Soul sucking first. Then read here. This is Chen of Cray fame that produced the XMP and YMP.

Let the wildness of an American Presidential Election begin. God grant that it goes well and smoothly. May the best man for the job, whether or not I like him, win the post. May God grant that the election ends this day too. Lord have mercy on us if it ends up in the House.

I'm not really religious, but right now, I think praying is not necessarily a bad thing. Not because I am asking for intervention in the election for a candidate, but rather I am asking for this to be a quick and painless for the country as possible.

We started a wiki forum out of discussions we had usenet groups. I started hacking up the climate code for a simulation of a terraformed Mars. I asked people on usenet what they thought predictions that the sim would show. I've started guessing myself, but...we shall see. I'm hoping by posting here I can get more people involved with the discussions and contributing to the wiki.

If you think our presidential election is nuts. Go take a look at the Ukrainian one. Poisonings, attempts to kill each other by running the opposing candidate off the road, and more. One candidate wants tighter integration with Russia. The other wants to take Ukraine into the EU. Both men are sleazy b@$+@rd$. My hope is that the Ukrainians might finally find some peace from within the EU instead of under the Russian boot. It's not the ideal situation, but my wife says that the Russian lover (and she spits as she says his name...well, almost. She's too much of a lady for that) will win cuz the ua.gov is supporting him as Kuchma (I *WILL* spit) has all but annointed him as successor.

Baby news: feisty baby girl. Moved like the dickens away from the ultrasound. The nurse-tech kept chasing her all over. My wife was ticked cuz the nurse had to push down a lot. Due date is March 27. My wife realized how much she has put on weight wise. She tried to put on a dress that was too big before...it was far too small to even zip. She's rather upset!

Too bad you can't put journal entries in multiple sections. Ah well. Macht nichts.

It's a 'rah-rah-rah' from the upper management for IBM.

*shakes head*sighs*

Look here.

I ended up talking with a physicist friend of mine not too long ago. He's a political leftie. Actually, he's a strongly leftist type. He was one of the physicists that signed the statement back in the 80s stating that SDI wouldn't work. We often disagree. However! We both acknowledge the other as very intelligent and that the other can believe what they like w/o it offending our friendship at all. Out here in Berkeley, I really value that: its very rare even among the educated. Politics is often like a religion here. A mutually exclusive evangelical religion at that where members of differing opinions are damned, DAMNED I TELL YOU!!!

ahem.

At any rate, my friend is leaving where we work for a year - at least - to work higher up in DOE. I lament this. Big time. He'll be coming back into town periodicly, but he'll be wanting to spend it with his wife - who ha a job out here and can't just pack up - so I'll not be seeing him that often. We'll write, but our free flowing political banter sessions are going to be not so common. If not extinct.

Our topic of discussion, when we talked, was about the oil shocks in the 1970s. I was literally a mere babe, while my friend was in college. I asked him, "Why didn't the Boomer Generation, which was so politically active in the 60s, take up the call to get rid of oil in the 70s?" After all, it was rather obvious even then that oil ist nicht gut fur das klima (the environment) and the if the Boomers wanted to avoid ever getting into another fight on foreign soil, it'd be best to end our dependancy.

He said that he considered it a major failure too. He felt that it was the environmental groups that went too far left (from him that's an ouchie) and made lots of radical commentaries that proved to be really, really false. He felt those groups hijacked the discussions and made everyone else throw up their hands and walk away.

I guess that makes sense. The extremes always tend to hijack discussions in almost every other forum. Here too I can see that. However, it seems that the extremes kept this discussion hijacked even after the extremes were proven wrong.

Now lets look at the situation we're in today. Oil is through the roof. When I go to fill my gas tank, we're verging on $2.50/gallon. If it keeps climbing I can see it hitting $3/gallon. Additionally, the oil crunch is getting set to kill the economy as is. I have a string of expletives about that and it ain't purty!

And yet...there is only a few tentative steps away from oil now. The hydrogen economy is putzing forward at the rate of a snail over arguments about /what/ will be generating the hydrogen. Nuclear (fission) is stalled over the Greens and NIMBYism. Wind is taking a hit from NIMBYism too. Solar isn't - yet - economical and suffers from a nasty manufacturing byproducts. Coal, while at least local, is nastier to the environment than oil: don't even get me started on the whole 'clean coal' nonsense.

Yet the problem remains through all this bickering. What are we going to do about dependncy on foreign oil? Especially in this uncertain era? It seems to me that both sides of the aisle would like to be able to agree on this one. For a moment, let's ignore the whole economic aspect even though that digs into all the pocketbooks of all people from rich to poor.

