Shame. I say again, shame.

Labels: social commentary

Gun-related topics are a touchy subject in my family, where much of the male populace has NRA-themed checks, credit cards and license plate brackets. Due to an upbringing of that sort, I occasionally disconcert people with my encyclopedic ability to identify the model number, manufacturer and caliber of most firearms I see on television. And although I've always found hunting reprehensible I did make the rounds of target shooting competitions as an experimental bonding experience with my father when I was in high school, eventually resulting in a Marksman qualification (and me, my father and two of his friends outscoring a National Guard rifle team at one event when I was 15). So despite a general lack of enthusiasm for firearms these days, I'm not unfamiliar with the culture or the items it encompasses.

This leaves me in an interesting position when firearm topics are raised, as they were recently in Nebraska with the passage of concealed-carry legislation. As is common with highly polarizing issues, there were very passionate voices on each side. I'll admit I did not support the legislation, but I also rolled my eyes at the babble from both sides, mostly due to the rhetoric and poor arguments that we see recycled every time this issue arises. My issues with the "pro" side would fill another post, but I'm taking issue this time with the "anti" side, which, as predicted, wrote letter after letter prophesying running gun battles in the streets, increases in crime and people solving problems with people cutting in line at the grocery store with a smoking .45.

Nonsense. This is an intellectually dishonest argument that isn't reflected in any statistics, and anyone familiar with the topic knows it. It's an appeal to fear (one of the logical fallacies), and a fairly weak one at that. The statistics themselves are vague and strongly contested (the most-cited statistics were compiled by a guy who has admitted unethical behavior in promoting his work, and much of his work hasn't held up to scrutiny). Despite this, there is no evidence, even according to the National Academy of Sciences, that concealed carry increases crime or engenders a vigilante mindset in the vast majority of those who apply for permits. In all likelihood, concealed carry has very little effect on anything, good or bad. There are other arguments opposing concealed carry, but this particular one needs to be dropped entirely.

So we have vocal members of one side claiming the streets will be the Wild West with innocent civilians hiding from gun battles. And vocal members of the other side claiming all those who apply for the permits are law-abiding, responsible citizens who would never do any such thing. The truth is probably closer to the second opinion. But neither is completely true, as the trigger (pun intended) for this post demonstrates.

Labels: social commentary

A well-meaning Immortal, perhaps, but not a very bright one . . .

Labels: immortals

I'm not overly fond of snow, but I do have to admit I enjoy the quiet, muffled world it creates on the night it falls.

Labels: wonder

To Jennifer. :) Everyone wish her a good one.

Labels: birthdays

'Cause, you know, it's only Thursday . . .

The state wrestling tournament photos are up here.

Ditto for the SAC Museum expedition.

Miscellaneous highlights:

- While on our way to see Ghost Rider, we were stopped at a stop light by a guy who motioned for my brother to roll down his window, then proceeded to try to give him a home theater system. "I have a home theater system I don't want. It's yours if you want it. Just give me your address and I'll deliver it." All sorts of warning bells went off there. Who stops someone in traffic and asks for their home address?

- My brother had never seen a 24-screen movie theater before (the closest one to the dear old homestead has two screens). He was of the opinion that's too many. He'd also never had to use a parking meter before. He learned all sorts of new things while he was here.

- I took them to Zio's for lunch one day. My dad doesn't compliment restaurants very often, but he agreed it was the best pizza he'd had in awhile. He was also tickled that they carried a kind of beer he had in Mexico once that he usually can't find in the U.S.

- We shared a waiting room at Applebee's with a very publicly affectionate lesbian couple dressed about three "degrees" nicer than we were. I thought they were cute. My brother was very confused. I imagine there was some internal conflict between his impulse to watch them (how often does he see women kissing?), his impulse to be disapproving due to his religious beliefs and the intimidation factor inherent in the fact that they were likely a tax bracket above us (darn scary independent women anyway). I was tempted to say "Yup, Jeff, those are lesbians. We have those here." but I was polite and we talked about why he has to shave before he goes on fire calls so the breather mask will seal against his face.

- I got Dippin' Dots at the Qwest Center. Yay!

- The SAC Museum was interesting, although it's not a "go back every year" thing like the zoo. The Blackbird in the entry was very cool, but that was the newest plane they had (I was hoping to see a Raptor). I think my dad enjoyed it the most.

- I tried to teach my brother to use chopsticks, but he declined. Then he went back to the Chinese buffet and came back with Jell-O.

