Below are the most recent 21 friends' journal entries.

Sunday, November 15th, 2009
spidercamp	1:36p	good in the grocery store http://www.spidercamp.com/2009/11/good-in-the-grocery-store.html dj axel - could you be kicked, pushed, and loved (bob marley vs lupe fiasco) telephoned - turn my swag on vengeance mashup - close to me (lil wayne vs the cure) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
atdt1991	10:04p	But what if I want them black? That looks totally hot. http://gizmodo.com/5401364/i-wear-my-suncontacts-at-night Photochromic lenses that allow you to walk from inside to outside without putting on UV-filtering lenses have been around for decades. But the technology is just making its way to contacts. Traditionally, these light-to-dark lenses have been constructed by coating a normal lens with a photochromic dye. When UV light hits the dye, the individual molecules expand, darkening the lens and absorbing light. Coating contacts, however, doesn't work so well. So researchers in Singapore have laced contacts with a matrix on nano tunnels filled with these photochromic dyes. Not only has the team been successful in producing transition contacts; these contacts darken in the presence of UV light faster than standard lenses (just 10 to 20 seconds). Researchers are now working on isolating the photochromic material to just corneal region of your eye, granting you all of the UV filtering without turning your entire iris black. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
spidercamp	12:33a	of course i don't mind. here's why i don't mind. http://www.spidercamp.com/2009/11/of-course-i-dont-mind-heres-why-i-dont-mind.html Before I ever knew her, I watched Andrea's house burn down. Years later, when we met, I didn't want to mention it, but it was one of the first things she said, matter-of-factly: So, you saw my house burn. She said it was strange, that one of the things she remembered the most vividly about that day was not the fire itself but someone she didn't know very well, holding her for a long time. Later that night I did something very foreign to me; I told her how my life was crumbling. It was easy to talk. She said, I know we don't really know each other. But do you want a hug? I really, really did. And then I knew Andrea. (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
renniekins	2:28p	Jewelry I think we found a petty good solution. (12 Comments |Comment on this)
atdt1991	10:19a	I love this shirt: (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
ps127_1	3:59p	Been seeing a lot of gay marriage advocacy... ... on friends pages and such. Responding generally only incurs the wrath of many and almost ALWAYS with the hurling of derogatory invectives and absolutely no intelligent debate about the subject (from my personal experience, esp. here on LJ). This I find, is usually due to an incredibly weak platform of the opponent where-by they have no real strong argument other than reverting to rescuing devices such as, "old and/or antiquated ideas that were bad even ten centuries ago". or "it's based on one man's religion and an oppression to the rest of us." or some lame excuse as such. There are dozens of really petty and lame excuses, but not one good reason to advocate gay-marriage, that is other than, "it's fair" or "equality" or something along that vein. No, really all that can be done is to take pot-shots at those who esteem traditional marriage. Disregarding the FACT that 31 states have now made a resounding --NO-- to gay marriage by amending their state constitutions forbidding it. So the argument. Advocates of gay marriage say it should be legal for equality and fairness. But what is equality and fair? There is nothing prohibiting the marriage of any of these people as according to the absolute heart and soul of what marriage is. Equality is there. There is no one that is forbidden to marry. All are equal to enter the divine bonds of Holy matrimony. What they argue for is special privilege above equality. This as according to their lifestyles whereby they wish to bond in marriage as man on man or woman on woman. However, if that is to happen what is to stop other additional forms of marriage such as group marriage, marriage between man and beast or woman and beast? Is morality what we'll stand on to say, "That's going too far?" What about their "rights" and how they feel. What about the rights of such groups as nambla? Morality? The very thing that must be flung down and spit on to allow gay marriage. So what now? Are we supposed to do away with that "antiquated thinking" for the moment to allow gay marriage? Then to take up again when these other forms of marriage are proposed? Impossible from the stand-point that such a moral will ever have an effect on humans again. It's lowering the standard and debasing the human race. How very backwards. Advocates of gay marriage say it's currently illegal due to religious