Happy Birthday Ben!

Apparently today is Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday. Nope, nothing else important going on at the moment.

Home is Home

I've now been home from the other coast for almost two weeks and I'm glad to be back. The only advantage of being on the east Coast as opposed to the West Coast is seeing TV 3 hours earlier. I really can't think of another good reason to live there. And unless my life revolved around TV, that isn't a really good reason at all. And now that I'm home again I TiVo 90% of my TV anyway so there's really no point being able to record it a few hours earlier if I'm not planning to watch it right away anyway. My biggest issues with living on the east Coast as opposed to the West Coast are as follows:
A) I think it's the first time in my life I've lived more than 2 miles from a Starbucks. Even when I was in England and Romania there was a Starbucks within 2 blocks of me.
B) I had to search long and hard to find a computer store. They're really rare as far as I could see. The only one I actually found and visited on my expedition out east was in Hattisburg, Mississippi; unfortunately it got leveled by Katrina only days after my last purchase there. What's even more unfortunate was the fact that I still needed more stuff from there.
3) No big electronics stores. There was a Best Buy about 10 miles from my apartment in Orlando, but that's the closest they have to a big electronics store. The one there was also the smallest one I'd ever seen, about half the size of the one around here. Which makes it maybe 1/10 the size of our Fry's Electronics.
D) No Tillamook dairy products. Nothing that even tasted close to their ice cream.
E) The time change was a pain to deal with. People calling me at 3 in the morning since it was only midnight at home. Not being able to call people in the morning because there was no chance that they'd actually be awake enough to answer their phone.
F) It's not my home and never will be.
g) They have hurricanes. I had to go through 2 of them, both Katrina and Wilma. They're annoying and not good for much except getting extra time off of work. I think Congress should outlaw them or something like that.

I'm currently in school again, I'm tired of it already but I need good grades in my class to get my GPA as high as possible. I plan on taking one more quarter which will consist of English, Vector Graphics, and Photoshop class, and then I'll be able to graduate with 2 separate AA degrees. Don't ask me what I'm doing after that point because I don't have any idea. I might transfer to a different school and work on a degree in Business Psychology; I might quit school and get a job that I pays enough to live on and doesn't suck too much, or I might stay at BCC for another quarter or two as an excuse not to do either of the previous options. I got plenty of time to figure it out.

In important news: Seattle didn't break its 53 year old record for most consecutive days of rain. We went 27 of the 34 days required to break the record. Now I'm a little disappointed. I don't remember ever getting close to the record and we only needed one more week. This does make up for last year when we had the driest February on record when I was walking at school in shorts and a Tshirt in 20C weather in the middle of winter. AMD released their Athlon FX60 processor last week, which is really fast and even more expensive There's a rumour flying around that Fox may bring back Futurama. I just threw my Christmas tree off of my back deck last night and it landed on the fence and is still hanging there at this moment; I might put up a picture later if I remember to take one while it's light outside. I have joined TBQelite's rank and, for various reasons, have withdrawn my membership from ShadowWalker's He-Man-Woman-Haters Club. And for the next 16 hours my basement will be relatively clean since I moved all of the random crap out of there and into my bedroom. After school tomorrow I'm probably going to take all of the junk that isn't mine and put it back in the basement so that my room will once again be semi-clean.

Don't Mix Disney and Christmas

This is the absolute busiest time of the year @ Disney World. The parks are getting closed in the morning because they have reached capacity. Yesterday Magic Kingdom was closed for a while around 11:30 because it was full (around 70,000 people). A lady was complaining where I was working because there was a 2 hour wait for Space Mountain. She said that people need to find something better to do with their time than flood Disney World. I think she should take her own advice. The parks are busy to the point where I'm not allowed in them without buying a normal ticket because there isn't enough room for all of the paying customers. They're on track to break last year's record for total people in the parks in a single day. Now I just need to figure out what number that actually is. I want to go to EPCOT for new years eve, but I'm not allowed in; I'll probably try to sneak in that evening to watch the fireworks anyway. It's too busy and I don't like it. I didn't think I'd be back this time of year after visiting last year, and definately didn't think it would be because I actually work there.

