Fucking Cowards

In the face of extremism of any sort that intends to incite fear - of violent reprisal, bodily harm, societal marginalization, restrictions of freedoms, or other threats to basic human rights - among any and all opposition, either from the extremists themselves or a "common enemy," the moderate, free-thinking remainder (and majority) of society has an outstanding obligation to itself and its future to refuse to be cowed by or give in to the outrageous demands of the fear-mongering vocal minority.

The decision by a Berlin opera house to cancel a show deemed insulting to Muslims is yet another cowardly step away from basic human freedoms. Granted, it's a travesty that individuals may have legitimate reason to fear for their lives if they happen to offend a group of religious whackos bent on ignorant misinterpretation of what is otherwise a peaceful and societally benefical doctrine, but the fact that they cave before even the threat of a threat smacks of incredible cowardice that sends a message of weak-kneed submission to a group of people already binging on the fear of the world. In general, I don't believe in offending people for no reason, but willfully restricting your own freedom of expression is right up there on my shit-list with the violent actions of those who would forcefully do it for you. If the moderates of the world don't grow a pair and realize that nutjobs are always going to find something to get riled up and violent about - that to submit to oppression is to actively support it - then this type of extremist adolescent behavior is only going to increase. And why not? It's working, isn't it? Fear is silencing opposing viewpoints - the cornerstone of productive dialogue - and it's not just happening abroad. The world doesn't need any more fucking cowards.

Mandatory and Useless Update # 28

I'm really not sure about the number, but the last one was 27, so it seems to fit if you subscribe to the whole numerical order thing, which I occasionally spurn for the more random and unfortunately spurious numerical disorder thing. Hey, it's easier.

So there's not much new and exciting to report. No recent trips to Mexico, no substantially life-changing events, no eureka moments of self-revelation or research insights. Things plod along as usual, though the end of summer is finally peaking its head over the horizon. Today's the first day since early spring (wait... did we even have spring this year?) that I've had to wear my full leather motorcycle jacket. Marvelous! It will probably be too hot for it come lunch time, but riding home last night in my mesh jacket around midnight was a decidedly cold experience. That is, if I'm remembering that feeling correctly. It's been so long since I've felt an absence of sweltering heat while outside that I'm not sure I'm using the term correctly. Cold? I believe that's what it was.

Ironic, isn't it, that I chose to write about some nice cool weather on the day the news screams about the earth being the hotter than anytime in the last 12,000 years. If the temperature raises another 1 degree C, it will match the hottest era in the last million years. Now, how can scientists tell, within a single degree, how hot it was a million years ago? I know different techniques can provide estimates, but a single degree over a million years? How!?! I'd like to find out.

Another great day for the RIAA

Gotta love when people who owe you money can't find you. Oh well, at least they tried, right? Right?

Lake Chapala region

My crappy little black photoshop lines are the majority of the routes we rode while in Mexico. I'm still trying to find a decent map or satellite image of Santa Maria del Oro, which is off the bottom of this map. but it doesn't seem to exist.

Back from Mexico!

And it was fantastic! The Lake Chapala area is just beautiful, nestled in the mountains with fantastic weather all year 'round. April's parent's house is great - spectacular view and location, especially for riding motorcycles - and her parents were incredible hosts. Her dad and I put probably 600 miles on the Kawasaki KLR 650s that he has - mostly in the first few days, too. The roads are great for this kind of dual-sport bike. Major highways (except for the toll roads) are two-lane, pothole-ridden playgrounds for anything with as much suspension travel as these things have (10+ inches!) And the speedbumps - sorry, topes - are everywhere. Where cars have to slow to a crawl to cross these monsterous road-hazards, we were flying over them at 50+ mph, or using them as passing zones in the busier areas. I don't really have the time to go into nearly enough detail to do the trip even the most trivial justice, but I've at least got some pictures up on my googlepage. It was a fun-filled trip, and I hope I have time to fill in some details later, but for now, this will have to suffice.

Olbermann: 1, Rumsfeld: Idiot

Actually, I'd like to go into negative points, but that's just being petty. : )

While I'll admit that Keith Olbermann is often over the top on how he adresses certain issues, I generally agree with his sentiments. Here is a clip from his 8/30/06 show in response to Rumsfeld's abhorrent speech to the American Legion that everyone should watch, again and again, if necessary.

Mexico!

