Frogtails

Ursa noticed that the old one was drifting out of consciousness. She could see him fight to stay awake as if he fell asleep he would never again awaken. Try as he would, however, his eyelids slowly crept towards his cheekbone. After a few moments, his head stopped jerking up.

Ursa again had her chance to kill the man that had betrayed her. Her hunger still needed satiation. Somehow though, she could not bring herself to sink her teeth into his skin. She glanced about to determine her surroundings.

The man had taken them to a rocky plateau. It was not far down to the bottom and she would have no problem traversing it. In the distance she could still hear the rumbling of the volcano. A foul burning smell filled the air making it difficult to pick up any scents that would prove fruitful in satisfying her hunger.

She carefully picked her way down the hundred yards or so to the bottom and began pointedly walking. Only one goal possessed her now, satisfying her primoridal needs.

As she set out to find food she glanced back up to where the old man now slept. Instictively, she knew this man was still a member of her pack, despite his betrayals. An almost human part of her also felt she owed him something for the night’s journey. She was torn as to what to do. After what seemed like an eternal hesitation, however, she made a decision. Ursa would not abandon the man!

Russell, you would have to go quite a ways to mangle to Englist language worst than I so we won’t quibble over spewt milk. I’ll throw in a made up word here and there and see if I can’t start a fad.

Dictionary.com has Ursa defined as “L. ursa a she-bear, also, a constellation, fem. of ursus a bear.” so I thought it was a safe guess that Ursa in The Great Feral War was a she but feel free to convult the story however suits you.

I don’t want to alarm you but you may have also missed the news that the Red Sox won the World Series! Soldiers at the Super Bowl? Hmmmm. . . . Well considering that the host city of hte Super Bowl is turned into a virtual poilce state we might as well call out the National Guard to stand ready. Posse Comitatus (sp?) who cares. I will point out, however, that Ty Cobb once jumped into the stands and beat the heck out of a fan who insinuated he was black. He received a suspension of like 19 games but that was cut down to one or two games after the rest of his teammates sat out with him because that insinuation was just something that no one should stand for.

For those who may be dying to read it _ I am planning reviews of the iPod, Krma, and Samsung YH-920. For those of you who aren’t, tough I guess.

BTW, what was the verdict with my use of spewt? Did it pass muster or should I launch into a Jeremiad (my word of the day) about it?

Also, for those interested, I have a nother section of The Feral War planned (still trying to figure out how the male wolf morhped into a feamale wolf I think I had a momenatry brain lapse).

Russell Weisfield
“How do they handle parking at Special Olympics?” - unknown comedian

Well if you looked at the news today you probably saw the headlines. NBA brawl, President saves Secret Service, Trump bankrupt, Kennedy Assasination game, and five hunters shot and killed over a deer. The good news of the day. Israel will help Palestinian elections. You have just entered the twighlight zone. What the heck happened? Did I miss a day of school? When did the Middle East start holding hands and professional sports figures attack fans? Bush needs to take the soldiers out of Iraq and put them on the superbowl.

Aung San Suu Kyi (1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner and daughter of anti-colonial hero Aung San) has been held a captive in Myanmar for most of the past decade. Her story is amazing. It would seem a far easier thing for her to take her fortunes and spend her days in some other country. Patrick Martino wrote a great description of his adventures in Myanmar and makes mention of her. Like his other accounts, it is pretty long but well worth the read. In any case, the military junta has released nearly 4,000 prisoners and it appears that Aung San Suu Kyi may soon be set free. They have already released the second most prominent political prisoner, Min Ko Naing after holding him for sixteen years. We are ever so fortunate to live in a place where dissent is tolerated. It doesn’t have to be this way and clearly is not in some parts of the world.

hmmm… I had to look it up. This odd assemblage of letters does not appear within dictionary.com. Google asked if I meant SPOT? Pretty funny actually. What region of the country would pronounce spot in such a way that it could be spelled spewt? Google also came back with sixty some entries for it so I started poking around. It turns out that those letters are being used in Colorado as a short method of saying Sport Utility Vehicle. It is also being used in languages other than English for reasons I can only imagine. Do we let Russell slide on this one or do we kick him out?

