NONOBADBLOG!
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Friday, February 02, 2007 NONONEWBLOG! I'll keep the old one up for a bit, just in case the new one craps out on me, but it won't be updated unless something goes horribly wrong.
[ 5:44:00 PM ]
Posted at the speed of blight by NONOBADKITTY!
The IPCC Report is out today (well the first part.) I only read the summary, that was bad enough, but basically it says humans suck. I found it to be less biased than I had expected, but while they make numerous mentions of humans spewing CO2 into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, and humans spewing methane into the atmosphere by farming, I saw no mention of humans spewing CO2 into the atmosphere by merely breathing hmmm ... you'd think with 6.5 billion of us panting all day and night, that'd contribute something but I guess not. I also saw no mention of data showing global warming on other planets in our solar system, but I guess I shouldn't expect that, since this report is about Earth's global warming. They also mention this is the warmest period in Earth's history since about 125,000 years ago, but fail to mention what could have caused that previous warming, since, so far as I know, humans weren't around back then. Maybe it was those pesky dinosaurs, burning fossil fuels to run their Dino-Mobiles, and polluting the air with their flatulence. Yeah, that musta been it. I also saw no mention of undersea erupting volcanoes in the antarctic as being a possible cause of ocean warming, but lots of mentions of melting ice raising ocean sea levels, mostly due to expansion from higher global temperatures, rather than actual melt. Which is good, because anyone who's ever put ice cubes in a glass of water, knows that the melting ice doesn't contribute significantly to the level of water in the glass. Of course, Al Gore might disagree with that. I was pleased, however, that they did mention that a "significant fraction" of global warming was "very likely" attributable to natural phenomenon such as volcanic activity and ::gasp:: sunspots. I also found it interesting that "anthropogenic forcing" was only a "likely" cause of warming. Too bad that statement that global warming is caused more by nature than humans was one single sentence near the bottom of a 21 page report. Oh well, at least the report isn't biased. Now, the question is, what do we do about it? I guess we'll have to wait for the other report for that. But my suggestion is simple: Plant a tree, plant a human. Just kidding! Although I have heard of companies selling "carbon credits" to companies that like to pollute. Unfortunately the "buy price" for those credits is something like $4/acre of trees. The sad thing though is that it is "very likely" that the majority of Earth's population will neither know nor care about this report's findings, and will continue to drive their SUVs, buy products manufactured in countries with no pollution controls, and continue to eat meat and manufactured foods. Global warming may be here, but unless and until it affects people directly people won't change. We're better off just learning to swim and do without our clothes. Adapt or die. Like the dinosaurs. Labels: global warming
[ 11:54:00 AM ]
Posted at the speed of blight by NONOBADKITTY!
Wednesday, January 31, 2007 I'm a bit tired of politicians being the "deciders." I'll just skip the whole Bush thing, but here in Los Angeles, they're tryin' to pass laws to outlaw trans fats in restaurants so we won't have to eat all that icky, unhealthy fat. There are a couple problems with this. One, is that if they ban trans fats, restaurants will likely go back to using cheap and tasty saturated fats ... which were targeted (but not banned) years ago for the exact same reasons they're going after trans fats now. And in some cases it could be argued that saturated fats are even worse than trans fats. Why don't the politicians want to ban those too? Heck, why not ban all all fats, since all fats are fattening and America is becoming obese at alarming rates! Why not ban all junk food too! And soda! Because I'd be willing to bet those are the main reasons people are so fat now! Why don't they make it a law that all parents should cook healthy, low fat, low salt, organic-only foods at home for their families! That might help! The thing that's really so stupid though about all this is that even if you ban trans fats in restaurants, people will still eat them. Just take a look at the convenience foods in the grocery store. Heck, take a look at 90% of the "food" in the grocery store, almost all of it, even the "healthy" stuff is full of junk like trans fats (as well as other crap we shouldn't eat.) The bottom line is people like to eat this stuff cuz it's cheap and it tastes good, and it's ready to eat outta the box (might need to zap it in the micro a bit, but it beats "cooking a meal.") Why don't the politicians spend their time and money fixing some of the real problems in this country instead of worrying about what people eat. If they insist on fixing the food problem, then go after the parents who feed their kids bad food. Educate them (there's a great PSA they run here in CA that has little kids saying things like "Can I have some more diabetes." It's great. A subtle dig that yes you, bad parent, are the primary cause of your child's obesity and other health problems.) And let the adults make their own decisions, if they die young, that's one less Social Security check that'll have to go out in a few decades. Now it might just be they're doing this in preparation of the health care for every Californian/American/person on the entire planet they're tryin' to do, and to keep the system from going bankrupt before it stops, they gotta get people healthy or it'll just cost way too damn much (especially since even Medicare covers gastric bypass now.) 