I can hardly contain my excitement. In less than a week, April and I are leaving for her parent's place outside Guadalajara! Not counting the tourist destination of Cozumel, I've never been to Mexico before. It's going to be a nice, relaxing trip, from what I can gather, which is absolutely perfect. It will be especially nice to just veg with April since grad school usually keeps us pretty busy. While I do like activity-centered trips, I'm really in need of a good block of unstructured, unrestricted, unhurried time. And it's a fantastic bonus that it's going to be in Mexico. As an added super-bonus, April's dad has some dual-sports that we're planning to ride in the mountains around Lake Chapala. While I'm really looking forward to it, it will be my first time going off road on two wheels so I'm a little wary of doing something stupid and dumping the bike. Not really worried - but it has crossed my mind. Gotta go down to lab now. More later.

Mandatory and Useless Update #27

Nothing much to post about, but once again, it's been so long that I feel compelled to write something, no matter how banal and pointless. I'm looking forward to a fun weekend of parties, movies, and maybe some relaxing in there somewhere. Oh yeah, and sleep. Lots of sleep. Maybe I'll hit the pool for a while, in an attempt to get rid of this grad-student pallor that smacks of cave-dweller. Oh yeah, and I recently had to update my personal profile for this blog - noting that I'm no longer a fourth year grad student. Scary. All the first years have been arriving this week - classes start Monday, not that it matters to me anymore - which really drives home that I've already been here a full four years. Even scarrier is that I have to plan on graduating in less than a year, and I have no clue what do do with myself afterwards. I'm open to suggestion! Here I am, in my 5th year of graduate school, without the slightest clue what I want to do after graduation. I mean, I've been in school continuously for 22 years, if you count nursery school. (Hey, it's got "school" in the name. It's got to count!) So really, I'd love to hear some suggestions. Based on the number of readers I have, I'll probably end up with 2 more ideas of what to do with my life than I have at the moment. Hey. Better than nothing. And if anyone suggests "tree" I'll still take it into consideration. Well, maybe. This isn't a halloween costume, after all.

Nothing, really

Nothing much to report, though it's been so long since I've updated I'm feeling the urge. Research is going along slowly, as usual. Actually, there hasn't been any real progress in a while, so I guess "slowly" is just a euphamism for "nowhere." Yeah, that's more to the point. Research is going nowhere, just as usual.

It seems to have gotten really really hot here the past few days. Now, I know it's kinda hot in Houston to begin with, but it seems that this summer had lost a lot of its bite save for a few days here and there. And then this week came in and kicked me in the gut with size 13 combat boots. I nearly hurled. Just walking 100 yards to Valhalla to get lunch gets me all nasty and sweaty in a ways I don't really want to describe to the public. Of course, the fact that I ride a black big-twin sportbike in jeans, a black (but well-ventilated) synthetic and leather jacket, big fat helmet, and gloves to boot (but no boots) kinda makes it worse. But I'd rather sweat than leave a lot of my skin on the road in case of a wreck. I've definitely got the sweating part down these last few days. I'd started to wonder if I've just gotten used to Houston summers at last, but then I realized that this isn't the kind of heat and humidity (it really is the humidity) that you can "get used to," anymore than you can get used to breathing sea water.

Zion National Park

So I've finally posted some pictures on my silly little googlepage under the recent events part. Honestly, my brother's pictures are much better, so if you want to see good pics, go to his blog.

k... so it won't let me upload any pics to this post at the moment. grr.

Mini-Vacation

Last week I took off Friday for LA, where my mom was visiting my brother and sister. After getting to the bitchin house in the Hollywood Hills around 11, we headed to Zuma beach for the rest of the afternoon. Awesome. Matt and I (and even mom a little) hit the near-perfect waves for hours of body-surfing and a good deal of sun.

Saturday morning we left for Las Vegas with mom, Matt, and Casey. Though we hadn't reserved rooms in advance, it worked out for the best in the end, and we got to see a lot of cool hotels while we looked. I didn't gamble much, and we spent most of our time in New York, New York that night. Earlier in the day the three of us (sans mom) went up to the top of the Stratosphere, where Casey and I rode the Big Shot, the worlds highest thrill ride. I've forgotten how much I love that adrenaline rush. Fantastic!

Sunday started with still more traveling, this time out of Nevada, through a corner of Arizona, and all the way to South-Western Utah and Zion National Park. I can't say enough about the grandiosity of Zion, and the pictures, while pretty good, don't nearly do it justice. Let me just say that if you've never been there, you need to go. Hell, I need to go again, and it wasn't even a week ago that I left.

We three kiddies got there around noon and got a good hotel - the Bumbleberry just outside the park entrance. After we shuttled in, we went on a 5+ hour walk / wade through the somewhat swollen Virgin river and the Narrows at the end of the canyon. With 500-800 foot cliffs on both sides, often only a few yards apart, every corner brought about another breathtaking view. The thunder shortly after we'd turned around, just shy of 3 hours into the narrows, had me worrying about flash floods nearly the whole trip back, but luckily the rain wasn't heavy enough to worry about. At least till after we were out of the narrows. The next day, after a few wonderful nighttime thunderstorms, the already muddy river looked like chocolate milk, and the narrows were closed. We chose a good order, it seems.

