ControlledFall

Hey Rocky...

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:51:21 GMT

My only friend, the End.

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:32:21 GMT

So, a day late and a dollar short. More on that in onionpeeler. Thanks to everyone for reading these last 5 years or so.

What is his hit dice?

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:38:57 GMT

Happy Birthday DAN!

PBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBT!

JOG ON!

How rude!

Sat, 10 May 2008 21:34:39 GMT

http://www.nikkoamerica.com/nhe/dvd_projector_video.html

Japan trip next week

Mon, 05 May 2008 15:42:25 GMT

Anyone want or need anything from Japan? I'm going to be in Yokosuka from 5/11-5/21.

Also, anyone have any tips or suggestions for travel in Japan?

Because it deserves to be seen!

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:24:24 GMT

Thanks to dimfuture for making this boss userpic for me!

Just cause a lot of you haven't made it over to my new LJ yet...

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:08:20 GMT

http://news.livejournal.com/106909.html?thread=69300125#t69300125

is something I wrote and:

is something that Dan linked me to that you all might enjoy!

K, bye now!

Thanks Dan!

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 06:50:11 GMT

Thanks to dimfuture and geetz for entertaining me all day, what a fantastic way to spend a birthday!

Thanks guys!

I hate Huckabees

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 21:36:26 GMT

Okay, I'm going to give in and get political for a while. Many of my friends are actively apolitical, and I know this will not matter to them, but instead of sullying a friend of mine's LJ with what could prove to be a bile-filled exchange, behind the cut is my line by line analysis of Mike Huckabee's tax plan, a plan lauded by one individual as "much saner". I can't stress how wrong this person is...

Here is the text from Huckabee's site, with my comments interspersed in bold, he begins with simple talking points for the simple minded:

* I support the FairTax. No one can co-opt terms like "Fair" like the Republicans. Just like they are "Pro-Life" even though once the baby is born they forget about educating it.
* As Governor of Arkansas, I cut taxes and fees almost 100 times, saving the taxpayers almost $380 million. I left a surplus of nearly $850 million, which I urged should go back to the people. So, the purpose of building up a rainy-day fun is to spend it immediately?
* Our massive deficit is not due to Americans' being under-taxed, but to the government's over-spending. Over-spending on war. Also, have we ever tried increasing taxes? Not since I was in diapers. Hey, maybe that might actually fucking work?
* To control spending, I believe the President should have the line-item veto. Right, cause as Bush-Cheney has shown us, the President needs MORE fucking power!
* I believe in free trade, but it has to be fair trade. Nice, meaningless phrase.
* Globalization, done right, done fairly, can be the equivalent of a big pay raise by allowing us to buy things more cheaply.Ah, the Walmartization of the world, lovely!

I'd like you to join me at the best "Going Out of Business" sale I can imagine - one held by the Internal Revenue Service. Haha, oh you rake, Huckabee! Am I running for president to shut down the federal government? Not exactly. I like that he's not willing to rule out shutting down the federal government But I am running to completely eliminate all federal income and payroll taxes. And I do mean all - personal federal, corporate federal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment. Sounds like this would be a smooth transition...go on! All our hours filling out forms, all our payments for help with those forms, all our shopping bags filled with disorganized receipts, all our headaches and heartburn from tax stress will vanish. We'll see how this is exactly wrong a little bit further down where he remembers about poor people, Jesus-style, you know...at the last minute? Instead we will have the FairTax, a simple tax based on wealth.Yeah, namely our rich white wealth, don't touch it, that wouldn't be "Fair"! Btw, doesn't "FairTax sound like it should be levied on or by 4-H clubs? When the FairTax becomes law, it will be like waving a magic wand releasing us from pain and unfairness.Okay, now...if this sentence actually sways fucking ANYONE, then our country is WAY WAY STUPIDER than it should be. A MAGIC FUCKING WAND RELEASING US FROM PAIN AND UNFAIRNESS OF PAYING TAXES! MAGIC WAND, PEOPLE!