convictions, we are supposed to have laws that respect no religion therefore gay marriage should be allowed. Too late. Marriage is a religious institution between one man and one woman as defined by the Church, Synagogue and Mosque. At the penning of our Constitution, only the Church's rendition of marriage was advocated, accepted and recognized. So now you have a conundrum. Do we say that the Federal Government and States should not recognize marriage at all? Nonsense. The religious aspect of the institution is private and the government doesn't forbid any religion from performing marriage. What they recognize is the union itself. However you cannot separate the two, the religious from the recognized union. Advocates of gay marriage say that the idea of it belonging only to straights is unfair and its an old idea that needs to change! Fine. Then change it. Go through the process that these other 31 states have gone through to define it as between one man and one woman. Amend your state's constitution. That would be the proper and legal way to do it. But wait, *gasp* you can't do that! Why? Because only an extreme few would ever vote for such a thing! Why? If we're all so progressive and evolved, why wouldn't we? Is it because most American's actually cling to some basic morals? Is it because of the fact that 31 states have already defined marriage as between one man and one woman? Yes. That and so much more. The part that makes any of these gay marriages that have already happened under the guise of the "law" foul and disgusting is that they SUBJUGATED the LAW and the will of the people by the use of RADICALS BLACK ROBED TYRANTS that legislate from the bench. To which I suggest that they be removed immediately from the bench as Thomas Jefferson once did and barred from ever serving in that capacity again. It is a gross and direct violation of power and trust as endowed by the people. One more clue to you pro-gay marriage folks out there. You want to pass real legislation in your favor, then don't insult the rest of us with your banter, guile and debased rhetoric. Don't post your penny-arcade style cartoons that depict the rest of us as gay-fearing fascists. Keep your pseudo-intellectual sniping that impresses only the weakest of minds to yourself and start the debate with powerful arguments in your favor. From my point of view, I do not think that anyone alive can find a powerful enough argument that cannot be defeated with logic and truth. You are not impressing the rest of us, nor are you winning us over to your side of the argument. (Neither is a statement like this, but the rebuke is needed.) Remember the old adage that you catch more bees with honey than you do with vinegar. Current Mood: irritated Current Music: distant sound of a leaf-blower. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 6th, 2009
specialagentm	9:46p	The McNuggetini (4 Comments |Comment on this)
sunnywiz	3:22p	DROID speaks At 6:50 am this morning, I lined up outside the Verizon store. I was #6 in line. Mostly, looked like folks between 20 and 55... the grown up version of the kids at a EB-Games midnight gaming party, though not by much. $350 later (i bought a cradle, and need to submit for a $100 rebate), I had me a droid. 7-8 hours later, interrupted only by actually coding at work, I have familiarized myself with it. And I like it. (Note that my previous experience is with Windows Mobile 6 on a Samsung SCH-i760) Really Good: Full Google Calendar - multiple calendars, week mode, nice. Full Google Mail - starred items and labels. Full Google Tasks - via gTasks Full Google Voice - for playing my voicemails.  (it can also switch to using my google voice # as the outbound and inbound #... ? may play with that some time). Google Contacts == phonebook.   That's good for me (as it got synced on my mobile device before) 3.5mm regular stereo headset - since anybody using a talky headset uses bluetooth now.   Works well. Also good: It is very easy to use the on-screen keyboard.  I find myself opening up the real keyboard less often now.  The camera is pretty darned nice, although the shutter speed is fairly low (have to be very still).  The screen is so sharp, i can't even see the pixels.  That's danged good. The browser works very well.  I can enter foods at Livestrong's The Daily Plate, and read Schlock Mercenary, without any problems.  They must be aliasing the pixels or something. the GPS works!!!!  yay!  go Latitude! (stopped working when I went indoors, defaulted to my saved location then) The messaging interface is like the blackberry - grouped by contact, sends in-place, very nice. I can set up an icon that goes directly to "send text message to somebody" or "go to this bookmark"  - very nice.  About the only person I send txt's to is my wife, and what used to be "search 6 6 5 select down down select wait wait focus type type" becomes "swipe tap type type". Weatherbug does good radar (also available is some other weather widget thingy.. but i like weatherbug - does radar better Pretty loud.  