BTW, it is raining here. I didn’t start with that, sort of sandwiched it in the middle, which leads me to water, and now I’m thinking about the leaks at the big dig. Steve mentioned that they are paying big bucks to fix the leaks and imply that it is a waste of government money. As distasteful as it may seem, can you think of a better use of the money than to fix the leaks? The design at this point is water over the bridge. We have in fact a tunnel that is in daily use by thousands. Unless you can think of an alternative, I don’t see a choice other than to fix the leaks.

Unfortunately, we can draw similar conclusions about the state of the world today. How we got here is another story. The fact is, we are. Now, what to do about it?

The Big Dig is definitely ridiculous but I think its also ridiculous to think that only the contractors are benefiting from this. Come on Steve. There are accountants, lawyers, and other such people also making out on that fiasco. None of whom are the average tax-payers or commuters.

Hey speaking of government in action, I called my county District Attorney again today because I want to know if they have managed to pick up the drunk who rear-ended me in July. Quick recap, this June/July I had a number of automobile incidents (like getting hit by a spewt while bicycling) that culminated in a 20 year old hitting the rear-end of my car totalling it while he was allegedly drunk. He was arrested (no one was hurt) and then failed to appear at the hearing two months ago. A bench warrant was then issued for his arrest. So I called the DA to see if maybe they had arrested him but of course they haven’t because they’re waiting for him to be stopped on something else.

“Did you go to his house?” I asked. I was told that the sheriff’s department handles that and they generally don’t go knocking on doors unless the person was an alleged felon. In short I’m out $500 (my deductible) because the police won’t even knock on his door once in two months. Now I know people complain about police being around when you don’t want them (like when I’m allegedly driving faster than the speed limit) or not around when you do want them (like when you’re parked in Towne Square and some young punk tries to steal your radio). But I think two months is plenty of time especially when I know the other things they are doing with their time (get to that at some other point). I have a couple of ideas on this not the least is to start a website naming people who after two months can’t contact the court to figure out a date to show up.

Russell

These two sentences both appeared on the same page of the Boston Globe this morning. They are from the same article that discusses the Big Dig’s Big Problems.
“The problem stems in part from an apparent projectwide failure in the original design of the waterproofing system.”
“The Turnpike Authority and Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff [the general contractor for the project] have insisted that the design was appropriate.”
They have now said that they have found over 700 leaks in just one section of the tunnel and that the leaks are a result of the design. They are spending $250k a month to plug the leaks. I think the design was appropriate too, appropriate for the contractor who is getting paid to fix the leaks!

Russell wrote a day or so ago about Mr Jefferson and I will admit that he is right. Rome was built rather slowly in fact. Rather than chide my readers for not participating, I will from this day forward “let it be". If you wish to write, I’ll make the site available to you and help you with any technical issues. If you don’t want to write and prefer to only read, please enjoy your visit.

“Ursa?” he asked incredulously. The mountain rumbled again. Ursa was startled. She recognized the voice but felt only fear and hunger. Ursa felt confused and out of control. She leapt again at the man. This time he grabbed her hairy coat by the scruff of her neck and yelled “Ursa, stop that!” Ursa attempted a bite but only got a small piece of his ear. The man tucked her under his arm and said “We have to get out of here, now behave a moment.” The familiar voice was comforting to Ursa, the small taste of flesh had made her wild with hunger. The earth shook and rocks began to fall from high above. The noise was deafening which freightened Ursa. Freightened and at the same time she was beginning to feel safe in the old mans arms. The roar continued. He gathered nothing and began running towards… towards what? Anything that might be into a little shelter for these two helpless creatures.