The FairTax will replace the Internal Revenue Code with a consumption tax, like the taxes on retail sales forty-five states and the District of Columbia have now. Right, because adding a federal tax will require all of those states to rework theirs, which won't be a burden at all I'm sure. Past Republican states-rights'ers must be rolling over in their mahogany and silken graves! All of us will get a monthly rebate that will reimburse us for taxes on purchases up to the poverty line, so that we're not taxed on necessities. That means people below the poverty line won't be taxed at all. Unlike now where they...well...aren't. Except by those states' sales taxes! And, going back to paragraph 1...how exactly will this cut down on paperwork for the poor who can't afford an accountant?!? It will creat much much more. And how about the fucking bureaucracy created by having to reimburse all 300 million people in the country? We'll be taxed on what we decide to buy, not what we happen to earn.Just by chance, you know, God sprinkles money around on people. We can't help that we're rich, it just fucking HAPPENED! We won't be taxed on what we choose to save or the interest those savings earn.A swipe at, presumably, the estate and capital gains tax. Almost no one in the middle class or below are hit that hard by these, only big time investors who cash out all the time The tax will apply only to new goods, so we can reduce our taxes further by buying a used car or computer.Right, and our rich friends can fly to other countries and buy new while you guys have to buy used! Sounds, fair, right?

Our current progressive tax system penalizes us for working harder and becoming more successful.ARGH, NO IT FUCKING DOESN'T. Does anyone say "I'm not going to work hard and be more successful cause then the gumment's gonna take more o' mah PIE?!?" No they FUCKING don't. Taxes are not a FUCKING INCENTIVE TO REMAIN POOR. ARGH! As we climb the ladder, the government lurks on each rung, hungry for a bigger bite out of our earnings. HAHAHAHA, the GOVERNMENT BOOGIE MAN'S FANGS ARE DRIPPING GREEN WITH THE LIFEBLOOD OF YOUR SUCCESS! The FairTax is also progressive, but it doesn't punish the American dream of success, or the old-fashioned virtues of hard work and thrift, it rewards and encourages them. You really think the rich are rich because they WORKED FUCKING HARD? I'd guess that many of them inherited their wealth. Many of them get it by EXPLOITING THE FUCKING HARD WORK OF OTHERS. This should NOT be the "American dream of success"! The FairTax isn't intended to raise any more or less money for the federal government to spend - it is revenue neutral. Oh good! Because, you know, FUCKING LIFE is revenue neutral. Good planning for the future!

Expert analyses have shown that the FairTax lowers the lifetime tax burden of all of us: single or married; working or retired; rich, poor or middle class.Ah the glorious "experts", whose opinions can be reaped to support well, any FUCKING position!

The FairTax will instantly make American products 12 to 25% more competitive because the cost of those goods will no longer be inflated by corporate taxes, costs of tax compliance, and Social Security matching payments.FUCKING INSTANTLY PEOPLE! BUY THIS CAR AND TAX PLAN NOW! The cost of goods is not this dramatically affected by overhead but by what FUCKING CAPITALIST CORPORATE INTERESTS THINK YOU WILL PAY FOR SOMETHING. Mike, it's called economics. These are the market forces your fellow free-marketers love so much! How about this? A law that forces companies NOT to pass along taxes (think, the phone companies) along to the consumer, but to take it out of their reported profits? BESIDES, MOST CORPORATIONS ARE GIVEN VERY LARGE TAX BREAKS ANYWAY! When we buy products now, those taxes are built into the cost, so all of us pay corporate taxes indirectly on top of the personal taxes we pay directly. Oh yes, I trust a businessman to kindly lower the price on my TV because now he has to pay less "corporate taxes" even though I was paying the "inflated" price just last year, suuuure! Compliance costs are just make-work with no real added value, yet they consume as much as 3% of our gross domestic product annually. Hmm, how much does military spending take up, Mike? You're blaming the profession of fucking ACCOUNTING for the unfairness of globalization?!? These costs are an especially heavy burden on small businesses, which generate most of our jobs.But they do NOT generate most of our tax income, the big businesses do. Well, if we'd actually have the balls to close their loopholes. Also, the whole purpose of the small businesses hiring accountants is to GET OUT OF PAYING FUCKING TAXES