Weird Cooling Compound

Someone on eBay is selling a product called "Liquid Metal" for use as a thermal-paste between heatsink and processor. This substance is 100% metal which makes it more conductive of heat than other thermal compounds which contain non-metalic substances as well. This substance is also a liquid at room temperature. This seems like a very good material to use as their tests show a significant temperature decrease, even greater than that of Arctic Silver 5 (my choice thermal compount at the moment).
A little problem was pointed out to me today regarding this product; it will eat through heatsinks and kill cooling performance. I looked into this and indeed there is a simple cause for this: the liquid is primarily made of a mercury-based alloy. It may also be a gallium alloy which has similar properties. There is a little problem when mercury or gallium comes in contact with aluminum, you can watch it corrode before you eyes. Aluminum is a very reactive material that will react almost instantly with anything. It reacts with O2 in the air and creates a clear, crystaline coating that is very strong (I believe aluminum-oxide is also what rubys are made of). When mercury is added to the equation it prevents this coating from forming, causing the aluminum to completely corrode away at a very rapid pace. If you have a heatsink made of aluminum it won't like this compound and will begin to corrode and disintegrate right on your processor. This is actually pretty cool to see, but really uncool for cooling purposes. This shouldn't be much of a problem if you use copper heatsinks.
I'm not sure I'd really want to use mercury or gallium as a thermal paste for my system. However I have never seen anyone try to use mercury as the fluid in a liquid-cooled system. I'd like to see how effective that is, but I'm not sure where I can cheaply get mercury by the litre.

Evergreen Christmas

Snowy white, is nice at Christmas-time
But I prefer the scent of sweet pine;
Forty-five, the weatherman said,
Merry Christmas to you as I turn in my bed
Crystal clear, blue skies;
I'm finally home again at Christmas time!

Oh holy Christmas in evergreen,
I've traveled every highway,
From here to Tennessee;
Oh holy Christmas in evergreen;
And if I had it my way I'd never leave (I'd never leave)

Ferry ride, on Puget Sound,
The mountains rise, majestic all around;
I've driven far away on the open road,
Missing the great green land that I call home
And I love to feel the rain as I run
There's no other land I know like Washington

Oh holy Christmas in evergreen
I've traveled every highway
From here to Tennessee
Oh holy Christmas in evergreen;
And if I had it my way I'd never leave (I'd never leave)

And like a blessing in disguise
A Washington Christmas meets my eyes
Thought it's tender, the love that's brought me here
Just breathing the air makes it oh so clear

Oh holy Christmas in evergreen
I've traveled every highway
From here to Tennessee
Oh holy Christmas in evergreen
And if I had it my way I'd never leave

by Loni Rose


9 more days and I'm home; never thought I'd be wearing shorts outside on Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Tomorrow is Christmas, and as is usually the case while I'm out east I get the joyous opportunity of working on a holiday. I will be at work Christmas morning before most of my infrequent readers are even awake. I couldn't get the day off, and really didn't try very hard either since I really don't have anything better to do instead of working. All of the people I hang out with on a regular basis managed to get out of town this week to visit friends and/or family. I couldn't cough up the cash or the 14 spare hours of round trip flying that it would take to get home assuming that I could do it without getting fired for missing too much work on the busiest week of the year.
The computer is fully functional, with both of my video cards now in my posession. I don't really have time for any real gaming but I'll do my best to get at least a few hours in. Frack it, I'm bored; time to pull out some of Robbie's weird games.

Life in the Swamp

A MOSTLY COMPUTER-FREE UPDATE

With the exception of lacking a PCIe vid card my new computer is usable. I still need some really fast RAM and a pair of SATAII drives to complete what may be my last unsecured system. I also managed to get a MGE Quantum case for once I get home. Also there was a shootout between AMD and Intel with their dual core desktop processors, the results were both expected and obvious to us computer people. I think the story is on cNet. Thus ends my computer related update.