'Course if they'd focus more on problems like illegal immigration and stuff like that, they might actually have enough money left over after eliminating all the perks to illegals, to provide health care for everyone, even the fat, unhealthy trans-fat eaters. But they couldn't do THAT because that would be "wrong" and would cut into their chances of being re-elected by all those illegal alien voters. Oh wait, sorry, I forgot, illegal aliens don't vote because it's ILLEGAL. ::snork:: Oh, and speaking of voting, why the hell is there a voter registration form inside the California tax form booklet? I thought it was bad enough making it easy for illegals to register to vote when they go get a Driver's License (which they also never do because it's ILLEGAL, right? ::double snork::) So if they missed their chance at the DMV, now they get another chance when they're applying for the tax refund from all that work they did last year. Oh wait, I forgot, illegal aliens don't apply for tax refunds, how could they? They can't even work, it's ILLEGAL. ::triple snork:: And the ones who actually owe taxes would never file them because, well then someone might find out they're here illegally and we can't have THAT happen can we? What with all this "racist" deportation and "ethnic cleansing" of enforcing our immigration laws recently. I can't wait for their next protest, held, of course, on Mexican Independence Day. The last one was great, no traffic, people who actually spoke OUR language (that's English for those who don't remember California is still part of the USA) at fast food places, uncrowded Emergency Rooms, and a general feeling of nostalgia for the way things were before Los Angeles became a third-world ghetto. Now, I don't have a problem with immigrants who come here legally, and assimilate (learn the language for one) and contribute to society as a whole. But the whole "oh I'm only trying to make a better life" bullcrap is just getting on my nerves, if you're really trying to make a better life, why don't you learn English for starters? Why don't you follow the law and not steal other people's IDs, stop dealing drugs, stop robbing stores, stop committing fraud, and stop doing all the other illegal things many illegal aliens do to "support their family." Oh, and don't drive broken-down, unregistered, uninsured, unsafe cars. Oh wait, I forgot, illegal aliens don't drive. ::snork snork:: You don't need a car, since you don't have a job, cuz having one would mean you're breaking the law and that would be ILLEGAL. And if you want to protest, do it on America's Independence Day, not your native country's. And don't talk about "rights" you think you deserve, because quite frankly, if you are here illegally, you are a criminal and you have no rights to jobs, or good pay or any of the other so called "rights" you believe you have. Even American citizens don't have a right to a job or good pay. If you are here illegally, be grateful you haven't been deported yet. Don't whine when if you are, don't complain if you're sent back and your family is broken up, that's your fault because YOU made the choice to come here illegally. If the situation was reversed, and millions of Americans immigrated illegally to Mexico, do you really think the Mexican citizens would be cool with that? Do you really think the Mexican government would open the border and let them in, become a burden on society, clog the roads, the schools, the hospitals? No of course not, so don't do it to the USA. Follow the rules, take responsibility for your own situation, be grateful for what you have, and shut the hell up about your imaginary "rights", it only hurts your position politically ... remember, American citizens CAN vote, and the more whining we see/hear the less likely we are to be sympathetic to your cause, when you think you are entitled to "rights" we as Americans don't even have. In other news, my cat went to the vet the other day for her annual shots ... and didn't poo for 3 days. I did the vaccine clinic thing cuz everything is half-price and they don't charge an office visit fee, and the poo test was 1/2 price too so I went ahead and paid for it. But the cat musta known cuz she held that poo! (Actually, she did poo Saturday night but vet is closed on Sunday so that's no good, poo must be fresh.) Anyway, she finally went yesterday morning. Yay! Lemme see, what else, oh, WOW Burning Crusade came out last week, I still haven't bought it though cuz I'm a bit short on "gaming funds" due to my spending my whole year's budget last Xmas. Well, not quite, but I gotta go a few months without, but that's OK cuz I have plenty of games to play, a couple of which I can't talk about. I'm also renting a few games from Gamefly but that's gonna be cancelled in a couple weeks. I'm currently playing the new Phoenix Wright game, I like it better than the first one, more twisty, a bit harder, but still the same "fun" as the other one was. OK I think that's enough blathering for now.
