(winkyboy)

How much does it cost to wash your hands?

2011-03-19T16:19:00.000-06:00

As much as I appreciate the concern for the public to maintain cleanliness, seeing printouts and plaques like this just makes me shudder - and it should do that to you, too. In the same way that we don't think about how many plastic bottles the world goes through every time we crack open a new Evian, we don't consider how much society pays for little (oft-ignored!) messages like this.

Notice in the corner of the printout there's a little note saying "Sponsored by the Minnesota Departments of Health and Agriculture and the Food Safety Partnership of Minnesota"? And notice that "Please Post" on the printout, too? That means that some (in this case, multiple) government agencies were paid to design, develop, and distribute these items to public restrooms everywhere. There will probably be no way I would ever be able to know how much it cost... but paper printings just by themselves are costly. On top of that, there's the plastic plaque - and those are definitely not cheap.

The government is not your mom, and should not be paid to act like it.

Business Expense Tracking with Android (um, for free)

2011-02-23T12:57:00.001-06:00

I just tested / established a convenient way for tracking business expenses and keeping receipts digitally. For free. There's a for-pay option for Android which is even easier called ProOnGo, but you'd have to pay $5 per month (or more) for a useable plan on it.

Anyway, this is what's needed:

Sign up for an account at www.xpenser.com - this is free for now and will eventually have pro features for pay.
Install PixelPipe Uploader (not just the Picasa one) on your phone. Then set up a pipe to email r@xpenser.com and make sure the email's coming from you, not PixelPipe. (this is all specified when defining the pipe) If this is all you're going to use Pixelpipe for, then you can set this pipe as default - but I wouldn't, because PixelPipe can be used for sooooo much more.
Finally, when you get a receipt, take a picture of it with your regular phone camera. Pixelpipe will pop up, and you set the title to "{category} {price} {notes}" and send.

Pretty slick.

Net Neutrality: MORE regulation?

2011-01-26T17:20:00.000-06:00

Image via Wikipedia
A good idea, such as freedom of speech, is not made better when codified into legalese. We already have in existence the established right to net neutrality in our First Amendment. When you consider the already-proven, criminal ineptitude of government agencies such as the FDA (see: Monsanto, aspartame, hydrogenation, et al), or ICC*, one should seriously consider the act of giving specified powers of regulation to agencies that quite likely will be influenced by major ISPs, once passed.

The push behind Franken's idea of net neutrality is that the public is incapable of protecting their own interests. To him, it makes sense that legislators must step in and - miraculously - perform better at that job. It is not written that customers need stay subscribers of an ISP found to be selectively throttling their internet connection (but please don't give that idea to Senator Franken). If a major ISP does so, it should expect to lose its customers en masse when discovered. As Timothy B Lee says, "...network owners are likely to find deviations from the end-to-end principle unprofitable."

And just as a side-note: Another point that Franken makes on Net Neutrality is that, he says, without it, megacorporations will sometime soon be influencing, indeed controlling, Congress in favor of their own profits. This is ridiculous. They already do that. ;P

* Ralph Nader, on the Interstate Commerce Commission, "As the oldest independent federal regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission has set longevity records in its systematic failure to protect or further the public interest in surface transportation." He also said, "There is evidence of deep corruption at the ICC, beyond 'politics' and 'favoritism'."

Voting Stickers

2010-11-02T11:10:00.000-06:00

I usually have these ready to go first thing in the morning and normally I just print them out and distribute them around the office, but here are my collected / best of / since 2006 alternate voting stickers. NEW this year is the Facebook Vote version! Please reply if you have any suggestions for new stickers :)

Moving the base site.

2010-04-07T14:40:00.000-06:00

This is the second time someone's tried to upload a virus through the system I have (had) going here (previously a combo of DotNetNuke + Blogger), so I'm disabling it and reverting to just Blogger. Not a big loss, but it'd be nice if people out there wouldn't go hunting for innocent sites to hack.

Here's a collection of stuff from the DotNetNuke pages, for posterity:

Thumbnails of my UT99 maps:

Thumbnails of my UT2004 maps:

The Vehicle Index.
The files you find here are for UT2004 and they MAY or MAY NOT work. Winkyboy no longer has time to test them all, as he's barely found time to even index them any more. But most of them work, and some of those that do are really worth downloading. Winkyboy would like to convert HIS creations to UT3, but currently hopes to find time to implement a much grander-scale vision that is currently beyond his abilities.

Other Winkyboy Files:

Vacation Recap, Sept. 09 20th-ish

2010-01-01T09:06:00.002-06:00

Image by yasmapaz & ace_heart via Flickr

The flight over to Ukraine was rather disappointing, to say the least. We arrived at the airport only to discover that the itinerary that had been mailed to us just the day before was actually wrong. Aerosvit, the Ukrainian airline that managed the international stretch of our flight, had changed the outbound domestic stretch and didn't relay it to the company that handled our tickets. So, we missed our flight to begin with. Some calls to CheapTickets, where we purchased the tickets, provided no help whatsoever and the only option remaining was for Delta to reroute us to Laguardia in New York. From there we had to catch a taxi over to JFK international. It cost an extra $35, and we had to haul our luggage from one airport to the other - oh, that cost an extra $10 for the luggage carts - but it wasn't horribly intolerable, and we got to see a little bit more of New York than we would have had we been confined to JFK.

Once we got on the Aerosvit flight to Ukraine, things were a little bit better because at least they went according to schedule and at least we were sitting next to one another. However those seats were about as close to the bathrooms as you could get. The planes that Aerosvit uses are old and comfort is understandably lacking; sleep was hard to come by and what sleep you got really wasn't worth it.

When we arrived in Ukraine I was reminded why I haven't been here in four years. Don't get me wrong; it's worth travelling to Ukraine and seeing what there is to see, but there's really a limit to the amount of time you'd want to be over here.

Some thoughts about what Ukraine is, good and bad:

Worn out
Unkempt
dangerously broken roads
open orloose manholes
last year's leaves piled everywhere
polluted
lots of exercise; walking!
Men standing around drinking beer
large, wooded parks
convenient public travel
Not too many people overweight
women who are beautiful without even trying (my wife is from Ukraine)
dusty, dangerous playgrounds
confusing city layouts
the good people here are very good
plastic is abused and/or wasted perhaps even moreso than in America

When we arrived in Kiev, a friend of my wife's picked us up and helped us throughout the day, which really was very kind of him. I think we'll certainly have compensated him enough when it's all through, however, since we also decided to give his daughter the car seat stroller that Digory has about outgrown. I had wanted to give it to my brother for his upcoming child, but perhaps it would be even better to give them a new one.

The first day after we got here, and admittedly the second as well, really consisted of hanging around grandma's new apartment and recovering from the travel. There was more to it than just sleeping, of course. I played outside on the typically-dangerous playground with Leilani for a while, and we bought some things in the local stores. We also went to the evening church service at my wife's old church. I don't know what was going on but it seemed like it was Guest Mike night for the service as everyone and their grandmother was getting up to give some lengthy talk on some point or another. We gave up when the kids were either asleep or too rambuctious to keep in the church, and some friends who were there gave us a lift home on their minivan.

We had/have an offer to stay in the apartment of a friend of ours instead of at grandma's. I'm a bit torn; he DOES have internet there, which would be really nice, but then there's the matter of making the trip to grandma's every single day, too. It's fine, either way. We've decided to just stay with grandma, and if we were at Sasha's, I'm sure I'd just be on the internet too often anyway.

Android Apps Review

2009-11-07T09:42:00.004-06:00

Image by netzkobold via Flickr

Here's a quick run-down Android applications I've tried and mostly use right now. After the name of each app, I've rated each one from 1-5, described what each does, and usually given an opinion of the app.

1 = Nice, but I could uninstall
2 = I've used it a couple of times
3 = I quite like it, but it might not be truly USEFUL
4 = Great value in this!
5 = Install it now.

Updates as of Jan 2010 are in bold

ACV (4) (now 3; I haven't used it as much and it's often slow due to size of comic images) Android Comics Viewer, for reading CBR/CBZ files. If you know what these files are, install this program.
PrinterShare (1) Print from your Android phone, from anywhere. Nice, but haven't really used it.
TouchPal (5) Alternative keyboard. Awesome. (sadly unavailable AFAIK)
Books WordPlayer (3) Browse & install free books. Nice, but to install your own files from SD must install some other file browser.
Qik (5) Stream and record video LIVE to the internet. A must. (I still love this)
ASTRO File Manager (5) The best file manager - also includes a task killer and more.
Barcode Scanner (5) reads barcodes, including QR codes
King Ring Reward Cards (2) is supposed to be able to replace all the plastic reward cards from coffee shops, etc. Haven't gotten it to work so much. (Now used more just to read the number back to the clerk; it just doesn't scan!)
Last.fm (4) Stream channels of music, like Pandora
Foursquare (3) (Now 4 with potential for 5) Social location-based game and recommendation system. It's cool.
NewsRob (5) Auto-syncs with Google Reader. Does not do Starred items well.
Greed (Lite) (4) Reads Google Reader feeds - no auto-sync, but does Starred items.
Voice Recorder (4) Record voice notes and share them.
Meebo IM (2) Hooks into all the major chat networks, including Facebook chat (I won't uninstall this, since it's nice to have)
Babbler (5) $ Facebook app. The official FB app (free) might be good enough now, but I'd already bought this. It's cheap and awesome. (This is still awesome, but I haven't checked the official FB app in a while...)
Twidroid (5) Twitter app. Awesome. There's a $ version that has more features, but... I don't notice anything missing from the free version. (I have since bought the full version for multiple Twitter account handling)
Locale (5) Changes settings on your phone based on time and GPS location. (Sometimes I think that this causes slowdown on the phone, sometimes I don't think that. still loving it, though.)
Locale Shortcut Plugin - allows Locale to launch apps as a result of time/location change (I use this to auto-launch the Weather app in the morning! hehe)
Contact Owner (5) Shows your contact info on the lock screen. (crucial)
OI Safe (4) (now 3; I prefer KeePass and DropBox on a PC to this) A password safe with encryption. Free, but doesn't sync to any desktop version. (Those cost $30.)
Pixelpipe Post & Upload (2) (I have to try this again since I got an email saying auto-uploading has been added...)Easy-share of files (audio, video, text, etc.) I like iTook better.
iTookThisOnMyPhone (5) AUTO-uploads photos (or videos, if you like) that you take to a location you specify. (not sure if it's my phone, but ever since upgrading to Android 1.6, it doesn't work as well)
The Weather Channel (5) Weather. Duh. Really hard to decide between this & WeatherBug.
Robotic Guitarist (3) Lots of fun. Try it, if you like or play guitar (still on my phone - still a fun diversion)
Google Voice (5) If you have a Google Voice account, install this.
Google Listen (5) Podcast app. Free and great.
DoggCatcher (5) $ Good, but uninstalled; Google Listen became better
Retro Clock Widget (4) I use this instead of the default desktop clock widget mostly because touching the widget brings your right to the alarm settings page. (I will probably never uninstall this)
ShopSavvy (4) Instantly search for better prices for any product with a barcode. Great for comparison-shopping in a brick-n-mortar store.
OpenTable (2) Make dinner reservations with your phone. Nice, I've used it.
CadreBible LE (5) The Bible, best one I've found for Android.
DailyStrip (3) Comics reader, shows mostly mainstream comics (has THE MOST comics now)
Katawa! (3) Comics reader, shows mostly alternatives.
KeepScreen (3) Lock your screen ON when certain apps are running.
White Noise Lite (5) Soothing Sound generator (with an auto-shutoff timer)
Buddy Runner (5) Records your jogging/running via GPS. I like the results of this better than Google Tracks
Google MyTracks (5) Records your GPS activities; jogging, running, cycling, skating, whatever. If you compare with Buddy Runner, you'll see it's missing some really convenient features plus front-end niceties. (BuddyRunner IS still better, but I still have both)
Places Directory (or Sherpa or Aloqa) (5) I like Places Directory and Aloqa the best, but they're all similar. Shows what's near you, separated in categories.
Astrid Task/Todo List (5) syncs with RememberTheMilk (which then can plug into your Gmail page!) and is a GREAT task manager. (Yeah, still loving this, esp. since embedding RememberTheMilk into my Gmail page)
My Maps Editor (Google Maps) (5) Views and edits your saved Google Maps
auduaReader (5) Book reader. Really simple interface but if you have your own book files in TXT (and perhaps epub) format, this is the best reader for it.
Mobile Defense (5) Remote tracking and control of your phone, if you lose it.
FlashCup (5) Just a flashlight. SOoooo nice. (Now 4; see Color Flashlight)
Color Flashlight (5) Better than FlashCup
Rings Extended (4) Lets you use any audio file as a ringtone/alarm/etc.

Games:

Friction Mobile (4) action puzzler. won't give it up.
WordUp (4) like Boggle
Abduction! (4) Awesome. Cow bouncing, uses accelerometer.
Touch! 4Kids (4) This is for toddler-age kids, keeps 'em busy for about 10 minutes.
Zebra Paint (4) For 5-8 year olds, easy coloring book app.
SpecTrek Light (?) A GPS/ augmented reality game. Haven't tried it yet. (Tried it, and it's fun, but would be MUCH better if I bought the full version, I can tell.)

Bible study this morning - Lucifer is NOT Satan

2009-11-05T08:18:00.001-06:00

http://www.crivoice.org/lucifer.html

Approach with an open heart, if your belief system relies on a god of evil, that is, Satan.