Work is easy right now, but it still sucks. I worked 50 hours Thanksgiving week, working 7 days straight. I'm only working 5 days this week, although one of those days involves a 13.5 hour shift. My job requires virtually no thinking so I have plenty of time for plotting and scheming up my next antics for when I return. I think I like working @ Pecos Bill's better than Typhoon Lagoon as I don't have to do mornings and I have fairly consistant hours. The people who work there don't suck and the busses come consistantly every 20 minutes. My uniform is a different matter though. No comment on that @ this time.

My roommate Dave is leaving us on Thursday to return to the great NorthWest. Medical reasons have kept him from his job most of the season and his manager gave him the OK to leave early. He will be missed, but he will be @ BCC next quarter so I might see him around. Nick will now have a room back to himself probably for the rest of the term down here. Lucky...
My other roommate Dave technically moved out last week when he came over just to remove the rest of his stuff from his closet. He now lives with his boyfriend, Rob. Loran's girlfriend, Amanda, has now moved into gay-Dave's room and is a much cooler roommate than he was. She also likes cooking, but Nick and I still cook as well.

There are only two upcoming movies that I've got on my list to see; "ÆonFlux" and "Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe". I can't get an advance on either of those unless BitTorrent comes through for me.
I didn't get my 4 Xbox360s as planned, so I don't have the excess of cash @ the moment that I had originally thought. I waited 7 hours in line with 25 people in front of me, only to discover that the store only received 24 units.
I also have my classes for winter quarter but will miss the first two days due to being in Florida. That's it I'm going to bed.

Intel Declines AMD Offer of Dual Core Duel

Several weeks ago AMD make a public challenge to Intel to put two dual core servers together in a head to head comtest of raw computing power. Intel has now decided to decline the offer to show off their supposedly superior products. Here's the top ten reasons why as suggested by INQ:
10. Tried to follow their own roadmap to get to the duel
9. Decided to take the "front-side bus" to the duel; got stuck in a bottleneck
8. The "Intel Inside" stickers they used to package the cores together keep melting
7. Too busy rearranging the deck chairs on the Itanic
6. "Hey, we don't expect anyone to actually buy these things!"
5. Didn't want to compete when they realized that the duel would involve actual "rules" of fair competition
4. They couldn't get a permit from the fire department to emit that much heat
3. No systems available yet - protective clothing used by manufacturers only safe for up to 149 watts
2. Dell told them they weren't allowed to participate

And the number one reason Intel won't accept the dual core duel:

1. Moore's Law has been replaced by "Paul's Paradox": the number of canceled products per year at Intel will double every year after the introduction of the AMD Opteron processor.

So basically AMD has a better server platform right now. What does that mean to an average person? Absolutely nothing, unless you happen to own AMD stock since a better product might possibly result in better sales.
On a more important note, however, Xbox360s go on sale mightnight Tuesday.

Aluminum foil hats won't protect you

Researchers at MIT have proved what I suggested more than a year ago, that aluminum foil hats amplify government radio frequencies not block them. For those of you who wear these fashonable head coverings, tin foil may be your better bet as aluminum will only increase your vulnerability. A new study in the near future may suggest that only lead foil will actually be useful, but I only know one place that sells it and its rather expensive. Although what price can you honestly put on the safety of your mind from the evils of government brainwashing? You can read the findings here

Work

On Monday I had my first day off in 3 weeks thanks to Wilma. Since the managers @ Typhoon Lagoon didn't expect a huge crowd I got yesterday and today off as well. Having 3 days off in a row makes me realize exactly how much I truely hate working @ Disney World. Next week I start my new job working @ the Pecos Bill restaurant in Magic Kingdom and I'm looking forward to that almost as much as I looked forward to getting my wisdom teeth taken out.
Yesterday I drove down to Miami with Salinda to pick up Briana from her school since they don't have any power or water down there until further notice. I didn't plan on really going anywhere yesterday much less driving 600 miles; I just wanted to get Garrett's Mini up and running so I would have a cool car to take to work everyday and not have to wait for the stupid bus. I now have all of the parts ordered and they should be arriving sometime early next week. I also found out that it's pretty much a Frankencar. The chassis is supposedly from a early 60s Morris Mini, the body is supposedly a mid-70s Cooper, and it supposedly has a 1275cc engine from a late 60s Cooper. And once the new starter system is installed it will be mine until Garrett takes it back; probably when he gets back from his next Iraq tour.

