Things StumbleUpon users hate.

Okay, so in case anyone doesn't have the marvelous add-on known as StumbleUpon, GO GET IT. NOW. It'll waste more of your time than you would ever... not want wasted. So get it. Trust me.

To summarize StumbleUpon, it basically gives you a random webpage based on your interests. Do you know what that means? A RANDOM FUCKING WEBPAGE. Do you know how many webpages are on the internet? A FUCKING GAZILLION. So needless to say, StumbleUpon keeps you occupied.

There are downsides, though. If you're a hardened SU veteran, like I, you may periodically come across websites that only complete fucking dumbasses would thumbs up. These are a few of the aforementioned sites.

YTMND.

No, it's not fucking funny. No, it's not any fucking funnier if you add stupid text and a ridiculously stupid music to the background. FUCK. I DON'T LIKE YOUR STUPID MUSIC. THERE IS NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT STUMBLINGUPON A FUCKING SPONGEBOB PICTURE WITH DEATH METAL IN THE BACKGROUND. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE.

Kittens.

Kittens are EVERYWHERE. THEY ARE NOT FUNNY OR CUTE ANYMORE. LOLcats are a fucking plague on the internet. They are the only meme I am wholeheartedly against. Oh my god, is that your cat? Did you put words underneath him? How FUCKING STUPID. Or should I put it in your vernacular, did yoo put werdz ull undir teh kittehz? poop in ur nogginz!

Unbelievably Sketchy Paranormal Sites.

Maybe this is my fault for checking 'Paranormal' on my interests list, but after seeing fifty pages of horribly formatted fonts on garish backgrounds highlighting Eric P.'s pictures of his attic ghost, I firmly am of the opinion that this is the internet's fault. Case in point. It's a page devoted to a GIANT SPACE BLIMP. That NASA created. And for no reason, a FUCKING STAR DESTROYER. BECAUSE THAT WILL REALLY BACK UP YOUR DATA.

Pages like This.

Pages that appear to have a bunch of info, but are in fact link whores to other sites. It's kind of like giving a cardboard cutout of a cookie to a baby and then telling him that he should go to the next door neighbor's house to enjoy the real cookie. Oh, and then telling him to sign up for a Pro Membership in order to have more cookies.

Stumbling to Digg/Reddit.

This doesn't even make sense. Why would I stumble to a page that is a link to the other page? What the fuck did people want me to read? The page that it links to, or six pages of "Good link nice job"?

On the topic of Love

Ugh.

So in case anyone hasn't heard of the notorious Anti-Gay bill in Uganda would do well to check that out. [Thank you, Washington Post. I'm sure newspaper heaven will have a nice cozy spot for you] But to be succinct, the bill makes it illegal to be homosexual or have homosexual relations with another person.

Pisses me off. What the fuck right do they have to decide who can fuck who? Especially if the two fuckers in question were consenting persons of legal age. Fucking deal with the fucking, fucking government fuckers. Pardon my vernacular.

Okay, let me back up. I guess the bill doesn't exactly make it illegal to be gay, because that's been a law for a hundred years. What it does do is make the penalties much harsher, and makes it a primary offense of sorts. Essentially, if you are gay, or sympathize with gays, or say being gay is OK, or have gay sex, or be associated with gay people, you can be thrown in jail.

Obviously a perfectly sane bill wrote by perfectly sane people with viewpoints we should respect and tolerate.

After all, it's just their opinion, right? They just also happen to run a country but HEY HEY LET'S NOT OFFEND ANYONE HERE.

And just to top off this shit sandwich, it is of course connected to some wackos in Pennsylvania.

Kill me now.

Get some shit up off my chest, Part Deux

So maybe I took it a bit hard. Whatever. I'm taking it really well, in my humble opinion.

Everyone else is crying their guts out. But here's the deal: shit happens. I don't really give a fuck what you do with your life. So go out and do it. Just know that your actions have consequences. On other people.

I guess all I'm trying to say here is that everyone is making too big of a deal about this. Sure, I may be being distant, maybe that's just the way I like to deal with things. In my other worlds, things are simpler.

The plug meets the port, the data is sent, the command is executed. The box does what I tell it too, things are simple.

I strum, I sing, sound comes out. Things are simple.

But people aren't like that, you know? People are stupid and impulsive and they do stupid shit all the time and rarely think about what that shit does to other people. Then they apologize and get emotional and cry their fucking eyes out.

But shit happens. And sometimes you have to pull up your fucking bootstraps and deal with it. What happens happens, learn to live with it. Don't spend all of your time apologizing for past wrongs. Say sorry if need be and move on.

Move the fuck on.

Get some shit up off my chest.

Fuck.

Yeah, Mom, I love the new house. It's great. I really, really really like it here.

It's just great.

But let's get something clear.

