I’ve become addicted to World of Warcraft (Damn you 10 day free trial!) and with a whole week off from work coming up for me next week, I fear I’m going to turn into that guy with no life that the South Park kids worked so hard to defeat…

My niece and her boyfriend (a high school senior and a college sophomore respectively) are absolutely addicted to WoW, and have been for a long time.  In fact, I bought them matching WoW hoodies for Christmas. 

I’ve been checking out a hilarious online presidential campaign.  I can honestly say I have never seen a presidential campaign quite like this one.  The candidate is a tax protester, and a prominent member of the “tax honesty movement” I previously mentioned here.

Gene Chapman wears a toga, performs exorcisms on IRS buildings, and was once institutionalized for trying to set himself on fire; he seemed to think if he burned himself alive, it would bring an end to the IRS.  He has followers, too, many of whom seem to truly believe he’s the reincarnation of Gandhi (although much of his platform is so violent it looks like something you’d see in the Old Testament). The rest of his platform pretty much looks like what you’d expect from somebody who was diagnosed as delusional, with ideas like moving Israel and Palestine to opposite ends of the earth, on barges.  Hehehe. 

He also has a 14-year-old homeschooled “Intelligent Design Advisor”, with his own crazy YEC blog that would make Dr. Dino proud.  The kid is thoroughly brainwashed, both in the tax protest movement as well as in ID.

It would all be pretty sad, except that this guy actually has a campaign staff (all volunteers, from what I can tell), and he and his volunteers regularly attack other (real) candidates by harassing them on their blogs and accusing them all of being “Communists”.  In fact, Chapman’s campaign slogan is “I am an anti-Communist!”.  He also seems to think he’s a slave, and even filed (or at least is planning to file, I haven’t checked) a lawsuit against the government on the “slavery / mark of the beast” issue.

I was unaware that we had a Communist problem, or a slavery problem, in this country.  I guess you learn something new every day.  LOL

If anybody else wants to check it out

The campaign is at http://www.chapmanforpresident.blogspot.com

The ID advisor is at http://www.advisoronid.blogspot.com

Les, don’t bust your balls with the new layout. Light and functional first, tourniquets for the eyes later.

Let the templates evolve

I’m unemployed, having left the teaching profession (probably for good).  I wasn’t fired or anything, I just got to the point where I realized that working sixteen hour days, and giving up my weekends, was not a great deal.  I know ‘it gets better’ once you get past the first year, but I just didn’t have any motivation or interest to continue.  It’s a drag trying to constantly ‘sell’ the value of education to students who would rather be doing -anything- other than studying literature and writing.

Many people have assured me that it was just the school that I chose, but I don’t have any real desire to take another shot at it.

So I’ve been spending my days looking for work, and playing Morrowind in my spare time.  Picked up a new copy of the game, for $9 off of Amazon, and I’m totally getting into it.  I know it’s older, and doesn’t have the pretty graphics, and it’s got some other bugs, but it’s a lot of fun.

And I think I might have just scored a job at a Title company.  The pay is crap, but at the end of my shift I’ll go home and -be done- with my job.  And on weekends, I’ll do whatever the hell I want, rather than grading papers.

So, life’s not great, but neither is it bad.  And it’s much better than it was when I was teaching.

Hope you find work soon, Les.  I know what a pain it is to be rattling around the house in your slippers, making endless phone calls and filling out endless piles of applications.

Nowiser - If you’re willing to give teaching another go, maybe try teaching an older set of students who have made a concious commitment and who want to learn; you can focus more on teaching and less on child-taming. Pre-teens may also be a more civilised option.

Les - This probably isn’t much help but you looked like you’d make a great santa on the old template set, and there may still be vacancies…

TAFKA Buzz - What I’ve done in the past to get more out of a limited trial is format my hard drive so it has no record that the 10 days have been used, a bit of an extreme method though, you may be able to find a more direct way

‘one last shopping trip for Anne’s presents’

My eyes bugged out at the letter s there at the end.

I’d be happiest if my Mister would clear out the box standing at the end of the kitchen table, for days now.

Service is more my Christmas wish.  Do something nice, I’m okay with that.  One little thing to unwrap on the Big Morning is spice.

Not much new with me. I’m with my family right now. I’m enjoying them all, but my eighteen-year-old brother has recently discovered Led Zeppelin, and his zeal is not unlike that observed in many a born-again Christian. I’ve gone through the Zep experience myself, but it’s a little frustrating when I want to talk with him about his recently completed first semester at college and all he wants to talk about are the guitar licks in “Dancing Days” or “Kashmir.” I try telling him “Look, Danny, Led Zeppelin was totally awesome, don’t get me wrong, but can’t you talk about something else for at least two minutes at a time?” He looks at me like I’ve just sprouted antlers.