Disney Photopass prices are insulting to parents

2009-10-21T08:01:00.001-06:00

Disney wants $15 per download of any picture. That's insulting, especially considering that it's LESS expensive to buy a 5x7 print from them ($13). Walt wanted the parks to be a place to enjoy a wonderful day with the family, but the corporation has turned it into a place to rake money from its guests.

in reference to: Disney's PhotoPass - Add some Disney magic to your memories (view on Google Sidewiki)

Sidewiki Enabled

2009-10-08T08:54:00.001-06:00

Hello and welcome to winkyboy.com. This is where I write about pretty much whatever I feel like, which MOST often is related to health, games, family, God, technology, and more -- in no particular order.

As this is going to the blog as well, if you don't have Sidewiki installed, go ahead and do it, then come back here to make your own comments through Google's site-commenting system. Yay to Google for implementing this; many others have created systems like it, but Google is the right company to actually do it.

Since you can also selectively comment on words you highlight, I can finally remove the (usually faulty) Linebuzz code I had on there.

in reference to: Winkyboy.com > Home (view on Google Sidewiki)

Green: "All Natural" Plastic Pick-up sticks

2009-09-10T18:21:00.001-06:00

We took a walk over the lunch-hour today and stopped in a local toy store. It's a nice store, the Red Giraffe of Woodbury, MN, as they have a lot of wooden toys. But, like most toy stores or sections of a department store, they stock some junk as well.

I was too shocked to pass this one up... a plastic tube of plastic sticks made to look like wood. The worst thing about it is that it's labeled "All Natural" which of course only lends credence to the fact that the word Natural means absolutely nothing at all in any kind of manufacturing or production sense.

I've seen worse toys, but this is just ... an insult to children and parents. To the children for their legacy. Someone in this world thinks so little of them that they would make plastic replicas of STICKS to be played with, bent and thrown away, or just lost. For the parents, this is yet-another cheaply-produced toy comprised of, again, easily-lost pieces that the parents would spend forever cleaning up.

Made in China.

[Oct '09: I noticed some tweets come through about this page... FYI I've moved my latest health musings to my new site, www.psychiclunch.com (Direct link to this article there)]

Health: Not So Sweet Martha's

2009-09-09T21:19:00.002-06:00

We went to the State Fair a week ago and while we were there we bought a bucket of Sweet Martha's chocolate chip cookies, which is almost a requirement of attending the fair. They're not that cheap - $14 for a bucket, although they top those buckets off so high you'd think you were getting two for the price of one. The cookies are, of course, delicious. They're made to taste good.

I was feeling pretty good about the day we were there. We didn't eat too much junk, you see: NO fried foods, or soda pop, and so forth. There were one or two SMALL items that we ate - like a snow cone shared amongst the family or some free ice cream samples from Kemps - that were obviously indulgences, but otherwise we stuck to things whose ingredients were simple: Turkey. Fruit. Water. Nuts.

But now... now, a week later, I feel really, really bad about the Sweet Martha's. Why? Because a couple of days ago, I decided to check out the website for the cookies, hoping to find the ingredients list. Baked goods in America can often be filled with deceptively vile ingredients and I just wanted to find out for sure. I was frustrated to realize that Sweet Martha's does not list their ingredients or nutrition information on their website, like many a food manufacturer. This is a point in itself which could inspire a large rant, but I didn't let it get to me and decided an email request was in order. I got the response a day or two later, and just now finally got around to opening it.

I'm throwing the rest of the cookies away. And now I'm stuck with another plastic container I didn't need. What was I thinking?

---

To save anyone else the time of writing to the company to request this information, here are the ingredients of the cookies:

INGREDIENTS: ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR (BLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, IRON, NIACIN, POTASSIUM BROMATE, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), CHOCOLATE CHIPS (SUGAR, CHOCOLATE LIQUOR, COCOA BUTTER, SOY LECITHIN ADDED AS AN EMULSIFIER, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR ADDED), SUGAR, BROWN SUGAR, VEGETABLE SHORTENING (PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN AND COTTONSEED OIL), WATER, WHOLE EGG SOLIDS, BAKING SODA, SALT, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS. (09/05/06)

If you're accustomed to reading ingredients lists, you'll know instantly that this is practically a purchase order for poor health. If you're unaccustomed to manufacturing tricks, here's what is wrong with this (at least as much as I know):

"Enriched" wheat flour: You might think that "wheat flour" is generally okay for you - but besides the obvious gluten reactions that some may have, the problem is that no food should be enriched. Again, that probably doesn't seem sensible just on the surface; why NOT enrich foods with vitamins and minerals? Because usually the food in question is being enriched because the natural nutrients have already been stripped away by the manufacturing process, and also because the vitamins and minerals often added are nowhere near as good as the naturally-occuring nutrients.

Potassium Bromate: Do. Not. Eat. If you really need to know why, let me just Google that for you: http://bit.ly/1gYqI7

Sugar: It IS only listed three times, at least! But, kidding aside, sugar disrupts your digestive processes so horribly that you should cut it out of your diet as completely as possible. Force yourself to switch to natural replacements (NOT artificials like Splenda).

Soy: Contrary to what soy milk manufacturers may be trying to tell you, soy is, in most forms, NOT good for you. Please learn about it; start with the Whole Soy Story (http://www.wholesoystory.com/). Additionally, soy - like corn - is abusing the land as it is grown in a monocrop fashion, genetically modified and with lots of pesticides.

Vegetable shortening: TRANS FAT.

"Natural" and Artificial Flavors: Who knows what the natural flavors are; after all people everywhere seemingly agree that "natural" means absolutely nothing to food manufacturers. Artificial flavors - that definitely means chemically-created flavors, and you do NOT need added chemicals in your body.

Politics: Healthcare, or the concept of helping others by force.

2009-08-27T12:32:00.000-06:00

Let's say I have money and you have... a broken leg. It is kind and fair for me to donate money to you to fix that leg. But is it at all right for you to take the money from me IF I'm just a jerk and don't want to give it? No, because that's stealing. That being said, with the same situation, is it fair for your friends Mack and Jimmy to come take the money from me to fix the broken leg? Also, no. That's still stealing, but it's just The Mob doing it.

At what point does it become acceptable to take money from me to fix your leg if I don't want to give it to you? How many people have to decide that I should, in order for it to be "right"? At what point does it becomes acceptable for one group of people to decide to give another's property to someone else?

As much as you may wish to rationalize healthcare as a concept of everyone needing access to doctors or medicine if they get sick or injured, you cannot overlook the act of taking the money that would pay for these services.

Games: Pitfall, Art of the Arcade

2009-08-19T12:44:00.001-06:00

Interesting little site, Art of the Arcade, has a picture of Pitfall from back in The Day, and I never realized Harry wasn't wearing any pants...

Tech: Craiglisting Tips (also for Ebay auctions)

2009-08-16T21:18:00.001-06:00

So, I'm starting to place more things on Craigslist and Ebay. I've been loathe to do this because it's really a pain in the butt just to list things. Plus, on Craiglist you (or at least I) seem to get a disproportionate amount of responses saying they'll come buy something and then never show. (What's with that?)

I'm starting to get a bit of a good system down, but would readily welcome more advice. For anyone else who hasn't even gotten this far, here's what's working for me: First, and foremost, an internet-connected camera. This can be as simple as a phone with a camera and a data plan (or at least Wi-Fi). I take pictures with my phone (which is currently a MyTouch 3G (Android)) and have an application running that automatically uploads the picture to multiple web locations. I've also had this setup on a Windows Mobile phone before, and I know it's possible with an iPhone and Blackberry, so the gamut is mostly covered. Here are some great contenders:

Shozu:I was using Shozu on Windows Mobile before, and immediately went to get it for Android when I switched over, but they currently don't have an application for this OS. I liked it a lot, but in hindsight the setup is not quite as intuitive as the solution I wound up with. However it's good, and reliable.

PixelPipe: Google quickly brought up PixelPipe when I started seeking out alternatives, and I went so far as to shell out the big two dollars for their pro version of the Android app they offer. In my opinion the only thing this one is lacking is the option for automatic posting, and this is the primary reason, to me, to use any application like this. I want to just snap the picture and have it immediately placed online. Too bad, because it seems that you can access PixelPipe via far more methods (i.e. Mobile, IM, Picasa, Ubuntu programs, etc.) than any other media-publishing app. (also note the primary difference between their free and pro apps is that with Pro you can upload video.)

I wound up with ITookThisOnMyPhone and think it's absolutely the best. Not only is it free (though I'd readily pay for it), but it has the automatic uploading of photos that I so desire. It works consistently, and you can set up privacy-based rules for photo publishing, which is an added bonus. I currently am mostly pushing my photos to PicasaWeb, which I can then from there either download locally or push to Facebook as I choose. But the labor of getting them off my phone is DONE for me.

So now that I've got the photos of the items to be sold online, I search around for similar items to get a feel of the item's appropriate description and price (sometimes straight-up copying and pasting with a little tweaking, ahem) and then start describing my item. I use (used) the Firefox plugin "DragDropUpload" which lets you just drop a file from Windows Explorer onto a file upload dialog box - so you never have to click "Browse". As I write this, it's not compatible with Firefox 3.5 but hopefully that will change soon.

Before I submit the posting, I add some easy contact methods for people that still keep my anonymity: Meebo and Google Voice. The latter is still not quite open to everyone but that'll change soon, too. By "adding" I mean that I've set up individual HTML pages that contain the widgets provided by these tools. This way someone can instantly IM me via Meebo, or call me via Google Voice.

Finally, I've set up some filters in Gmail so that anything referring to my Craigslist/Ebay sales will be automatically flagged with a "sales" tag, so that I can keep things organized in my usually-overflowing inbox.

It's working fairly nicely.

Tech: Android Contacts bug!

2009-08-15T09:28:00.001-06:00

So, I have a new Android MyTouch 3G phone and have discovered that I get an occasional error when accessing select contacts in my contact list. It says, "the process android.process.acore has stopped unexpectedly" - this is a "force quit" type bug and I've tried rebooting the phone, taking the battery out & waiting, deleting & resynching all my contacts... almost nothing has worked. I'm reluctant to do a factory reset, so I just tried deleting and re-ADDing one of the offending contacts. It works again. So I guess that's the solution.

I SUSPECT that the problem is probably related to TasKiller, which I was/am using to stop background processes. I've occasionally noticed something to do about contacts running that I didn't launch, so I stopped its process. That probably messes things up. Oh well! I tweak too much.

Health: Raw almonds are still not raw

2009-07-31T07:55:00.000-06:00

Because almonds are one of the most healthy and nutritious nuts, and because in my opinion they make the best-tasting non-dairy milk, I'm personally concerned with the status of raw almonds in America, which is where I live. If you were not aware, since 2007 the USDA has mandated that all almonds be subjected to high temperatures for pasteurization and/or treated with a toxic fumigant before being sold to the public.

The reason for concern over this is that either of these processes makes the almond dead and/or contain a degree of toxicity itself. Besides that health factor, there is also the political aspect to be upset about; here in America which was once the land of the free, you are not even allowed to choose what foods you want to eat. Or more specifically, you may choose whatever you want, but only from the choices some governing official has allowed you to choose from. Finally, there is also the financial aspect to be upset about; these regulations put heavy financial burdens on almond growers, which are especially difficult for local and small growers to pay. This can cause some of the growers to go bankrupt and does cause the price that you pay at the supermarket to go up.

The Cornucopia institute of Wisconsin has a page which you can use to keep abreast of the latest news in the battle for truly raw almonds: http://www.cornucopia.org/almonds/

In the meantime, you can buy imported, raw almonds from sites such as the Raw Food World; http://www.therawfoodworld.com/product_info.php?products_id=1001588

Always remember: You pay for your health now with higher-quality food, or you pay for your health later, with high-priced doctors.

Health: Win some healthy salad dressing

2009-07-29T10:11:00.001-06:00

FoodRenegade, Cheeseslave, and KellytheKitchenKop are advertising this contest for some healthy salad dressing from Zukay Live Foods. I usually make my own raw, organic dressings for our salads, but it's hard to beat these ingredients, people:

http://www.foodrenegade.com/win-a-free-case-of-salad-dressing/

Vaccine Fillers and Ingredients

2009-06-24T07:02:00.001-06:00

From Dr Mercola: (Apologies to Dr Mercola; I provide the link, but I really hate "optional yet mandatory" subscribe popups thus I also provide the content)

(Also credit @JadeSylver for passing it along)

In addition to the viral and bacterial RNA or DNA that is part of the vaccines, here are the fillers:

aluminum hydroxide
aluminum phosphate
ammonium sulfate
amphotericin B
animal tissues: pig blood, horse blood, rabbit brain,
dog kidney, monkey kidney,
chick embryo, chicken egg, duck egg
calf (bovine) serum
betapropiolactone
fetal bovine serum
formaldehyde
formalin
gelatin
glycerol
human diploid cells (originating from human aborted fetal tissue)
hydrolized gelatin
monosodium glutamate (MSG)
neomycin
neomycin sulfate
phenol red indicator
phenoxyethanol (antifreeze)
potassium diphosphate
potassium monophosphate
polymyxin B
polysorbate 20
polysorbate 80
porcine (pig) pancreatic hydrolysate of casein
residual MRC5 proteins
sorbitol
sucrose
thimerosal (mercury)
tri(n)butylphosphate,
VERO cells, a continuous line of monkey kidney cells
washed sheep red blood cells

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

And you thought you were just getting a viral vaccine. In many cases the vaccine additives are far more toxic than the viral component. This is particularly true for thimerosal which is mercury.

