quote for the day

"What you write first is a first draft. When you get to the end of it, you’ve got a first draft. Anything can happen after that.

(In the first draft of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, while Charlie was touring Wonka’s factory, he was accidentally encased in chocolate and sent to Wonka’s house, where he foiled a burglary.)

There’s nothing to stop you fixing anything as you go, but it’s wiser to get to the end first, and then look at what you’ve got.

The book in your mind will pretty much always be better than the one that hits the paper. That’s just how it works."

— Neil Gaiman, on writing. (via)

thought for the day

quote for the day

"What you do speaks so loudly, I cant hear what you are saying."

Henry Adams

a thought on management

Management has two functions.

1. To provide those who work under you with the tools, resources, etc (as best as your budget allows at least) to do their jobs in the most effective and efficient way possible.

2. Cop.

Everything else is extraneous and self-serving.

Granted, people dont usually go into management out of a sense of altruism, they go into it in order to better their own lives, so a certain level of taking advantage of ones power for ones own gain is at least understandable, even if the ethics of it are perhaps questionable. Still, if you're not doing both of the two functions listed above, or only doing the second, then you are not a good manager. In fact, I'd hazard a guess that says that if you do the first part of the job well, then you probably wont have much of the second part to worry about (especially if you do that part well, also).

sunday funny

stolen from Welcome To The Now

I got a new header, hope you like it. I stole the image from Jim Benton, so here's hoping he doesnt mind.

Hey, for bonus fun, guess which banner belongs to me!

watch this race

"Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy." (source)

Really, watch this race. I think that we can safely assume that if this man is actually able to win a place in our national government, then the people of the United States of America are simply too stupid to survive, and make plans to get, if not yourself, then your children out of the country as soon as it is viable. For someone this stupid, ignorant, backwards and just simply asinine to have been able to convince over one half of a state to send him to Washington D.C. for six years says a whole host of sad things about about our country and its possible future.

Seriously, what. The. Fuck. Is wrong. With us.

quote for the day

"In decades to come, Fox News and nearly every talking head, anchor, fake expert, and host associated with its programming will be looked back upon as the sickening propaganda arm of a failed attempt to create an American Reich. When you look back at old propaganda reels, they seem silly and archaic. To the public of their time, they were as slickly produced, glib, self assured, and manipulative as Fox News personas act today. The names and faces change, but the song remains the same."

toydragoninblue, commenting on a video where FOX talking heads ascribe the woes of a generation to Fred Rogers.

sunday funny

Why stop with alternative medicine? How about we treat those who dont believe in science that way, also?

quote for the campaign season

"I dont know how they do politics in your Fisher-Price country, but here in America this freak show is how our politicians make up for the next four years of fuckin' us in the ass."

Aubrey speaking to former Canadian Peejee in Something Positive

linkage

- Remember the flap over the Mohammad/bomb-head cartoon? Remember how ridiculous that seemed? Turns out Muslims arent alone. Warning: may induce feelings of despair.

- Stolen direct from Gerry Canavan: "Rick Perlstein argues the problem isn’t that conservatives are crazier than they were fifty years ago; the problem is they’re exactly as crazy as they were fifty years ago."

- Imagine this: Pharmaceutical companies may be basing research on profits rather than need. Who'd'a thunkit? (via)

- Marvel at the scale issues of Michael Paul Smith.

- Glove And Boots.

- Calming Manatee

- If this turns out to happen, Wi-Fi will become the next thing you pay way to much for. via.

- American Fascism: Nuthin' new. (via)

um, sure I do, but...

I thought this was a pretty good poll, although there is a big discrepancy between the party agreement result that I was given and the one that showed up on the above image, where the numbers were 95% Democratic, 76% Green, 51% Libertarian and 13% Republican, which sounds a lot more reasonable to me.

And seriously, who the hell is Jill Stein? If the race wasnt going to be as tight as I expect it to be, I might be tempted to make a statement by voting for the Green Party. As it is? No, dont think so.