If you buy a bottle of domestic wine, you're paying the taxes/compliance/matching payments of all the folks who produced the grapes, the wine, the bottle, the cork, the label.Fucking fat-cat cork and labelers! If you buy a bottle of French wine, the producers had their Value Added Tax rebated to them when the wine was exported. So French consumers pay those taxes, but you don't. Our current tax system puts our goods at a disadvantage both here and overseas. Other governments give their goods an advantage on the world market, an advantage estimated at 18% compared to American goods.In the states American Wine vastly, VASTLY out-sells French wine. Oh yeah, and what are we exporting? Well, wine, for one thing. You think the French aren't buying American Wine because of cost? Maybe, just maybe, their mad at PRESIDENT FUCKING DOOFUS for calling them cowards because they warned him about Iraq?!?

So no matter how hard Americans work, no matter how innovative and creative we are, no matter how superior our products are, we suffer from a built-in competitive disadvantage simply because of our tax system.Oh, and maybe, just maybe, all the work that organized labor has done to fight for a truly fair wage. LABOR is the big fucking cost of creating goods, NOT FUCKING TAXES A recent study by MIT found that our tax system deprives us of about $1 billion in exports annually. This is such a fucking TINY savings it's almost laughable. Sure sounds good when not given any perspective, though. Just know that the US does well over 1000 Billion dollars worth of exports annually When you export over-priced goods as we have, you inevitably end up exporting jobs and industries as we now are. Again, this is due to labor costs, not taxes. We are the square peg trying to fit into the round hole of international trade. The rest of the world isn't going to change, it's time that we do.UH, THE WORLD, us included, DID FUCKING CHANGE! That's the problem. Thanks to transportation and communications revolutions, we can pay a Chinese laborer 20 cents and hour for what we'd have to pay an American 9 bucks an hour. THAT IS THE PROBLEM, but way to convolute it like Pakistanis trying to cross in from Mexico, Mike!

Under the FairTax, American companies are far less likely to move overseas and foreign companies are far more likely to come here, hiring Americans to build and work in their new plants. The FairTax encourages growth by promoting investment and capital formation.TOTALLY WRONG for the reasons above. Barring another Great Depression, labor costs aren't going down soon.

We have to scrap a 20th century tax system that is holding us back and keeping us down in the 21st century. The FairTax is the path to greater prosperity and job security for us and for our children.I woulda been a contender if it hadn't of been for those FUCKING TAXES!

As Governor of Arkansas, I pushed through the Arkansas Legislature the first major, broad-based tax cuts in state history - a $90 million tax relief package for Arkansas families. I also doubled the standard deduction to $2,000 for single taxpayers and $4,000 for those who are married. Some taxes I eliminated entirely: the marriage penalty, bracket creep caused by inflation, income tax on poor families, and capital gains on home sales. To encourage investment, I cut capital gains for both individuals and businesses. To help people better themselves, I provided tax credits for employee training and education. In total, I cut taxes and fees nearly 100 times during my ten-and-a-half years as Governor, saving the people of Arkansas almost $380 million.You see, running the US will be exactly like running one GIGANTIC ARKANSAS!

When I left office in early 2007, Arkansas had nearly $850 million in state surplus, which I urged should go back to the people in the form of either a tax rebate or tax cut.Again, the grasshopper in charge of ant wealth re-distribution here.

I believe that our massive deficit is not due to Americans' being under-taxed, but due to the federal government's over-spending. Wrong and right, respectively! Achieving and maintaining a balanced federal budget is an important and worthy goal necessary to our long-term economic well-being. To achieve a balanced federal budget, I believe the President should have the line-item veto.My solution is for congress to pass a one-item per bill law on itself. Giving the president more power will not solve this. Appropriations bills should not be sushi menus.