Many will say that thimerosol is not in the vaccines any more. Well last summer Congress "strongly recommended" that the Pharmaceutical Company take the thimerosol out of vaccines....it was not mandated; simply recommended. The drug companies were not told to take the existing lots off the market. The recommendations only applies to new product line manufacture. An unknown amount of vaccine was/is still on the shelves.

Now the twist:

Yes, the new vaccines are supposed to be thimerosal-free, but I'm not sure that they are. In addition, it is unknown when you get a vaccination if you are getting a "new lot" or an "old lot." It is unknown exactly when the new thimerosal-free vaccines went into effect and were available in the market. In addition, if you were vaccinated with an old lot, or vaccinated previous to last summer, you got a dose of the mercury.

NOW the 'big marketing push" for vaccines, in 6 color glossy is "this vaccine is THIMEROSAL-FREE!!!!"....as if they had no idea before last summer that mercury was a problem. And, in response to "YOUR CONCERNS (even tho unfounded), oh faithful followers, we are making a new, and safe vaccine."

Health: a quick note about corn

2009-06-10T06:10:00.000-06:00

By avoiding corn, you avoid a typically genetically-modified product. But corn is so pervasive in our society that in order to NOT eat it, you have to be on the lookout for these ingredients, among others:

cellulose, xylitol, calcium stearate, ethyl lactate, maltodextrin, saccharin, xanthan gum, gluten, sucrose, sorbitol, ethel acetate, high fructose corn syrup, citrus cloud emulsion, citric acid, ascorbic acid, di-glycerides, baking powder, fructose, sorbic acid, vanilla extract, starch

It's easier, and better, to just NOT BUY any processed foods. Don't go to fast food restaurants - or most chain restaurants for that matter, and stay out of the center of grocery stores. And while you're shopping at a grocery, try avoiding anything that comes with plastic around it - including the boxes with plastic liners. Those are typically industrially-produced foods and should be avoided anyway. In doing all this, you will be choosing nourishment and not suicide.

sources:
http://twitter.com/Jambutter/status/2098720062
http://twitter.com/realfood2health/status/2099539956

UT2004: SeaPack v007 is available

2009-05-15T09:03:00.002-06:00

Being the most forgetful developer ever, I have failed to get around to posting this for, oh, a month or so. Someone popped up in Meebo the other day and chatted with me about it, which got me to finish compiling the zip file and upload it. I never got to finish the discussion with him, and I hope he comes back to see that I realized I left ONE file out of the batch. Sorry about that! But, the zip was updated and is now available to everyone for downloading. I've just got it on my public DropBox, so here's the link. (This was tested on a rather-fresh installation of UT2004.) (or try it from ModDB)

Basically, this updates most of the maps by adding in my very own vehicle, the SeaBass. Essentially it's not a WHOLE lot different than what's already available to the SeaPack, but in a different shape. Kinda like how 8-bit games add enemies by changing them from red to blue, y'know? OH yes and also: My completely-underwated Onslaught map, ONS-DeepSix, is in here. It's freaking huge and took me a REALLY, REALLY long time to create so I hope someone out there enjoys it. If you do, please please PLEASE tell me because it's about all the reward I'll get for putting so much time into it. It's a bit too big for my usual crowd of LAN players to get into (they don't play Onslaught much and we don't even get together that often anymore), so ... well, here's hoping it's well-received.

-WB

Health: Food, Inc.

2009-04-27T08:27:00.001-06:00

I went to see Food, Inc. last night was really good, informative, and upsetting (of course) all at the same time. The showing was sold out and the audience applauded at the end. This is a movie that everyone - EVERYONE - should watch and learn from.

The moral is that it REALLY matters whether you buy local and organic foods or not. Our LIVES are being destroyed so that we can collectively buy food at a slightly cheaper price. It's a vicious circle from which the only way out is to grit your teeth and buy the slightly-more-expensive groceries. STOP buying processed foods. They are laded with chemicals and preservatives that, while they make the food cheap, they also lead to poor health.They destroy our environment. Think you're green? Not if you buy a hamburger.

Whatever we do — no matter how tight our pocket books — we must not support these operations with our food dollars. - Food Renegade.

Politics: Miss California, Perez Hilton, and free speech

2009-04-22T23:27:00.001-06:00

Mass media has given rise to "supported hate" speech, which follows free speech around like a guard dog, and it picks the sensational stories to empower its positions. The internet, through social media channels, enables relatively anonymous groups to also become political bullies, further agitating the free speech landscape by making it appear - at least to themselves - like the issue lies more in their court than it may really be. With such a climate, people should better apparently keep their opinions to themselves if they have any kind of gain to be had from the public.

So, Miss California supports traditional marriage. Right. What we need to be doing here is chastening those who demonize their opponents, as in this case Perez Hilton has done. He asked her a politically-motivated, self-serving, and redundant question to which she responded with nervousness and honesty as she failed to actually answer. But in reviewing this situation, we should not forget that Americans do not have, and never have had, the right to not be offended. Instead of slewing epithets toward Miss California, Hilton should simply say, "well, that's her opinion." He could have responded by saying, "Y'know, when you're not used to being in the spotlight answering politically loaded questions, it's probably understandable that she reverted back to her personal opinions about the subject at hand." He could just say he disagrees with her. But then, that's not what he gets paid to do, and he is comfortable being loud and grabbing attention while she is not.

Yes, the answer Perez gave in his video response immediately after the show is the proper answer to his question. It's the only acceptable answer to his question, if you think about it - which he obviously had, of course. But to laugh at her and call her a stupid B---- because of her answer is not the right thing to do. Free speech must reign, Hilton needs to grow up, and we all need to be more understanding and forgiving.

Bible: 1 Cor 1:18 ... the Bible is foolish...

2009-04-21T09:40:00.001-06:00

... to those who can't understand it. You can see this all the time on pages such as the Atheist subreddit. They absolutely love to pick the Bible apart, piece by piece - never questioning once that what they're reading might not even be a proper translation... never questioning what they THINK they know about the Bible. But to those who earnestly open their heart to understanding, it will be given to them.

Link:http://bible.christiansunite.com/search.cgi?version=all&search=blessing&passage=1Co 1:18&from=gadget

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TV: Heroes "Cold Snap" next day reaction

2009-03-24T07:37:00.001-06:00

Spoilers, if you have watched it --

Let's see... What the crap happened to Sylar being in the Hunter's apartment? I was expecting to see something come of that. And how did Doyle wind up there, gift-wrapped? Are these two issues related, and if so, how the heck did the two find each other again? Last we knew, Rebel was looking out for Doyle who just wanted to get out of the game. Frustrating plot discrepancy, I say.

Secondly, how in the world did Peter find Angela? Seriously, was he just following her around all day or something? Tracing her cellphone? Okay MAYBE Rebel pointed him to her... we'll give 'em that.

In general, I really liked this episode. Daphne dies. Okay, sad, but still poignantly good. not pointless like Elle. Matt needed to stop fixating on her (oh and I totally knew his flying was a mind game). Shows need to be able to kill off good guys AND bad guys for it to be in the ballpark of the believeable realm.

Micah is rebel, after all. Lots of speculation going on about this... and I personally don't really like it. He's able to know far too much for someone who can just control computers. He's been able to see things and react to them much more than someone with such a talent should. But oh well. It'll be good to finally have him in a more active role. Of course, who knows, they might just go back to having him be a bunch of text messages. Personally, I still think it would have been MUCH better if Rebel were Hannah - the airwaves gal back from season one who became a computer "virus". Yeah, they "killed her off" in the graphic novels, but IMHO they didn't; she should have been backed up and restored right along with all the other data in the computers that blew up. Anyway, back to the episode.

Tracy, dead? No, of course not. I knew that even before she froze herself, because I read that the actress, Ali Larter, won't be leaving the show any time soon. Plus the wink gives it away.

OH. Ando's power now zaps as well? Okay, maybe it always did that... maybe they just felt sorry for him. They certainly could have been taking better advantage of his power.

Allrighty. Back at it. P.S. the graphic novel this week was a big advertisement for Nissan's cube, whatever the crap that is.

Sorbitol Sweetener: Is It Safe?

2009-02-27T08:16:00.001-06:00

I constantly see sorbitol listed as an ingredient for things and can never remember anything significant about it. I always have the feeling that it isn't all that bad, but it's not something I would choose either. This article seems to back that concept up. In a nutshell it's a sugar-derived sweetener. It occurs naturally but the form manufacturers use as an ingredient is created artificially. It does have fewer calories than regular sugar and is metabolized more slowly, but could cause digestion problems. I will continue to generally avoid it, which is easy for me because I don't like chewing gum or mints which is where sorbitol is used most.

Link:http://www.healthmad.com/Nutrition/Sorbitol-Sweetener-Is-It-Safe.426699

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Proverbs 14:22

2009-02-23T08:04:00.001-06:00

Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find [a] love and faithfulness. ---- This is very comforting, and it ties into other verses in the Bible that support the idea of our God wanting us to do things for ourselves; those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness because they ARE love and faithfulness, and that will generate more of the same.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=31&search=Proverbs%2014:22

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Taxes or theft?

2009-02-02T14:46:00.001-06:00

A little something I read today:

[ If any random person came to your door and demanded five thousand dollars so he could use it for his own purposes (say, giving it to poor people), you'd probably consider him to be a lunatic. If he drew a gun and threatened you, you'd consider him a dangerous lunatic thief. The only difference between this person and an IRS agent is that we don't scream "thief!" when an IRS agent does the exact same thing, because, through indoctrination, takeover of many parts of society and sheer threats of force, government is given more legitimacy than a common thief. ]

Government is stepping farther and farther outside of its bounds every single day. Just because a charming, new voice has stepped up to the microphone doesn't mean anything has changed. Power corrupts - never forget that.

Health: IntraMax - Organic Liquid Vitamins

2009-01-21T20:53:00.002-06:00

I've tried this stuff. I believe it's the best liquid vitamin you'll be able to find out there, however at $80 per bottle, it's kinda off the scale of affordability. This is the only liquid vitamin that has really tasted good, for what that's worth. Usually you have to just get used to the taste, but I recall this was good. Global Healing Center also gets the thumbs-up from NaturalNews, a site I well respect.

Alternatively, there's the Peter Gillham brand (http://snipurl.com/aief7) They're pretty good but I did once react to the niacin (vitamin B3) in there. That could happen to anyone with any vitamin mix, though. The taste is okay, and I feel good about the quality. Incidentally, that CALM product they sell here is awesome. It's essentially magnesium, of course, but it WORKS.

Finally, we often buy the Buried Treasure brand, and we get it from VitaCost (http://snipurl.com/aieo9). It's a good price, generally good quality, and tolerable taste.

http://www.ghchealth.com/liquid-vitamin-mineral-intramax.php

Politics: Between HIS lines

2009-01-20T13:48:00.000-06:00

Obama said, "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified."
What a pleasant way of telling you to freaking mind your own business how big the government gets -- let them do what they want with whatever socialist programs they create. Listen, people: Government is NOT there to provide you a job and health care. Those are NOT basic rights. Get up off your butt and get yourself your own job. Provide for your own.

He said, "We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."
Ohhh, listen to that. "We will begin to leave" ... you know how many times you can BEGIN something? I may seem the pessimist here, but I will bet you a good solid nickel that in four years we will STILL have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan or wherever else they feel like sending the troops. And that "forge a hard-earned peace" thing? Yeah, that's a deceptive way of saying they'll use whatever force they feel necessary to "defeat them". Don't overlook the fact that he is using VERY VAGUE WORDING when talking about military status.

About his comment, "For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers," please compare and contrast that statement to "United we stand, divided we fall".

Obama says the same thing about the "New World Order" that Bush originally did. It will exist whether the people of the United States want it or not. He said, "To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it." Your hard-earned dollars ARE going to be taken from you and distributed without regard for your wishes. This is called THEFT even when done in the name of "good". And remember that when government gets involved, things like this hardly even work; it can't even clean up a hurricane in our own country, let alone build or rebuild other nations.

It's hilarious that he calls on God whenever he needs it, "This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny." Don't forget that he PROBABLY doesn't believe in your God. Don't forget that he already believes that no religion matters - else why would he claim a patchwork heritage strength? These are words said to make you feel good. (Unless of course you're an atheist; apparently his speech-writer forgot about them again for a moment. Whatever. Go with it.)

Obama says all his words to make you feel good without realizing how much money it's going to take from your pocket. Good luck, America. You're REALLY going to need it.

The taxman cometh? IRS urged to tax virtual worlds, economies

2009-01-13T15:48:00.000-06:00

The taxman cometh? IRS urged to tax virtual worlds, economies

Something needs to be said something along the lines of "First ones up against the wall" or such...

Bible: 3rd John 1:4; wise children

2009-01-03T22:40:00.001-06:00

It's the best thing one can hope for, that one's children know and love our God. I can envision the marvelous-ness of living with that knowledge.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=3%20John%201:4;&version=31;

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UT2004: There HAS been some progress

2008-12-16T15:26:00.003-06:00

I actually have a beta-quality version of the ol' SeaPack completed, so there HAS indeed been some progress which I'll be able to release at some point, here. The major changes are two: ONS-DeepSix has been finished, and so has my SeaBass submarine. Again they're beta-quality meaning they WORK but there're probably bugs unfound and definitely room for improvement. Anyway, message me if this is important to you, cool?