The monks near Nepal are content to spend their lives in prayer asking for relief of all kinds of human suffering. They have kept with this tradition for centuries. Many thousands of prayers for those in grave need were somehow answered that night as they managed to make it through to daylight. The old man kept running down the mountain twisting this way and that. Several times the old man fell or ran into a rock or tree on his way down. He was getting badly bruised and beaten up. Ursa had been protected by him from the danger the whole night and had not expended a great deal of energy. Not so the old man, he was exhausted. His legs ached beyond that of discomfort and pain. They had long ago gone numb and yet he continued his downhill race. Once he sensed that the immediate danger had passed, he had the presence of mind to to pull out the last of his rations from his huge overcoat and throw it on the ground. Ursa jumped down and ate at it with a vengence. The old man was too weary to fight any longer and simply layed down a few feet away. Ursa had been held captive by the man and held so tight throughout the night that she was able to catch a few minutes of sleep. The ravishing hunger she had felt yesterday wasn’t so bad now that she had a little food in her in her stomach. In fact, she was feeling quite strong now and was no longer afraid. Ursa noticed that the old one was drifting out of consciousness.

So I saw that the finalists for the 2012 Olympic games submitted their bids. Four out of the five UN security council member nations were in the list of five. The fifth, btw, is hosting the 2008 games. I’m not quite sure what that means but there is definitely a stench rising.

Russell Weisfield
(who needs to go back to working on school project)

“After four marriages I can say it is a lot like college - you learn a lot but the tuition just keeps increasing”
- Brutus in “A Dirty Story”

Quick Review of the iRiver 920 portable music player:

I think I can sum up this device in two words: User Hostile. Seriously, having been apart of multilple user interface designs and taken courses on the subject I think I can safely say that a prime reason to buy this device is to show it to other classes and people as to what not to do when designing.
Before describing why it is bad, here is a quick run down of what it offers. It has lots of features. Beyond playing mp3 and wav files, it an FM tuner, recording device, picture viewer, file storage, lines in, lines out, and even a carrying case. The 20GB drive prices at around $330 so it is just slightly above the market leading iPod.
So why is it annoying to use. Well first, the buttons are small and close together. When the volume was to high once I went to lower it but manged to hit the nav button. I then was in navigation hell and couldn’t get out resulting in my ears being blasted into deafness. As for the Nav button, its not even the only Nav button. In fact sometimes, you have to hit the left arrow button or even worse, the record button. Of course, if you do not hold the record button long enough to get to the correct nav screen, that’s right you start recording when you don’t want to.
When listening to the radio, it is not even easy to change between preset and non-preset channels. Therefore you may not get to the channel you want.
Of course, one might just buy it for listening to music. Frankly, when buying a digital music device I want an interface that’s a little bit more than a standard file tree. It has metadata such as artists and albums, it should not be hard to get to them and have all their songs play. With the iRiver your stuck to navigate through sometimes lengthy file trees.
In a nutshell, if you need lots of features, this may work for you. You will, however, have to deal with an incredibly user unfriendly device.

Good luck on your interview next week. I hear you are out of town. Write and tell us of your adventures.

The stomach growled, now was the time, the muscles tensed, and then the wolf heard a peculiar sound off in the distance. He froze. Every instinct told him to run away from that sound but he was too focused on the man. The sound grew louder. It was a rumbling that the wolf had never heard before. A deep, almost gutteral growl, that was waiting to culminate in a banshee like howl.

What the wolf did not know was that the rumbling sound was the beginning of a volcanic eruption. In fact, it was the beginning of one of the most powerful eruptions the Earth had ever known. Even if he did know, however, it would not have stopped the wolf’s next actions.

Overcoming his fear, the wolf leapt at the man. The man, however, stumbled just before the wolf hit him causing the wolf to overshoot his target. He turned, his mouth frothing, and advanced on his fallen prey. Attempting to get up, the man saw his attacker for the first time. He stared at the wolf and noticed three familiar signs: a deep white stripe running the length of the wolf’s coat, a marred right ear, and a scar running under the wolf’s left eye. “Ursa?” he asked incredulously.