I believe in free trade, but it has to be fair trade. We are losing jobs because of an unlevel, unfair trading arena that has to be fixed.Again, due to labor costs, not taxes Behind the statistics, there are real families and real lives and real pain.Well, at least it's good to hear this from SOMEONE on the Red State side. I'm running for President because I don't want people who have worked loyally for a company for twenty or thirty years to walk in one morning and be handed a pink slip and be told, "I'm sorry, but everything you spent your life working for is no longer here."Well, then, I'd say you should go after corporations like you should have been all along. Improving their taxes hasn't stopped them from doing this, and yes, they're at a historical low, percentage wise, on paying their taxes!

I believe that globalization, done right, done fairly, can be a blessing for our society. As the Industrial Revolution raised living standards by allowing ordinary people to buy mass-produced goods that previously only the rich could afford, so globalization gives all of us the equivalent of a big pay raise by letting us buy all kinds of things from clothing to computers to TVs much more inexpensively.This is an interesting paragraph because a lot of people, ESPECIALLY from the Right, are debating the value of the Industrial Revolution still to this day. Allowing people mass-produced shitty goods isn't as good as it was back in the day. Turns out that leaving the "Captains of Industry" in charge only served to skew benefits towards SURPRISE SURPRISE, the Captains themselves!

Okay, that's my rant. I just wish one of the candidates (it'd have to be a Democrat) would get up behind a mic and remind the people WHAT TAXES ARE FUCKING FOR. It's not for some government official to get rich, it's to empower the government to do what IS AGAINST SELF-INTEREST TO DO. Namely, protect the poorer citizens and help everyone regardless of money or power. SIGH!

For a friend

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:30:13 GMT

A friend of mine finally caved and bought an iPod. Now she's trying to get all of her legally purchased, now ripped MP3s onto her iPod. How can this be done with the least amount of pain?

Geek's in the Cradle

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:06:41 GMT

My friend quetzalcoatl_9 just found out that he and his wife smoonn are having a little baby boy. Now he's fretting about raising him, so I modified a popular ballad to soothe his concerns. Since I know many of you will appreciate this...I give to you...

Geek's in the Cradle
My son logged in just the other day
Level seventy already so I had to say
Would you like to group with me
and maybe grind for a while?
But he shook his little gnomish head
and he said with a /smile
No, the guild's going raiding and I'm next up for loot
But it was sure nice /tell-ing with you, dad
it was sure nice /tell-ing with youuuuuuu.

And then all of a sudden it occurred to me
He had more reputation than me
My boy had more XP!

2007

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 04:02:39 GMT

Thanks to everyone who made 2007 a pretty good year. I love you guys.

Cover Me, Porkins!

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:38:56 GMT

Because, of course, comments are turned off...

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:12:43 GMT

...but just to set the facts straight.

Conan the Barbarian >>>>>>>>>>>> Conan the Destroyer.

It's not even close in my book.

I Am Become Death, Destroyer of Worlds

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 23:37:13 GMT

At approximately this time on August 5, 1945 (August 6, 8:15 AM in Japan) America forever relinquished its moral standing in the world when it dropped the bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima. 70,000 civilians were instantly killed and a further 70,000 or so would die horribly in the subsequent few weeks thanks to radiation sickness. It is important to note that Japan had been trying to negotiate a peace with dignity for about two months before the bomb was dropped. The Enola Gay had no fighter escort as the Japanese Air Force had been completely wiped out as had its anti-aircraft defenses. In fact, Colonel Curtis LeMay had been fire-bombing Japanese cities with impunity for months. The US had broken Japan's codes and knew that they were actively trying to negotiate a peace that let them have the purely symbolic condition that the Emporer would remain in power.