Bible: John 1:14; not what you thought

2008-10-28T07:23:00.000-06:00

Most people point to this to "prove" that Jesus (Yashua) was together with our God (YHWH) before the world was created, but if you really read it properly, that's not what it says, is it? It says that the Word was embodied in flesh, but that does not necessarily mean that said flesh and the Word are literally the same. Think of Jesus as an avatar for the Word, and that, I believe, is a more accurate description of what's going on here. Not only does that make sense, but it also works properly with the concept of a SINGLE God, not a "triune" god. There are numerous references of our God saying that there is no other god than Him, as well as other references about His son specifically not being equal to Him. To believe in a "trinity" you have to disregard far too many verses.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201:14;&version=31;

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Bible: Psalm 19:14 (Keeping centered on God)

2008-10-16T08:24:00.000-06:00

A great prayer, to ask that one's thoughts and words are pleasing to God. Your actions will follow what you say and do. Like Solomon asking for wisdom, God is definitely pleased when we ask to be as He wants us to be.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=31&search=Psalm%2019:14

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Bible: Romans 12:2, the pattern of this world

2008-10-14T09:43:00.000-06:00

Think about this; "the pattern of this world" means "what everyone else does." So usually, whatever people think is right, when it's thought as such in popular opinion... it's probably wrong. This also parallels the story of the wide gate vs. the narrow gate. Popular opinion is usually wrong! I also like this verse because it shows that you CAN align yourself with our God's plan and know what it is. That is, although you can't possibly know what His overall plan is, you can certainly be guided by His spirit and feel that a certain course of action is right or wrong. Thanks, YHWH.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=31&search=Romans%2012:2

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World: G7 pledge %u2018no more Lehmans%u2019

2008-10-13T07:23:00.000-06:00

Wow. How great would it be to have someone backing you so that it's IMPOSSIBLE for you to fail? Next thought after that: How great would it be to sit on your duff and do NOTHING because someone's guaranteeing to back you up? Match that together with "power corrupts" and you've got something eerily similar to what's really going on...

Link:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5a4ab6f2-988a-11dd-ace3-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

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Bible: Jeremiah 29:11(I gots PLANS)

2008-10-13T07:10:00.000-06:00

This is a "classic" verse in the sense that many people have heard it. For good reason; it's a very reassuring verse and as it is from God, one can gain real hope from it even when times are down. Which, coincidentally, they are right now for many, many people. I go to sleep at night, able to relax, because I know enough to give my worries to God. I know that even if the "world should end," that is, the economy goes to poop or should I lose my house, job, whatever - life will still go on, it will get better, and I can look forward to some really great times that will make it all worth it. Yeah, our God is pretty cool.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=31&search=Jeremiah%2029:11

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Bible: Always be ready

2008-10-09T10:14:00.000-06:00

I like this one. It does remind me of a speech given by, I believe, Sheldon Emry, where he described a practical modern application of this, but it also brings to mind another verse in (again, I believe) 1Timothy where it says to rejoice when being questioned. The thing to remember is that God is with you especially when, trusting in Him, you are placed in a position to answer according to His word. This verse also contains instruction to read and consider His word, the Bible, on a regular basis. This is what will HELP you be ready at any time. Even reviewing things that you already know is important because it just strengthens your resolve - and it might shed light on areas that you may have previously misunderstood.

Link:http://bible.christiansunite.com/search.cgi?version=all&search=blessing&passage=1Pe 3:15&from=gadget

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Bible: Wives and beauty

2008-10-06T19:17:00.000-06:00

1 Peter 3:3-4 talks about a woman's beauty. As I read this the thought occurred to me of how much my daughter, now four years old, loves to dress up and make herself beautiful. She can change clothes a million times a day and never tire of it. Each dress is more beautiful than the last, even if it's going back to one she had on earlier. Is it coincidence that while the Bible tells women to not concern themselves with outer beauty, little girls are obsessed with it? It is a sign of maturity for girls to grow past the outer beauty and focus on the spirit, becoming good in the eyes of God.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=67&chapter=3&version=31

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BibleGateway.com - Col 4:6

2008-09-18T15:34:00.000-06:00

Pretty nice how the Bible is clear about being sneaky. This basically says, "Don't pound someone over the head with the word of the Lord... just sprinkle it here and there among your regular speech." The thing is, unless you know someone - unless you know a person is receptive to ideas which may go against their beliefs, you shouldn't go about criticizing or correcting them. More often than not a strange confronted with the truth will run and hide.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Col%204:6;&version=31;

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Bible: Romans 11:33

2008-09-12T13:04:00.000-06:00

This is boiled down to: "You don't know what you don't know." And the great thing about it is that the more you know, the better you will feel... the better you'll be able to help others... the more centered you will be.

Link:http://bible.christiansunite.com/search.cgi?version=all&search=blessing&passage=Ro 11:33&from=gadget

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Bible: 1 Thessalonians 4 :16

2008-09-10T13:05:00.000-06:00

BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: 1 Thessalonians 4 :16;

This is a description about death and hope, and the context of it talks about not grieving for those who have died, because all will be brought back at the pretty much same time, in the end. Whenever God Himself declares it, all the world will know and must admit to the Truth, which He is - even those who have died.

High fructose corn syrup ad

2008-09-09T09:23:00.000-06:00

Amazing what the Industry implies with this. They try to say that it's simply EMBARRASSING to deny HFCS by showing some random chick that hasn't studied up properly. If they really wanted to give an honest review of HFCS, they'd prop up someone who DID know their stuff and try to defend against it. And of course, they can't. In a way, it's pretty cool to see that someone has put the effort in to create such an ad as this because it shows that the truth about this highly processed by-product is finally coming out!

Link:http://snhbw.blogspot.com/2008/09/high-fructose-corn-syrup-ad.html

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Bible: 1 Cor 1:18

2008-09-09T09:15:00.000-06:00

The thought which crosses my mind is how difficult it is for us humans to really know who is or is not perishing. I mean, some are already chosen by God to perish, as in the case of Pharaoh or the destiny of the seed of Esau (not really perishing, there, but destiny has been defined). So what to do? Just go about your lives, getting to know people (know them by their fruits, right?) and sharing God's word with those which evidence suggests they are saved.

Link:http://bible.christiansunite.com/search.cgi?version=all&search=blessing&passage=1Co 1:18&from=gadget

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Health: Cascadian Farm's "Cinnamon Raisin Granola"

2008-06-13T14:58:00.001-06:00

With the amount of sugar added, degree of processing, and quality of oils used in the production of Cascadian Farm's "Cinnamon Raisin Granola" cereal, this should NOT be qualified as an organic food, nor should it be listed as good for your body.

Ingredient analysis, taken from the Nutrition Information (10) on cascadianfarm.com:

organic whole grain rolled oats
naturally milled organic sugar

SUGAR (8)

organic crisp rice
    (
        organic rice
        naturally milled organic sugar

SUGAR (8)

        sea salt
        organic malt
    )

Puffed grains are, in fact, NOT healthy. They are "very" processed grains and have little or no nutritional value to them. They are "dead" foods. 70% or more of your daily food intake should be from raw, or living, foods. (7)

organic raisins
organic whole grain oat flour
organic honey

SUGAR (8)

organic sunflower oil

Polyunsaturated oils, such as sunflower oil, contain long-chain fatty acids, which are extremely fragile and unstable. (9)
Polyunsaturated fatty acids or PUFAs in vegetable seed oils are the bane of human health - they actually cause cancer, diabetes, obesity, aging, thrombosis, arthritis, and immunodeficiencies. (9)
See also the notes about canola oil below.

sea salt
organic molasses

SUGAR (8)

baking soda
organic cinnamon
soy lecithin (an emulsifier)

Extracted from soy beans using a solvent such as hexane. A by-product of soybean oil.

Nearly all soybeans in America (89% in 2006) are from genetically modified (GM) sources. (5) This means that not only have these plants been injected with strange or unusual substances (like bacterial genes), but they have also been grown under the heavy use of pesticides. Note that more countries outside the US implementing bans on GM foods.
Polyunsaturated oils, particularly corn oil and soybean oil, cause numerous health problems, including and especially cancer. (6)
Hexane is a mild anestheic and is used as a solvent in industries such as shoe manufacturing, furniture restoration, and automobile construction. (4)

Soy Myths and Truths: (3)
Read the comments about soy in this article: (2)

organic canola oil

Typical oils such as canola oil are processed with heat and high pressure, and are often exposed to sunlight for lengthy periods after processing. Contemporary vegetable oils (like canola oil) contain omega-3 fatty acids; Since omega-3 fatty acids rapidly become offensive smelling and subject to rancidification when processed with high heat and oxygen, the oil is then subjected to a deodorizing process which removes much of the Omega-3 and replaces it with trans fats.(1)
Canola oil is not permitted in infant formula by the FDA due to concerns about inhibited growth in human infants. (1)
See also the notes about sunflower oil above.

organic vanilla extract

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola_oil#Health_effects
(2) http://www.chow.com/stories/10701
(3) http://www.westonaprice.org/mythstruths/mtsoy.html
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexane
(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean
(6) http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/conola.html
(7) http://www.living-foods.com/articles/environmental.html
(8) While not listed as the first ingredient in the list, SUGAR is essentially listed four times. This is a devious practice by major corporations to hide the amounts of sugar in a list. It's probably a good idea to qualify THIS cereal as a "sugar cereal"; according to the nutrition facts label, 29% of this cereal is made of sugar. (55g serving size / 16g sugar)
(9) http://thescreamonline.com/essays/essays5-1/vegoil.html
(10) http://www.cascadianfarm.com/products/product_detail.aspx?cat=8&upc=0-21908-13334-8

Tech: RememberTheMilk, Twitter, and Google Calendar

2008-04-22T14:41:00.001-06:00

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

They make it pretty easy to integrate, I think. Browse the site (sign up, of course), and then on the homepage there click both the Google Calendar button and the Twitter button, and follow each of their instructions. When it's all done, you can just IM your Twitterbot something like "Lunch with Julie at 8pm Apr 30" – it'll set up an appointment in itself, and then sync up with Google Calendar. You can ALSO add their widget to your iGoogle homepage or Google Desktop, if you feel like.

Tech: Mobile phone thoughts

2008-04-02T09:06:00.001-06:00

(reposted from my response on Cathartic Tome )

One of the first things I install on any PDA phone is some kind of app (for WM5, I use "Magic Button") that turns the "X" button into an actual CLOSE application button - so I pretty much never have any apps running in the background. Since Windows CE, I always thought that was a bad idea.

There are some quirks in WM, but I still like it a whole lot - primarily because there's SO much good-quality freeware and regular apps for it. I've got a (now "old") T-Mobile MDA (2?) and it's still the best danged phone I've ever had. Incidentally, WM7 will not be a vast upgrade as I hear tell, but WM8 is going to be a complete rewrite of the software, so expect to finally see WM in a form that is everyone-friendly, not just nerd-friendly, in a few years.

I just bought the wife a new, low-end phone from Target. Some cheap Nokia thing but it dials and has a speakerphone so it'll do. Her old phone's battery is completely dead, which is why we got the new one. It's sad and very Brave-New-World-ish that her new phone uses the exact same battery as the old phone and while the battery can be purchased online for $40, the new phone can be had for $30.

Web: Testing Disqus

2008-03-24T08:30:00.002-06:00

Webware's "Under the Radar" series recommended Disqus for a multi-blog commenting system, and I'm curious to see how it works, so I'll be testing it out.

Politics: A better form of government

2008-03-09T12:41:00.001-06:00

We are not a democracy, nor have we ever been. We are currently more nearly a corporate oligarchy. Corporate money elects our presidents and selects our congressmen, our cabinet members, and our judges. Corporate money has bought the country.

Plato argued in his Republic that our representatives should be selected at random from the whole population, that from a fund of all qualified voters we simply draft up our representatives. Those whose names come up in the selection process would be required, by law, to serve. More poor and middle-class representatives would be chosen than those who are economically privileged. We would have proportionately as many members of minorities as exist in the whole population.

These representatives would sreve one term - perhaps four year During their term, they would receive an adequate salary and the jobs they leave would be protected by law. Such leaders would have values consistent with those of the people themselves; that people, not money, that justice, not profit, are the first considerations. They would understand that progress is realized when we feed and house and educate our citizens, that progress is realized when we preserve the earth.

Some observe that such a method of selecting our representatives bears with it the danger that some will not be qualified to represent us. But we have survived in a system for over two hundred years where most who represent us re either not qualified or are committed to interests antithetical to our own. It is easier to trust the schoolteacher or bulldozer operator over the professional politicians we have now.

Health: Ice Cream, the delicious poison

2008-02-29T09:12:00.002-06:00

When you order a banana split at your neighborhood ice cream parlor, you may order vanilla flavored ice cream, chocolate, and strawberry.

But you will probably eat iperonal (a lice killer) for vanilla, amylphenyl acetate for chocolate, and a solvent called benzyl acetate for strawberry. The toppings will probably be aldehyde C-17 for cherry, ethyl acetate for pineapple (causes lung, liver, and heart damage), rutyraldehyde for nut flavor, and a paint solvent called amyl acetate for that great banana flavor.

It's all economics. Aldehyde C-17 costs seven cents per gallon of ice cream. Real cherries cost thirty-five cents a gallon. There are over a thousand different chemicals used in commercial ice cream.

-The Milk Book, by William Douglass II. Emphasis added.

Politics: What do politicians do with your private data?