This is not my home, this is your house. The house I reside in is my father's house.

I had a home, yeah, back about a week ago. But that home is gone. Now, I have two houses.

Two fucking houses. One of which I have free reign over, the other is yours. One of them is full of my stuff, the other is full of our old stuff. I don't really care.

You can do what you want with your life. But this is not my separation, this is my parent's separation. Your separation. I still have my family.

They just aren't together, I guess. They just have different houses. Two different houses.

But it's okay, I'll help you set up your TV and your internet and your phone. And sure, we can use dad's truck. I'm sure he won't mind. I'm sure he won't mind moving his previous lover's things. Their previous relationship detritus. It's perfectly fine, I'm sure.

Because I can look at this in two ways. One of which is brightly, the other, not so bright.

So forgive me for laughing and smiling, forgive me for telling my sister what I hear, forgive me for not being so completely enthralled with your new life, Mom.

It's just a new house, right? A new house.

Now I have two houses.

Older but what the hey.

I posted this an eternity ago on CrapSpace but I think it deserves a repost.

Mk, here's my long winded view on religion, the three monotheistic religions (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) in particular, seeing as they are the largest in the world right now. Most of my points will be directed towards Christianity, as in America it is the biggest religious force.

First off, let me say that I do not believe in any religion. I take interest in the occult and the supernatural, but I do not believe in any deity, for he/she has not shown his/herself to me. I am an atheist, I am not a skeptic.



I have a number of reasons I find fault with contemporary religion, starting with the omnipotent deity idea.

In Christianity, you are told that God is everywhere and anywhere and knows everything. Ignoring for now the fact that no one has ever found scientific data to support this idea, we come to the quandary of have an omnipotent ruler.

Christians talk about how God gave them free will, but a belief in an omnipotent God makes that idea untrue. Why? If God knows everything, then he knows the future. If he knows the future, then he knows what everyone's actions will be. If he knows that, and judges everyone upon death like it says in the bible, then he would have already chosen who will burn in 'hell'.

Is that a loving God? No.
Then why worship him?

If God created everything, as it explains in Genesis, then he would have created all the evils in the world, correct? But any christian you talk to would deny that. The typical christian response is that "since evil is simply an absence of good, then God created only good, and evils only arise as people deny his goodness" (conveniently glossing over the fact that God knows everything, and could guide people back to his Goodness if he wanted to). But the flaw in this explanation arises when one examines God's 'goodness'.

Without even touching upon the evils in the bible (the massacres of the Medianites, the Benjamites, the Syrians, etc) one could argue that even though evil is the 'absence of good', one could still commit 'evil' whilst being 'good'. Consider this: If a being had the power to avert a massacre of innocents with no ill effect to anyone else, and he/she refused to avert the disaster, for no reason other than personal satisfaction, is that being evil?

What sort of God would condemn humans to death? What about to eternal torture in hell? Judged or not, that's not the work of a loving God. Thus God is not loving.

Another reason I oppose religion is that religion fosters ignorance. In any religion, a cornerstone point is that all truths can be divined from the religion, and any other ideas are false and heresy. This is what prompted the Church to murder Galileo when he (gasp) thought that the earth revolved around the sun [EDIT: He didn't found Copernicanism, he just popularized it, and the Church placed him under house arrest, not a death sentence TECHNICALLY - thanks @comradeoglivy], and not the other way around. This idea was only adopted by the church in 1992. That was 17 years ago. That was about 370 years after Galileo's idea.

Three hundred and seventy years. Think about it. This is now common knowledge. It was common knowledge in 1992. It was common knowledge in about 1880. But the Catholic Church denied it, because in their 2000-year old text, it says something different.

Even today, when evolution is the only scientifically backed 'creation' theory, religious groups still cling to their ancient ideas of a magical man in the sky who made them from dirt and bones.

Knowledge is power. Religion squashes knowledge, because it tells us that all the answers to everything are in ancient books.

Not to say I find the Bible/Koran/Book of Mormon/etc are not completely useless, they are interesting fictional tales about ancient life. They give us a portal into the day-to-day life of civilizations long gone. But they are not things to be used and taken as fact.


Religion is an outdated, ignorant, pointless idea that relies on circular arguments (The bible is true because it says so in the bible), ancient ideas (the world is FLAT), and ridiculous claims (we all go to a cloud city when we die!). It should not be taught to anyone, least of all children, who are hard-wired to take knowledge from adults as fact. In my mind, telling your children that you go to hell if you're bad is just the same as brainwashing.

And that is why I don't like religion.

Wow.

So a while back on my fuzzbook I started this thread. And lo, it was good.

And someone screencapped it. To them, good sir, I tip my cap.

And then it got on the internet. So here I am, plugging my own thread. What gives.

It looks like this and the common name for it is "Epic Facebook Thread".

