Superman"
Update: Wil Wheaton's podcasts are NOT funny. Not funny. And this has nothing to do with Mr Wheaton being a complete dick to me in 1988.
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Yes, I know today is Tuesday, but I was sick yesterday, so yet again I am a day late and a dollar short.
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"The never ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way."
I miss Everquest and the weekend: 46-hour marathon campaign across the Plane of Hate.

My roommates and I would get off work Friday, go directly to Luckys (yes) and get supplies - which would consist of sugar, beer, more sugar, something salty, and much, much more beer. Go home and straight to our rooms. Fire up the cable modems (whoa!) and login.

Aziel (me) would shout: "where the @#$* are you guys... and then we would group up and... marathon begins...
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Do you think John Travolta will ever make Battlefield Earth 2?
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An update to Moonpie's nemesis, Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher: his podcasts are ok. Some parts are genius, laugh out loud funny, while other parts are clumsy and sometimes uncomfortably not-funny. Since they are free and IF you have the free time, I say download them and give them a listen.

If you hate them, then I do have Wil Wheaton'Âï½Â(TM)s address.
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I just read that Travolta is making Battlefield Earth 2: Electric Boogaloo.
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SuckerPunch opens today. Vanessa Hudgens is definitely worth the ticket price. Little Gabriella is alllll grown up.

(wow I just read that back and I am CREEPY).
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On tap today
John Denver - Greatest Hits
Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real - Brando's Paradise Sessions
(This band is amazing... I saw them a few months back and they rocked the house. Pick it up and give 'em a try, you won't be disappointed!)
The Psychedelic Furs - All of This and Nothing
Bill Withers - Lean On Me - The Best of Bill Withers

I missed Thursday... but, (according to my Evangelical Co-Worker) Gandhi (yes, THAT Gandhi) is basking in the eternal hell-fire glow.

Oh, how I love Orange County.

2 Taekwondo classes last night - 240 minutes of kicking, punching, running, stretching... getting kicked and punched and run over. And I pay for this. Voluntarily...

It has become painfully obvious that my 40-year-old body is NOT as resilient as my 25-year-old body. Having a very difficult time walking this morning. And I pay for this. Happily.

I hope that my Master holds testing next week, so I can earn a belt promotion, because it's always fun to start on new poomses and kicking techniques... plus the green belt just looks cool!

-------------
I downloaded Will Wheaton's collection of podcasts last night. Got through 3 on the 55 freeway this morning... saving judgement until I get through at least 3 more.

------------
Did I mention that I (and the wifey) gave up all meat (save fish) for Lent? I am sooooooooo craving a Double Double(TM) this morning. Come Easter Sunday afternoon, I will be deep, deep, deep into a meat coma.

------------
One week until Baseball and I am NOT at all hopeful about my Angels. I don't think they'll see playing time in October and Jared "Sunshine" Weaver is counting down to Free Agency. (Side-note: when Sunshine shines with another team, I get a VERY nice bottle of Middletons Whiskey.)

-----------
On tap today:
1. Leela James - A Change Is Gonna Come
2. Solomon Burke - The Very Best Of Solomon Burke
3. Barbara Morrison - Live at the 9:20 Special

On tap today:
X - Live in Los Angeles.
NIN - Pretty Hate Machine
New Order - Substance

I spent some time today visiting some old haunts. Obviously, /., but also:
setiathome.berkeley.edu/
www.userfriendly.org/
www.cnet.com
www.sfgate.com/
www.thinkgeek.com/

I miss Leo and Kate... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screen_Savers

And the never aging: Ensign Wesley Crusher...
www.wilwheaton.net/ (http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/)

Yeah, I guess some where along the way I got busy and forgot my geeks roots...

I'm back....

Well, it was easy to find the 'write in journal' link. Or is that from my slashbox? I dunno. I don't care. Second, it works better for me on IE 8.0 than it does on FF 3.6.