Two bits just seems too cheap - I’ve upgraded my input it to a Ben Franklin divided by a US Grant. Let me get something mildly off my chest first. I really wasn’t going to be here Saturday at my computer - I was supposed to be Albuquerque, NM - until I realized that I have term project due in three weeks which I haven’t started (not to mention other things due this week).

That said - Dave - Rome wasn’t built in a day. It hasn’t been a week and already you’re giving up. This is why your initative to have everybody fund the schools has never made the ballot:) This is why my generation is suffering - the previous generation gave up on us :0) Just persevere with it.

I was originally waiting for someone else to add to the story but since that hasn’t happened - installment number 3 of “The Feral War” is forthcoming. I would, however, make this reccomendation - add a user called “Feral” or “Farrell” if you want a real person’s name. Then, whenver someone adds to it or if someone just wants to read the whole thing they can go to that section and not worry about something scrolling off. For example, you probably never even saw that I called you a Commi - well at least you didn’t respond and as Joe McCarthy believed, if you failed to deny it then you must be one. Now Steve probably isn’t one because he lives in a blue state but since you’re in one of those damned red states (or maybe you’re in a Pinko state) I can call you a red (yes I live in a red state as well but I already knew I was an enemy of the current regime).

Russell Weisfield
Snippet for the day

Young Man: Hey mister you know you can’t walk your dog in this park. Didn’t you see the sign?
Old Man walking his dog: Yes I did. Here’s my cell phone why don’t you call the police and tell them an old fart is walking his dog.

My dad has a good point about writing in general. I’ve kept journals for years, but just recently have I started using the web to express my opinions. I used to write in a black composite note book. When that one would fill up I’d put it in a box and start a new one. I’ve never gone back and looked at the editions in the boxes but I will go back a few pages in the one I’m on now. Day to dad, week to week your writing changes. One day you feel on top of the world and with the snap of a finger a single event can have you down in the dumps. Every event we live through gives us a new perspective on life. If I were my dad I wouldn’t give up on the Novella. Maybe try a new format. Try doing it through e-mail, almost like a chain letter, just add you’re two bits and send it on to you. Post it separately to this wordpress. With one person writing about politics, one writing about the weather in Boston, and other people posting as they please a story going through this can be confusing. However I think you could have a large story within a matter of days or weeks if you used not only your own contacts but the contacts of your contacts. Well thats my two bits hope it helps pops…

Three inches and counting….
We are off to Boston to see the city in the snow. We will take pictures.

This site has been useful to me in a couple of unexpected way. After writing for about six months it became apparent to me that my style of writing was changing. Rather than merely reporting the facts about what was going on around me, I started to loosen up and give my own opinions now and then. Unfortunate for the world perhaps, but good for me.

Prior to each new month, I revisit what was written a year before. It dawned on me that I have long neglected birthdays and anniversaries. Jeanie has always taken the time to write cards and buy gifts and such. When I write about someones birthday or anniversary two things occur. One, there is a slight chanch that the subject will read my note and realize that I was thinking of them and two, I will “remember” them next year.

The same idea goes for the weather. Part time farmer that I am, it is good to know the comings and goings of the frost. I also like to visit the state parks in Hocking county, particularly in October. The second weekend appears to be the most favorable weekend of the year for leaf peeping. A week or two later and the rain has come and the leaves have gone.

The site is also helping to keep a widely dispersed group of people in touch with one another on a more frequent basis than would otherwise naturally occur. I’m pretty confident that it is being read at least once a week by people in at least six different states… and growing, in spite of the absolute failure of the Novella (The Feral War) and many attempts to get others to write.

I recently wrote an email to an old friend that I’ve not seen or heard from in years. No reply. In similar situations where the tables have been turned, I’ve often hesitated to write until I had time to write a lengthy thoughtful reply. You know what? I’d rather just have a crummy misspelled half assed note written a moment before he goes to work Monday than nothing. The same is true of writing for this site. No one reading this will ever have a boatload of time to devote to it. It isn’t literature. It is merely a quick jot of whatever is going on wherever you happen to be. Others will appreciate your thoughts.