Enjoy. I am not going to cite this because GODDAMNIT IT IS MINE.

I also do other things.

Like this.



So check it.

So, I got an Atari 2600 Emulator... This is Part A,

It's called Stella. And with it came a ROM of every single game ever made for the 2600.

So, in typical me fashion, I am now going to play EVERY SINGLE ONE. And blog about them. Because I can.

IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER:

3-D Tic Tac Toe

This is not 3d. Coincidentally, it is not fun. 1/5.

A-Team, The

This game seems to consist of Mr. T's head sporadically shooting laser beams at robots that he can't hit. And somehow I'm supposed to Save Hannibal.

This game sucks. 1/5

Acid Drop

Despite the fun name, this game is only a tetris ripoff with a horribly ear piercing soundtrack. Dr. Leary is nowhere to be found. 3/5, because I can actually figure out how to PLAY IT.

Action Force

This game consists of a saucer sliding on the ground underneath an undulating serpent. There is no point to this game. I do not know why it is called Action Force, as there is neither Action nor Force in this game. Just an undulating serpent being. 1/5.

Adventure

A number 1 on a gray background. Exhilarating. 1/5.

Adventures Of Tron

Okay, once I got past the hypnotic start screen, the actual game has nothing to do with lightbikes or lasers. In fact, other than the fact that there is sound effects, this game is complete ass. 2/5, because the start screen was cool.

Adventures On GX-12

Adventures on GX-12 is the same game as Adventures Of Tron. Literally, the exact same thing. The same Modem-port enemies and mutating coin-things. The only difference is the color of Tron/GX-12.

Air Raid

Hey look, a playable game. Fuck yeah. This is awesome, in a retro way. 5/5.

Air Raiders

Not to be confused with Air Raid, which was actually kind of fun, this game is unplayable and stupid. Also, AMMO has two m's. 1/5.

Air Sea Battle

One would assume this game has something to do with Air forces and Sea forces battling. That is not the case. This is a game about positioning turrets. I was sadly mistaken. 1/5.

Airlock: Data Age

I assume this was made to show people the graphics capabilities of the 2600, because all it is is some fish swimming in front of a submarine. 1/5.

Alien

It's like Pac-Man, but the ghosts don't hurt you and you can't move. 1/5.

Alien's Return

It's like Alien, but there are no ghosts and you look like the retarded brother of ET. 1/5.

Alligator People

Surprisingly fun. The gimmick of moving walls is well played, and 8-way directional movement works flawlessly. Plus, I actually enjoyed it. 4/5.

Alpha Beam

No. 1/5.

Angling

Finally, a game that captures the true excitement of angling, available for your home television! THE ENTIRE GAME LOOKS LIKE THIS. 1/5.

Aquaventure

Actually fun. Apparently the plot, as well as I can deduce, revolves around you, a diver equipped with a rifle, going around and slaughtering sea creatures until a turtle tells you you are out of air. The sea creatures, dangerous fish all, touch you and you die. Brilliance, sheer brilliance. I smell a movie tie-in. 5/5, because it's playable and fun.

Arcade Golf

This game has nothing to do with arcades or golf. It makes no sense whatsoever. And why is it made by Sears...? 1/5.

Armor Ambush

AW SWEET A TANK BATTLE GAME. These were always my favorites. And to be fair, AA does not disappoint. A solid 5/5, comrade.

Artillery Duel

AW SWEET ANOTHER TANK BATTLE GAME. This one does disappoint. 2/5, because I liked the title and the idea is there.

Assault

Nothing happens when I press buttons, that annoying thing just keeps shooting. And missing. And shooting some more. 1/5.

Asterix

Once you get over the fact that nothing makes any sense in this game, you can realize that it's not that bad. 4/5.

Asteroids

...still isn't that bad. 4/5.

Astroblast

intuitive controls... decent graphics... innovative gameplay... yeah, I actually got stuck playing this one for a bit. It's kind of like falling asteroids. 5/5.

Astrowar

This is a total combo going on here. Astrowar is another good game! THIS IS FREAKING ME OUT. As you can tell by my score up there in the top left, I really got into this one. 5/5.

Well. Damn that took a while. And that was only A-games. I still have 25 fucking letters.

Oh, and in case anyone's wondering, I did skip a couple games because the ROMs I had for them were bad. Sorry if anyone really wanted me to do Autorennen.

Chromium! (pics)

So, in case you haven't noticed, Google's pitch into the OS business has just provided its first fruits.

Chromium is here.

So, for anyone who cares, here's a detailed review of my romp into Chrome-land.

I'm using a virtual machine, as the OS is not currently confirmed as hardware ready, so as far as system requirements I'm shooting in the dark. None have been released.