2008-02-14T11:52:00.000-06:00

I think it's a bit telling to see what politicians do with your private information when you donate money to them. Here's a quick cut-n-paste from their websites and -- Hey, look at that! Ron Paul is the only one who says, "NO SHARING"

Barack Obama: It is our general policy not to make Personal Information available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents. We may also make personal information available to organizations with similar political viewpoints and objectives, in furtherance of our own political objectives.

Ron Paul: Do you use the information that you collect for any other reason? No. We collect the information to comply with FEC regulations, but do not sell or otherwise distribute any piece of information about any of our donors.

Hillary Clinton: On occasion, we may also use the information that you provide online to contact you for other purposes or to solicit you for contributions. When you register or sign-up online, we may share your contact information with successor organizations and other like-minded Democratic candidates and organizations, and they may contact you. When you make a contribution to us, we may also exchange your contributor information with successor organizations and other like-minded Democratic candidates and organizations, and they may solicit you (see below for additional information regarding your contributor information). However, we will not sell or exchange your credit card information to any other third party under any circumstances.

John McCain: We may share information -- that you voluntarily provide us -- with like-minded organizations committed to the principles or candidates of the Republican party, Republican State Party organizations, local Republican groups and like-minded organizations.

Here's a Reddit discussion about this, spawned by the fact that Hillary's campaign was busted for selling information. http://reddit.com/info/68o6i/comments/

Health: A week to change habits

2008-02-05T16:02:00.001-06:00

If you're trying to give up a bad eating habit, make sure to give yourself at least a week before your changes in diet are reflected in the withdrawal symptoms you will be feeling. Don't give up, because once you reach that "promised land" you won't feel the urges and it will be worth it.

Also see The Great American Detox Diet, p37

Health: Breakfast at Yedda

2008-02-05T09:14:00.000-06:00

Check out this interesting answer on Yedda

Healthy breakfast
If I'm going to eat a processed grain, Kashi would be one of the ones that seems generally acceptable to me, however avoid cereals just as you would (should) any processed food. They're not as healthful as you might think. Especially do not trust the big names - and Kashi is simply Kelloggs by another name.
Also, do some research into why you should avoid cereals. For example, processing a grain to produce puffed wheat/rice/etc. is done at high temperatures and pressure, which actually makes them toxic.
If you want to feed your children a healthy breakfast cereal, prepare it the evening beforehand; cook some steel cut oats - here's a recipe at RecipeZaar: http://www.recipezaar.com/101101 Mind you, it's cooked which gets rid of some of the nutrients, but it's cooked less than the processed cereals and it's amazingly delicious.
(Yaronco, all those cereals you listed range from tolerable to horrible. For example, Cinnamon Toast Crunch has sugar listed three times withini its ingredients. It also has preservatives and modified ingredients; it is far from natural and far from healthy. I checked out that link... oy - they even recommend Cracklin' Oat Bran, which tastes delicious but the stuff is literally held together by sugar. I do not agree with that site's recommendations. The author seems to base his suggestions on having whole grains listed first, but he doesn't seem to understand that corporations simply use multiple types of sugars to avoid listing SUGAR as first.)
(Joosh: Smart Start is bad for you. Not only does it have sugar listed three times, but one of those sugars is high fructose corn syrup - pretty much the worst sugar man makes. Note: This is why it "tastes better than Kashi.")
Topics: health, cereal
Answered by Winkyboy on February 05, 2008
View the entire discussion on Yedda

Twessenger merges Twitter with your Messenger status

2008-01-29T15:06:00.001-06:00

Twessenger: Twitter add-in for Windows Live Messenger -
Cool. Too bad I usually use Meebo for my chat clients. (Meebo needs to get around to sync'ing up everyone's multiple IM status bars...ugh!)

Tech: Twitter Convergence

2008-01-24T10:00:00.000-06:00

Just showing off a sweet convergence of programs I’ve got running… First off, I use Twitter. I only have a couple of followers/followees (and of the followees only one posts with any regularity) so I haven’t really even explored the social micro-blogging aspect of the tool. Might be interesting to delve into; I’ve read about a lot of other uses Twitter has in this respect, such as creating a corporate identity, say MRMPLS, and having all its employees follow it for quick announcements wherever they may be. Could be useful. Even if you don’t have a text-messaging plan, as I do not, Twitter can be very useful. In fact, it’s easier to use if you add the Twitter bot to your IM list.

If I can veer a little off-subject for a moment, I’d also like to mention www.meebo.com here. I may have talked about it before, but it’s ultra-convenient in that it has nearly all the features of all the regular IM clients, but it’s online and does not need to be installed. Thus, the preferences and friends lists that you have on it (such as the Twitter bot) carry with you from computer to computer – you have your regular access anywhere you are.

I’ve found Twitter is most useful as a gateway, feeding data into other programs. On Facebook I’ve installed TwitterSync which polls my Twitter status and applies any newly-posted change to my Facebook status. This is nice because I can post once and announce twice, so to speak. (I thought for one week that TwitterSync was causing some problems with my status, but now I’ve realized it was the alpha version of 8hands – another cool toy but not ready for prime time just yet)

I’m into health-related issues in a big way, and thus I have stumbled onto www.tweetwhatyoueat.com. This lets you track what you eat (and, optionally, the calories you consume) by direct-messaging through Twitter. I’ve used other diet-recording software/sites such as www.sparkpeople.com, but this is SO much easier because with Twitter you’re always logged in. An online calorie lookup service (www.acaloriecounter.com, www.thedailyplate.com, etc.) is convenient if you do use this.

You can also tweet your appointments to your calendar if you use www.rememberthemilk.com (RTM) – complete with a time for the appointment – by simply sending something like, “dental appointment @ may 5th 8:00PM” If you’ve set RTM up properly, this will the propagate to your Google calendar. I’ve even gone so far as to purchase a copy of Rainlendar which mixes my Outlook and multiple Google calendars together for one convenient desktop display.

Health: Avoid Soft Drinks

2008-01-24T09:36:00.001-06:00

Another entry in the should-be-self-obvious category, Soft drinks contain phosphoric acid which changes the body's calcium-phosphorus ratio, upsetting its deductable chemical balance. A body in balance heals. A body unbalanced deteriorates. Sugar-free soft drinks are not acceptable substitutes for a variety of reasons. Besides the fatc that they contain chemical-based sugar replacements that should be considered poisonous, the phosphorus in them retains this same unbalancing properties, and the body may be tricked into producing extra insulin which will lead to a drop in the blood sugar levels.

A glass of mineral water flavored with lemon, lime, or a tablespoon of orange or apple juice makes a great soft drink replacement.

Health: Girl Scout Cookies are Deadly

2008-01-23T23:36:00.000-06:00

ABC Smart Cookie - Cookie - Nutrition Facts

Look at the ingredient lists here: SUGAR is listed within the top two of each cookie, usually. They all have wheat flour, but it's "enriched" wheat flour. When you read that, know that it's flour that's been killed and then had synthetic vitamins and minerals added back in.

Then, of course, there's the trans fats. Even though it lists "0g trans fat" on the labels, shortening or partially hydrogenated oils are usually within the top three ingredients. THOSE ARE TRANS FATS. Don't believe their lies.

Throw in some artificial flavor, a lot more sugar of varying sorts including the always-evil high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, and more sugar for the heck of it, you've got a little, delicious, and deadly treat.

How many boxes do you eat each year?

Health: Artificial Sweeteners

2008-01-22T08:31:00.001-06:00

Aspartame, or NutraSweet and Equal, is about 200 times sweeter than sugar and is in numerous diet soft drinks, It is made of phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol (wood alcohol), which enters the blood when ingested. High levels of phenylalanine and tyrosine (both amino acids) are created by aspartame in humans. These can affect the brain by negatively influencing the creation of neurotransmitters and the operation of bodily functions controlled by the central nervous system.

Aspartame also inhibits the release of glucose into the bloodstream and induces the release of seratonin (an inhibitory transmitter) within the brain. This may affect both sleep and hunger, thus dieters may be only adding to their problems by drinking sodas with aspartame.

Methanol (poison!) is added during the manufacturing of aspartame. One liter of a diet cola contains about 555 milligrams of aspartame and of this, 56 mg are methanol.

The FDA has numerous reports of seizures linked to aspartame ingestion. Common reported side effects include dizziness, visual impairment, disorientation, ear buzzing, tunnel vision, loss of equilibium, severe muscle aches, numbness, inflammation of the pancreas, episodes of high blood pressure, and eye hemorrhages.

Every chemical you ingest has to be filtered by your liver. Over time, such "workouts" eventually exhaust the immune and endocrine systems.

Saccharin is still sold today despite pending investigation about the controversy that it is probably carcinogenic. It is found in Sweet 'N Low, Sprinkle Twin, and Sugar Twin.

- Lick the Sugar Habit

Health: Pottenger's Cats

2008-01-21T10:55:00.001-06:00

Francis Pottenger studied cats over several generations. He fed one group a primitive diet of raw foods; a second, the same foods only cooked; a third group he fed the cooked-food diet plus condensed milk, which contains sugar. The first group lived the longest and gave birth to healthy cats over several generations. The second group did not live as long as the first and gave birth to two generations of cats, each of which was less healthy than the former generation. Thus, cooking apparently altered the available nutrients in their food.

Adding sugar to this diet made the nutrients even less available, as shown by the deterioration over three generations of the third group of cats. Their second and third generations had many abnormalities, including hair that was not as shiny and thick as the first generation. When kept on the cooked, sweetened diet, the third generation was not able to reproduce. Interestingly, when these third-generation cats wew switched to an all raw-food diet, they became healthy enough to reproduce and give birth to kittens who were healthier than those of the third generation.

This demonstrates that the potential expression in the genetic blueprint is inhibited by lifestyle. Like these cats, each of us inherits an endocrine pattern from our parents and we pass this pattern on to our children.

- Lick the Sugar Habit, page 106

Health: the pulse test

2008-01-17T14:04:00.002-06:00

While not all foods to which you are allergic will alter your heartrate, if you ingest a food and your pulse rate increases or decreases at least ten beats per minute over the resting rate, chances are you are not metabolizing that food correctly. You have developed an allergic sensitivity to it.

- Lick the Sugar Habit

Health: How Sugars cause Allergies

2008-01-17T14:04:00.001-06:00

I have to quote this directly from "Lick the Sugar Habit"

Evry food we eat needs to be digested and metabolized by a variety of enzymes before it can be used by our cells. Enzymes will (not) work without the proper functioning minerals to help them out. If the usable minerals in the body decrease, such as in the presence of sugar, it is difficult for the body to digest anything in the small intestine because of the lack (or decrease) of functioning enzymes. Therefore, wheb you eat sugar, any food that is in the stomach at the time will become the food to which you can become allergic. This continued inability to digest a particular food eventually results in an allergy to that undigested, decomposing food.

Health: The sour facts about sugar

2008-01-16T09:05:00.003-06:00

Taken from "Lick the Sugar Habit"

Our bodies only need two teaspoons of blood sugar at any time. If we at no refined sugar at all, we would still get more than enough sugar in our diets. Every extra teaspoon of refined sugar you eat works to throw your body out of balance and compromise its health.

When a person eats sugar continuously, their body becomes unable to manufacture glucose from complex carbohydrates, proteins, and facts.

The minerals needed for the body to digest sugar have been stripped by the manufacturing process, so the digestion of it in turn strips those minerals from YOUR body.

Manufacturers are NOT required to list glucose as an ingredient when used in processing.

Even if you get your RDA of vitamins and minerals, if you eat sugar, it will change your body chemistry making you unable to use those nutrients. The nutrients may even become toxic to your body!

Health: Sugar used in processing

2008-01-16T09:05:00.001-06:00

Did you know that sugar is used in a vast majority of the processed
foods you buy today? It's rather conspiratory if you imagine that food
processors might be related in any way to pharmaceuticals or genetic
engineers. It's bad enough just think about the capitalistic approach
that processors take in order to sell their products.

Many meat packers feed sugar to animals prior to slaughter to improve
the flavor and color of the meat.

Sugar is often added to restaurant hamburgers to reduce shrinkage.

Sugar is found in such unlikely items such as boullion cubes and dry
roasted nuts.

Almost half of the calories in commercial ketchup somes from sugar.

Over 90% of the calories in a can of cranberry sauce come from sugar.

The average person eats over TEN POUNDS of sugar each month.

Health: Why people BELIEVE coconut oil is bad for you

2008-01-15T09:14:00.001-06:00

(Summarized from http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/article10027.htm)

...the domestic oil industry viewed with alarm the competing interest of the imported oils. In 1986, ... the American Soybean Association (ASA) launched a series of attacks that became known as the "tropical grease campaign." ... The face-off was not between tropical and temperate-climate oils, but rather between domestic and imported ones. ...

This effort was abetted by a self-styled consumer crusader, Phil Sokolof, who waged his own campaign against these oils. He established and funded the National Heart Savers Association, and paid for full-page advertisements in nationally distributed newspapers, with the dramatic headline "The Poisoning of America!" He charged that tropical oils destroy life or impair health. The combined campaigns of Sokolof and ASA convinced many consumers that tropical oils were unhealthy, and consumers should be warned on product labels.

...The ASA viewed potential legislation on labeling as its "biggest weapon" against foreign-oil producers. ... [It is interesting to note that] U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeuter admitted that "the main objective of the proposed tropical labeling legislation was to protect the domestic oil industry." [Also,] The Institute of Shortening and Edible Oils charged: "The health angle is a smoke screen for a trade issue. …Specific labeling of foods in regard to their content of the so-called tropical oils is clearly discriminatory and without scientific basis."