Addendum:

Oops! Forgot. Via Welcome To the Now.

thought for the day

quote for the day

"Where does the lion's share of our taxes go? As Paul Krugman puts it, the U.S. government is basically an insurance company with an army: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the military make up the large majority of federal discretionary spending. Everything else we normally think of as "government" - education, law enforcement, national parks, roads and bridges, unemployment insurance, food stamps, farm subsidies, foreign aid, art and science funding, international diplomacy - is a relative minority of the budget. (See here for a more detailed breakdown.)"


Adam Lee, One-Half of One Cent

sunday funny

saturday daytrip

Go see the gallery of Roberto Ferri. There is a large collection of 140 images, all gorgeous paintings and drawings that have the look of the Renaissance, yet the feel of the Modern.

Since when did Truth become an election? Or morality? This goes for both sides.

6 years!

WOOT!

Aaaand, that's about all the excitement I can muster.

So, it's been six years since I started blogging writing actual posts. I'm not sure how long it's been since I stopped, yet still the blog continues on. I dont want to end it, it's become a part of my identity, but it's in a kind of limbo state these days while I... not re-asses... I dont know what to call it. I'll keep putting stuff here, for the rest of my life, I hope.
Sometimes I think that when this blog hasnt kept up with who I am, but I'm not sure how to reconcile then and now. I dunno. I've been playing with my various blogs more lately (I started a new one, which I've kind of been obsessing over in my mildly OCD way), but nothing so far has really replaced the outlet that this blog once was for me. Maybe I just dont have the rage anymore (though that seems unlikely), or maybe I just got tired of the pointless spleen-venting. Actually, thinking about it, it may that as Blogger separated itself into more partisan pieces, and as people drifted of to other venues, the fun of ranting and counter-ranting has worn away.
I miss some of the folks who've gone away, Reverend Billy Bob, Holster, Chance, Saur, UWL, sometimes even Uncle Logician and jsull. But then there are plenty of real-life people I miss, too. Sometimes I see them again, sometimes I dont. Such is life.

So, if you're a regular reader (do I still have those?), and yes, I mean you Lydia, Pooby, and Pryme, then dont worry too hard about not getting your occasional shot o' Dave, because I plan on being here for years to come.

quote for the day

I think we should stop calling money "money" and start calling it "free speech".

"Sheldon and Miriam Adelson have given a combined $36.3 million to Super PACs in the 2012 cycle. It would take more than 321,000 average American families donating an equivalent share of their wealth to match the Adelsons’ giving."

from U.S.PIRG: New Report Details Latest Numbers on Outside Spending, Secret Money and Super PAC Fundraising for 2012 Elections

quote for the day

"When television newscasters have to explain that a Sikh is not a Muslim, our ignorance as a society is confirmed. What is even scarier is the subtle implication that it would somehow have been more acceptable if the victims were actually Muslim."

My friend Connie, who's normally quite funny, but this time just settled for right.

An additional quote from the Rude Pundit:

"Of course the gun was purchased legally. For years, the mantra of the NRA and its lackeys in government and the media has been "enforce the laws we have." Maybe we need to say that the laws we have are so weak that enforcing them doesn't really help the problem."

Okay, so this billboard was presumably put up by this church (since I'm unaware of Satan putting up billboards). That means the church lied to us about the message being from Satan. Now, if Satan is really the Prince of Lies, then wouldnt using his tools make you at least a little bit like him? I mean, shouldnt advertisements for God consist of Truth only?

Piddling issue, I know, but really, if you're going to lead people away from sin, should you start off by lying to them?

sunday funny

saturday matinee

A short futuristic film by Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazodone as their graduation project from Bezaleal academy of arts.

via

chart for the day

By my reckoning, based on overlapping Google Maps and the poster and then eyeballing it anyway, that'd put about 120 million of us in a brand new town out in the middle of nowhere, southeast of Hebronville , perhaps on Farm-to-Market Road 1017. I think we'd be missing any conflict with the mighty King Ranch, so that at least would be a load off our minds.

Now, it might be a little bit crowded there folks, so be warned. But then, if you're one of the unlucky residents, it's no doubt your own fault for not planning ahead better and making poor choices as you went along, so tough luck for you! And most of your friends and family will be near, so there's that.

But, hey! At least we're close to the beach, right?

Assuming the folks who own it let us visit it.


first map via Wil Wheaton.

stolen from Wil Wheaton.