Let's look at the problem from another aspect, one that the left likes more: the environmental. Global warming is happening, folks. Like it or not. Believe it or not. You can believe what you like, but the universe doesn't have to keep a straight face. Oil (and other fossil fuels) is one of the major contributors to this. All those cars we drive here in the States help fuel that. If we were to transition all those vehicles off oil, it'd help in a nontrivial manner. So, I could see support from the left here.

Now let's look at it from the right's PoV. Oil is one of the driving funding operaitons, directly or indirectly, for terrorism. Every time we fuel our cars, money trickles down into the hands of the whackos from the Middle East. You want to dry up that source of funding? You want to be able to give the Middle East as much attention as we give Africa? Restrict what we do to humanitarian reasons and not even have to go station troops there at all? Me too. Let's turn off their tap as we turn off ours. Bankrupt and poor generally means pretty damn harmless.

Both the left and right have idealogical rationales beyond the economic pragmaticism. So why in the world won't we just freaking do it?

I am going to assert that it will have to be pushed by those other than the Boomer generation. Their moment of cohesiveness has worn off. Now they're starting to move into the comfy zone of "Don't you dare change my life." They're starting to become a part of the problem...especially with the fact that they make up 25% of the population. I am not saying that all of them are that way. Its just that aging makes you more conservative and that is going to be a serious problem.

I'd love to be able to make a call to arms. To declare, rise up Gen X/Y! Speak out you first Millenials! Those of you that haven't ossified among the Boomers, HELP US! We can make one of the greatest leaps in securing our safety, protecting our environment, and helping our economy grow. That's three birds. This is one stone. That's pretty impressive.

However, I'm but a pipsqueek writing in a /. journal, not a pundit or policy maker. Alas, I am a mouse.

Hear me roar.

This came through work's newsletter (warning PDF file). I find it interesting to think about. What do you all think?

An interesting link.

Namely, I and a lot of friends set out to enter into the Columbus 500 Space Sail Cup. We were all about 15 and 16. We called ourselves Team Phoenicia. We wrote up a proposal and submitted it. It really made no sense. The race itself was never properly funded. When inquiring about funding I did get a nice letter from Louis Friedman of the Planetary Society telling me what the real fate of the whole thing would be. I was sorely disappointed.

While I am very emotionally satisified with my better half and enjoy time with her I need something intellectually challenging besides work. Reading has been great, but I keep feeling lately like I should do something rather than just read about it. I'd like to either tackle a business or a take on some sort of technical project. I thought about coding something, but, ugh, I mess with puters all day at my job. I've thought about doing a business, but the ones that I have been thinking about are all outof my area of expertise or require long learning curves that while I can do it I don't have the credentials that are often desired in those fields. That means some serious recruiting. That means serious dinero immediately.

So, I've been thinking about resurrecting the whole solar sail project. IDK. Problem is that with a kidlet on the way time will be precious and it would be extremely nice to be earning dinero given the extra mouth rather than spending it.

hrm.

All right, lemme see if I can explain the bed I've made for myself feels like. It's not altogether pleasant. It's not necessarily terribly uncomfortable either. It's more a question of getting the role down right.

Y'see, early on when I was here, I ferretted out a "plot" by a rival to vacuum out a lot of dinero out of our program. I discovered it because I tend to have very good, honest, and friendly relations with our vendors. It was a major intel coupe and allowed us to stop the whole thing cold. It made me rather noticable very quick. What I say carries weight from top to bottom. I am not the expert on all things and haven't let that go to my head what-so-ever, but ideas, comments, and intel scoops tend to get listened to.

However, this down side. If I gripe about something, it gets listened to. This can be a serious problem. Before I could be dismissed as a relatively unimportant underling. Now when I say something, there can be shock waves.

One of my personality quirks happens to be that if I have a question, I'll ask. I have no problems even asking something that might be construed as a stupid question just to make sure I understand something. More often than not, it turns out to be helpful for everyone involved. However, it can and does cause heart ache if its the question everyone was trying to avoid.

I did this recently. Twice. Unfortunately, the second grenade that I pulled the pin on wasn't a grenade: it was a micro nuke. Or a hafnium bomb? It's caused massive shock waves: think death of Sauron in the beginning of LotR:FotR. It has drawn the ire of my boss, my project lead, and everyone else except my coworkers and the high muckety mucks.

In 45 I am going into a meeting that is to resolve all of this (for large values of the word 'resolve'). It's going to last from 9 am to 5 pm. It's gonna suck: not for the evil eyes being cast at me, but rather cuz I'd rather not sit and not get stuff done. I have file systems to break, kernels to hack, a paper to wrap up, and relationships to further with vendors. Y'know, important stuff.

Heute, however, I'm damned to meeting hell. This is the bed I made...:S

fat assed Strykers too heavy for C-130s.