But no deterrent. I hooked up a basic VM with 1 gig of ram, 32 megs of video memory and 3d acceleration, and though there is some slight lagging, overall it works superbly.

Okay so here we have my first taste of chromium.




Not bad. A nice, bare log on screen. Some sweet bevels on the corners. I would think this would be changed in the future though, so this may not be the actual release logon screen.

Alright, now I put in my username (at the moment I am using a generic name, but in the future any @gmail.com account will work)... and after a blank screen I am treated to this:

Essentially Chrome, but with a snazzy new icon in the corner. Oddly, Google calendar is the first thing to show up. I would think that the inbox or maybe a welcome page would show, but no luck.
It might be interesting to note the lack of any start/task/menubars. The closest thing you could get would be the bar at the top of the screen, but other than that new icon and the status indicators, it's pretty barebones.

In case you're wondering, here's a close up.

A clock, 'plugged in' notification, wifi indicator, and a dropdown menu that... does nothing different than if I just right clicked on a tab. Huh. Google is weird.

The browsing experience is a complete copy of Chrome, no surprises there, but the main difference is that other little icon on the left. This one.

By clicking on that you are sent to a page of 'apps', little web things mostly. All your basic email providers are there, as well as some shortcuts to .swf pages. I fail to see why shortcuts to flash games instead of installations of real games is anything too revolutionary, but nonetheless it's an interesting move. Here's the page.

I like the slightly angled pointer icon. It's a cool little touch to the OS.
Compared to other 'lightweight' OSs, Chromium seems to hog a bit of memory. Granted, the entire OS is about 260 megabytes, but the resources it requires far exceed those of say, Puppy Linux or the DSL.

Moving back to what it does, however, it seems somewhat limited. The actual OS does little, it's more focused on web apps and online resources. Google Docs is its office program, Gmail is the email, and flash games are your entertainment.

It's obviously designed with netbooks in mind, in other words. Small, lightweight, and barebones.

In case anyone is wondering, here's what the Options menu looks like, with what appears to be a GTK+ theme. I assume this will be changed to match Chrome by full release.


Apparently, Chromium also has Windowed Browsing, but without windows. It looks kind of like this.
You enter the URL up top in that text bar, and then you browse between windows with the arrows. Kind of clunky interface imho, but maybe they'll change that by final release. I guess that's Chromium's answer to workspaces.

Also, here's a task manager that I didn't notice before. You can find it by that little drop down menu on the top right.
You can't end the process for the browser, but other than that it's the same as any other task manager.

if you click on that 'stats for nerds' link on the bottom it returns you to chrome and you see this:

Interesting setup. I've never used a netbook-specific OS before, but I could get used to one, I would think.

So that's about it. There might be a follow-up blog to this if something interesting shows up, but this is a pretty big post for right now.

In conclusion, it's pretty good. Not amazing, and definitely flawed, but the idea is solid and the implementation is very well on it's way to completion. I would urge you to download it here and check it out if you want. It's totally free and legal, so no problems there.

And in case anyone is wondering, the program I used for all the screenshots here (and that I highly recommend) is called MWSnap and the virtualization software I used was Sun Virtualbox. Both are free and great programs to boot.

Weird Graffiti.

Well, I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but around the South Eugene area there has been a rash of new graffiti. A bit of it has been covered up by the school administration and there's not a bunch left in the school grounds.

But some still stands. While I was biking home listening to the new Regina Spektor album, I saw a couple specimens. Well, a lot. They're everywhere.

Ladies and gentlemen, I PROUDLY PRESENT...

THE GRAFFITI.

Shocking, isn't it.

I really can't figure out for the life of me what the fuck they're trying to say here.

Okay, so there's a moon... a pitchfork... and a crude asterisk.

Maybe it has something to do with islam. There's a somewhat better symbol on the running path, I don't have a pic though. Any thoughts? I'm stumped.

Stupid Radio Commercials.

Unlike many (basically all) of the people I know, I occasionally turn on the good ol' FM radio machine. You know, that thing that most people have in their cars that makes sounds and whatnot.

So anyway, I listen to the radio every now and then. And most of the time, I can revel in it's analog simplicity without much worry or irritation.

Except for commercials. Now, most of you may not remember this, but there was a time when you couldn't skip past commercials. And that time, for the radio, has never passed. So you have to drudge through all those darn commercials telling you about low refinance rates and how they can get you a car with no interest until 2048. Whoop de fucking doo.

The commercials typically are only a minor annoyance, until about a month ago when I noticed one about energy saving around the home.

Now, I'm all for clean energy/reusable energy/smart usage of energy/etc. So in my mind, I'm thinking this may be a good, worthwhile commercial.

Then I heard it all. This is essentially what happens.
(note to readers: the voices are of tweenage girls. The worst kind)

I paraphrased a little.