The citizens of Hiroshima, a town almost untouched by the ravages of war until that point (the US wanted to bomb an intact town in order to gauge the effect of their shiny new toy) found themselves the real victims in a political whose-dick-is-bigger contest between the US and the USSR. If the US and Soviets were prize-fighters, this would be a case of the US pulling a pistol out of its boxing trunks and shooting its previous opponent who was recovering in the front row of the arena.

The argument is often made that the US had to use the nuclear option in order to keep from having to fight-to-the-death on the mainland of Japan. This is patently untrue. Japan was trying to negotiate peace and Truman came in and committed two war crimes to prove how powerful the US was.

I encourage everyone to investigate and read the writings of the main mind behind the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Upon seeing the first test of the bomb, he immediately began work to keep it from ever being used on people. The result of this was a political hackjob against him by our glorious government. I, personally, only respect people who, when presented with new facts and realizations, change their minds. The current administration is the exact opposite of this. As recently as 2004, the US was still testing the feasibility of new Nuclear Weapons (bunker busting nukes). This ignorance is not strength. It is the closest thing to "evil" that the US, and mankind, can do. And this administration wonders why Iran wants nukes!

We all live with this legacy of our forefathers. Let us work together to communicate, enlighten and refrain from violence at every possible turn! Maybe someday we will wash this blood off our our hands.

Thinking of a change, looking for your input!

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 20:37:30 GMT

So, I'm thinking about trying to change my shift at the radio station from Saturday afternoon to Friday Nights, midnight to 2am.

Right now I'm on from 2pm-4pm on Saturdays.

The Pros:
My weekend wouldn't be quite so neatly bisected in two.
More folks who like the type of music I'm playing (electronic) are up when the sun is down.
It's a shift when no one will be at work, therefore much less chance of getting a work call at the studio.

The Cons:
Friday Nights would be lost for going/hanging out.
Possible sleep concerns as far as habits go.
Possibility of having a work maintenance window during that period.

What do you guys think? Any words of wisdom?

Everyone make the David Blaine face!

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:21:28 GMT

Re-dedication

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 14:13:27 GMT

This is mostly a note to remind myself that I want my life to be about creating, discovering and experiencing. That the governing motives of truth, knowledge and joy still hold sway in my mind and in my heart. That the impossible is worth striving towards for it unleashes the worlds of possibility one has overlooked. That I create my own value and that my sense of worth is my servant not my master.

I'm going to turn my little apartment into a laboratory, studio and gaming arena all in one.

Souveniiiiirrrs, Nooovelties, Parrrrty Tricks

Fri, 18 May 2007 16:28:39 GMT

So, LJ people, what are some good interview questions?

Also, what are some good I.T.-specific interview questions?

What's next a Moodsaber?

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:10:12 GMT

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/fun.games/04/30/mind.reading.toys.ap/index.html

Finally Abducted to a Better Place

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:45:17 GMT

Goodbye Mr. Vonnegut, goodbye baby. You were god damned kind to us when you were on this Earth. You achieved what I've always wanted to, infused reality with truth. Cynicism does not have to be disabling and can be enlightening. And of course we're left hanging. So, I'm betting that whatever alien spaceship you're on has an Supernatural Internet Connection, and I hope you read this...thank you!

I'm gonna eat your brain and get your knowledge.

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 06:49:56 GMT

Grindhouse was a very fun ride. I encourage everyone to see it in the theatre. Especially a crappy theatre like the Six here in town where, try all they may, they still had actual technical difficulties to augment the fake ones in the film.

I'm not pulling your dingle-arm here...

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:56:08 GMT

Question:

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:01:01 GMT

Which artform do you respect and admire the most and why? Acting, Writing, or Directing?

Poetry is the phonics of the soul

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 06:00:33 GMT

I think that I could never fax
A thing as cool as Esquilax
It seems to fit to start with farce
And say goodbye to shivery Marce
Hey buddy can you spare a rhyme?
April Fools just lost their time.