No FF compatibility, less readability than 2.0, inability to save preferences? Lame.

No wonder the number of comments to articles is down. Substantially by my seat of the pants estimation. Eighteen comments on a Android vs. Symbian troll article after 35 minutes? Anti-Apple troll article has 67 comments after three hours?!

They either wanted to drive down page views, will roll this back, or Netcraft will soon confirm it.

Here are six files for ya, showing a problem in 3 different scripting languages. What will they do?
--------- test1.php:
<?php
require 'test2.php';

define('SOMECONSTANT','hello world');

function foo() {
                return SOMECONSTANT;
}

echo foo(); echo "\n";

--------- test2.php:
<?php
require_once 'test1.php';

echo foo(); echo "\n";
--------- test1.py:
#!/usr/bin/python
import test2

SOMECONSTANT='hello world'

def foo():
                return SOMECONSTANT

print foo()
--------- test2.py:
#!/usr/bin/python
import test1

print test1.foo()
--------- test1.rb:
#!/usr/bin/ruby
require 'test2.rb'

SOMECONSTANT='hello world'

def foo
                SOMECONSTANT
end

puts foo()
--------- test2.rb:
#!/usr/bin/ruby
require 'test1.rb'

puts foo()
---------
Ok, scriptfiends, predict the output of these three commands:
php -q -f test1.php
python test1.py
ruby test1.rb

and then do some pasting and try it out. Match your predictions?

The PHP one bit me pretty hard today.

I have a password written on a post-it note underneath my keyboard. Decades went by without this ever having happened, but now I have one of these. [rationalize]And I'm keeping the post-it, because it'll probably be months or years before I ever need that password again, so there's just no chance I'll be able to remember it (it's actually a pretty well-made password).[/rationalize] OTOH, I suppose I could just throw it away and then the next time I need it, ask someone for it again. [truth]But no, it amuses me that I've entered the ranks of people with passwords on post-its at their desks, so I'm keeping it, for that reason if nothing else.[/truth]

I've been 35 for almost a month now. I'm working at a place with linux-only guys, who think that the best solution is always free software. I feel like the old unix dude with the suspenders who still reads a.s.r. I feel ancient, as I've worked with big iron, or at least medium iron since my first job, and the guys who work in the IT department here are used to virtualization on intel platforms (so, machines considered big for their time, but not SPARCs or RISC machines).

Benny pestered me incessantly about what I wanted for my birthday. I couldn't figure it out; I was (and still kind of am) on the dark side right now, about a 4 on my personal 1-10 depression scale. It doesn't affect my ability to work, but it numbs and dulls my senses. Like I should've been elated to get the job I have now (which is almost perfect), but I wasn't. I couldn't express that level of joy. I'm still not quite there, but I'm digging out of it slowly but surely. Anyway, the day before my birthday, I figured out what it was I wanted. I wanted a guitar and lessons.

We headed to Guitar Center and I found a decent guitar, and we walked out with a guitar, case, book, picks, and an extra set of strings. I called up the music store in Castle Rock (which is where I work, 17 minutes from where we live, just north of Sedalia), and started lessons last week. I suck, but I'm sucking less at it every day. I practice until my fingers are tender, as many days as I can actually get the time, and I figure that has to be good enough.

I don't want to be the next Joni Mitchell, or even Lisa Loeb. I just want to make music, in the way I still take photos because I want people to see what I see in the world.

If anyone is looking for a 6-month gig in the Castle Rock, CO area, let me know. I'm looking for a mini-me, who can help me get the alarms in line. Someone who groks windows servers and javascript, who has a decent grasp of monitoring and alarming (snmp and nms experience would be nice, but not necessary.) I'm currently putting people through the "Chris test" by having my boss interview them first, and looking for specific skills later.

Yo, Tom Hudson, I'm real happy for you and I'ma let you finish, but Breitbart is the greatest troll of all TIME!