Is good. Problems so far (mild): The facebook app doesn't seem to update/refresh on its own.  (same as my experience on the mobile device).  Picture taken to directly upload into facebook app got resized REALLY small. The camera app is not easy to customize for setting picture sizes, that sort of thing.  last.fm - when the keyboard comes up, it doesn't go away, making it hard to use. Pandora - hung on me.  Is okay, I moved on to Last.fm I have not done much in terms of phone calls with it.   Is okay. I do need to get a screen protector for it.  Will stop by the store here after work. Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
specialagentm	8:30p	From the "WTF" file... Witness the horror that is... Snuggie Pub Crawls!!!! (combining two horrible things, there's also Snuggiebook) (Comment on this)
spidercamp	11:34a	of course i prefer this version http://www.spidercamp.com/2009/11/of-course-i-prefer-this-version.html but the (miley cyrus) original is not NOT catchy, and i liked how some blog described it: "sometimes the disney machine just gets it right." party & bullshit in the usa - notorious b.i.g. vs miley cyrus (Comment on this)
atdt1991	9:14a	(2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
renniekins	10:26p	House Decisions It is November, and with each passing day it becomes less likely that my house will sell this year. This year's first-time home buyer tax credit officially ends with the end of this month. Also, although some sales do happen in the winter (I bought this house in December!), December and January are historically the slowest months in real estate. ( lots of rambling ) (7 Comments |Comment on this)
livingdeadpan	3:57p	The five-question meme has come around again. These are from ewigweibliche: 1. Baseball. I don't get it. Convince me it's fabulous. Or, to be in question format: what's so great about baseball? Like any other endeavor, it's hard for a fan to convince a non-fan. So I'll just try to convey what it means to me personally. Just the game itself. Everything is "I'll beat your best efforts with my best efforts." There's no clock to dribble down, no knee to take at the end. If there's a tie, you keep playing until someone wins. Every pitch and play change the game as every player absorbs what just happened and adjusts. It's a very mental game. Continuity. I love knowing that guys were playing basically the same game over a hundred years ago. There's a lot of tradition. It's a game I can play and have enjoyed playing, which also means I understand what makes for good baseball and good players. It's something I can teach my children, and it'll be a long time before they run out of questions I can answer. Statistics. They help compare eras and players and help my math geekiness be cool. No one cares that I can estimate (a * b / 9) in my head, until it's in the context of Earned Run Average. My wife likes it. We bonded over it. We have games on TV all summer, but it's mostly as background. You don't have to be into it every second lest you miss something, like a drama. 2. What was your experience being the only dad in DDC? What did you learn? Did you like it? Are you doing it again? (DDC = due date community, for others) Part of me wondered/s why I'm the only one, like I'm some oddball male who's elbowed his way into a world reserved for women. Does it mean I'm too involved? The biggest thing I learned was the intensity with which some people hold their views on parenting, and the lengths they will go to rationalize them and debunk others'. Also, it reinforced that everyone's pregnancy and babies are different. We definitely should have joined the August one, though, as the boys as always behind despite being two of the first. I'm doing it again, but we're not nearly as engaged in it as last time. 3. As I asked your lovely wife, what are the best/easiest and worst/most difficult things about being a parent to twins? Best/Easiest: One pregnancy, two babies. We got to skip having an only child and an oldest child. The novelty factor. They're a hit everywhere they go. They play with each other. Worst/Hardest: Sleep. We budgeted for one. The odds of having a bad day are high, because all it takes is one of them. If both, then hoo boy. There's rarely any down time when they're awake. You can't just grab them and go. 4. What inspired you to join the Seattle G&L choir? Are you still singing with it? I wanted to do something creative outside the house, and joining a chorus made sense. I had a friend or two in it, so that helped. At first, I was a little trepidatious about being straight, but it was nothing. It folded two years ago, sadly. The personally extra-sad part is that the next concert was going to have two of my pieces performed. :-/ 5. You studied meterology (right?) in college. Do you use this? Will you? I don't use it at all, directly speaking, and never have. I went straight into programming, then teaching, now data analysis. I always loved the weather; what I didn't see as a kid is that meteorology and weather are surprisingly different - like driving and being a mechanic. It's all indicative of my analytical mind, though. --- Comment if you want questions. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