WarCrafT...Rest in Pieces 24/10/2005

Today marks the end of an impressive piece of machinery; my computer, WarCrafT. The Windows files had been corrupted as my hard drive started the slow process of failing sector by sector. A recovery install failed before completion, leaving the drive completely unbootable. The recovery console died in this attempt meaning I can’t do another install without destroying my profile and deleting all of my files on that drive. My makeshift chipset cooler also has died and I don’t have parts laying around here to fix it like I do at home. (I'll pull the files off the disk once I get the new rig up and running because I currently don't have a platform on which to do so.) So my computer sits, waiting for a total rebuild with all new components. Out of the ashes of WarCrafT shall arise a new rig, one more powerful than before. And this rig shall be christened, Tartarus, because it sounds cool and reminds me of Disney World. I’m still looking for more suiting names if you have any suggestions, preferably from Greek or Welsh mythologies; my current leanings are also toward Aries, Titan, Arawn, or possibly Dyrnwyn.

Speaking of Disney World…the hurricane was rather uneventful last night. We had some strong winds and heavy rain, but that was about it. Power didn’t go out, the drains didn’t overflow in the parkinglot, and no trees blew down in our area. I did get the day off work and that was the best part of the whole hurricane. The seal did come loose on the window right above my bed so I woke up soaking wet around 0700 EST from the dripping water overhead. I cleaned most of it up and put a contained to catch the water and went to go sleep on the couch for the next 4 hours. Then my roommates and I went to the Florida mall for lunch. The closest I can get to good teriyaki in this whole frakkin’ state is Burbon Chicken fron Asian Cusine at the mall. It isn’t bad, but its definitely not upto Miyakko’s (no clue on the spelling so if someone can provide the correct spelling that would be nice) standards, but it quenched my teriyaki craving that I’ve had for the last 2+ months since I left home. I'm currently at Salinda's house and will spend tomorrow searching for a solenoid for a 1962 Astin Mini type-S so that I don't have to walk home from work as often. And with that I head to bed since I got rudely awoken this morning by Wilma pounding on my bedroom window.

Finally...an Update

I didn't start my new job today as I was originally told; that date has been pushed back 2 weeks to 6 November. Tomorrow the waterpark will be closed because we're supposed to get hurricaned and they don't think people other than I would actually want to go to a waterpark that day. My computer has been delayed by the post office so it is not up and running at the moment as I had planned. Hopefully the stuff will arrive on Tuesday so I can start working. I made a midnight run to the store to buy Batman Begins and was able to get it a little early, but decided to hold out for the Deluxe edition instead. I guess that's a good update for the moment, I'll have more after the storm hits.

Need new computer

That's the only real thing that I'm working on at the moment. My computer has issues and I want to get something faster as mine is completely maxed out and the components are starting to show their age. My Barton has spent at least 95% of its life overclocked and most of that time running Seti@Home or some similar distributed computing program. I am now getting weird fatal errors on a regular basis that are hardware related; I reclocked my CPU to a much lower speed and most of them have gone away but they still happen. A windows reinstall didn't help much either. So I am building a new machine this week.