---
"Hey Jamie. Is that your phone charger over there?"
"HURR DURR NO IT'S NOT"
"WELL YES IT IS"
"NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOO IT'S NOT"
A dorky ringtone sounds. Something from Disney.
"isn't that your ringtone, jamie?
"OH JIMINY CRICKETS YES IT IS."
"HEY JAMIE DID YOU KNOW THAT PHONE CHARGERS SUCK UNGODLY AMOUNTS OF ENERGY OUT OF THE WALL EVEN WHEN YOU'RE NOT USING THEM?!"
"GOLLY GEE [erica], I DID NOT KNOW!"
Strong adult voice: "Yes, remember to unplug those pesky wall chargers. They will skyrocket your electric costs blah blah blah im really strong and adult blah blah blah listen to me blah blah blah"

Then some dorky jingle plays and I am informed that this a collaboration of my local radio stations and EARS, Eugene Area Radio Stations.
---

Well would you take a gander at that. Cell phone chargers... I would never know.

I'm sure the evidence to the contrary is just mere hearsay.

Everyone, keep driving your petrovampire automobiles, keep drinking down that oil molotov, keep throwing away your recyclables and buying disposables, keep using non-reusable energy, keep flying in your aeroplanes, it's all cool as long as you don't keep your cell phone charger plugged in.

God forbid we do that.

Views on the G20 Summit and Subsequent Riots

K. Well. Let's put it out there.

Both sides were at fault.

The rioters were mainly anarchist kids who think that anarchy is superior to any forms of government. Which, I'm sorry, but I completely disagree with. Anarchy is just as stupid as any other form of government, and in many ways worse. Most of the kids who protested seemed to fall under three categories.

First: the aforementioned stupid anarchist kids.

Second: Spoiled conservative kids who watch too much FOX news and believe that Obama is a tool of the evil jesuit lawmakers and lucifer himself. These guys really piss me off, more than the punkers.

Third: The bystanders, as shown in this video. These are the ones I sympathize with, as often they were clumped in with the protesters.

And then there were the cops, who, as the G20 was an international event, were put under direct command of the Secret Service and did not hesitate to tear gas and sound cannon the protesters. Fun fact: this is the first time in US history that sound cannons have been used to suppress a crowd. Typically they are placed on commercial yachts to deter pirates.

Can't really say who's the bad guy here. The protesters are kinda stupid, yeah, but the police overreacted and were far too violent. Or were they? After all, the protesters did riot and stuff... I don't know. It's a tough position for both sides.

Interesting, don't you think?

Taken from "Letters To A Christian Nation" By Sam Harris.

More than 50% of Americans have a “negative” or “highly negative” view of people who don’t believe in God. 70% think it important for presidential candidates to be “strongly religious.”

“A person who believes that Elvis is still alive is very unlikely to get promoted to a position of great power and responsibility in our society. Neither will a person who believes that the holocaust was a hoax. But people who believe equally irrational things about God and the bible are now running our country. This is genuinely terrifying.”

44% of Americans think Jesus Christ will return in the next 50 years. (22% are “certain” that he will, another 22% think he “probably” will.)

“According to the most common interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus will return only after things have gone horribly awry. Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency.”

Only 28% of Americans believe in evolution (and two-thirds of these believe evolution was “guided by God”). 53% are actually creationists.

“Despite a full century of scientific insights attesting to the antiquity of the earth, more than half of our neighbors believe that the entire cosmos was created six thousand years ago. This is, incidentally, about a thousand years after the Sumerians invented glue.”

87% of Americans say they “never doubt the existence of God.”

“Had the residents of New Orleans been content to rely on the beneficence of the Lord, they wouldn’t have known that a killer hurricane was bearing down upon them until they felt the first gusts of wind on their faces, but a poll conducted by The Washington Post found that 80% of Katrina survivors claim that the event has only strengthened their faith in God.”

28% of Americans believe that every word of the Bible is literally true. 49% believe that it is the “inspired word” of God.

“We read the Golden Rule and judge it to be a brilliant distillation of many of our ethical impulses. And then we come across another of God’s teachings on morality: if a man discovers on his wedding night that his bride is not a virgin, he must stone her to death on her father’s doorstep (Deuteronomy 22:13-21).”

80% of Americans expect to be called before God on Judgment Day to answer for their sins. 90% believe in heaven. 77% rate their chances of going to heaven as “excellent” or “good.”

“In the year 2006, a person can have sufficient intellectual and material resources to build a nuclear bomb and still believe that he will get seventy-two virgins in Paradise. Western secularists, liberals, and moderates have been very slow to understand this. The cause of their confusion is simple: they don’t know what is like to really believe in God.”

65% of Americans believe in the literal existence of Satan. 73% believe in Hell.