[ 10:10:00 AM ]
Posted at the speed of blight by NONOBADKITTY!
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 I did a bit of updating my sidebar, I removed GoPets because, well, it sucks now. They redid their UI for the game and made it ugly, buggy and a pain the *** to use, so I can't with good conscience recommend it anymore ... at least not until they fix it. But to make up for that I've added a couple other links, to potential 2008 presidential candidates. Only two of 'em are "worthy" of referral at this time though, and just cuz their sites are linked from my blog should not be taken as support of either candidate (especially since they're pretty much diametrically opposed hehe) but cuz I think they will be fun to watch. As I "get to know" other candidates I'll put links for them up there too if I think they have something to say worth paying attention to. In other political news, the president had his little Festival of Delusional Thinking last night ... oh sorry, I mean the "State of the Union" speech. Everything, of course, is just peachy with the USA, as it has been under every president in the history of the country ... wars, poverty, racism, unemployment, environmental disaster, taxes ... no problems here! Bush really didn't say anything new for the most part, more war talk, more amnesty, sorry "Guest Worker" talk, something about the economy being good, then his super duper surprise announcement that he's gonna start taxing healthcare benefits provided by our employers (well those of us who HAVE employers who pay for healthcare.) Oh sorry, I musta gone delusional there on that tax thing. I meant to say "tax deduction." Yeah. I do have to say it was quite amusing seeing Hillary Clinton's face go white when Bush mentioned healthcare. Priceless! Her whole presidential campaign is based on healthcare I think. Anyway, it was more of the same old stuff. Oh, but I do have to say that Senator John McCain was stunning in his pimp suit. What a rebel, no white shirt, dark suit, red tie for him! Disco gold tie baby! Rebel blue shirt! Yes! Get that face time!
[ 10:39:00 AM ]
Posted at the speed of blight by NONOBADKITTY!
Sunday, January 21, 2007 Welp, Nintendo can finally stop makin' Wiis cuz the last of my pals finally got one this morning, after finally taking my advice and waiting in line in the wee erm wii hours of the morning. I'd been tellin' 'em, wait in line, wait in line, wait in line, the Wii gods know whether you've paid homage by waiting in line, and those who doth not partake of suffering, shall not receiveth the glory of the glowy blue light o'love. Anyway, they finally got one yay! I do wonder though, why so many people are still selling them on ebay ... is it really still profitable? Are there that many faithless people still out there? Or is it all just artificial hype? Or maybe all those people who mistakenly bought a PS3 realized the error of their ways and converted. Who knows. All I can say is finally all my pals have one so we can now share miis and play online wii games ... oh wait, there are no online games yet, grrr. Well, we can share miis. Speaking of Wii, I rented Wario Smooth Moves, it's pretty much like the DS game Wario uhm ... uhm ... I forget the name, but it's the same kinda game, very fast, very wacky mini-games, gauntlet style. Some of 'em I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do though, added to the different ways to use the remote, well it gets pretty hectic. No thinking allowed! I also rented Tony Hawk, but haven't played yet. These are the last of the Wii games in my queue (the last that are OUT anyway) so from here on out it's PS2 games and DS games or GBA games until my subscription runs out mid-February, then I won't renew. So far, of all the Wii games I've rented (which is almost all the games that are out yet), the only one I'd consider buying is Elebits, but not for $50. Oh and Zelda, but I haven't played that yet, but it's an RPG and RPGs are almost always worth buying, eventually anyway. Speaking of which, one of the PS2 games I rented was Rule of Rose. Wow, what an "interesting" game. Very cool atmosphere, very twisted storyline, I only played through the first 3 books though. I dunno if I'd buy it, the controls were truly horrible, the camera even worse, but it was oddly intriguing. And it was banned in Europe and I think Australia. That alone might make it buyable. I did buy Okami though, wow, what an incredibly beautiful game. And, being an artist-type I can appreciate the "Japanese woodprint" style too, having studied quite a bit of it in Art History in college, that was one of my instructor's area of expertise. The gameplay is great too, this would make a fantastic Wii game, too bad it came out for PS2, the whole "paintbrush" concept woulda worked perfectly with the wiimote. Haven't heard anything about a port, but if they do, I'll buy it, full retail, no problem.