- My brother was annoyed that he couldn't find Fox News on my tv. He seemed less than impressed when I told him I'd edited it out of my channel listing years ago. So he watched the Weather Channel instead. According to my dad, that's his secret favorite channel. Like, he'll just sit and watch the Weather Channel.

- Everyone got along well and it was a good visit. :)

Labels: family

Wow, UNL ranks a shocking third in the list of schools with the most illegal file sharing complaints. Color me surprised. I bet the administration won't be advertising that.

Labels: social commentary

The heavy dregs of sleep are pulling down the curtain of consciousness as I write this, insisting I concede to their somnolent stipulations. But before I crash, a brief update in penance for a lack of recent posts.

My dad and brother arrived on Wednesday evening, fresh from the 35-below-zero snowfields of Wyoming, for a brief respite. They spent Thursday at the Qwest Center watching the state wrestling tournament, at the newly opened Cabela's and at various hardware stores buying the parts (including the main stall itself) to install a shower in my brother's house. I snuck out of work early to have Chinese with them.

Friday we all woke at 6 a.m. (ouch) to attend the second round of the state wrestling tournament, where unfortunately our brave and valiant hometown wrestlers were eliminated to the man, but on the upside one of my aunts bought me Dippin' Dots. The afternoon was spent at the SAC museum to fulfill a promise I made to my dad years ago. The evening was spent watching Ghost Rider (not the strongest comic book movie Marvel has released . . .).

Today (Saturday) we did upgrades to my house, primarily involving electricity. We put in some new grounded outlets and, more importantly, split up a circuit that for some odd reason the previous tenant had vastly overtaxed (as of this morning, it handled all of the lights and outlets in my kitchen, all of my computer equipment and during the summer a window air conditioner). The air conditioner outlet gets its own circuit now, and my computer equipment is moving to a grounded outlet on the other wall. They departed in the early afternoon, taking with them the dresser from my bedroom that, as I understand it, has been in my possession for the last eight years despite being Linde's; whether it came to me originally as an oversight or as a planned loan I don't remember. I do know that the few items of clothing I use out of it are now in a cardboard box in my bedroom, which is incredibly stylish. As soon as it warms up I'll assemble all the new furniture that's stacked in a corner of my basement, but for now I have a big empty wall.

After they left I spent the remainder of the afternoon cleaning up the plaster dust, wire pieces and insulation from the renovations, and then installed all four of the ceiling fixtures I requested for Christmas. As soon as I install the fixture in the spare bedroom (I forgot it was in a closet or I'd have done it today with the others), the entire ground floor will have new fixtures.

And now I'm off to bed. Hope everyone is well. :)

Labels: family

Something short of two years ago Lisa entrusted in me the sacred duty of finding middle names for the twins. Then, despite a veritable consortium of supporters (including all of her other family members, led by an extremely enthusiastic Lane), she balked at my choices, deeming "Alec Anakin" and "Kyle Kenobi" unsuitable even in the face of their obvious worth.

So I've come up with new ones. I probably won't garner the same level of support, given their relative obscurity in comparison to the celebrated Jedi, but I'm officially proposing "Kyle Cthulhu" and "Alec Azathoth." Given the so-called "Terrible Twos" are fast approaching, they seem appropriate.

Labels: amusement, cthulhu, twins

I was interested in this article on what is being billed as the first commercial quantum computer, although the interest was punctuated with a sign of my geekiness when I laughed at this unintentionally humorous sentence:

He said all the evidence the company has indicates that the device is performing quantum computations, but he acknowledged there is some uncertainty.

Of course a quantum computer has uncertainty. Silly reporters.

Labels: quantum mechanics

It's uncharacteristically busy for me. The -3 weather and snow shoveling aside, my dad and my brother are arriving today for a short visit (officially to watch my cousin Cabe at the state wrestling tournament, but nominally to work on the wiring in my house, as well). This is the first time they've visited since they helped me move into my house and repaired my garage, so I imagine my house will look somewhat different.

In other family news, congratulations to Haley for winning a full-tuition scholarship. I know she's pretty tickled (and my parents moreso, in all likelihood).

Labels: family, holiday

Assorted photographic and video evidence will attest to the twins' opinion of the new digs (and that roller coaster is pretty damned cool). I'm also told that the twins have started asking when I'm coming back (in suitable one-syllable sentences), which is very cute.

Labels: alec, kyle, twins

Susannah took me to UNL's Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery on Sunday, where I was fascinated with Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison's The Architect's Brother. Absolutely stunning work. The technique used to make them (dozens of photos hand-cut and arranged into single photos without digital manipulation) makes for a "vintage" feel that I love, but on top of that each photo tells a story. My personal favorites are this one and this one.