“It is terrible that we all die and lose everything we love; it is doubly terrible that so many human beings suffer needlessly while alive. That so much of this suffering can be directly attributed to religion—to religious hatreds, religious wars, religious delusions and religious diversions of scarce resources—is what makes atheism a moral and intellectual necessity.”

83% of Americans believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. (11% disbelieve. 6% don’t know.)

“The president of the United States has claimed, on more than one occasion, to be in dialogue with God. If he said that he was talking to God through his hairdryer, this would precipitate a national emergency. I fail to see how the addition of a hairdryer makes the claim more ridiculous or offensive.”
* Statistics cited come from PEW, Gallup, and Newsweek. All commentary is by Sam Harris

How To Bypass 4j Firewalls

Figured people should know. There are a couple ways to accomplish this, I'll go from 'least complicated' to 'most complicated'.

1. Get a teacher's password and S/N.

Good luck with that. Rumor says there are some floating around. If you would like, you could message me and I could talk to... Rumor.

2. The https trick.

On sites that have logins (like facebook, for example), when you type in the url, change the
http://... to https://...

This won't work on all sites, but most site with logins (otherwise known as secure [the 's' in https] hypertext transfer protocol) should work.

3. Find a proxy site.

I put this one third because although in theory it's the easiest way, most of the proxy sites on school computers are blocked. I have yet to find one that isn't, but I'm sure there's one out there.

4. Use TOR/Vidalia.

TOR/Vidalia is a program that allows you to bypass any firewalls, pretty much anywhere.

The problem with TOR and Vidalia is that there is a portable version, but only for Windows.

That means that if you have a Windows laptop/desktop available at school and you have a flash drive with the portable version on it OR the installed version on the computer, you can run TOR and firefox to bypass all the proxies. The browsing speed will be somewhat slower, but it's worth it if you really need to get pass the firewalls.

If you are trying to use TOR on a mac, here's what I'd do.
a) Get a mac that is not school property and install Vidalia.
b) Install Vidalia on a school computer that DOES NOT have an admin password prompt when you install things. Hint hint: The laptops prompt you for a password, but just hit 'accept' with nothing in the password field and it will breeze you through anything you want to install. After using Vidalia, DELETE THE ENTIRE PROGRAM FOLDER FROM THE APPLICATIONS DIRECTORY.

5. Use a remote access site.

The last and most complicated way I am going to address in this is the remote access way.

There are a number of sites out there in the interwebs that allow you to remote access your home computer and surf the web through it, effectively bypassing any firewalls that are blocking your internet access. My personal favorite is LogMeIn, which only asks for a quick download on your home computer and the one that you are accessing your home computer from (e.g. the computer at school).

This option is another one that requires you to download something to the school computer, so I repeat that The laptops prompt you for a password, but just hit 'accept' with nothing in the password field and it will breeze you through anything you want to install. Some school computers are like that, some are not. Make sure to check. The whole walk through process is available on the site, so I'm not going to go into detail.


There you go. I'm sure there are other ways, if you hear about or know of others, feel free to contribute.

"This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.

I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike."
-The Hacker Manifesto

iTunes Is Horrible.

The most widely popular media player out on the internet right now is iTunes. iTunes, in case you've lived under a bear for the last decade, is Apple's attempt at a slick, streamlined media interface that allows quick and easy access at your iThing.

I'll give Apple props at the fact that it does do that; as long as "that" is "talk to your iThing. Anything with a lowercase 'i' before its name can contact iTunes, and transfer whatever iJunk you want to it. So whoopee for that. But other than that, iTunes is a piece of bloated crapware.

Why, you ask? Why, is iTunes so godawfully bad?

File organizing.

iTunes, unlike most other media players, has an inferiority complex to... regular organizing (for example, organizing music by folders) so it feels that it needs to create its very own music database. So if you try to organize anything without notifying iTunes first, it will freak the f*ck out. And don't even try to use the iTunes organizing function, because apparently Apple believes that a bunch of folders in absolutely no f*cking order whatsoever is really f*cking spiffy.

Windows =/= Mac

I'm not talking about how Windows is different from Macs, or even how iTunes is different on Windows vs Macs. No, my qualm is that on Windows, iTunes runs SO FREAKING SLOW that is simpler just to drag the freaking files to the freaking iThing. Seriously.

DRM to all infinity.

Yeah, so maybe this issue is a little bit old, as they recently have changed the DRM restrictions on songs purchased off iTunes Store, but it still grinds mah gears. With the DRM restrictions, Apple could choose what you do with stuff you bought from Apple. You could be charged with copyright infringement if you got a new computer.

iTunes is ruining albums.

The iTunes store offers songs in easy to digest 3 minute portions. The availability of albums on iTunes is downplayed by the fact that no one is going to buy an album if all they want is that one song that they heard on their favorite Top 40 station. As such, iTunes is ruining albums.

