Xyzzy

Iraqi Invasion: A Text Misadventure
Revision 88 / Serial number 54892


Oval Office
You are standing inside a White House, having just been elected to the presidency of the United States. You knew Scalia would pull through for you.

There is a large desk here, along with a few chairs and couches. The presidential seal is in the middle of the room and there is a full-length mirror upon the wall.

What do you want to do now?

> INVADE IRAQ
You are not able to do that, yet.

> LOOK MIRROR
Self-reflection is not your strong suit.

> PET SEAL
It's not that kind of seal.

> EXAMINE CHAIRS
They are two several chairs arranged around the center of the room, along with two couches. Under one couch you find Clinton's shoes.

> FILL SHOES
You are unable to fill Clinton's shoes.

I about fell out of my chair reading this. It's the Bush presidency in the form of a Zork-esque transcript. The full thing can be read over at defective yeti. Give it a shot - it's an absolute hoot! I originally found this over at boingboing.

-B

Tags: bush, iraq+war, satire, funny

How to eat sushi

This is a very instructional video on how to eat sushi. It has details that I'll bet even the most devout sushi connoisseur didn't know.

I think I know what I'm having for lunch today.

Enjoy!
-B

(Found here.)

Tags: funny, sushi, video

And now, your moment of zen...

It's the Falling Sand Game. Draw lines, plant plants, divert the sand around. It's amazingly addictive.

-B

Tags: zen, art

Hooray for Maryland! (I think...)

This morning at Yahoo! News I found an article that made me happy. The state of Maryland has passed a law that employers of over 10,000 state residents are now required to spend a minimum of 8% of their income (or was it revenues?) on employee health care coverage. That sounds like a pretty broad law, does it not? That's what I thought. However it turns out that (guess who?) WalMart is the only employer in the state that meets that size requirement that's not already spending that magic 8%. Yet another reason that WalMart is an evil company and why "Everyday low prices!" has its cost in the community. And that, my dear readers, is a cost I'm not willing to pay. I have actively boycotted WalMart for a couple of years now (the number of times I've caved and had to run in for something I can count on one hand), and will continue to do so.


The 'I think...' part of the header comes from the slippery slope that is single-company-targeted legislation. On one hand if WalMart would just do the right thing (tm) this wouldn't be an issue, but on the other, I don't really like the idea of state legislatures targeting one company with a particular law. It seems sorta like Gov't micromanagement. So which is the lesser of the evils?

-B

Tags: walmart,Maryland

The Cow Game

The Cow Game is a great time waster. It's in German, but you don't really need the instructions to figure out how to play it. The big hit in our house is the the little swinging udders in the victory dance.

-B

Tags: puzzle,game, cows, udders

SWH3 600th Hash

SWH3's 600th Hash is today!! Woot!! It's a little cold and windy for my tastes, but hey, it January in NC.... whaddayawant?

On-on!!

-Bill

Tags: hashing

Fun Jobs!

It's a hell of a long shot, but I'm trying to get a mental-health sabbatical to go work for the Mouse. I want to burn all my available vacation (55 days, I think?) to go be Cruise Staff on the Disney Magic. The Cruise Staff are the crazy, loud people who jump around and yell and lead the deck parties, run the game shows, lead on-ship activities, call bingo, and in general make sure that everyone on board is having fun and has plenty of cool stuff to do. This job would be sooo much fun and be such a great break from 15+ years of computing.

So many things have to happen just so for me to actually pull this off. I started with my dear darling Susie and Bonnie, who consented for me to go off and do this wild hare idea. Then I went to SixthStar entertainment, the folks who do hiring and staffing for DCL. A brief email exchange taught me that this *was* possible, but the position I wanted was only available as a 4-month contract. Duke has limits on how much vacation one can take off in a year, so I'd have to get the 4 months split across a new-year boundary, which means Thanksgiving, Christmas, Anniversary, New Years and my Birthday would all be spent on-ship, away from my family. I talked to my director about it (he's a Brit and exceptionally cool, and damn smart as well), and he didn't say no. His words were that there were a lot of details (ie. all the HR stuff) to work out with my direct manager to make it happen.

So, although it's not a done deal, it's made it much, much further than I ever thought it would. I'll keep pushing, and talking to people, and see if I can make this happen.

-B

Meta

I hate blog posts about blog posting, as it seems just like so much self-important navel-gazing to me, but here I am doing that exact thing. I've been paralyzed for a while on posting, because I have no clear idea of what I want this blog to be. Is is a personal diary for sharing with friends and family? Is it my soapbox to shout about what's right and wrong with the world? Is it a creative writing outlet? Do I want it discovered and read by the world? Do I care if someone finds it in 10 years when I'm running for public office? The truth is, I don't know. That is, I have no good clear answers for those questions. So, I'm throwing those blog meta-questions out there and getting back to writing. It's gonna be what it is. Read it if you want. Comment if you want (please!). I don't have a reason other than I want to do it. Enjoy.

-B

Procrastination wrap-up

Do you ever get that paralysis that comes from not blogging regularly enough? I do. I have. That's why there's been so much in the past month that hasn't shown up here. I know I won't do some topics justice, but here they are anyway.

By far the saddest news for December was about my dear Luna-dog. After hashing (first time in a couple of months) with her on the 11th, I came home from work on Thursday, the 16th, to find her lying in my bedroom, clearly out of sorts: tired, sluggish, not wanting to stand, and not able to stand for very long when I helped her up. I got Kris to stop by and take a quick look, and off to the Emergency vet I went for what I expected to be just an antibiotic shot for pneumonia. A blood test an x-ray later, I found out it was a couple of bleeding abdominal masses, combined with a septic infection. I rallied Kris and Susie and off to a better emergency vet in Cary, where the diagnosis was confirmed and refined. Luna wouldn't make it through the night if we did nothing, and her chances were slim-to-grave if we did pursue heroic interventions. Having her put to sleep was the most difficult thing I've done in a long while. Luna was coherent and *there*, surrounded by three of the folks who loved her most in the world, as the doc pushed the meds that dropped her off to sleep, stopped her breathing and then he heart. I know she felt cruddy, and I know it was the best (if not only) choice to have made, but that didn't make it easier. We all cried and said our goodbyes. It was by far the crappiest night of the year. I miss my Luna.

More wrap-up soon. Happy new year everyone!!
-B

Dust Houses

I thought this was cool. ]



This Columbian artist Maria Adelaida Lopez, who cleaned houses while she went to college, creates houses covered with the cruft from full vacuum cleaner bags. Odd looking, I know, but I really liked the one here. It reminds me so much of a haunted house.

Link to Art MoCo article.
Link to artist's site.

-B

80% of California? Really?

I was surfing artichokes.org, looking for recipes, and found a very interesting fact. "Approximately 80% of the state's total acreage lies within Monterey County."

Well, they say you learn something new every day.

-B

Sony makes good?

Whoa. Sony is now not only offering to exchange XCP/rootkit enabled CDs for non-XCP-enabled ones (not necessarily DRM-free, just XCP-free, but I digress...) but they'll give you MP3's off all the songs on the CD when you do the exchange. I really am kinda shocked.

Exchange details are here.

You can exchange your SONY BMG compact discs (CDs) containing XCP content protection software for replacement versions of the same CD(s) without the XCP software. Please confirm that your CD(s) is among the titles and versions listed below and then select from the list the titles of the CD(s) you wish to exchange. Then click “continue.”

In the page that follows, you will be asked to provide the shipping information in the United States to which you would like to have the replacement CD sent. In addition, you will have the option of selecting whether you would like to receive MP3 files of the title(s) in addition to your replacement CD(s).

-B