Displaying a penchant for discovering fascinating things, Susannah also sent me the link to this video. Wow.

Labels: amusement, wonder

Hope everyone is having a good Monday. :)

Labels: alec, twins

Despite generally fond hearkenings to television shows from my mid-80s development period, I think the English language could have done without the addition of the word "Fergalicious" . . .

Labels: amusement

This is charming. It annoys me, in the same somewhat abstract way that snow forecasts annoy me before the crystals actually precipitate. The article caught my eye because of the wrestling angle, but it really transcends such specifics and boils down to an issue of personal responsibility (and the corresponding lack thereof).

Darrell Jennings said the court fight is another reminder of what he has told his son since he started wrestling at age 3: Winning isn't the most important thing. Never giving up is.

First off, age 3? Give me a break. The youngest age bracket is 6 (when I started). But more importantly, I'm disturbed that the most important lesson he wants his son to remember from this is to never give up. Even if you got into the mess yourself in the first place. And "never giving up" involves consuming tax payers' money to try to blame other people with hastily conceived "it's not fair!" cries. What about lessons of taking responsibility or dealing with consequences? What this is really about isn't winning or losing or not giving up or fairness to students who flunk in the fall instead of the spring; what it's about is family members (parents and son) who have placed a great deal of importance on what is, frankly, an accomplishment that will fade far sooner than they like (does anyone take the 40-year-olds who brag about their high school football careers seriously?) to the detriment of academic learning, the foundation on which he should be building the rest of his life. If the students who flunk in the spring had been treated the same as those in the fall, this family would have looked for some other excuse to justify a lawsuit; it's just a smokescreen for an unwillingness to accept responsibility.

Labels: social commentary

Labels: amusement, funny

I called customer service to authorize my new Discover card tonight (the old one expired). I actually talked to a real person (not a recording), which made me feel a bit safer about using that company. I answered all of the questions with no trouble (birthdate? piece of cake. last four of my social? no problem.). I had to pause on the final question, though.

"Congratulations, your card is now activated. Do you plan on using it in the future?"

As opposed to what? Using it in the past?

Labels: amusement

Photos from the weekend.

Labels: lane, photography, twins

This is just . . . odd.

Labels: what the hell

Lane has requested I post the following. All opinions and statements are Lane's and the author assumes no responsibility for them.

"The Wii is awesome!"

Labels: amusement, lane

Overheard in the next aisle at the grocery store, where a group of employees were stocking shelves.

"Did you see wrestling last night?"
"Man, wrestling is fake."
"Hey, Tom, do you think wrestling is fake?"
"Why are you asking him? He thought that girl was 18, too."
*peals of laughter*

Labels: overheard, social commentary

I remember my first real PC (the Commodore 64 doesn't really count, although I still have that one in the basement). It was a Hewlitt-Packard 486 25 Mhz with a whopping 4 MB of RAM (I remember that specifically because when I bought "Star Wars: Dark Forces" for it I had to shell out a couple hundred bucks to upgrade to the minimum 8 MB of RAM to play it), running Windows 3.11. I don't remember the exact hard drive size, but I know it was in the megabyte (not gigabyte) range (I'm wanting to say 200 MB, but I could be wrong). At the time it was state-of-the-art; granted, state-of-the-art was a single pre-loaded 20-second video clip of an eagle swooping down and catching a fish out of a lake, at stunning 160x120 quality, so space wasn't really an issue.

Fast forward to today. Over the years drive size and the stuff to put in it have grown in tandem; the last computer before my Dell had an "at the time enormous" 30 GB drive (which is now the F: drive on my Dell) which I was sure I'd never fill, and I scoffed even more when my Dell came with an 80 GB drive. Of course, that was before I realized just how easy it is to do. I mean, I took almost a gigabyte of video of the twins last weekend (DV-quality video is enormous and my camera doesn't compress it very well). A gigabyte a weekend adds up really fast.

So it's probably no surprise that I need a new drive. And since I'm planning on using it as the mode of transfer from my PC to my at-the-moment-still-theoretical iMac, it seems to make sense to get an external hard drive that I can use for automatic backups later. This is the current front-runner. It doesn't have Firewire 800, but it does have Firewire 400 and USB 2.0, it has a 16 MB cache rather than the more common 8 and an off button (I'm surprised that most external drives don't have those) and it's relatively cheap for a 500 GB drive. Does anyone have experience with this series of drives or this manufacturer before I plunk down the money? I appreciate the feedback. :)

Labels: computers