Here are the components that will be in it:
DFI LANparty UT SLI-DR mobo
$135.50 on ebay
I like the DFI's performance and the tons of extra features that it has, and it was a really good price with tons of accessories
AMD Venice 3000+ CPU
Price negligible
I've had one for months hoping to build a system and finally have a good excuse now.
ATI Radeon X600 Pro Video Card
$75 on ebay
I like ATI stuff, it interfaces with my HD card, I needed a PCI-express card, wanted at least 256MB of RAM, and the price was right
Maxtor 200GB HD (ATA133 with 16MB cache)
Pulling it from my Barton system, its performance isn't bad and it's available
Generic 1GB RAM (2x512)
Pulled from my old system, stressed tested it in another machine to make sure it's good, overclocks well
ATI HD Wonder card
Isn't going to be available for long as it does its job too well and studios are suing to make it extinct
LiteOn 12x DVD/RW drive
Pulled from Barton, works well

Out of pocket this transitional system is fairly cheap and should perform well. The first components to be upgraded will be the RAM, followed by the harddrive, then the Vid card. That should hold me over until I need dual layer DVD burning capabilities or a dual core CPU. It will be running WinXP Pro w/i SP2 and Office2003 Pro.

I'll have Florida updates up within the week but I've been kinda busy lately and start my new job on Sunday.

EULA for Life

Many of you will notice that I haven't posted anything about life out east yet, and that isn't going to change today. I did, however, find a great link from INQ that I am ripping off now. Stay tuned for a real update in the very near future.

PLEASE READ this end-user license agreement ("EULA") carefully. By being born, you agree to be bound by the terms of this EULA. If you do not agree, do not exit womb and, if applicable, return to the place of conception for a full refund.

1. GENERAL. This EULA is a legal agreement between you (either an individual or an entity) and the scientific or religious establishment of your choice (“God”). This EULA governs your Life, which includes all seconds from the time you are born until you are legally pronounced dead (. This EULA also governs the container supplied with your Life ("Body") and any support services ("miracles") relating to Life except as may be included in another agreement between you and God. An amendment or addendum to this EULA may be presented to you by your retail suppliers ("Parents").

2. THE PARENT PROGRAM. All complaints and technical support requests should be addressed to your Parents, who may or may not, depending on the subscription level you have elected, offer you additional warranties. Parents are third-party components, and not subject to warranties under this EULA. God is not liable for the quality, competence, character, number, gender, species, ethnicity, religious affiliation, or presence/absence of your Parents, or for the quality of the relationship between them, if any, and does not supply technical support for Parental units. Any Parent may be terminated or exchanged at any time without notice and without recourse.

3 CONSCIOUSNESS. To reduce piracy, God requires certain components to be activated. The license rights granted under this EULA are limited to the first five times you gain Consciousness ("Wake up") after you are Born unless you supply the information necessary to activate your Life. You may also need to reactivate your Life if you modify your Body or alter your Consciousness. God will not collect any personally identifiable information from your DNA during the activation process without your consent.

4. DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT. Content providers are using digital rights management technology to protect the integrity of their content so that their intellectual property, including copyright, in such content is not misappropriated. If your Brain's security has been compromised, content providers may request that God revoke your right to copy, display, and/or play protected content. Revocation does not alter your Brain's ability to access unprotected content, if any exists.

5. OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES. Your Life may not be shared or used concurrently among different Bodies.

6. YOU ALSO AGREE:

a. Not to remove or obscure any copyright, trademark or patent notices ("Birthmarks") that appear on the Body as delivered to you;

b. To indemnify, hold harmless, and defend God from and against any claims or lawsuits, including attorneys' fees, that arise or result from the use or distribution of the Life;

c. That God reserves all rights not expressly granted.

3. RESERVATION OF RIGHTS AND OWNERSHIP. God reserves all rights not expressly granted to you in this EULA. The Life is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws and treaties. God or Its suppliers own the title, copyright, and other intellectual property rights in the Life and in any derivative works produced by you during the course of your Life. The Life is licensed, not sold.

4. MEMORIES. You may make a single back-up copy of the Life. You may use one (1) back-up copy solely for your archival purposes and to reinstall the Life in the Body. Except as expressly provided in this EULA or by local law, you may not otherwise make copies of the Life, including the imprinted materials accompanying the Life. You may not loan, rent, lease, lend, or otherwise transfer the back-up copy to another user.

4. LIMITATIONS ON REVERSE ENGINEERING AND DISSASSEMBLY. You may not reverse engineer or disassemble the Life or the Body, except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation. In some jurisdictions, genetic mutations that might lead to evolution are prohibited.