Monday morning after a nice breakfast at the Bumbleberry restaurant, we did a two-mile, 1500+ foot climb (and descent, duh) to Angel's landing. Again, words won't suffice, and pictures can't quite do it justice, but at least the pictures are quick. The last climb was the best, with chains attached to the rock face so we wouldn't go tumbling down the 1000 foot cliffs on either side of the "trail." At one point there was only about 4 feet between vertical cliffs on both sides - basically a path between certain and unavoidable death.

After a quick bite to eat, and with already tired legs, we hiked up to the emerald pools in the short time we had before we had to leave for LA - 6.5 hours away. We didn't get to see the lower pool, and the upper was definately cooler than the middle. We got rained on again on the way back, but it really wasn't too bad after a long, hot day hiking in the sun. After meeting up with mom again in Vegas, we got back to LA after midnight and had a good sleep. Tuesday was all about Emily's birthday - my little sister's 23! holy crap! We saw Miami Vice (better than I thought it'd be) and generally just hung out. Unfortunately I had to come back to Houston on Wednesday, but a short trip was much better than none at all. And many thanks to mom who made it all possible. It was great seeing my family - something I've been lucky enough to do twice so far this year. Of course, it made me realize how much I love, and how much I really want more vacation time soon. If only money grew on trees!

Irksome

Two news-items I just couldn't pass up this morning:

BBC news says that Kazaa will become a legal music downloading service, and has also agreed to pay an over $100m compensation to the record industry. First of all, I always thought that kazaa and other p2p services were legal downloading services. The entire claim that they're responsible for piracy is ridiculous. Sure, they help it, but why not go after the companies that make recordable media, too? Or even hard drives? It's all just a big, frantic money-grab by an archaic industry run by a bunch of lazy, rich, innovation-allergic men frightened into paralysis of potential change.

Secondly, this article is so incredibly shallow that the extent of the details about the >$100m payoff is that it's going to the "record industry." Come on, BBC. Where are the important questions? Instead of following the money trail, the article just illustrates just how far up the establishment's ass the authors nose really is. I can practically smell the stench of digested musicians through my computer.

A bit of googling shows that the payoff goes to Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group Plc and Warner Music Group in Los Angeles and Australia.

The second news item would be that a court has upheld the long-time practice of invasive searches without suspicion at US borders, applying in this case to your hard drive. The 9th circuit court of appeals has ruled that border control agents can search through your computer at any time and for any reason. Actually, border control agents can search anyone or anything without any evidence or suspicion of wrongdoing. This, surprisingly enough to me, upholds a supreme court ruling that effectively ignores the heart of the fourth amendment at US borders. Apparently our country doesn't really start until you're some arbitrary distance inside it that isn't deemed a part of the border.

In other, more personal news, I'm off to LA tomorrow morning for a few days with the fam. I'm really excited about the whole thing. Not only are we all going to be in one place at one time, for a few days, at least, but we're going to Las Vegas and probably Zion National Park, too! It looks to be a lot of fun, as long as I get my paycheck when I'm supposed to. I have to say that I've got enough bills at the moment that I really shouldn't be going on this trip, (no, really) but I'm also in desperate need for a break from Houston and my research crap. When things don't work for day after day, and week after week proceeding into months on end, the stress level really starts to get to me. Anyway, LA, here I come!

Epitome of Awesomeness

I just have to say how awesome it is that my mom - former nursery-school teacher mom who has sung "Wake up Little Pilgrims" every Thanksgiving I can remember and still insists that "jackass" isn't foul language - has a motorcycle. I mean, effin A, man. My mom rocks hard like that. Way to go Mom!! I think next she's getting some tattoo of like a killer bald eagle with sharp talons fighting a wolverine or something. Or maybe a Liger. That would be totally sweet. Now, just to make sure that my mom isn't more hardcore than me (it might be a futile attempt, seeing as I am a physics geek - I'm wearing a Penny Arcade shirt today, for god's sake) I'm going to have to pick up a nasty drug habit and, like, kill somebody or something. Don't make me kill someone, mom! Please!

Good Dog

I'll miss Tera. She was a great companion and friend - more than just a pet. I'm sorry I wasn't there when she had to go. I'm not very good at these things, and my brother says it better.