More was announced today. It seems that the city has been saying that the contractors working on the project should pay for the millions of dollars in repairs that have been caused by the recent leaks in the tunnel. They contend that if the contractors would have repaired the work as soon as the problem was discovered, the tunnel would not have leaked as much, thus the leaks would not have caused millions of dollars in damage. The contractors, bless their hearts, produced memos today that they sent to the city in 2001 warning them of the potential leaks and asking them what they should do about it. The city told them to not worry about it. Again, they offered to fix the problem, the city then told them that they were already far enough behind schedule to worry about what they think might happen to the tunnels.
Now, of course, the city is back tracking more than a little bit. And to make matters all the more fun, a State Congressional hearing on the matter opens November 30.
Just as a quick aside, you may ask, other than money, what to the residents of Boston really care about the silly leaks? Well I think that question was answered in the paper today, a state Turnpike official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, suggested that people who do not need to take the tunnel should seek an alternate route…

Also, I woke up this morning and my clock, which sets itself by the ATOMIC CLOCK, was two hours behind. Very strange…

This was on the news this morning. “It is currently 22 degrees in Boston. I have got good news and bad news. The good news is that it is going to be a bright sunny day outside. The bad news is that the sun is already up.”

Also in the news. Apparently when the bid dig was constructed, they expected 500,000 gallons of water to seep in each year. That is 2 Olympic size swimming pools each year flooding into a tunnel that millions of people are traveling through. This year however, a huge leak has been flooding the main tunnel. So far, an extra 4 million gallons of water has come in. That is 16 extra swimming pools of water filling the tunnels under Boston. I do not know about all those SUV’s out there, but I KNOW my car will not drive through 16 swimming pools of water…

Speaking of the Big Dig.

The South End consists of a lot of old manufacturing buildings. These buildings have mainly wooden supports under them. When the Army Corp of Engineers studied the area before starting the Big Dig, they concluded that the water table would not be affected enough to damage the supports. After that study was finished, the city decided to expand the subway system in the same area. Again a study was done, and again the Army Corp found that no damage would be done. A few days ago, about ten years too late by my count, the US Army Corp of Engineers announced a slight problem with their studies. They did not add them together. Since they were done independently of each other, and before the other projects had started, the Big Dig study did not take in to account for the Silver Line project and the Silver Line study did not account for the Big Dig. The end result: blocks and blocks of manufacturing buildings in the South End with wooden supports that are rotting away.

UPDATE:
They announced today that it is really 26 million gallons in the past 10 months. That is 104 Olympic sized swimming pools. And there is water pooling on the roof of the tunnels.

How could this happen you ask? Well let me explain. Most tunnel projects include two walls. One called a slurry wall, and then the actual tunnel walls. The slurry wall forms a rough box around the tunnel. It is meant to slow the water down and to keep pressure off the tunnel walls. Then, a water tight box is created inside the slurry walls. Inside that box is where the roadway is. In the Big Dig, they decided that the could not afford two walls. So they decided to just put the roadway inside the slurry wall. Because of the way they are constructed, slurry walls are really hard to make water tight, so they just did not make them water tight. Instead, they built a pumping system that would remove the water. They planned for 500,000 gallons. So far the are getting 52 times that a year. There are over 400 confirmed leaks in the system. In September, there was a spectacular leak in the main tunnel. I drove past it a few times, it looked like a fire hydrant was turned on.

Since that leak, the Legislature has been investigating the problem. Amazingly enough, they discovered that they contractors that were hired to finish the tunnels have been patching leaks for the past 2 years instead. They have also been hiding it from everyone. So far, the system has cost about $14 billion dollars.

It reminds me of when I was a kid. Building dams in the creek out back after a big rain storm. We would build the dam, and then plug the holes with temporary little plugs that always washed away. It seemed like no matter how much we plugged up the dam, the water always still got through. There was no way to stop it once it started to wash away the dam.