No one buys albums if all they want is one song, and thus they will never hear all the rest of the album, even if it is much better. Even when I torrent music, I always get the entire album, not pick and choose what I want and what I don't. In that, I'm discovering new music. Not with iTunes and their crappy iTunes Store. iTunes is the biggest contributor to the production of crappy pop drivel.

iTunes is incompatible with anything without an 'i' before its name.

If, for example, I were to want to put iSongs on my Zune, I cannot do that. Because a Zune is not Apple-certified to put iJunk on. iTunes is tailor made for iThings only, and nothing else.

iTunes is not customizable at all.

Possibly this is just my problem, but I cannot stand programs if they do not allow for some degree of customization. The fact that this is conspicuously missing irritates me.

So what now?

Of course, by this point, you are wondering in helpless futility, "What can I do now, oh wise and omnipotent Dante?"

Never fear, I have a number of better and more useful alternatives.

My personal favorite is Songbird. Not only does it have fun doodads to customize it and it is built off the Firefox engine, it is fully compatible with most iPods and mp3 players. So whoopee for you iPod people.

And then there's VLC Media Player, a small and easily skinned player that can play... pretty much anything.

There are many others that I have not covered. They are ALL BETTER THAN iTUNES.

So I hope you've grasped my point here, it being that iTunes totally blows.

The Hazards Of Love Detailed Summary

I don't know why I'm doing this. But I'm bored, and it is NOWHERE on the internet. So I figured I should do it.

The Hazards of Love is a 2009 album by the Decemberists, in case you have been living under a rock for the last few months. And here is summary of the plot in the entire album.

The Hazards of Love I: The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle The Thistles Undone

The Narrator is telling how Margaret, a girl in the service of her feudal lord, went out riding on a summer's day, in green and grey and white. She, in the taiga, finds a faun whose legs are caught in a trap. She, out of pity for the creature, releases him. They fall in love on sight of each other. They spend the night together, and Margaret is impregnated by the faun, William.

A Bower Scene

Margaret returns to her home, where she is confronted by a Sister (Catholic, presumably). The Sister asks Margaret why she does not continue with her work, and, putting two and two together, finds that Margaret is pregnant. She shuns Margaret and banishes her from her lodgings. Margaret returns to the taiga, hoping that William will find her.

Won't Want For Love (Margaret In The Taiga)

Margaret finds her way back to the taiga and sings the forest into helping her find William and give her a place to rest. William finds Margaret, and they decide to...

The Hazards of Love II: Wager All

Spend the night together in the taiga. All is well, William vows that he will love Margaret no matter what is trying to push them apart.

The Queen's Approach

Unbeknownst to the lovers, the Forest Queen has seen them together and is watching.

Isn't it a Lovely Night?

Margaret and William, resting on the forest floor under the stars, contemplate how much they love their future baby. Which is not born yet.

The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid

Margaret is asleep, but William stays up. He knows that the Forest Queen is nearby. He calls out to her, telling of how he can sense her. The Forest Queen had saved William when he was a child, and swore to keep him from humanity, but William tells her that the 'wanting comes in waves'.
The Forest Queen is not impressed. She tells him how he has a debt to pay back to her, for she saved him when he was a young and vulnerable child in the woods. She is angry for him not being 'gracious'.
William argues with her. After a long fight, she decides to let him have one night with Margaret, but only one night. In the morning she vows to take him back, forever, so that his debt can be repaid.

Interlude

The night passes.

The Rake's Song

Now we hear of the Rake, a bachelor whose wife died in childbirth. He then killed all of his children, one by drowning, one by poison, and the other he burned 'for incurring his wrath'. The Rake sees all of this as Margaret's fault.

The Abduction of Margaret

The Rake, in his anger and chaos, abducts Margaret from William in the night. William does not know until the morning that his love was stolen.

The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing

The Rake, now at the Annan river, is stymied. He cannot cross in any conventional way, the waters are too swift and turbulent. The Forest Queen, still bitter about William's choice, decides to intervene. She strikes a deal with the Rake: As long as he keeps Margaret away from William, she will fly him across the river. He agrees.

Annan Water

William, waking up for the first time, realizes that Margaret was taken. He frantically follows the Rake's clumsy path to the Annan River. He is sure that they crossed, but he cannot cross himself. In his desperation, he strikes a deal with the Spirit of the Annan. He may cross just one time, and on the second crossing he will be taken by the river. The deal is struck, and William may cross.

Margaret in Captivity

Margaret has been taken by the Rake. He has tied her up and humiliated her, covering her in tar and feathers. He is taking all of his anger regarding the death of his wife out on Margaret. He tells her that no one will rescue her, but she calls out to William anyway.

The Hazards of Love III: Revenge!