5. NOT FOR RESALE. Life may not be resold.

6. REINCARNATION. Life may not be reused.

6. NON-TRANSFERABLE. Life is non-transferable.

7. TERMINATION. Without prejudice to any other rights, God may terminate this EULA ("strike you dead") without notice if you fail to comply with the terms and conditions of this EULA. God also retains the right to reinstate your Life, either in whole or in part, after termination.

8. REPRODUCTION. You may not propagate without authority.

8. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, God and Its suppliers provide Life as is and with all faults, and hereby disclaim all other warranties and conditions, whether express, implied or statutory, including, but not limited to, any (if any) implied warranties, duties or conditions of merchantability, of fitness for a particular purpose.

9. EXCLUSION OF INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL AND CERTAIN OTHER DAMAGES. In no event shall God be liable for any special, incidental, punitive, indirect, or consequential damages whatsoever arising out of or in any way related to the use of or inability to use the Life.

10. APPLICABLE LAW. this EULA is governed by Divine law. Depending where you are Born, some national and/or natural laws may also apply.

11. ENTIRE AGREEMENT; SEVERABILITY. This EULA (including any addendum or amendment to this EULA which is included with the Life) is the entire agreement between you and God.

Orlando

Yes, I live in Orlando now. It's a little different than Seattle. I'll have more for you when I get the time to write it, but now I'm going to bed.

Moving

I leave in 46 hours for my new job in Orlando. This will probably be my last post until I can rebuild my computer which will be dismantled about 10 minutes after I finish this post. I will spend the next 5 months living out of my backpack. At least there are more intelligent people in Florida than in Washington, and everything is cheaper since they don't have a state minimum wage. I'll be making less per hour there than I do here, but I'll be working a lot more and living and going to school for free. It's a trade off I'm willing to live with at the moment. I'll be spending next week with the family back in Mississippi so I might try to post while I'm there.

On a happy note, concealed weapons permits are much cheaper and easier to get in Florida, so maybe I'll be able to LEGALLY carry a gun on me now. I'll have to check with the boss to see if I'm allowed to do it @ work or if I should just keep my mouth shut and do it anyway.

Nothing New

It's been a month since my last post and there isn't much new to report. I've spent the last week cleaning out my garage, basement, and shed of all things that I don't want/need anymore. Last night I decided to have a binge movie watching party where we watched Revenge of the Sith, Batman Begins, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Shaolin Soccer. When everyone was gone I started reading "The Ezekiel Option" by Joel Rosenberg, the next thing I knew I was halfway through the book and the sun was beginning to rise in the east. Oh well, back to work with only a little time left.

And Now, Time for Something Completely Different

Now that Independence Day is over, I can finally take some time to relax. I was running a fireworks stand, which is a 24/7 job from the time the fireworks are delivered until the early morning of the 5th. Skyway is a tiny island in the middle of King County (which the governor is trying to have renamed for Martin Luther King Jr.) that still allows people to carry out the sacred, American tradition of lighting cheap, Chinese explosives in celebration of their country. Skyway is also considered to be the ghetto and where I lived for the week at my fireworks tent. For nighttime security, I brought my digital projector and watched movies on the side of the tent all night.

My dad just got back from his business trip to China, and brought a bunch of stuff home with him. He brought me back a new Rolex watch and DVDs of Revenge of the Sith and Batman Begins. Unfortunately Batman is in Chinese so I’ll have to put a new audio track on it before I can watch it. Owning a region free DVD player really comes in handy in these situations.

A friend of my grandma died a few weeks ago and I was hired to haul a bunch of her old furniture out of her apartment with my truck. I got a new couch and antique cabinet out of the deal as well as some old clocks painted with UnDark paint (which is radium based). My mom took a few random things that she liked and I’m going to haul the rest of the stuff to the Good Will in Seattle sometime later this week.