The wolf pondered this thought for several minutes. A thoughtful wolf? No, tame perhaps. This wolf had been raised by people when found abandoned as a pup and could recall the children who had carefully tended to its needs, fed it when hungry, and been playful and taunting all at the same time. This wolf also had other memories. This figure in the clearing was the same one who had taken it far from the children and then chased it off into the unknown several days ago.

This man who had helped raise him had now betrayed him. The wolf could feel the pangs of hunger in its stomach. He could easily smell the familiar scent of the man. That brought a sense of confusion to his mind. Nevertheless, he crept forward without making a sound and was easily within striking range. The man suddenly turned and looked. Nothing thought the man. The wolf almost felt sorry for the feeble figure that could apparently not see nor smell the approaching danger. The stomach growled, now was the time, the muscles tensed, and then the wolf heard a peculiar sound off in the distance.

I’ll humor you and take the first couple sentences I have for a different story. I’m sure it will be vastly different than what I’ve written. I’ve had fun with this type of thing before so have at it.

The Feral War

The wolf bared his teeth and glared at the figure in the clearing. It would be so easy to rush from the woods and tear his heart out. As weak and slow as the man in the clearing was, he would never be able to ward off such an attack. The wolf pondered this thought for several minutes.

- Russell

From Google Sets:
Dave
Russell
Nick
e people
tanrec
Steve
Vince
Rick

Here is the deal. I’m going to write a paragraph or two. Hopefully it will end at an awkward moment or at least with suspense. Anyone registered is invited to add to it, here is the fun part, in any direction you like. You may invent new characters, plots, whatever suits your fancy. Just try to leave it like you found it, in a place that is easy to pick up on and take off with. You need and example? OK.

man1 writes:
The novella writers begin, and blah, blah, blah until the child walked up the stairs and peered through the glass...

girl1 writes:
…the child walked up the stand and peered through the glass. The door opened and Mrs. Hazel asked if there were any more urchins about. Then blah, blah, blah, and they laughed themselves to sleep...

man2 writes:
…they laughed themselves to sleep. More of the incessent blah, blah, blah. During the darkest hours of the night they awoke to a faint sound...

man1 writes:
…to a faint sound of the blackest cat any had ever seen. Blah, blah, blah, and so on.

Any questions? Someone else may begin it. Give it a title. I’ve written enough for now. A few people I know at work did such a thing and it was a lot of fun and interesting to see how the story got twisted around. Humor me and give it a try.

I’ve had the joy of going camping with my entire family. I’ve gone out west and climbed the Rocky Mountains. One thing they do not tell you is the top is never really high enough. Standing on the other peak you still look up to the rest of the world. If you are still lucky enough to see a vehicle or a building down below you truly appreciate how insignificant we really are. Then you realize the top of the mountain doesn’t make you any stronger than the people below you. Actually they are at the advantage because it’s hard to fall up a mountain. Now how can you describe this to anyone without them having first hand knowledge? Well I just tried my best, anyone know what I saw or realized what I realized probably not.
Now what does this have to do with anything? The U.S. is on top of a mountain right now. There are two ways to get down and one takes patience and steady, thoughtful stepping; the other way down starts with one bad step.

First, it snowed here a couple of weeks ago and we should get more today [update we did]. Good for skiers and tow trucks! I, however, don’t knock the weather. Afterall, some people can’t start a conversation without it.

Second, unfortunately Ashcroft is not yet “former". So all you communist and fascist scum out there who would dare speak out against the President and the current administration or demand your privacy had better watch out cause we’ll get you man. You should just be thankful that places like Gart Sports now demand your Drivers License when you return an item and shove it into their system so that they can investigate you for theft if you return 3 or more items in a year (seriously that’s their current M.O.). So when the S.S. (Secret Service) knocks on your door and drags you in for your unpatriotic and terroistic activities I’ll be able to know that by turning people like you in this nation is safer.