It’s great to him and the rest of the sibs, though. My twenty-year-old sister recently got her nose pierced; she does her big sister proud. Meanwhile, John and I are hoping that Father Christmas will give us some money and not mess around with those silly toys.

Peace to you all.

We got a really nice blizzard here in Denver yesterday.

Trying to stay awake and clean up my parents computer so I can browse and play games on it at a moderate pace.  I don’t ask for much for Christmas…

DC - being that WoW scans for local information to relay to Blizzard (see the “Warden” program they run), I imagine the timer is initiated on Blizzards end when you first connect to their login server in-game. When it comes to trial versions of most programs, I’ve never had the need to extend them, as it’s so rare that I enjoy using the program that much and there’s not a freeware alternative . I remember the days of reformatting to use particular software, but nowadays I’m on Linux, and the data on my PC is quite entrenched.

Online records of trials - that’s sneeky of them.

Nowadays I install fewer trial versions to keep my registry clean and because less appeals to me (most avenues seem to be explored)

Well WOW is the first game I’ve played in years besides Tetris and Solitaire.  I’m not totally sold on the notion of paying them $15 a month for the service of using their server, but I guess they gotta make cash somehow (and they definitely make cash), I’m in day 4 of my trial and haven’t decided if the cost is worth it, especially considering how much time I’d waste playing it.

9/11 Mysteries:

Anyone see that video about how 911 might have been planned and executed by us? Not sure what to think. Its has some very interesting points that scares me. Heres the link and I would be very interested to hear what readers think.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6708190071483512003

Not again…

We already went through this with the same damn video.

I hadn’t seen it, gave me something interesting to watch, thanks:)

MrJames, do us all a favor and peruse through this thread. You seem like a nice fellow, and I’d hate to see you suffer the same fate as Godless Raven.

Sorry, The video got me excited and I just hurriedly put it up. Wont happen again. Usally good about that sorta thing.

For what it’s worth…
I wouldn’t have looked down on anyone who didn’t see things my way, nor do I agree with the video. However, thank you Sexy Sadie for lookin out for me and providing some entertaining reading, and again I apologize for not taking the time to find reference to that video in SEB as per guide lines.

Not a big deal, Mr. J. If I got upset every single time someone didn’t check the archives then I’d be pissed constantly.

Thanks Les.

More in line with this thread…

Just viewed my first Iridium Flare. It’s when a satellite turns just just the right way while orbiting that it reflect the sun directly on the earth where you can see. Kinda like using a digital watch to reflect the sun on the wall or somewhere. What it looked like was a faint satellite moving along that became super bright for 1.5seconds.

A friend pointed it out to me one night. She played it off great. She told me, as we stood outside, to look for a shooting star in a certain area of the sky. It happened. Totally shock at her ability to predict the future, I quized her to tell me her secret.

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Don’t know if you will actually end up having time during the X-mas season. But how about blogging about this poor fellow?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genarlow_Wilson

A 17 year old kid imprisoned for having oral sex with a 15 year old. They both affirm that it was consensual, but the Georgia jury still slapped the poor kid with a ten year minimum sentence and life-long sex offender status. If there are cases that shuld be overturned, than it is this one.

To make it all worse, if he had had actual sex with her, he’d be out already, thanks to a now-closed loophole supposed to prevent just this kind of fuckup. But the courts says rules are rules and they can’t help him. Fuckers.

Busy time in retail so I haven’t spent much time online the last few days. I do check in here occassionally, but I find myself lost without the recent comments thingy on the sidebar. Amazing, the things you grow attached to.

Happy Holidays, one and all.

Good one, Ing.
As I was reading the post I thought: I bet this kid’s black.
Went to your wiki ref and then linked to Genarlow’s site and ... yep.
He’s black.
I’d bet my left ‘nad that if he’d been white there’d have been a different outcome.

I can’t remember how to do all the stuff the old SEB site allowed us to so I’m ‘doing long-hand’.
From Genarlow’s site:
http://www.wilsonappeal.com/index.php

Sign online petition

Along with the label “child molester” which will require him throughout his life to be on a sexual offender registry, Genarlow received a sentence of eleven years — a mandatory 10 years in prison and 1 year on probation.
On July 1st, the new Romeo and Juliet law went into effect in Georgia for any other teen that engages in consensual sexual acts. That change in the law means that no teen prosecuted for consensual oral sex could receive more than a 12 months sentence or be required to register as a sex offender.
Had this law been in effect when Genarlow Wilson was arrested, or had been done after the Marcus Dixon case, Genarlow would not now be in jail.

I’m so incensed by this stupidity I can’t find adequate words to express myself.
Fuck the fucking fuckers! GRRRRR!

Les, could you please send me the name of a city in Michigan and its Zip so’s I can sign Genarlow’s petition - it’s the least (and the most) I can do.

LJ, you can always use Frankfort (49635), Benzonia (49616), or Beulah (49617).