William, hearing Margaret's call, dashes to her aid. He battles the Rake, and eventually bests him. The Rake, dead, falls to a dark afterlife. He is taunted by his dead children, and is forced to relive all of their deaths... over and over. William and Margaret escape the Rake's lair.

The Wanting Comes in Waves (reprise)

William realizes that he must cross back to the taiga, over the Annan. He has no choice but to brave the waters. The water, however, has no intention of letting him live. His puny boat is beaten and broken, and it begins to sink as it is pummeled by the waves.

The Hazards of Love IV: The Drowned

In the final song, William sings to Margaret from their sinking ship. They pledge to get married there, and their ghosts will wander the water forever. As their ship finally collapses and waves rise one last time, he kisses her softly. Together, they die on the water.

Weird Facts About Pokemon

Yep yep. I am so archiving these.

1. ArticUNO, ZapDOS, MolTRES.

2. HitmonLEE, HitmonCHAN.

3. Some Pokemon's 'Cries' repeat. Example:
Charizard has the same cry as Rhyhorn.
Goldeen has the came cry as Caterpie.
Ditto has the same cry as Poliwag.
Aerodactyl has the same cry as Vileplume.
Machop has the same cry as Omanyte.

4. The same actress that voices Ash Ketchum also voices his mother.

5. Arcanine is classified as a Legendary Pokemon, despite the later games changing his stats to a more normal level.

6. Squirrel + Turtle = Squirtle.

7. Mr. Mime can be caught as a female Pokemon.

8. Gyarados has never been depicted with its mouth closed.

9. The original Pokemon mascot was Clefairy, NOT Pikachu.

10. The glitch Pokemon 'Missingno' was also the only Bird-type Pokemon, as opposed to Flying-type.

11. Jesse and James were named after the outlaw Jesse James.

12. Jynx's face was originally black, as seen in early Pokemon games and movies, but they changed it to purple because it too closely resembled blackface.

13. The first 251 Pokemon were planned when Pokemon debuted; Ash can see a Ho-Oh in the first episode.

14. All the professors were named after trees.

15. In the 'PokeRap': Geodudes picture is used twice: once on Geodude, and once on Graveler.

16. Girafarig is spelled the same backwords and forwards.

Bow to my nerdiness.

An Open Letter To Warner Brothers

Dear Warner Bros; or more specifically, the terrible twosome of blah known as David Yates and Steve Kloves:

I am writing to you as a concerned reader and a concerned citizen. In this world of turmoil and conflict, it is sometimes nice to evade the news headlines and sink into a book, in this case, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling.

I recently (re)read this book, as it is one of my favorites, and I had heard that the team at Warner Brothers was to release yet another Harry Potter movie, the Half-Blood Prince itself.

You must imagine my excitement, of course. Everyone in the Harry Potter nerddom was enthralled with the idea of the newest movie, with the death of Dumbledore, the supposed betrayal of Severus Snape, and, of course, the simmering romance between the characters. This movie was shaping up to be the best yet, at least in our minds. We, as a collective community, were attached to news of this movie just as flies swarm to honey.

Naturally, I ordered a midnight release ticket, along with a number of my friends. We arrived at the theater at ten o'clock sharp, and rushed in to get our seats. The tension was as thick as butter.

And then the movie started. The lights went down, the assorted giggles and coughs were shushed angrily. The opening credits rolled.

...

I have one question for you, you creators and directors and writers. Just one question.

HOW HARD IS IT TO JUST STICK TO THE STORY?!

JK Rowling wrote a brilliant story. Is it that hard to just adapt it? IT'S A BOOK FOR FUCK'S SAKE. The dialogue, characters, and story direction is ALREADY THERE. JUST MAKE THE ACTORS SAY THE LINES, PLEASE!

I understand you Hollywood types have hard-ons for explosions and fire, but please, do not expect us to trade content and actual story for pretty lights! The scene at the Burrow (which, conspicuously, WAS NOT IN THE BOOK AT ALL IN ANY WAY) was completely superfluous and unnecessary. Not only did it have no purpose in the story sense, it created a gigantic plot hole: the destruction of the Burrow.

I assume you have read the seventh Harry Potter book. There is a scene, in the beginning, where Ron's brother Bill gets married to Fleur Delacour. Where, exactly, is this wedding? IT'S AT THE GODDAMN BURROW. You had better fix that gaping hole in the plot by the seventh movie, or you will have an angry mob of scar-wearing and wand-wielding nerds at your doorstep demanding for a reshoot. I am one-hundred Galleons serious here.

The Harry Potter saga is near and dear to many of our hearts. We have read these books since they first came out. In short, we are the Harry Potter generation. Allwe are asking here is some respect to the original story arc! Is this too much to ask?

-Sincerely
A Concerned Patron

First.

More coming.