Army response? Not meant to roll off the plane in fighting condition. Hrm. Thought that was part of the whole medium division -ICB shindig.

On Friday, we ran down and tied the knot. A good friend and his wife witnessed. We then rushed off to rent a car and drove down to LA. We spent time with some of my relatives (cousins and aunts), went to Venice Beach, Hollywood, and Disneyland. We also drove around Beverly Hills. Saturday we had dinner at Duke's in Malibu and watched dolphins from our window table. Sunday was at DL the whole day. It was something of a minihoneymoon to go with miniwedding.

She loved the trip. Perhaps too much. She's started bugging me about moving down there. She didn't see the fact that the majority of LA is a nasty place. *sighs* Her biggest complaint is that the Bay Area is just too damned cold for her. The passenger is making that worse for her with some heightened sensativity to a lot of things, temperature being one of them.

She is starting to grasp just how big the US is. She didn't quite believe me that we're as big as western Europe. That trip - driving down I-5 - really made her start to think. We hadn't even left California and we had driven almost as far as from Kiev to Donetsk. If we'd gone to San Diego, it'd have been longer. heh.

I'm really trying to cut her some slack with the whole passenger on board. I just hope that I don't cut her so much that I end up hanging myself. This is gonna be a rough trimester.

What's going to be even rougher is that I have to tell my Mom. She's such a PITA already: my bro eloped and my mother was pissed esp since the bride's family was there. That I had friends there and not her is gonna torque her off even more: that my SO is carrying a passenger is going to send my mother through the roof. :S Her visit didn't exactly endear her to me nor my SO due to my mother's behavior. She'll jsut have to deal.

My SO and I are going to see what we can do for logistics for a ring ceremony for us that all our friends can attend. We'll just have to work out the details.

Bombshells keep falling on my head!

Or are they rose petals?

Well, not literally. Sometimes it just feels like that.

Note. This is not a whine. I seem to have just had a deer in headlights moment though. Reason being? My far better half just announced to me a couple days ago that she's pregnant. It seems the SDI (Sperm Defense Initiative) had a leaker somewhere despite there being a layered defense.

We got a pregnancy test last night and used it. We batted two for two.

I am stoked. I am overwhelmed. I am frightened as hell. I couldn't be happier.

This completely mucks up all our plans. We're going to run off and get a fast elopement. This is going to piss off a lot of my family. They can deal. Getting my SO on my insurance is far, far more important.

This totally screws all our plans. If anything I have learned is that a warping of a military commentary is a truism for everyone else as well: no plan survives contact with life. The graceful thing is to land on your feet.

*wandering around like a happy and stunned and completely overwhelmed bunny*

I am extremely unhappy with the coming presidential election. None of the three major candidates (Shrub, WishyWashy, and Sellout) are who I want in office. At all.

I didn't want Shrub the first time around. The only positive thing to say about Shrub is that he is pushing (and perhaps even defending with veto threats) the future role of NASA. His behavior right after 911 was admirable, but he squandered what was perhaps the greatest moment of political capital for the US since WW2's end. If I could I'd vote him out in a heart beat.

WishyWashy I haven't been a fan of even before his run for Prez. His behavior in relation to the Vietnam War, his commentary about it, and then his behavior with the Iraq War, etc, have left me very cold. He's got a worse case of what I thought AL Gore had: insincerity and hyperspeed retcon.

Sellout gives me the heebie jeebies. Always has. He's the only half serious third party/independant candidate though. He's being used (and knows it) much like Mondragoran (sp) was in the NM governor run almost a decade ago. even if he was a sincere Green, I'm g reen, not G reen.

Lord help me. I need to figure out something. I hate them all. I just need to decide who will do the least damage to the country I love.

To make matters worse, none of the parties I see represent me. Interestingly, I'm hearing that from a lot of people my age. However, there are not enough of us to counter the preferences of the Boomer Generation. They're the ones that will be deciding this election, not the XY's or Millenials.

BBC has an article about Beagle 3. Interesting that the PI has long lambasted NASA's approach for space probes, yet is asking NASA for a lift to Mars.

NASA seems to be interested in sending the probe though along with its Mars Lab unmanned long term rover (supposed to last longer than a Martian year). Much to the Greens chagrin, the Mars Lab is nuclear powered.

I can be quite critical of NASA too, to be sure. Anybody that's followed my comments since I have been on /. can see this. I am especially harsh about their manned projects. This is not because I don't want a manned space program within NASA, but because NASA keeps screwing up their manned programs. The X-30 and X-33 are two prime examples. They even screw the pooch on their launcher development programs too (*cough* X-34 *cough* ALS *cough* NLS *cough*).

However, their unmanned program is something they seem to do relatively well. So long as they don't go the battleship with wings route (like Mars Observer).