Third, I guess I’m “Man 1″ for a while. Hmmmmm. . . . . It really was supposed to be a non-sequitor that seemed an odd response to me but I can work with being “man 1″.

Fourth, yes other nations do have a vastly different viewpoint of us than we do (there was the one headline about how could 59 million people be so dumb). THere of course is a vast difference, however, between reading the Guardian vs. the Jerusalem Post, vs. Isvestia just like reading the Parkersburg News would slant your viewpoints far to the right whereas reading the Daily Camera would slant them far to the left and some papers would moderate them a bit.

- Russell Weisfield

“To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve.” - Former Attorney General John Ashcroft

I’m not sure that I got the punch line but Man 2 struck me as hilarious.

Steve has reported the first snowfall in Boston. Man1, has it snowed yet in Denver?

Nick has a nice point about the news. We do have a certain amount of freedom. If you make it a routine to read the foreign press, you also get the perspective that we are sometimes very slanted in our reporting. For example. Over 70% of the people who use Fox News as their primary source of news voted for Bush. Conversely, over 70% of the people who use CNN as their primary source of news voted for Kerry. We are apparently swayed somewhat by what we read and watch on TV. That makes it obvious to me that we are then responsible for ferreting out the truth.

Just so I don’t wax politics all the time I thought I would set a list of things I might write about in the near future (of course if people prefer to read my quips on politics I could blabber for a while. Just let me know - especially you political aspirants out there:)

So first, I have to finish an faux article inspired by a stupid one from the Daily Camera today. It had to do with rioters. The article and headline weren’t quite Leno (every paper has at least one headline/photo/ad/etc. that shoudl be sent to Jay) but it was almost worthy of The Onion. Since I was almost a writer for them at one point, I figure I can whip up an article. Just need some time.

Short reviews of the iRiver/iPod/Karma and whatever other hard drive device I borrow from electronic stores in the near future. I truly do mean borrow as well. I try them out for a few days, get somewhat frustrated, throw them at the wall, and if they don’t break return them to the retailer. Actually, if they don’t break I don’t return them because I figure its a pretty sturdy product. If it does break, then obviously its another poorly made P.O.S. of which I should get my money back.

Russell
Here’s a non-sequitor for you from an actual conversation I had recently. I’ve changed the names so its not as obvious that I’m Man1.

Man1 “It was a rhetorical question”
Man2 “You’re rhetroical.”
Man1 “What does that mean?”
Man2 “I don’t know”

American press has to be about the best in the world. Where else can you hear full well how bad your country is doing and not care. Of course the news is mostly propaganda now anyways but after all we don’t care do we. Here’s a tidbit for anyone paying attention. We’ve been bombing the city of Falluja to rubble for the past three days. We’ve moved 10,000 American troops in, and 2,000 Iraqis. We’ve been shelling a path through the city with our tanks. Let me repeat that first part. We’ve dropped aerial bombs for THREE DAYS!!! I’ve seen the videos of what these bombs do it isn’t pretty and by no means are they small. How there can be anything left in the city is beyond me. So far we’ve only managed to clear a path we are currently trying to take control of that right now. CNN said that the path is booby-trapped so it’s slowing troop movement. But the good news is we have the insurgents cornered, what is left of the city surrounded and this is supposed to be the last stronghold of insurgent activity. This mission started Saturday morning to my knowledge, with the planes bombing the night before. So are we winning the fight in Falluja I certainly hope you could consider that winning? So far and god forbid that there will be but we haven’t lost any troops so far. Well here is the real tidbit. No city and 20-25 insurgent deaths… How many million did you say this costs again?

Wow! It was gorgeous today complete with a picture perfect sunset. Hope it was nice where you are.

Sorry Nick I didn’t post earlier. I’ve been too tired from being too mortified last night. The answer is that the Bush administration has been spinnning things for years. Ari Fleicsher was a master at it. One thing few people picked up on was the day Bush gave his ultimatum to Saddam the Fed was meeting to announce that the economy was tanking.