...The campaign succeeded in having major food processors reformulate their products with domestically produced oils. According to food writer Jane Heimlich, the anti-tropical-oil campaign resulted in a switch to "true artery-clogging horrors - partially hydrogenated oils." The reformulation created problems. Palm and coconut oils resist oxidation and are highly stable. They do not require hydrogenation, and are trans-free. However, many of the domestic oils are predominantly polyunsaturated, which makes them quite unstable, and subject to oxidation. To make them more stable, they need to be hydrogenated. ...

Food processors switched reluctantly [because] Palm and coconut oils [are advantageous in] food processing. Palm oil can be separated readily.... Manufacturers can make bakery shortening from [palm], [resulting in a] food product [that] has no trans fats. ...Palm and coconut oils are highly suitable for frying because of their high oxidative stability.

... [These oils] do not require hydrogenation. Unlike many other vegetable oils, extraction can be done without the use of harsh chemical solvents. These oils have low foaming tendencies when heated, so they do not require the use of anti-foaming agents. Because these oils have high smoke points, they resist polymerization and oxidation. These features benefit food processors, but do they harm consumers? The aggressive campaign against these oils was intended to make consumers fearful of unhealthy qualities in the oils, and to pressure food processors to eliminate them.

However, the scientific evidence demonstrates that palm and coconut oils are healthful.

Health: A short history of sugars

2008-01-15T08:31:00.001-06:00

Up until the 70's America got most of its sugar from sugar beets or sugar cane. Remember the commercial? "C&H - pure cane sugar, C&H - from Hawaii, C&H - pure cane sugar, that's the one."

Okay maybe I'm dating myself with thbat commercial quote and proving the effectiveness of an advertising jingle, but that much is true, and these types of sugar (beet, cane) are SUCROSE.

Sometime in the 70's sugar made from corn became popular because it was cheaper to produce. Now wed started getting corn syrup, fructose, dextrose, dextrine, and high fructose corn syrup as part of the American daily diet

- Based on "Lick the Sugar Habit" by Nancy Appleton, PhD

Politics: To my reps; real money!

2008-01-14T13:30:00.001-06:00

DownSizeDC asked for me to message the reps about Ron Paul's Honest Money act, which I totally agree with. I WANT a constitutional money system based on gold and silver. Consider this: The founding fathers had the same ability to create their own "federal reserve" system as they did in 1913 yet they CHOSE to wisely base the nation's money on gold and silver. They were absolutely wiser than we shown ourselves to be, today; let us follow their example.

Politics: Power of Charisma

2008-01-10T22:42:00.001-06:00

Charisma. It is the essence of what is popular. With charisma is delivered such phrases such as "the audacity of hope" or "the urgency of now." Charisma propels one man to fame even if the words that make up this charisma mean ultimately nothing. He may speak of change without changing. He might speak of leadership, yet mean control. All the while those who listen to him hear nothing but his charismatic presentation. He is like all the rest, but he dazzles them with style.

Give 'em an act with lots of flash in it
And the reaction will be passionate
How can they see with sequins in their eyes?
Razzle dazzle 'em and they'll never catch wise!

(paraphrasing Razzle Dazzle, from Chicago)

Sandwich Application Error

2008-01-10T09:45:00.000-06:00

A friend of mine started making a sandwich before lunch yesterday and apparently got called into a meeting or something, so his empty sandwich sat on the table unattended for quite a while. I figured some kind of FAIL message was appropriate... [full-size image]

Politics: SWAT Team Necessary Because Man Is a "Self-Proclaimed Constitutionalist"

2008-01-08T21:07:00.000-06:00

Reason Magazine - SWAT Team Necessary Because Man Is a "Self-Proclaimed Constitutionalist"

*

Should I pose a comparison between presidents and the common people? It's rather chilling that after Clinton I read about children experimenting with oral sex because the President had done it - so what's the big deal? Now after seven years of Bush, we have SWAT teams being called in for minor medical examinations.

Okay, so I jest a little, but it is still cold in here. This all makes me recall some Orwellian future predictions that Heinlein wrote in his book, Friday, that the ultimate sign of the end of a society is that the people lose common courtesy for one another.

I haven't researched to find if that has any actual historical backing, but it certainly would make sense, as trust is implicit in a society that is friendly toward one another. In good, healthy societies you understand the people around you, you like them, and you want to do things to help them. I won't go all preacher on you and take ten paragraphs now to explain that that is how proper Christianity is supposed to be, but there it is anyway: People love one another in a proper society.

* National police during a normal parade. In the USA an armor tank during a parade would be unusual, but in most countries it's normal. - tinou bao

Health: I hate soda

2008-01-03T11:34:00.001-06:00

While looking through my sent emails on an entirely unrelated subject, I came across this email I'd sent to my work newsletter but it was edited out. So, rather than waste a good rant, here it is. (Yes, I realize this might be noticed by everyone at work ;)

http://www.waterforlifeusa.com/blog/uncategorized/8-ways-soda-fizzles-your-health/

We've (probably) heard it before, but seriously.

No, take it seriously. I mean, this affects us directly - we could have a fridge full of tea. Unsweetened, rooibos tea, which comes in many flavors, is delicious and good for you! However, we have 90% soda, 6% carbonated water, and 4% juice (half of which contains high fructose corn syrup. And don't get me started on that.) But if you're looking for a diet drink that's sweet, just put a tiny pinch of Stevia extract to the tea. Even a half-teaspoon of honey isn't going to kill you as much as aspartame or saccharin will.

And since I'm on the tea rant, we should just Spice Up the Office with something from TeaVana. That particular starter package is a little unnecessary since we already have a hot water tap and don't need the Zojirushi boiler (I have one at home - it's sweet). We could just send someone to the MOA to pick up ten different packages of rooibos teas and we're set. Or order them online. Anyway.

a quote:

Diet Soda Isn't Any Better
For those of you with a diet soda in your hands, the news isn't any better, in fact it's worse! ... One liter of an aspartame-sweetened beverage can produce about fifty-six milligrams of methanol. [y'know... antifreeze, solvent... -me]

And when it comes to saccharin, ...the last thirty years have demonstrated the carcinogenic effects of saccharin ... in some instances at doses as low as the equivalent of one to two bottles of diet pop daily.

With diet soda, you've gone from high calories to poisonous levels of methanal and an increased chance of developing cancer. Not a very good trade.

Health: Coconut Oil and Traineo

2008-01-01T08:46:00.000-06:00

I saw an article on Traineo, "Best Foods to Eat", that says "For cooking use exclusively cold pressed olive oil"

This is a NO-NO! While cold-pressed olive oil is one of the best choices of oil, it should NOT be used in cooking because of its low burn point. Anyone who studies oils even a little bit will learn this.

Coconut oil isn't even listed on the chart anywhere, which surprised me. While it is a saturated fat, most people assume it is unhealthy. However, because it is a "medium chain triglyceride" (which as I understand means its easily digested), it's actually THE BEST oil you could use, period. It also has a HIGH burn point, so it's not going to turn carcinogenic on you.

In daily use, I've swapped out BUTTER for coconut oil, and it's great - although I'm not sure what I'll do once summer comes around, as you can't leave coconut oil out on the counter in the warm temperatures. I also use it topically as it seems really great for dry skin. However, I'll have to play around for a bit to find something that will stop it from being SO liquid. As it is now, I just use the tiniest bit that way.

And finally, although it's not OIL per se, I find that young coconuts are simply DIVINE foods. The coconut milk (looks more like water) is especially good for use in smoothies; on the days that I don't use almond milk, that's what I use.

Coconut has a lot of calories, but you're not going to want to eat a LOT all at once, because it's like honey: Sweet, delicious even, but too much is really TOO MUCH.

UT2004: Winkyboy.com Overhaul Imminent!

2007-12-25T11:06:00.000-06:00

I'm going to totally dump the winkyboy.com site and upgrade it to the latest DotNetNuke portal. Sadly, this means all the user accounts will be gone. I can't import them because the jump between v2 and v3 of DNN just won't allow it. (I'll be jumping all the way to v4) There's just so much more that can be done with the newer DNN.

I haven't touched the editor since September, and I still want to finish the last map for the SeaPack before getting into some UT3 stuff. I have bought the game (naturally) but haven't gotten into editing for it, yet. The SeaPack is the last remaining UT2004-related stuff I need to get out the door, and DeepSix really is close to completion.

For what it's worth, the old Winkyboy forum did have some nice hits in the day. I don't have any tracker on the latest incarnation, but it's nice to be able to look back on these numbers:

Rhymes of the months relating to Marriage

2007-12-17T12:44:00.000-06:00

I've been carrying around this little scrip of paper for most of my life; it's been moving from book to book as a marker and I've always intended to DO something with it - thus, time to DIGITIZE and put it on the web. It's a clipping from a newspaper, and I'll just post the entire text right here:

Dear Miss Page: Will you please give me the rhymes of the months relating to marriage? It begin, "Marry when the year is new." - SOPHIE

Marry when the year is new,
Always loving, kind and true.

When February birds to mate,
You may wed, nor dread your fate.

If you wed when March winds blow,
Joy and sorry both you'll know.

Marry in April when you can,
Joy for maiden and for man.

Marry in the month of May,
You will surely rue the day.

Marry when June roses blow,
Over land and sea you'll go.

Those who in July do wed,
Must labor always for their bread.

Whoever wed in August be,
Many a change are sure to see.

Marry in September's shine,
Your living will be rich and fine.

If in October you do marry,
Love will come, but riches tarry.

If you we in bleak November,
only joy will come, remember.

When December's snows fall fast,
Marry, and true love will last.

Programming: Flash: Kerning Dynamic Text Fields

2007-12-13T10:17:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Random, I whipped up this function that allows you to set the kerning value of any dynamic text field in actionscript.

function kernText(whichField, kerning)
{
    whichField.html = true;

    var newFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
    newFormat.letterSpacing = kerning;
    //newFormat.font = "Arial";

    whichField.setTextFormat(newFormat);
}

Making Facebook more user-friendly

2007-12-12T18:33:00.000-06:00

Jumping straight to the goods, after this disclaimer: Use Firefox, it's got the ability to make browsing what it should be.
_________________________________

Absolutely use Adblock Plus!

This makes ALL of your internet surfing practically AD-FREE. Seriously.
Once installed, also make sure to add "http://*facebook.com/beacon/*" (without the quotes) to the blacklist - this denies the tracking by Beacon (even if they do re-enable it. I understand they turned it off after all the hullabaloo) This is adapted from the Idea Beacon blog.

_________________________________

Get the Boost plugin for Firefox .

Auto-login (read the note for the Toolbar Auto-login!)
Quick-zoom rollovers for all Pics
Easier (lazy! Yes!) Pokes
Download photo albums, stylish/Ajax album view
Skins
Hide All Ads (It almost works 100% - see Greasemonkey note below)
Pop-up notifications for many useful things

Side-bar of friends' status changes

_________________________________

8hands – standalone social network unifier

Displays update alerts from multiple social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, etc.
Note that this is alpha state software. I've noticed that it crashes sometimes - not often - and I've seen some other odd quirks here & there, but nothing really horrible. I think the worst is that it's not memory-optimized yet. But it still only takes up 10-20 meg, I think.

_________________________________

GreaseMonkey - plus Remove Ads Feed script

Cleans up what Boost misses, it even gets inline "sponsored" ads

_________________________________

TwitterSync (Facebook app)

Monitors your Twitter status (recommended to set it as Public) and syncs your Facebook status when Twitter changes.

Health: Diet: Found the plateau.

2007-12-11T10:27:00.001-06:00

Being at home all the time, while quite enjoyable, disrupts my ability to regulate when and where - and how much - I eat. Thus I seem to have found myself once again at a weight loss plateau. The scales haven't changed for about four days now, even when I swear I've done enough in the day to deliver improvement. Being that much closer to the exercise machines doesn't seem to help, either. It's all a mental attitude of Just Getting To It.

I've also noticed that - while still far from "bad" - my diet tends toward the heavier foods when I'm at home. You see, I really enjoy being able to cook for my family when I get the chance, and when I do so I often stretch for the fancier gourmet menu choices WHICH often include high calorie menu items. Twice in the past week, I've made scrumptious varieties of chocolate chip cookies. Twice, I've also made chocolate waffles with a banana ganache for breakfast. Delicious, but not helping!

Having finished my three most recent health related books, my mind no longer seems *constantly* focused on the greens, either. This is upsetting. I'll need to re-read something, or get a new health-conscious book to keep my focus, I think. That actually reminds me: it's been a handful of years since I read one very important book, Lick the Sugar Habit. This is one of the first books that really opened my eyes to how awful the American food supply has become, pointing out how sugar (usually in the form of high fructose corn syrup) is in practically everything. Eating sugar with a meal causes the vitamin and mineral content of the food - no matter how good it is - to be drained, essentially because the body prefers to digest the sugars first since they're easier to work on. This allows the good food to enter your intestinal tract in a state that's not really ready for digestion. This is also what causes some allergies; undigested food due to sugar intake. Okay, yeah. Time to re-read that one.

Work: Days Off

2007-12-11T10:26:00.001-06:00

So I've a few days of PTO saved up and since they don't carry over, I've decided to just take a couple of days off each week. It's working out fairly well so far, but I think I could be using my time off more efficiently than I am.