[ 9:09:00 AM ]
Posted at the speed of blight by NONOBADKITTY!
Wednesday, January 10, 2007 I was doin' some thinkin' last night, and realized a couple things. First, I'm thinkin' Gov. Arnie has ulterior motives with his little health plan thing ... it's a roundabout way to get driver's licenses for illegal aliens! Because how else is he gonna tell who's a resident of California and who's not? Since his health plan covers all Californians. His true colors are finally coming out, Republican my ass. He's a liberal whacknut socialist like the rest of 'em. And I was also thinkin' about Apple Computer, erm Apple Inc. and their little name change thing. Made me wonder if this is the first step in them abandoning the computer hardware market. Maybe switching to offering only the operating system. I mean, there's gotta be a reason why they switched to Intel (PC chips) after decades of insisting their chips were better than PC chips. And Windows runs on the Intel Mac. And they didn't release any new computer hardware or redesigns at MacWorld yesterday. So what gives? Well here's my theory: Sell the "Mac" tech to a PC maker (sorta like the 80's only this time sell for real, not "license",) to dump that expensive not-so-profitable sector of the company. Tweak MacOS so it runs outta the box on a PC (should be possible, rewrite the boot code, a la Boot Camp.) Directly compete against Windows Vista by offering a "stable, secure operating system" that's easy to use, outta the box, and that doesn't require hefty upgrades to your existing hardware. Then, once people have Mac OS on their computer, they'll get hooked (theoretically) and since they can still run Windows XP, they won't have to dump all their existing software. Apple sells lots of OS software, doesn't have all that hardware overhead, and can focus on their iPod/iTunes stuff and their new iPhone. Microsoft said in the 80's they wanted to put a "computer on every desktop." Apple can put a "computer in your pants" (and an OS X on your desktop.) Hasta la Vista, Microsoft! Labels: Apple, Mac OS X, Microsoft Vista
[ 10:18:00 AM ]
Posted at the speed of blight by NONOBADKITTY!
Tuesday, January 09, 2007 Governor Arnie announced his dopey health insurance for every cahl-ee-fohn-ya plan yesterday, making it mandatory that ALL Calfornians have health insurance, whether they want it or not, whether they can afford it or not, whether they don't want to pay for it or not. And of course, those who can't afford it will get help if their income is low enough ... which means working Californians will have to pay their full share while unemployed leeches or immigrants or lazy people will get it cheap (or free, not sure how it works exactly.) Oh, and doctors and hospitals get to pay a portion of the cost too! I know the doctors will be thrilled with that! And the hospitals ... is that an additional cost beyond the already budget breaking costs they already pay? Who knows. Oh, and insurance companies will HAVE to insure people ... which is good in theory until you realize that will just make them change their policies to exclude anyone in California altogether, or take their business elsewhere, thereby driving up insurance costs even more. Which means more costs to Californians/tax payers/etc. I for one will refuse to pay a penny toward any mandatory health insurance plan. Z E R O. Health insurance is not a right, it's a convenience. A luxury. And if you choose to not have it, you can pay your own way if you get sick. I know people abuse the ER law thing by fraudulently using emergency room services for non-emergencies and that ERs can't legally refuse to treat people who come to an ER, but they sure as hell don't have to PAY for 'em. I think there should be a new law that if you go to an ER with a non-emergency, and you don't pay for the services you receive there, they will come after you for fraud. Now this will cost money to find/prosecute people at first but once word gets around you can go to JAIL for "cheating the system" my guess is abuse will stop real quick. And overall long term cost will be way less than covering every Calfornian. Another problem is how are they gonna know who is a "Californian"? If they're gonna allow everyone, even illegal aliens to be eligible, what's to stop someone from a neighboring state or country from opening a PO Box in California to establish "residency"? And are they even gonna check that? You could just put down a fake CA address and bam yer in. Checking/verifying addresses/residency will just add more costs. So essentially Arnie is proposing Californians pay for health insurance for the whole damn world. I think it would be hilarious if 20 million "Californians" apply for coverage, bankrupting the system before it even starts. And I hope every legal resident and citizen of California refuses to pay a dime toward any subsidy, or to pay any more than they already pay (if any) toward health insurance. I'll move to another state or go to jail before I'll contribute to being forced into violating federal law by "aiding and abetting" illegal aliens receiving "services." In more cheerful news, Apple, Inc. finally announced the iPhone today after, what, two, three, four years of rumors? And the best part is it's such a bargain! As cheap as a PS3! And Apple gets to sucker people into buying yet another iPod they don't need! Because everyone who wants an iPhone doesn't already have 4 iPods already! It is a pretty cool device, though, smartphone, touch screen, motion sensing, internet browser, pong ... oh no wait not that last part. Damn. Too bad, that woulda sold it for me. My guess though is they're using this as a "test" to see how many people would go the touch screen route ... I can see Apple laptops having the same kinda tech in a few years, touch screens are the most intuitive way to navigate, but they're freakin' expensive right now, even for dinky ones. But alas, Apple likes to be bleeding edge, and is very good at planting seeds of need in the minds of early adopters who then spread the meme to everyone they know. Viral marketing at its best.