Talk about Ridiculous

An advertising executive has been jailed because his company produced an ad for an online gambling site - a site that is perfectly legal in its own country, but is apparently of the type that the US government is trying very hard to crack down on. Wow. Good thing we're being protected from all those scary advertising executives. Thanks, uncle Sam - now I can sleep better at night.

Manic Mechanic

My car's in bad shape. A year ago I replaced the entire air conditioning system. Before that the brake lines (all of them) and master cylinder were replaced. A few months ago I had to recharge the coolant because most of it had leaked out. Two weeks ago I had to replace the alternator. This weekend a friend was borrowing the car to carry heavy wood flooring and had a massive blowout on 610. The tire, rim, and hubcap are completely trashed. The wrecker driver who had to get him out of the left emergency lane was apparently incompetent and smashed up the rear quarterpanel.

I finally got my bike back. After seven (7!) weeks. It looks like it should. I'm still waiting for about $300 from the insurance company. I've got to pay for the remaining $500 after that, some of which is for stuff that needed to be done anyway, e.g. brake pads. Total cost for all the cosmetic damage and repairs? Keep in mind that the bike never even fell completely over.

$2300.

I feel like I'm in a horrible mastercard commercial:

Gas for the trip to Austin: $35
Helmet, Gloves, and Riding Jacket: $700
Dairy Queen sundae on the way: $4
Watching your motorcycle being mangled in the parking lot: Priceless (but really $2300 and seven weeks - not exactly free.)

Or... it could go something like this for the past nine weeks:

Medical bills that your insurance doesn't feel like paying anymore: $530
Semester fees and premium for said crappy insurance: $850
Bike repairs that the other insurance doesn't feel like paying: $200
Motorcycle insurance: $200
Car repairs while your bike is in the shop: $600
Car insurance: $500
Previous medical bills over the past seven months: $3000+


Getting your Ph.D. and getting the hell out of Grad School to make real money: ...

I have no idea, actually. Sure would be nice.

Christ, I need to start dealing crack or something. I mean, find a legal source of additional income.

San Francisco de Asis

Apparently I didn't feel like doing much work today, so here's another photoshop project. This is an authentic adobe church, San Francisco de Asis, a little way outside Taos, NM. For the few people who may have read this blog from its inception, you may remember the original picture from my posts about my summer vaction around Santa Fe.

Again check out my googlepage for the before and after comparison.

Name that Place

While this may be incredibly easy for some people I know, I doubt anyone else will be able to figure it out. It's getting to be about that time of year, so I thought it would be appropriate to post a pic. The first person to get it right wins absolutely nothing!!!

Route 66 Junker

No rants today, I promise. Instead, here's my latest photoshop project. As always, click on the pic for the full version.

To see a before and after, go to my googlepage.

Money Grubbing

F*(|{ the FCC.

If you've read this blog before, then you know how much I love the FCC, especially with Washington's renewed puritanical obsession over broadcast indecency standards. Keep in mind that there's no actual list of forbidden words or phrases, acts or images. Nothing is specifically forbidden, but it doesn't need to be when we'll willingly over-censor ourselves to avoid the increasingly obscene fines that the FCC now has the power to levy. Part of free speech is the freedom to push the limits of decency so that new ideas can find their way into the public discourse more readily.

Granted, requesting previously aired tapes of sporting events isn't exactly restricting the flow of new ideas, but who can tell the effect it will have when there is no more live television? What really gets me, though, is the fact that they're combing tapes long after they've aired. After the tenfold increase in indecency fines our friends in Washington just pushed through, it's going to be extremely hard to convince me that this isn't just a money-grabbing scheme. I'd be interested to learn where these fines go, as well; I mean where the money actually goes, too. I won't accept the official word any more.

On the opposite side of the censorship argument, I'm actually in support of the plug being pulled on high school valedictorian Brittany McComb's graduation speech on account of excessive religious content. The graduation and therefore the speech was sponsored by a public school, as such the school is obliged to adhere to the separation of church and state and cannot endorse religious proselytizing. I mean, really - the girl's speech was already edited and approved by the school before graduation, like any graduation speech, and she chose to deviate from her approved script. I happen to think that excessive religious references are obscene. Let's broadcast the speech and get the FCC involved!!

The reason that I bring this up now, and not earlier, is that I read comics every day as a part of my lunch break, and came across Mallard Fillmore this week, which I often enjoy. I say often because I think that Bruce Tinsley really missed this one.

It's really a clear-cut case of a public school knowing that it can't legally sponsor religious speech, and enforcing the rule that McComb tried to dodge. I guess if you call yourself a conservative, though, you're obliged to hate the ACLU and everything it does. Ah, I love independent thinkers.