I've only gotten a couple of non-work work tasks finished. The kids do get "in the way" of getting things done but I can't use that as an excuse, I think. I'm sure that if I put my mind to it, I wouldn't wander off track and onto Facebook, for example. (However, in defense, its really easy to start there while holding the baby since its difficult to use the keyboard, and once started on FB it's hard to stop.)

My parents need something different and better to do for work, too. Delivering motorhomes is interesting - WAS interesting to begin with, but now they're finding it wears on them too much. It's really a job for someone without a family, too, I think. You're just away from home far too much to lead any sort of regular life. On top of that, if (God forbid) you should get in an accident - which is statistically more probable once you put yourself on the road in a commercial manner - you're pretty much guaranteed to lose money. The deductable on these units is set incredibly high, which means your employer is going to be paying out of pocket for most accidents that might happen. This doesn't sound too bad until you know that you (the driver) have to put down a hefty deposit before driving. Your employer, then, takes the first part of the deductable from YOUR deposit, naturally, so you're actually the one paying for any "minor" accident. You wind up losing money even when the accident isn't your fault, which understandably is very frustrating.

Games: Bioshock vs. System Shock 2

2007-12-03T15:48:00.000-06:00

Having finished Bioshock some weeks back, I found myself immediately pining for the "good old days" of its predecessor, System Shock 2. Like a typical fanboy, I found myself complaining about this beautiful new, highly polished gem that had been delivered to me. But in seeking to be honest about my gaming analysis, I discovered the need to play "the original" again. For the fourth time through.

If you want to skip the details and get right to the two cents, I firmly believe the SS2 is better than BIO. That having been said, here's why:

I will not even attempt to compare the graphics of the two games; you'd have to be dead not to realize that BIO outshines SS2 in that department as if it were on fire. The differences in the two systems lie in the gameplay, interface, and as a personal choice, in theme.

A longstanding argument between console and PC games is that the controls of a console will simply never match those of a PC. Until such day as consoles are delivered with a mouse and keyboard as their primary input device, PCs will forever have the input advantage over consoles. BIO has, quite clearly, been programmed with a console player as the primary user, and it poisons the game as if a starvng man were fed nothing but honey. Delicious, but sickening.

Unfortunately I have not actually played the XBOX version of the game, so I can't give a full rundown of all the differences. The first time it was really obvious to me that there were differences was when I mentioned how sickeningly easy the "hacking game" was. Anyone who's played th PC version of this knows that the pipe-flow minigame becomes so repetitive that it just ruins the fun of BIO. My XBOX-playing friend had no idea what I was talking about. Whereas the PC version of this minigame tops off about two hours into the main game, the XBOX version apparently continues to get more difficult until the finish. What a pathetic toss to the consoler, making the gameplay dependent on one's physical control being limited.

While I'm talking about the pipe game, this is also a KEY point of difference between the two games. In BIO, when accessing a panel to hack, the world stops and waits for you to finish your little game so you can give your full concentration to making the pipes connect up. Even if you have to jump into the air to reach the camera you want to hack, you will freeze in mid-jump while you hack the camera. You can make a mad dash and stop in front of the barrel of an auto-cannon, but if you press the hack button fast enough, no problem, it'll wait for you to convert it from the dark side. A real game, like SS2, sends zombie and attack bot after you without cease as the alarm is going off during your pathetic attempts to rewire the it (until you die). Not only that, but your hacking skill is FELT as you simply try to light up three program nodes in a row. Hacking is hardly even a "game" in SS2, but it reaches out to you and makes you feel like you're accomplishing something as you do it.

When I reached the final stages of BioShock, I felt there was pretty much nothing else left to accomplish. Yes, there were a few minor upgrades I could still buy, but there was no point because no enemy even gave me a flicker of worry. Some of my weapons stayed at full ammo capacity all the way through; it was SO easy that I didn't even need all the methods of attack. This is poor map design, unless (God forbid) it was intentionally made this easy for the console player. Compare this to SS2, where you find yourself spending your last credit on ammo even in the final stages of the game.

In SS2 it is clearly evident throughout the game that there are distinct paths you could choose from, and it matters as well. If you choose to go with the military (weapons) route, you'll have access to some of the best guns in the game, but you can pretty much forget about tech or psi if you want the best of the heavy artillery. Even if you choose the military path, you're still not going to get the ability to use the best weapon of every weapon type. In other words, it matters what you choose because at the end of the game you're going to be playing in a very specific style of your own choosing.

With BIO, they touted the ability to attack enemies with a wide variety of methods, such as lighting an enemy on fire and electrocuting the water when they run to douse their flames. This is very cool in concept, and I did have it happen once or twice, but in execution it wound up entirely implausible, or impossible, for two reasons. First, it was just far easier to shoot the enemy dead with a weapon that WOULD kill instantly, and second, it wasn't very easy to tell when there was water or oil sitting around of which to take such advantage.

Finally, theme. The noir style of BIO is very beautiful, scary, and alluring. But it just doesn't fit to have "weapons upgrade stations" or "ammo depositories" littered about the city as they were. I read some justification attempts about this saying something like, "the city had deteriorated to the point where such things would be feasible." But would they EVER be feasible? What person or company has time to develop gun and ammunition VENDING MACHINES in the middle of a civil revolt? It just doesn't fit, and really served as a constant reminder to you that: You're playing a game. However, of course, in SS2 these kinds of things fit a lot more - the military/sci-fi theme simply lends itself to acquiring new and better weapons as a way of life.

The "zombies" created from genetic mutation caused by the Many are also far more plausible than the drugged-up non-zombies that wander around BioShock. Just a note.

That's my rant. For now.

Family: State of the union

2007-11-16T11:25:00.001-06:00

In general, our Daughter seems to be fussier than she did before our Son was born, still, becoming upset whenever she is required to to anything. This may just be part of being a child, of course, but I rather doubt it.

Meanwhile our son's behavior has taken a more active stance lately, and he seems to want to feed practically every hour, which of course is heavy burden on my wife. I don't know what I can do about it; perhaps there's some book that will shed some light on the subject.

I'm still for all practicality no closer to shoving off and moving the family onto a boat than at any time before, sadly. However I have been using www.sparkpeople.com To successfully remind myself to keep the goal actively in mind, and I have begun to contact organizations to find out how I might actually learn to sail. I'm sure a boat is hardly a place for two small children, but I'm equally or more certain that its been done before.

Besides, American society on the average is not really somewhere I long to be - no offense to any of my friends, who I do in fact enjoy being with. I go into "the public" and, judging books by their covers, I don't see anyone with whom I'd like my children hanging out with - and that goes doubly so for public, private, and church schools.

{started this on the bus - haven't had a chance to completely finish it yet. More to come...}

Health: Better Eyesight

2007-11-16T11:20:00.001-06:00

When I was a child, our parents told my older brother and I that we should eat our carrots because it would improve our vision. He and I somehow wound up carrying this idea to the extreme view that eating carrots somehow bestowed a magical power to the eyes, going so far as to enable us with night vision. So that night there we were, two small boys in a dark room, armed with fresh carrots, happily munching away to kickstart our new superpowers.

Yeah, that didn't work.

However carrots HAVE been proven to aid one's eyesight, that much is true as long as you understand that one carrot stick just isn't going to do the trick. But try this recipe, from the Encyclopedia, for a delicious vision tonic:

Wash but don't peel two medium carrots (if you can get differing varieties get one each of the Chanteney and Nantes types). Juice these, and then wash-don't-peel and juice one small beet (eating the greens later). Blend these together with a half cup of unwhipped cream, half a teaspoon vanilla and half a teaspoon maple syrup.

Health: A grapefruit note

2007-11-16T11:19:00.001-06:00

My wife has a habit acquired from her mother or grandmother: When eating a grapefruit she will peel it completely to the point where only the prime, juicy contents of each slice are left for heavenly consumption. It really is the most delicious way to enjoy a grapefruit, made even better only by chilling the fruit prior to eating.

Prior to our marriage I would only eat grapefruit sliced in half, removing the contents of each slice with a grapefruit spoon. This method takes a little less time, regardless of whether you use your knife to free the flesh from the bitter skin before diving in with the spoon or not. On the other hand, it seems a bit messier and a little more wasteful as you're always left with but a little of the flesh stuck inside.

Both of these methods, however, fail to truly capture the benefits of this fruit in their entirety, because grapefruit have a layer of bioflavonoids such as hesperidin and rutin stored within the bitter white rind just under the outer skin. These bioflavonoids help maintain the body's small blood capillaries, and set the body's "fat thermostat" a little higher, making them especially useful in chemically "burning off" excess stored fat.

A great way to capture these elements is to peel the grapefruit lightly, leaving as much rind on as possible, and sending it through a juicer.

Health: Thyroid Notes

2007-11-14T15:33:00.001-06:00

My mother-in-law takes thyroid medicine and any kind of doctor-prescribed drugs (or any drugs for that matter - they're all the same) makes me sick to think about it. In a recent juice book that I'm reading, The Encyclopedia of Healing Juices, I've found a few notes about the thyroid:

Extended consumption of cabbage can deplete iodine within the body, which will weaken the thyroid gland. Kelp can offset this iodine loss.

Cranberry juice may help an underactive thyroid, again because of the iodine levels in the berry. Don't go buying Cran-whatever juice and expect miracles, though - processed juices usually contain added sugars, are often diluted with water and/or other juices, and have usually been pasteurized, which kills the nutritional value of the juice.

Radishes are amazing in their effects on the thyroid. They contain a sulfur component called Raphanin that regulates the thyroid gland - it both speeds up and slows down its hormone production. A *very small* amount of radish juice is well-recommended wherever a thyroid condition is concerned.

Health: Juicing and Exercise

2007-11-13T15:19:00.001-06:00

I started reading another juicing book that (apparently!) we've had in our possession for some time, called the Encyclopedia of Healing Juices, by John Heinerman. I find it amazing that I've had it for quite some time now and never opened it up before, because despite having the word "encyclopedia" in the title, it's an incredibly interesting book to read. It steps through a plethora of vegetables and fruits, listing the contents (vitamins & minerals) of each, telling what they're good for - and giving case examples occasionally, and describing how best to prepare each one. I'm currently testing out the asparagus juice; it's supposed to keep your skin healthy and mine has been too dry for - well, ever since I can remember, regardless of whether or not I drink enough water. I'm optimistic that it'll help, but then, I'm also ramping up on all other sorts of juicing, so it's not a controlled experiment. In the future, I DO plan to get a vita-mix; I'm absolutely convinced those are the best blender-type juicers possible - I just haven't gotten one because they're so terribly expensive. I should just go ahead and buy one as I'm sure I'd be happy with it. There are some expensive purchases that make me feel really good months and years after I've bought them. (Like my teapot; it's a zojirushi vacuum boiler/heater thing. It was about $179 for a TEAPOT but it's been absolutely 100% worth it.)

I haven't done any bodyweight-only exercises for a while. I did change things up a bit last night, though - my wife had brought down the mini-trampoline and put it in the basement for our daughter. I remembered reading that bouncing on one of those is actually one of the best cardio exercises you can do, so I grabbed some handweights - some easy 2-pounders - and jumped through a large portion of a movie (Arthur and the Incredibles - thumbs up!). It really did get the heartrate pumping FAST. I'll keep this up, definitely. :)

Family: My how they grow! Work: Cookies

2007-11-12T15:12:00.001-06:00

It seems in general that the Daughter has become fussier since the Son was born. She whines and cries when it's bed time, she complains when we have to leave the house - and complains when we have to go back home. It's probably classic toddler reaction to a newborn, but it's so horribly OLD already.

Our son now fills the infant bathtub to a point where he can sit on his own (not that we let him) without falling over. This is only weeks after his first bath. If you want numbers, he's at 10.5 lbs, I believe, which is about 3 more than when he was born. He fits rather nicely into the newborn outfit that was way too big just a couple of weeks ago, too. No wonder they sleep so much - all that growing just wears them out!

We pushed our cookies application live just the other day. It's actually just an update from a previous version, but it really does make a significant difference. Feel free to send cookies around with www.bettycrockercookies.com - it's soft-launch for a few days so perhaps there'll be a bug or two, but it is publicly-accessible.

Stressing Out

2007-11-09T10:28:00.000-06:00

Well, stress got to me from all sides yesterday. First off, I'm reading a couple of health books that have really opened my eyes to just how truly bad the food is that we eat, here. And I'm not talking just Oversize Me here - it's about genetically modified foods, radiated foods, pesticide-laden foods, foods harvested too early and forced to ripen in storage via chemicals... Well, frankly that alone is enough to freak ME out.

But then I came to the chapters about the medical industry, and how doctors and hospitals really don't exist to make people healthy, but only to treat the symptoms of their diseases. Thus, they stay sick, continue buying medicines (DRUGS), and eventually die having given far too much money to the "health cartel". This made me think of all the times I've been to the doctor. Most of the time, they've been USELESS: They use guilt and fear to convince patients they need such-and-such a test, and when the test is run it doesn't really tell the doctor anything they really needed to know.

For example, ultrasounds. Our son had two of them, and while I can see a little validation to give one time to prepare if the baby has a birth defect such as Downs Syndrome or a cleft palate, frankly, ultrasounds are POINTLESS and an easy way for the hospital to make a buck. So what if they tell you how much the baby weighs or how long it is? If one is a smart person and eats healthily, exercises moderately, and takes quality supplements, the odds of one's baby not being healthy are very low. I gave in on the second ultrasound, for our son; it was done only about 2.5 weeks before he was born, and I absolutely regret it because it did, like I said, absolutely nothing to help him and everything to remove more money from our wallet. Yay.