atdt1991	5:15p	Off to work out. Might go to mongos in royal oak after. Company? (Comment on this)
atdt1991	12:24p	It really saddens me that so many people make a distinction between the civil rights of gay people and those of the rest of our citizens. It saddens me even more that people feel like they should be able to vote away the rights of others not to be treated equally under the law. And I find it totally depressing that people have convinced themselves that, somehow, allowing two people to bind together as a family in the eyes of the law threatens their own idea of family, even as they are comfortable with divorce and interracial marriage (once forbidden). It is okay if I literally destroy marriage by getting divorced, but it is wrong if I were to perpetuate family unity and economic stability by marrying someone of my gender. How does that make sense? There will be a time in history in which Americans will be just as ashamed of the persecution and anti-gay laws we've enacted as we are over segregation. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
forestmaster	11:12p	Elections 2009 ( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) Current Mood: curious (8 Comments |Comment on this)
moonbeamjedi	1:51p	Emailed posts not posting. I sent two posts yesterday that haven't posted yet. Does anyone else email their posts? Are you having issues? Any help is appreciated. NaNoWriMo day two wasn't bad. Day three is yet to be seen. I'm still behind in word count if you go by the 2010 word per day. Oh well! As long as I get over my last attempt I'll be happy (6200 total). Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Popular from Wicked (Comment on this)
atdt1991	1:05p	<3 The Ferrett made a post asking people to tell him uplifting, beautiful secrets, and people suggested he make another one asking people to post anonymously so they can be shared. I think that's a great idea! I'm not above stealing good ideas, nor above coercing my fine friends into writing. Tell me, anonymously if you'd like, anything you'd like to share that you think is beautiful or uplifting. Comments will be unscreened. (14 Comments |Comment on this)
atdt1991	9:43a	Workouts are proceeding on schedule - I did the usual on Sunday, this time at the Plymouth location... which I think I hate. It's cramped, the people aren't very friendly, and I have no idea where everything is - it's a V-shaped gym, with a pool in the middle. I'm now comfortable doing upper body work as well as cardio. I tried a little calf work, and my knees gently protested - could be because they have a lot of catching up to do, could be the cardio talking, OR it could be early onset arthritis - my mom has had lots of knee difficulty. If it's the latter, I should pick up the Osteo-BiFlex vitamins she swears by. Guess I'll see in time. My lack-of-sleep caught up with me with a vengeance yesterday, and I slept for about 12 hours. I can't really complain, clearly it was necessary. The next few months are intensely busy - I can't keep track of everything going on. Work has involved a bunch of gratifying kudos, so let's hope that keeps up. I finished Ghost Brigades a few days ago, and I remember thinking to myself, "Scalzi's gonna pull a Whedon, isn't he?" At least one has to presume the bad-ass "I'm no good at sneaking but I'm great for a distraction" dude survived. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
renniekins	9:29p	Halloween Friday M and I went to a Halloween party at K's. An excellent evening was had by all. It was raining off and on, and there was a bonfire. Fortunately there was enough "off" to the rain that I could enjoy the fire. I was inspired to create an extremely simple costume idea for the two of us: we went as a Physician Assistant and a Java Developer. The costumes puzzled some people, and I suspect several people didn't think we were in costume at all. But some people found it amusing, myself included, and that's all that matters. Also, there was a woman there who was doing henna tattoos on anyone who wanted one. I'd never had one before. At first I didn't want one, because I was afraid I'd mess it up with my long sleeves. But once I saw how pretty every else's was, I decided to go for it anyway. It's fading today, but still pretty. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
atdt1991	4:50p	I'm particularly hungry - even mongos hungry, maybe. But I'm also nearly falling asleep on my feet tired. Stupid vital body requirements! (1 Comment |Comment on this)