And hey, don’t go putting everything on Ohio - the rest of the nation would like a say as well. As for candidates next go round, there are a number including Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, Rick Santorum, Bill Owens, Barack Obama, and Rudy Giuliani (issues with all of them but I put out a few names).

I’m tired.
Russell

So I’ve continually checked this page all day fully expecting everyone to be bickering or at least discussing the past couple of days’ events. Maybe I’m naive but this seemed like an unusual election far beyond anything I could imagine. I saw Kerry’s speech then an hour later I watched Bush’s. Did anyone else get the sense of George Orwell’s 1984 ? Bush and Cheney actually stood there and said they received more votes than any other president in history. Ok this is a positive for them certainly, but weren’t there also a historical number of people voting against the people who won? If not I would be surprised. I haven’t checked the numbers but I’m almost certain of it. Maybe I was the only one who caught that but it was a pretty slick move on their part. I also liked how he gave special thanks to Carl Rove “the architect". Does anyone not see the screwing around going on right in front of us. They are superb at it, they are the masters of the sport, the magicians of politics. How it came to Ohio is beyond me. Personally I liked the fact that people focused on my home state, even though they were probably tweaked like I was that it was undecided into the night and most of the morning. Ohio needs more recognition as an important and a political state in the union. I’m guessing the next election will have nothing to do with Ohio though. Neither side has a candidate worth bringing forward that I know of; maybe Nader will have his day in the sun ha ha ha…

Not too long ago the Votemaster at electoral-vote.com was asking for spare pixels for Hawaii. I sent him some and it apparently helped as Hawaii was then able to be shown in multi colors.

Interestingly the Votemaster revealed himself today as Prof. Andrew Tannenbaum! Tannenbaum wrote MINIX (a precursor to Linux) as well as my Operating Systems Textbook in undergrad. I had the privledge of meeting him when he spoke about World Wide Objects. A good speaker and frankly, I find his text more readable than Silberschutz’s. Tannenbaum is kind of inspirational with that site. He did it in part to promote Amercians living abroad to vote and proceeded to get 600,000 hits a day though he refused to take advertisements (would have made a bundle).

On this election eve, I got a call from the a campaign. As many of you know, I love telemarketers. They’ve paid me a few grand over the years for making hte mistake of calling me illegally. Unfortunately the campaigns are non-profit so I can’t sue them. I did however, tell them to go away as I fully intended to vote for the candidates of my choice on Wednesday and there wasn’t a damn thing they were going to say to change my mind.

Hope everyone enjoys the upcoming ruckus.

Russell Weisfield
“There are 10 kinds of people in this world - those who know binary and those who don’t.”

First, happy new month! I hope everyone enjoyed Samhain. I thought I’d put in these last few election predictors. Also, a quick correction to Dave. If the election goes to the House (unlikely although we probably won’t know for sure until next week) the House must pick based upon whomever got Electoral Votes for President.

Ways to predict:

1) Whoever’s Halloween mask sells the most will be the next president. (If more kids want to be Kerry than Bush…)
2) When companies produce ‘competing’ products, whichever sells the most is supposed to predict the winner. For example, if a company has cups with images of Bush and Kerry in 2004, the one which outsells the other would be a predictor.
3) If the Dow Jones Average gains over the time from August to October, this predicts a win for the incumbent.
4) Number of endorsements from newspapers (according to editorandpublisher.com this is currently favoring Kerry although they are missing lots of papers (not one from Wyoming for instance). This also takes into account circulation.
5) From 1952 to 1976, if the American League won the World Series, then the President would be a Republican. If the National League won, then the election would go to the Democrat .
6) Take two bicycler sprinters. Assign one to be racing for Kerry and one to be racing for Bush. Have them go to a nice urban setting. Park the bikes unlocked and walk away. Whoever’s bike is stolen first will be President (Kerry won when Leno did this).

Russell Weisfield