On top of all that, work was hectic-crazy yesterday with bugs popping up in the software, unexpectedly and at the last minute...

Politics: A Response from Norm Coleman on Health Care

2007-11-06T11:19:00.001-06:00

The government of America really upsets me. If it weren't for the existence of Ron Paul, I'd probably be gone already. I wrote to Norm Coleman, one of my Senators, complaining about how the federal government should not be involved in managing health care in this country. This is something that according to the Constitution should be left to each individual state to manage. The federal level shouldn't enter into the picture at all because it does not deal with inter-state commerce.

I've summarized what his letter says to me, and will post his response in full thereafter.

Summary:

Thank you for writing to me. I feel your pain.

Yes, our health care system is screwed up. The government should do something, but I believe individuals should own and manage their own health insurance.

Government programs are still needed, and through these, we will redistribute wealth from those who have to those who need. The federal government will be in charge, mandating the states' actions in "fixing" health insurance plans.

In essence, I am working to put the government in control of all your options, but you can choose from these options.

Original:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the rising cost of healthcare in our nation and how it has impacted you and your family. I strongly share your concerns and I agree every American should have access to affordable, quality healthcare.

I believe significant changes are needed to make our health care system work. It is important to recognize that some of the best medical innovations and breakthroughs in the world come out of the US . However, I believe it is unacceptable that nearly 47 million Americans currently lack health insurance and for those who have it, continue to struggle with healthcare costs. I believe the federal government has a role in helping all Americans gain access to affordable, quality health insurance. That said , I believe individuals should own and manage their own health insurance.

Government should continue to care for the neediest through Medicare, Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Programs. For the rest of us, government should provide a health insurance tax credit and help folks buy into quality, affordable private health insurance plans - plans you and your family can keep even if your job changes. The federal government should give tools to states to create a one-stop-shop to help people understand all of their insurance options and make good choices for their families. States should also be given incentives to reorganize the private insurance market to create efficiencies and make sure no one is turned away. The goal should be coverage for all without creating another federal government bureaucracy. I am currently working on a proposal to reach this goal

Please know that I am committed to work towards a healthcare system that will be more affordable and accessible to all.

Thank you once again for contacting me. I cannot express how important it is for me to listen to and find solutions for Minnesota families and individuals. I am grateful for your advice and I look forward to hearing from you in the future on this important issue.

Sincerely,
Norm Coleman
United States Senate

Ron Paul is the ONLY common sense candidate

2007-11-01T07:52:00.000-06:00

Well, I see I missed my reminder to post this last night, but better late than never. I've gotten a couple of replies to my "Do you know who Ron Paul is" question on Facebook -- all NO's, which really surprised me. He's a Republican candidate who is taking the internet by storm. Any time I've watched a conversation between candidates, he is the ONLY one who answers the question asked, and he does it in a straightforward, easy-to-understand manner.

ANYWAY, two nights ago he was even on the Tonight Show. You just really have to watch this. I truly CANNOT understand why someone wouldn't like him.

From Wikipedia: Paul claims the most YouTube views of all presidential candidates, over 4.4 million,^[147] and the most subscriptions of all candidates, having surpassed Barack Obama on May 20, 2007.

Family: Baby Patterns

2007-10-15T08:57:00.000-06:00

Things are coming together, pattern-like. My wife feeds him and then goes to sleep first while I continue to hold him - he stays asleep pretty much as long as he's held. Then, once either my son is hungry or my wife needs to feed him again (I forgot about that aspect), I bring him upstairs and we begin the sleepless night as usual, putting him in his crib when he's not eating. We use a pacifier sometimes, too, and that helps, as long as it's the right size; we have some new ones that are just a little bit too big and he spits 'em right out! heh.

Politics: Stores becoming the new police?

2007-09-11T15:47:00.001-06:00

http://consumerist.com/consumer/unlawful-detention/walmart-tries-to-steal-shoppers-baby-298694.php

That is the worst "security check" by a store I've heard of.

As I read these kinds of articles, I've come up with some ideas on "combating" stores that check receipts.

1. Chew the receipt as soon as the clerk hands it to you. Not enough to make it illegible, but enough to make it so no one else wants to touch it. This is kind of like licking the last piece of pizza.

2. Bring some packing tape and immediately laminate your receipt. Hey, so they can't write on it, so what? Any rules against that?

3. Um, tear it into a few pieces? Enough that you could tape it back together if you need it.

4. STICKY GLUE on the back of the receipt! Evil, hidden pre-revenge! When done, fold the receipt back to back so you don't glue yourself.

5. Note what color marker is being used on the way in, and create a little Rembrandt with your receipt on the way out.

Family: Daughterisms on swimming

2007-09-06T10:09:00.001-06:00

The Daughter just loves to swim - although, don't most kids? Some friends and neighbors of ours have lent our daughter the innertube-swimsuit that their youngest used to use. It's an older style that looks like a tiny innnertube actually sewn into a child's swimsuit. We've tried those modern ones that look more like a surfer's suit, but frankly they suck: If they're too large, they ride up on the child. With this one, it's difficult for it to actually be too large.

Currently the Daughter is fascinated with "swimming like Ariel" - specifically, swimming with me holding her (not in the tube), jumping out of the water as we move along (imagine a dolphin jumping through the air), and singing Ariel's trademark tune. When she's not doing that, she's grabbing my nose and "stealing it" (still!) or pretending she's a crocodile. Jumping from the side of the pool has kind of chilled out a little bit, but she's really INTO having me toss her into the air as far as possible. It's good exercise for me, but having to catch her just before she hits the water so that she doesn't go under isn't the best thing for the back.

For the first time (this Wednesday) she actively wanted to go underwater, so I held her as she plugged her nose (that is, *whole face*) up and dunked her for a split second. She grows up so quickly.

Microsoft Word Sucks, part 8000

2007-09-05T13:56:00.000-06:00

As if MS Word didn't suck enough, Microsoft went and changed all sorts of little details that makes it that much worse. I submit for the moment the self-indulgent MS Office logo that has now replaced the "File" menu:

UT2004: So, progress delayed again...

2007-08-29T10:20:00.001-06:00

I haven't been working on any UT2004 stuff for a little while now - mostly, you can blame BioShock for totally sucking me in and MAKING me play it. Also, however, the family situation at home makes this LAN party a non-probability. So, I haven't been driven by a deadline either.

Argh.

Firefox: Plug-ins/Extensions I love

2007-08-29T08:36:00.001-06:00

Before installing a lot of Plugins, I recommend FIRST installing MR Tech Local Install and restarting the browser. It will remove the 4-second delay in installing plugins/extensions.

Adblock: (Sweet; I rarely see ads any more. When it's installed you just right-click an ad, say "adblock this image" and put a wildcard * at the root of whatever ad server it's coming from. From then on, all ads from that server never show up.)

Add N Edit Cookies: just what it sounds like.

All-in-One Gestures: use the right-click to make symbols to do crap in Firefox. I really only use this for "Back" "Next" and "Minimize" but it's pretty nice.

All-in-One Sidebar: Me likey. Just get it. It dumps all your downloads, bookmarks, and add-ons/extensions into the sidebar. Keeps everything organized. Plus, it gives a side area to stick buttons into.

CoolIris Previews: Shows you a preview of a site when you hover over a link to it (I've since turned on the feature that only shows the preview when I hold CTRL down as I roll over the link) I also use this to send links to people. I use it more than Google's Send By Gmail ability just because it's faster. I ALSO like CoolIris's ability to highlight a word, right-click it, and choose "CoolIris -> Search Dictionary, Images, Google, or Wikipedia. Nice.

dotCOMplete: You know that shortcut of typing a web address name and hitting CTRL+ENTER to automatically add the "www." and ".com"? Well, with this you can hit CTRL+ENTER 1,2, or 3 times to add the ".com", ".net", or ".org" instead.

DownloadHelper: Lets you save movies from YouTube and similar sites

DownThemAll!: An auto downloader

FoxFilter: Basically a nanny extension; if I try to hit a site with questionable stuff in the description, it asks me if I really want to go there.

Full Screen Homestar Runner . Oh, yeah.

FullerScreen: Just get it & hit F11.

Google Browser Sync

Google Toolbar for Firefox

IE View Lite: Right-click a page or link and request it to be opened in IE.

Image-Show-Hide: Click its button to toggle images on/off

Link Alert: Wow, I've come to just assume this is built in! It (almost always) shows a little icon next to the cursor whenever I point at a link, telling me whether it's off-site, or the type of link ( i.e. PDF, etc.)

MR Tech Local Install: Lots of little details can be tweaked with this.

Save Session: Saves the current tabs & auto-reopens them next time you start your browser. This is somewhat not necessary if you install Google Browser Sync

Tab Clicking Options: Lets you middle-click a tab to close it, or whatever the heck you want to do with tabs. Useful.

ToCyrillic : Transliterates English to Cyrillic: ???? ???????!

Web Developer: Install this one.

Yoono: Bookmark synchonization done RIGHT. Plus, there's bookmark online sharing/ social bookmarking-suggestion, and an "add to BUZZ" feature that I finally figured out and LOVE. It lets you create your own Digg-like "what's cool" feed. There's no "signup" page - just download the extension & restart FF; it'll prompt you to create an account if you don't have one

UT2004: Upcoming LAN party means upcoming progress

2007-08-23T09:47:00.003-06:00

I'd like to invite a couple of friends over for one last LAN Party, considering now that Practice Target is home and especially since Winkyboy 2.0 is soon to be launched. The time is right, y'know?

Thus, I intend at the very least to have ONS-SEA-DeepSix ready by September 10th or so. Three weeks, thereabouts. I doubt that I'll have the SeaBass ready by then, if ever, but we'll just see. I might release it in an alpha state with simple speed and damage modifications to the sub and torpedoes. At least that way it will get out in the world and not be mired to my hard drive.

Thoughts: We gotta get out of this place

2007-08-23T09:47:00.001-06:00

I really wish I lived in the Land of the Free.  I mean, I live in America, but we are really just slaves here ourselves - we just don't know or admit it.

I have a house for which I am a debt slave as long as I will ever live there.  It's easily the best house I've ever lived in and I will not-so-humbly admit that it's a fine house indeed. But like all those fancy cars that "rich folk" drive - well, at least the vast majority of them - I own this house as muc as they own their cars.  It is to admit that the bank which truly owns such things and we are but renters of the property.

I'd like to leave, but getting out of here seems difficult and intimidating. I'm currently favoring the dream of living on a sailboat, preferably one with a solar-powered motor for emergencies.  I don't suppose that solar power has quite reached the commercial stage of being able to power a boat motor, but I wish to be free of commerce and free of boundaries.

I suppose the first order of business however is to learn to sail. That will be difficult enough as I don't even know where to begin with that, either.  But it is a stepping stone on the path.

I dream about this because I imagine how delightful a life could be if my only responsibility would be to find fish enough for the family to eat for the day, much the like Mexican fisherman from the story in the Four Hour Work Week.  That story stands out quite well in my memory.  The basic point of it is that a vacationing businessman observes a fisherman in his work and suggests he embark on a corporate path to build a fishing company that would finance a life in which he could retire... to fish at his leisure.

More later.  Bus has arrived.

Family: Enough with the Nose :)

2007-08-23T09:46:00.001-06:00

So, the "I've got your nose" game continues to this day in full force at the same fun level for the Daughter. Not so, for me, but at least she's happy. In addition to just swallowing the captured nose,she also goes for the ears, and as I assume inspired by the Little Mermaid, the voice as well. That's fairly creative of her.

There is also a bevy of new things to do with said captured body parts; she finds particular glee in squishing them, grinding them, and hiding them in some new place where "I'll never find them again."

Most of the time these escapades simply boil down to a tickle session for her, which I believe is what keeps them going so strongly.

Games: Hilarity ensues for the Special Forces

2007-08-21T12:05:00.001-06:00

Just now while playing TacticalOps 2.2 over our lunch hour, playing on the custom map I built that mirrors our current offices, SPAM was following me as I shot the window out and jumped up on the ledge, prepping myself to make the diagonal jump to the window-washer waiting one floor below and one office over. SPAM, obviously, thought we were in the office DIRECTLY above the window-washer and followed through without stopping on the ledge like I did.

The most hilarious thing I've seen in months, I couldn't stop laughing even when Mr. Clutch came and riddled me full of bullets from behind. Could NOT. STOP. LAUGHING.

Good times.

Family: Friends: Long time no see

2007-08-20T07:49:00.001-06:00

This past, wet weekend (it is STILL wet this Monday morning), the wife, daughter, and I met with a dear friend from my high school days. We hadn't seen her for almost three years - it's amazing how time really passes us right by. My friend is now headed off to Japan for a years' worth of work, so we won't be seeing her again for a while. With all luck, we'll be able to see her again before she comes back, but money and babysitters will determine whether or not we can actually travel there or not.

S, I seriously will miss you; I've always found our chats so valuable to me. Have fun in Japan!

Programming: unrecognized tag prefix or device filter asp

2007-08-17T15:28:00.001-06:00

Stupid Visual Studio somehow reset my options today, causing great havoc and not allowing me to build. It'd be nice if it gave me some kind of warning because I forget how to fix it in between the times that it goes through this bug. To fix it, I changed my HTML Validation. Choose Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> HTML -> Validation, and change the Target to Internet Explorer 6.0

Stupid Visual Studio.