Finally, we have enough signatures to put the newly imposed 9.5¢ gas tax onto the ballot in November. This is the fastest Initiative to ever qualify in Washington, in 30 days, and gathered the 4th highest number of signatures ever for an Initiative with 420,518. The opponents to this Initiative say: “This initiative's signature-gathering campaign will exhibit the worst aspects of direct versus rep resentative democracy. It will urge a yes or no straw vote in place of the months of negotiation, compromise and balancing of diverse state interests that went into the lawmakers' package” because “Citizens shouldn't override well thought out legislative decisions.” These “interests” mainly include the unions who would benefit the greatest from some of the projects that would be paid for with the new tax money; and a dozen of the larger businesses in the state. The two largest multi-billion dollar projects that this money is allocated for haven’t even been designed yet; there is no estimates as to the actual costs involved, nor an estimated completion date for either of them, only that they will require further tax increases to fund and none of the other projects will be started until these two are completed.

Of the 200+ projects that would eventually be funded by this tax increase, the only one that I can see as urgent is the widening of I-405 between Renton and Kirkland. This project is ready to go at the moment, and about 5 years overdue, but it will not be started until 2013, assuming that all of the other projects are completed on time and on budget (a very rare thing). This is why I will be voting to repeal this new tax in November; no one knows exactly what they are getting for the money or when they’ll get it, they don’t know how much any of it is going to cost, and I’m just pissed off at the state right now; all good reasons for me to vote down the new tax that I’ll hopefully avoid paying before it gets repealed.

Articles for the Age of Reason

"WE, THE SENSIBLE CITIZENS of the United States, in an attempt to help people get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid any more needless riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt-free liberty to ourselves and our great- grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt-ridden, deluded, and other bed-wetting morons. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so stupid that they require a Bill of NO Rights."

ARTICLE I: You do NOT have the right to a new car, big screen TV, fastest new computer, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but our government is not obligated to guarantee these luxuries. Live with an old car and a 13" B&W TV.

ARTICLE II: You do NOT have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone - not just you! You may leave the room, change the channel, express a different opinion, etc., but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.

ARTICLE III: You do NOT have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful; do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you independently wealthy because of your stupidity or lack of skill.

ARTICLE IV: You do NOT have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we have grown weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes!

ARTICLE V: You do NOT have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in our own health.

ARTICLE VI: You do NOT have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you sit in the electric chair for a short period of time.

ARTICLE VII: You do NOT have the right to anything that belongs to others. If you rob, cheat or coerce away the goods, services, or money of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you STILL won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.

ARTICLE VIII: You do NOT have the right to any job regardless of your race, creed, sexual preference or religion. Take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful and self supportive. Don't expect a free ride from the government or your community.

ARTICLE IX: You do NOT have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness. Make your own happiness, don't sit there and wait for someone to hand it to you.

By Mitchell Kaye & Titus Carter

Your Contribution to the Spanish-American War

I received this from Glenn not too long ago, since I haven't had time to come up with anything new since finals week is always busy, this will have to do until I get bored enough to actually post something.
Here it is:

A hundred and seven years ago, in 1898, the federal government began levying a temporary 3 percent excise tax on telephones, ostensibly to fund the Spanish-American War.

Flash forward to 2005 -- and every American with a telephone is still paying this "temporary" tax. The war was over after just a few months, but the tax has been in effect for over a century. On top of that, the tax does not go for any specific purpose. Rather, the funds are simply added to the general fund.

Congress attempted to repeal the tax in 2000. Both the House and the Senate passed legislation to eliminate the tax -- it was a 420-2 vote in the House -- but then-President Bill Clinton vetoed the bill when it reached his desk.

Once again, the House has been presented with a bill -- H.R. 1898 -- that would repeal the tax on telephone and other communications services. The bill was introduced in late April by Rep. Gary G. Miller of California, and has been cosponsored by 39 other congressmen. It currently sits in the House Committee on Ways and Means.

The outrage?

This tax should have been repealed more than a century ago, but some members of Congress still support the tax -- and some even want to expand it. Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation issued an opinion in January, saying that the tax could be expanded to apply to wireless Internet and data connections.