[ 11:56:00 AM ]
Posted at the speed of blight by NONOBADKITTY!
Sunday, December 31, 2006 'Tis a New Year (well almost, for me) and it's time for my predictions for 2007: 2007 will be a very boring year, nothing too terrible or horrible will happen, the media will have trouble coming up with "news" and will recycle old stories and present things like "giant turnip gives birth" as news. There might be a lot of rain. I hope. I love rain. Lots. Lots of rain. Sunspot activity will be fun and exciting but not dangerous. Osama bin Laden will not be found ... that'll happen in late 2008, silly! George Bush will not die. Neither will Hillary Clinton. Neither will run for president either. Not this year anyway. Cloned beef will make it on store shelves but no one will know until 2008. And in 2012 there will be an epidemic of cancer traced back to eating cloned beef. Daisies will continue to bloom the world over! Let us all rejoice! My cat will catch more bugs. I will play more video games. Elves will be evil once again. Hurray! Virtual cooking will be all the rage. The Nintendo Wii will be easy to find and available in white, red AND blue. And black in Japan only. Sorry. The Playstation 3 will quietly discontinue Blu-Ray, which will be renamed Beta Ray and quickly become obsolete. Sony will file bankruptcy and re-organize under its new corporate name Solong Newtech. Amnesty for illegal aliens will become a "twice done" deal not a "one time only" thing. You know, like they promised 20 years ago. The Federal Government will ban trans fats in foods and beef producers will once again rejoice as lard sales go through the roof and drug companies make record profits off cholesterol-lowering drug sales. Gas prices will be $5/gallon by year's end and no one will notice. The war in Iran will be over rather quickly while the war in Iraq will continue to rack up more national debt. Cindy Sheehan will shut up. Finally. And last but not least, cupcakes will
[ 9:46:00 PM ]
Posted at the speed of blight by NONOBADKITTY!
Saturday, December 23, 2006 Happy Festivus!  This is my Festivus Pole. I made it from found objects, in keeping with the anti-consumerism of Festivus. And it doubles as a cat toy! It's a Festivus Miracle! I would have posted sooner but Blogger ate my account ... well not quite, but apparently I am now FORCED to use the new Google-enhanced version of Blogger which means they had to merge all my posts ... all 70,000 or so of them into their new thingie. Needless to say this took awhile ... a couple hours in fact. Maybe more. I don't know exactly I got tired of waiting. And the new version is painfully slow, I think it runs in Java or something cuz even my typing is slower than usual. Labels: festivus
[ 12:44:00 PM ]
Posted at the speed of blight by NONOBADKITTY!
Friday, December 22, 2006 Wii, what a wiik! First the weather channel, now this! Feel the love of the blue blinky light.  So much to do, so little time. Thank goodness I don't have a huge wall-sized LCD monitor or I'd probably never use my computer again! The web is a bit of a pain on a 19" screen, you gotta zoom in to read stuff (until people make Wii-friendly huge font sites) and you gotta scroll around a lot, but it's pretty damn cool. It even supports flash and videos. You Tube on your Wii!
[ 1:32:00 AM ]
Posted at the speed of blight by NONOBADKITTY!
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